Anonymous

Deb 6 Me 2

Here’s a big disappointment. The premise is that Shakespeare was more of a ghostwriter than genius and the first few minutes provided clear and interesting information about this issue. Then it went into the void of confusing characters, weird time shifts, people who look the same speaking with olde English accents all contribute to a real waste of time. I was completely lost. Talking about with friends later found that I was not alone, but I didn’t even get that there was a bad guy in it. One friend who really liked it and knows quite a bit about those times was apparently in the dark about much of the story too. Now there were a couple people who I could identify on a regular basis, but for every success there were twenty mysterious folks doing things that were beyond explanation. I can’t think of any reason anyone would come away from this movie happy about the time they’d invested.

J. Edgar

Deb 2 Me 0

When will I learn? Mainstream movies just flatline. This movie was as flat as they come. We saw it opening Friday night. There were four other couples. One walked out after twenty minutes, another after forty. We sat it out. At the end, another couple started laughing, “have you ever seen a worse movie?” Yes, I have, but this was pretty dismal.

There were four of us who talked about the movie for a while afterwards. The make-up was a big part of the films failure. The actors were done by someone from Madame Tussauds; they may have looked authentic, but stiff as boards. No one recalled shots where the actors could go from a smile to a frown; they had to be shot in one mode, re-made up and shot again with the next expression. This didn’t allow for a lot of emotional involvement with the story.

Here is an interesting part of history, about a guy who played a big part in our successes and fiascos in investigation, from Lindberg to Lennon. It was a real opportunity to tell an exciting story that covered generations. Instead it was clinical and drab, it might have been correct in many details, but as dull and listless as you could make a film.