2oth Century Fox
George Clooney, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson
Mr Fox is fantastic. He’s also a born thief. He went on the wagon to please the Mrs. Fantastic Fox, but can’t help himself from stealing chickens from the biggest, weirdest, baddest, nastiest farmers around.
Reviewers are raving about “the best film of 2009” and “On par with anything out of Pixar”. Hunh? Maybe these guys were in the production company or something. This is NOT the film I watched. The one I saw was mediocre at best.
I grew up watching stop motion animation, and it was pretty cool back in the day. And it’s nice to see it well done again like this is. In fact, if you don’t know it, you almost accept it as normal 3D animation and don’t think about it being “stop motion”.
My problem was with the story. Some loved it. I was just pretty bored and disappointed in it. Mr. Fox is a split personality. He’s trying to be good but just can’t. The farmers retaliate and he screws the whole band, so he has to try to save everybody and live happily ever after. Oh well, that’s what happens, but it’s hard to care about it. It’s kind of ironic when the fox is acting like a human (talking to his lawyer) and still thieving chickens. What they talk about it is kind of funny, but nothing as heart wrenching or laugh out loud funny as other better movies. I think this is a mid range film, worth it if you’re really a fan of stop motion, or if you’re a cartoon junkie, but if you have limited time, I would suggest something else. Certainly Toy Story3, Dispicable Me, and many others are much better.
Anonymous said
August 6 2010 @ 3:08 pm
I feel a little evil saying this, but my criticism is not entirely unconstructive.
I skimmed through most of the reviews on your homepage, and I’ve come to the conclusion that they are all very poorly written, completely unsupported, and utterly shallow. I’m not really sure why anyone would even want to read your reviews as they are so brief and general and basically moved along by trash mannerisms like “Oh well, that’s what happens” as if they’re some sort of criticism. You’ve absolutely failed to show me that you have any business writing reviews on films. I’d highly advise you to read some professional critics first before just spouting your opinions in such an off-the-cuff fashion on a blog that seems to be aiming at some form of legitimacy. I see you’re promoting your blog on Facebook and YouTube by uploading trailers with your name attached. I have no problem with this as they’re pretty good quality, but your reviews are really lacking in both substance and style and give off a very unsavory quality.
If anything, try to write at least twice as much as you usually do.
EdG said
August 6 2010 @ 3:45 pm
Well, anonymous. Thanks for the first comment. I can take a lot from what you’re saying, and I think some of it is probably right on, and some is not what I’m aiming for.
I have read movie reviews for years. In fact, one of the things that always annoyed me was that if it was a movie that the critic’s and film snobs love, I hated it, and if they hated it, I love it. This is typically true for “Best Picture” nods at the Oscars too. Often films that the industry love for their bizzare artistry are unwatchable to me.
I am not a professional journalist or a professional film critic. I try to find and correct the typo’s but sometimes I spell something wrong, or dangle a participle or two. But I’m a huge movie buff, but more of an everyman, and trying to look at things with my eyes and not that of a media czar. There are hundreds of professional critics and there is one at every newspaper or tv and radio station. There are plenty of places to read what the Harvard trained writers have to say. I’m hoping just to give my opinion for anyone who’s interested. Maybe nobody will be, and that’s ok too.
So from your criticism of me, I copied “that they are all very poorly written, completely unsupported, and utterly shallow.”
“Poorly written” I can take as a criticism of my High School composition teach Mrs. Roe who did the the best she could with me, but that was back in the 60’s. “Completely unsupported”, I have to ask by whom? Are you saying that what I think is not what I think or that I have no right to think what I do? “Utterly shallow” I have to think about. I don’t think that I’m totally a shallow person, as I do have some deep thoughts sometimes, but I am not trying to analyze movies which I consider recreation.
I’m also uncomfortable with the term “critic” as well, and like reviewer better. A review is my experience of the movie. I have no right or authority to say, this is what you did wrong and this is what you should have done” to a producer or director. All I can say is what my experience with the movie. That’s highly subjective too, by the way, depending on your experience, your mood, what has happened in your life just before you watched it.
I’ve often marveled how someone insists a particular film is the greatest thing they’ve ever watched and I am totally disappointed. I think sometimes I am just disappointed by all the hype and going into a mediocre movie with no expectations is sometimes a better experience that going to a film with very high expectations which aren’t met.
So I’ll try to take what you wrote into consideration. I’m new at doing this, and trying to get better as I go along. I also expect that liking a movie someone else hates, or hating a movie someone else likes will always strike a nerve for somebody. So I will try not to let that discourage me. I hope someone has a use for a list of thoughts from a regular guy who watches a lot of films, but if not, writing it for myself is not a bad thing either. It keeps me off the streets at night.
Thanks,
Ed