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Movie Monday - The Tourist
I know that Starz and Netflix are having some sort of grudge match to the death but why does Starz have to spit on its movie package customers at the same time? I say this because my Starz/Encore/you name it movie package has reached the nadir in selections in the last 6 months. I'm lucky to eek out one movie a week which is worth watching. And this is from a selection of almost 50 movies. Reese Witherspoon as a washed up baseball player in How Do You Know!
Therefore, hearing the reviews of The Tourist, I was ready to pass on it. In fact, I gritted my teeth through the first 50 minutes, looking at it as a remake of Charade, which in itself was a barely watchable fashion-driven May-December thriller romance between Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.
The Tourist is in the genre of Charade: a classy thriller with beautiful settings and half beautiful people (Jolie is gorgeous; Depp seems always ready to slip into his Jack Sparrow demeanor.) At least, the age difference didn't glare and I like the touch of the note Jolie receives at the beginning of the movie: Board the train at Lyons. Pick someone who looks like me and make them (the police who are watching) believe it's I (they used "me" but I like to use good grammar when I know it and remember it.)
I liked that touch because the whole absurd adventure which follows and becomes the core of the film is given a reason. Jolie is the huntress and Depp is the hapless tourist whom we watch escaping killer Russians in his pajamas across the roof tops of Venice.
Really silly stuff with the de rigueur twists and turns necessary in such thrillers.
So I was able to stay tuned beyond the grinding teeth first 50 minutes and I was ready to write a C grade review - until I got to the end of this saga.
And here we get the final twist, and for me, it moved the movie up into a good solid B grade for this type of sophisticated thriller. For here I am, at the end of movie saying: I think I should watch this again. Which I did and that one piece of denouncement knowledge changed my perception of everything. It is worth watching two times.
If you're like me, you're going into this movie agreeing with the Rotten Tomato rating of 19% favorable. And the critics are probably right given the star power of this movie. But this genre, even done well, always insults reality so lower your standards and I think it might be an enjoyable hour and 43 minutes.
Grousing ahead: I was looking at IMDb and saw that remakes of Fright Night, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and new additions of Mission Impossible and Spy Kids will be released soon. These will be added to the mindless actions films which arrive each week. Is there not one original idea left in Hollywood?
I know that Starz and Netflix are having some sort of grudge match to the death but why does Starz have to spit on its movie package customers at the same time? I say this because my Starz/Encore/you name it movie package has reached the nadir in selections in the last 6 months. I'm lucky to eek out one movie a week which is worth watching. And this is from a selection of almost 50 movies. Reese Witherspoon as a washed up baseball player in How Do You Know!
Therefore, hearing the reviews of The Tourist, I was ready to pass on it. In fact, I gritted my teeth through the first 50 minutes, looking at it as a remake of Charade, which in itself was a barely watchable fashion-driven May-December thriller romance between Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.
The Tourist is in the genre of Charade: a classy thriller with beautiful settings and half beautiful people (Jolie is gorgeous; Depp seems always ready to slip into his Jack Sparrow demeanor.) At least, the age difference didn't glare and I like the touch of the note Jolie receives at the beginning of the movie: Board the train at Lyons. Pick someone who looks like me and make them (the police who are watching) believe it's I (they used "me" but I like to use good grammar when I know it and remember it.)
I liked that touch because the whole absurd adventure which follows and becomes the core of the film is given a reason. Jolie is the huntress and Depp is the hapless tourist whom we watch escaping killer Russians in his pajamas across the roof tops of Venice.
Really silly stuff with the de rigueur twists and turns necessary in such thrillers.
So I was able to stay tuned beyond the grinding teeth first 50 minutes and I was ready to write a C grade review - until I got to the end of this saga.
And here we get the final twist, and for me, it moved the movie up into a good solid B grade for this type of sophisticated thriller. For here I am, at the end of movie saying: I think I should watch this again. Which I did and that one piece of denouncement knowledge changed my perception of everything. It is worth watching two times.
If you're like me, you're going into this movie agreeing with the Rotten Tomato rating of 19% favorable. And the critics are probably right given the star power of this movie. But this genre, even done well, always insults reality so lower your standards and I think it might be an enjoyable hour and 43 minutes.
Grousing ahead: I was looking at IMDb and saw that remakes of Fright Night, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and new additions of Mission Impossible and Spy Kids will be released soon. These will be added to the mindless actions films which arrive each week. Is there not one original idea left in Hollywood?
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