Hello All,
This it folks, we’re in the final stretch of a year that I think most of us can agree, we just want to get over with as quickly as possible. That being said, i’m currently in the process of trying to figure out when to watch the last few movies coming out this year. Due to time constraints I once again have to go by year of wide release. Which is why I’m glad I knocked today’s film out of the way quickly. To call it Oscar Bait is a tad harsh, but allow me to make my argument. Let’s review this together shall we?
Plot Summary - Howard Inlet (Will Smith) is an advertising executive suffering from the loss of his young daughter. When he begins writing letters to Time, Love, and Death, he receives unexpected visits from them in person, he begins to rethink his world around him and how to bring beauty back into his life.
Pros - There’s a couple of funny lines in the film, mostly due to Will Smith’s reactions when meeting these embodiments.
Cons - God where do I even start on this? I think I have to go into spoiler territory on this one to explain my points about it, so this is your warning. Let’s start with the characters, first up Will Smith as Howard. He’s barely in half of the movie, and the rest of it it feels like he’s in full ‘give me an Oscar mode.’ There’s nothing against him wanting to get one, but I just don’t like how painfully obvious it is. The trie who play his friends are all miserable folks whose subplots (and yes, they each get one) range from sappy to uninteresting, and once you find out their motivations for trying to both help Howard and themselves, you can’t help but shake the feeling that they are indeed horrible as hell people. The trio who play said love, time, and death, hardly get any screen time, but are also one dimensional characters. Not even Meryl Streep as death, as hard as she’s trying, can reach above the bland dialogue and overall awful narrative of the film itself. It’s just that is suffers so painfully from the cookie cutter live, laugh, love, type of depth about life that at the same time the story is trying so hard to make you think it’s above with all these deep conversations about the interconnectivity of life that feels like it’s been pulled out of a cheesy self help book at best. It’s trying to be both complex and simple at the same time, which is literally impossible. The multiple twist endings it tries to shove in at the end, on top of the cliche character arcs of all the rest of the characters involved, again range from obvious to extremely ludicrous. At 97 minutes, it’s thankfully short, but you’ll be so bored by the halfway point, once the film actually gets over it awful pacing, tone shifts, and overall confusion in setting up this insane narrative, you’ll find it hard to get invested in the rest of it. The plot itself is pure lunacy, which given some rewrites could make for a pretty good dark comedy I think, but the problem is aside from some one liners from Smith, (in the only moments the film that gives him to do something other than mope,) they play this concept so straight like it’s some sort of brilliant and meaningful idea. Hate to tell you this folks, but it’s not.
Final Score - 1/10
If you’re a fan of easily digestible lifetime movies, this one’s right up your alley.
Next: Assassin’s Creed and/or Passengers - Trying for a double tomorrow, and if my schedule is anything to go by, the next few reviews will all be doubles.
So, about those year end lists.
Here’s the plan I have so far. I have 7 films I know are coming out around here that I’ll be able to see, with another one I’m still waiting to hear on. There are 2 in limited release that I hope we’ll get around here in time, but if we don’t I’ll have to count them for next year, as much as I don’t want to. So if all that works out, and I can get them all in by the 29th, then my schedule for the year end lists will be the following:
Friday Dec. 30th: The Worst Films of 2016 - Everyone loves year end worst lists, so why not give you this one right before the day we celebrate the end of it?
Saturday Dec. 31st: The Most Disappointing Films of 2016 - These films let us down in 2016, the ones that weren’t the worst, but should’ve been so much more.
Sunday Jan 1st, 2017: The Best Films of 2016 - A touchy subject, but I feel fresh into the New Year, we might as well take a second to reflect on the few good things we had in the previous year.
Now, as much as I want to believe they can be, these are not set in stone, but I promise you I will try my best to get them to you before I get into next year’s films, of which there will be many. God help me.
Links:
Last Review is Here: It’s my review of possibly the biggest movie of the year. You can read that here.
Twitter Account is Here: You’ll get notices when the reviews are live as soon as I post them, plus any trailers, movie news, or updates on when I stream on Twitch. I’m always looking for new followers, and with more followers means more ways for you guys to contribute.
Suggestion Box is Here: Are you sick of gaps in my posts? Why not suggest a film or film series for me to watch? Suggestions will be completed in order received, and if you’d like to leave your name for a suggestion credit and anything you’d like me to promote (within reason) I’d be happy to do that too. This suggestion box will be a permanent fixture of the blog, as again I’d love any and all help you guys want to offer.
Twitch Channel is Here: I’ll admit, I don’t quite have a regular streaming schedule worked out, but if you follow either the Twitter account or the channel directly you will be notified whenever I go live.
Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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