There are some movies that just seem to have no center, no focus, no coherence. Maybe there are some cases where this could work, but I offer up a few examples of cases where it just doesn’t:
Beloved. Gad, what a mess this was. Too bad, because it could have been a much more powerful story. I read the novel; I know it wasn’t supposed to be linear, but it didn’t translate too well to the screen.
Texasville: What a disappointing follow-up. I didn’t read the novel; was it supposed to be “all over the place” ?
…And Justice for All: Hmmm…I just watched this one, and it seemed to take forever to go anywhere. And then the ending with Pacino going outside to sit on the court steps was quite the deflating moment.
Both movies had the same wretched flaw: they had no script. Instead they had a series of scenes and they let the actors “act” them out. So the actors did what actors do, they chewed the scenery, and the stories went nowhere, albeit with a lot of sound and fury.
I mean Apocalypse Now. I still think they took all the film shot, 1 sceen to a strip, took them to a huge warehouse and tossed them in the air, then started splicing and reeling it together only checking to see that the strips were all facing the correct way to be shown in the theater.
I once taped the whole thing, but on about 5 different tapes [didnt have a new tape, and had to put it on tapes where there was space…] and I watched it not realizing it was out of order. When I finally watched it off DVD and in order, it still didnt make any particular sense. Took me forever to watch it both times. I would watch it for about 30 minutes and then fall asleep. I would wake up, rewind until it looked familiar and start again. Second time, from DVD, roomie was watching it with me, and he would pause it when i dropped off and restart it when i woke up. Incredibly nice [and very patient] of him=) He was convinced that I just never watched it ‘correctly’ so he was willing to help me watch it. Waste of time and film. Few good scenes, nice napalm run, and the whole Ride of the Valkyries thing were worth watching, but I like Wagner=)
Aruvqan, you’re my chow mein man! Never get out of the car.
I thought the thread title, coupled with the name of the OPer, would mean this was a thread about Star Trek: The Motion Picture