Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford


Boy, is the title of this movie long. And like many reviewers have said, the movie title pretty much tells you the entire story of the movie, spoiler included. For me, the movie is just like the title. LONG. VERY LONG.

I went to the movie expecting some sort of a western - horse-riding, gun fights, etc. All I saw was a long drama set in a western. I can't say the movie is bad. It's just that it takes soooo long to tell a simple story. In fact, I pretty much enjoyed the last 20mins after Jesse James got assassinated. But the 2h 10min that preceded the assassination was very long. Long, with very little action. One reviewer on the web summed it up well, this was like literally watching a book being read. It reminds me how important a screenwriter is in translating a book into a movie. You just can't do everything that's in a book. I have to compliment the writers of the Harry Potter movies. They don't follow the books page by page but are able to pick out the best and most important parts for the movie-goer.

The high point during the movie came when a group of teenage school girls left the cinema about 1hr into the movie. They obviously thought they were going to get to ogle at their dahling BRad Pitt. Little did they expect that all they got was a long movie.

Kinda sad. So desperate for a good movie. My last few movies were quite disappointing. I wonder if Sweeney Todd will turn the tide....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well written article.