Damn you, Denby

I had a feeling it would be David Denby that got me blogging again. I had originally planned to post something a few months ago, when I read his New Yorker piece on Hollywood stars of old, that consisted entirely of the extracted lists of names and descriptions. Think "Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, ..." and "dazzling, solemn, momentous, ..." or something along those lines. Believe me, it might not be interesting now, and I can't find it on the New Yorker's website anymore, but the entire article was a series of series.

Anyhow, it's Denby's review of Vantage Point that has riled me up most recently. Sheryl got it into her head after seeing the preview a few times that this was a movie we wanted to see. I really don't know what the appeal was--I'm going to embarrass her by saying that she feel asleep when we rented Rashomon, so it's not like that kind of of thing fascinates her. But we saw Vantage Point and it was truly a waste of time and money. I had not gotten up to Denby's review of it in that week's New Yorker yet, so out of curiosity I skipped ahead when we got back home. David Denby seems to have liked this movie because there are crowd scenes with different camera angles. Which, if you're filming something that is set at a political rally, that seems hard not to have. I really need to make sure that any movies I see from here on out are not David Denby-approved.

Comments

  1. SPGMarch 06, 2008

    I think Mandy is Denby's intern. She sees the movie, tells him what impressed her, and he writes his review, all New Yorkered up. Boy, is he gonna be pissed when he Netflixes this one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kimberlyandMarch 07, 2008

    If I'm going to see a movie where a sequence is repeated 5+ times, it better involve Bill Murray and a groundhog.

    Anyway, thanks for the warning! Will avoid this one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KatyMarch 11, 2008

    I've been operating on that principle for a while now. I become distressed when Denby likes a movie I want to see or have seen and did like. Anthony Lane, though--he's a movie reviewer I can get behind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 24, 2008

    Vantage Point did, in fact, stink. It was an hour too short. Just when it was getting good - it was over. Like the writers realized they didn't really have an endgame, so they just stopped. And the studio said, "Good enough for us, we'll get an Oscar winner and that lady who hung out with Guerilla's -- money in the bank."

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