| Overall Grade: |
C- |
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| Story: |
C- |
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| Acting: |
C+ |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
C |
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I just didn't get it.
by Brian O (movies profile)
Dec 27, 2005
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
Let me just start off by saying I truly love Levinson and his work. The man is an outstanding director, but this movie shouts, "first time effort". Perhaps one would have to be born in this era (1959) to get it, because I sure didn't. It's not an awful movie, it's just a textbook case of mediacroty. Let me elaborate.
The year is 1959. We have a group of friends in their early twenties who have been haninging out at a local diner for years. One is married, Daniel Stern to Ellen Barkin, and one is about to get married, Steve Guttenburg. One has gotten a girl pregnant and wants to marry her, Tim Daly. One is just a little crazy for no apparent reason, Kevin Bacon. One is literally just there. And lastly is the good looking, suave, gambling prone Mickey Rourke.
Basically that's it. You may ask, "Ok, where is the movie review?" But that is it. There really is no review. Nothing happens with these guys. There is no character development. No real protagonist or antagonist. There is only a series of events that seem to have no consequences except that, in the end, they all just wind up back at the diner.
I just didn't feel anything for any of these characters. There was nothing to this movie. I just sat there waiting for it to get good. Instead, I felt like I was stuck in the dulldrums.
The last two minutes of the movie pretty much sum up the general feel of the 110 minute film in full. Paul Reiser is telling a joke, in voice over, while the credits roll. The whole time, he is stumbling through it and forgetting parts of the joke. When he gets to where we are supposed to hear the punchline, he just stops telling his joke and the rest of the guys talk about how cool the diner used to be and how cool they are now, hanging out at the same diner. That's it. There is just nothing there. It isn't funny, it isn't moving, it isn't anything. This movie reminded me of the film, "The Big Chill". These two films may say something to the Baby Boomer generation. But here and now, even as a film buff, I just didn't get it. |
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