Sean McGinly, 2009
Troy (Colin Hanks) drops out of law school to pursue his dream of becoming a writer and takes a job as the road manager for Buck Howard (John Malkovich), an aging mentalist who performs in small towns across America.Wow, this one started off badly. Probably the worst opening of any movie in recent memory. The opening credits, which serve as a montage of Troy's life up to that point, complete with first-person voiceover, feel like an extended version of an old sitcom opening, the lazy sort of laying out of the premise that is forgivable on TV, but not so much in a movie. I'm sorry to say I nearly cut and run at that point. Once we got to the movie proper, things picked up a little bit, but it never actually became anything worthwhile. It's a completely standard coming of age story, just like every other one, featuring a completely charisma-free lead in Colin Hanks. John Malkovich does what he can to make the movie work, and Buck Howard is an interesting character - but he can only do so much, because the movie isn't about him. I should also mention Emily Blunt, who manages to bring a bit of a spark to her handful of scenes. Without her and Malkovich working their asses off to salvage it, this movie would have been painfully awful. As it is, they can only drag it up to "pretty bad."
3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment