Thursday, May 22, 2008

People have lame movie taste


Ok, so I am most definitely not a music snob--I like the Backstreet Boys, Enya, and shitty radio hip-hop--but I gotta be honest, I think I know a thing or two about what a good movie should be, and apparently most people don't.

I never saw The Notebook when it was first released. It just didn't appeal to me. But then it started getting all this hype and acclaim. Everybody love's The friggin Notebook. Well, my dad recently joined its fan club, and--of course--insisted that I see this supposed masterpiece of stylistic elegance.

Allow me to be frank--that movie ain't that good. And here's why.

I like a good fantasy. I like a gritty reflection of reality. I like contrived elements in a plotline. Because all of these things a movie make. What I don't like is a movie trying (pathetically) to incorporate all three, or, more accurately, be both of the first two with the third tossed in.

That's exactly what The Shitbook does. It plays itself off as a telling of this real story of two people and how beautiful that was. But then it goes and makes the romance entirely unrealistic. When exactly did they fall in love? Somewhere between nearly getting hit by a car in the middle of the street on they're first forced date and riding on bicycles--being "inseparable"...with nothing more than a scene change and narration explaining this fact between them. Sorry hopeless romantics, but Allie and Noah are just too in love. It's not realistic, believable, or--from where I'm sitting--even desirable. There's no reflection of real life or true emotion in the simplistic way there undying love and monumental romance came to be.

Another thing. All Allie does throughout that entire movie, from the first time Noah spots her and all the way through her youth, is freaking scream. All the girl does is scream. Have you seen it? Yes, well watch it again, and see if I'm right. Scream, shriek, squeal, whatever. It never stops. If I were Rachel McAdams I would have been like, "No, sorry, not screaming anymore. Why, director? Because I've been doing nothing but that for the past 25 minutes." That girl screams more than Kate Winslet's character said the name "Jack" in Titanic.

Anyway, that's my friendly neighborhood rant of the day. I don't like that movie and I don't see all the hype. It's not a terrible movie, by any means. But it also in no way warrants a fan following like has been in existence since its creation. Click "The Notebook" under some poor schmuck's favorite movie section on facebook and you'll see just how devastating the results have been.

Really people. Really.

2 comments:

Stockwell said...

So I do not have the notebook under my favorite movies section in my facebook which makes me feel like I can comment on your review. My view on that movie has changed since I first saw it and now. When I was younger I was so full of hope about love and fully believed that it was possible to fall in love like that. And by that I mean so quickly that it seems impossible now that I am older. And I am only about 4 years older than when I felt this movie was entirely possible. *sigh* to me it seems you can only experience a true love when you are young and unaware of how hard the world ahead of you will be and this movie is the writer wishing to be young again..wishing to be able to love

katie said...

I liked it, but not with the die hard devotion so many have. . .I really think I just liked the costumes and make up. Really, Rachel McAdams looked amazing in that film.