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This is one problematic film. You should see it, because it looks so amazing, and when it's good, it's very very good, but as has oft been noted, it's also kinda a bore.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that the film noir dialogue is stilted both in the way it should be, and in the way it shouldn't be. It feels awkward, and some of the actors can do it, and some of the actors can't, and some of the actors can do it but you swear you can see them thinking now if I'd written this, it'd be different.
The film is essentially concerns three different story lines told in episodic fashion with a nice little bracketing thing around them. The episodes exist in the only order they could, but unforunately the big clue that the film doesn't take itself seriously comes about 3/4's of the way through. Now you say to me, it's a heightened reality based on an ultraviolent comic book -- how do you not get that it doesn't take itself seriously? Well... imagine if the first big musical moment in Moulin Rouge had been a love song and not that "the Hills are Alive" business, you would have said "wait.. are we supposed to take this shit seriously?" as opposed to "um... I dunno what to do with this, but at least I know it's laughing too". We don't know the film is laughing too until the episode with Clive Owen and severed head starts talking and there are dinosaurs. Then it's like "ooooooh, gotcha." That episode by the way is the strongest, mainly because Benicio del Toro is inspired and Clive Owen is surprisingly hysterical as the straight man (in the comedy sense, thank you fandom).
I have _no_ idea how this movie got an R rating. Aside from the violence. A lot of anti-religious stuff, and a plotline that's essentially chan, canibalism, lesbians with guns, etc.... I have to think that the MPAA was too goddamn stunned to freak out.
Also should note that the Clive Owen/Benicio Del Toro episode contains a lot of unintentional humour, mainly based around a couple of lines uttered either by or to Owen talking about a) Roman gladiators and b) referrencing King Arthur. I'm just saying. The whole movie theater sqwaked.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that the film noir dialogue is stilted both in the way it should be, and in the way it shouldn't be. It feels awkward, and some of the actors can do it, and some of the actors can't, and some of the actors can do it but you swear you can see them thinking now if I'd written this, it'd be different.
The film is essentially concerns three different story lines told in episodic fashion with a nice little bracketing thing around them. The episodes exist in the only order they could, but unforunately the big clue that the film doesn't take itself seriously comes about 3/4's of the way through. Now you say to me, it's a heightened reality based on an ultraviolent comic book -- how do you not get that it doesn't take itself seriously? Well... imagine if the first big musical moment in Moulin Rouge had been a love song and not that "the Hills are Alive" business, you would have said "wait.. are we supposed to take this shit seriously?" as opposed to "um... I dunno what to do with this, but at least I know it's laughing too". We don't know the film is laughing too until the episode with Clive Owen and severed head starts talking and there are dinosaurs. Then it's like "ooooooh, gotcha." That episode by the way is the strongest, mainly because Benicio del Toro is inspired and Clive Owen is surprisingly hysterical as the straight man (in the comedy sense, thank you fandom).
I have _no_ idea how this movie got an R rating. Aside from the violence. A lot of anti-religious stuff, and a plotline that's essentially chan, canibalism, lesbians with guns, etc.... I have to think that the MPAA was too goddamn stunned to freak out.
Also should note that the Clive Owen/Benicio Del Toro episode contains a lot of unintentional humour, mainly based around a couple of lines uttered either by or to Owen talking about a) Roman gladiators and b) referrencing King Arthur. I'm just saying. The whole movie theater sqwaked.
