Skip to main content

Odd Thomas

The general consensus about Odd Thomas seems to be thus: critics think it's crap while audiences seem strangely taken with it. Before watching it, I read nothing but bad reviews in magazines, but kept hearing friends of friends saying that it was, "pretty good."

Here's my $.25 take on the movie: I didn't hate it but, the entire time I kept thinking, "I liked this movie better when it was The Frighteners." I also couldn't help feeling like it wasn't as charming as Dead Like Me.

The gist, if you couldn't gather, is as follows: dude sees dead people and commits to helping them. He saves the day but in the end, he has to lose the girl he loves to do it. Sad music plays. Credits roll. The movie, folks, is over.

There were moments that were supposed to be funny that didn't make me laugh. There were tender, sentimental moments that didn't make me care about what happened to the characters. I feel like, overall, Anton Yelchin isn't expressive enough (in his mannerisms or in his delivery of dialogue) to make me believe him, rally behind him, or give a crap about him. And that's not specific to just this movie, his acting style is just flat and wooden. It works in Star Trek but, leaves me wanting more in other instances.

I'll be honest here and admit that I don't know anything about the source material except that Dean Koontz wrote it and he's pretty high up there on the generic, low-brow, horror stuff. Trashing his work is like trashing Stephen King's work - shooting monster fish in a bloody barrel.  I've definitely got better challenges to tackle.

So, the wrap up: all in all, not a complete waste of my night (watched Abandoned Mine two days ago, can't EVER get that time back)!

You can watch the Odd Thomas trailer here:
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rebuttal: 17 Disturbing Horror Movies You Will Never Watch Again

When I'm not watching movies, I'm reading about movies. I stumble across all kinds of articles, blog posts, book excerpts, etc. in my quest to absorb as much movie knowledge as possible. Now, I'm snotty and loud-mouthed and opinionated but I'd never begrudge another human their opinion. Seriously. You're absolutely welcome to have any opinion about any thing you want. However, I must warn you, if I think your opinion is stupid, I'm absolutely going to say so. I've recently stumbled on an article completely  brimming with so many idiotic opinions that I'm actually compelled to craft a response. Here's the gist of the original article: there are some horror movies out there that are so disturbing , you'll only ever want to watch them once. I've have taken her original list and refuted her claims without pulling her entire article over. You can read the original article here . Let's start at the beginning, with her opening statement
Post a Comment
Read more

Escape From Tomorrow

I love creative people who are willing to take risks with their art. I appreciate the refusal to do things by the rules. I'm also terribly impatient with mediocrity. Enter  Escape From Tomorrow . Created by a team of rogue filmmakers, the movie was shot in the video mode of high-end still cameras. Actors shared scripts and shooting locations across their smartphones. Shot on location at Disney World, the parks were completely unaware this was all going on right under their mouse ears. I wanted to love Escape From Tomorrow. More than that, I wanted to be completely taken with its ingenuity and creativity and - oh yes - its originality. And there is really a simple brilliance to their covert plan; all families are roaming around the parks, taking videos and chatting on their phones. Just blend the fuck in, act like you belong, and you won't get caught. Too bad the movie can be summed up as: ambitious but Rubbish. As you can imagine (or possibly know), there was a ton of con
1 comment
Read more

The Witch (2015)

You know the drill - there's ALWAYS spoilers. Don't want the movie ruined for you, come back after you've seen it. Also - I'm still without an editor - typos and bad grammar await you! I keep hoping that the cultural obsession with zombies will end; literally every other damn movie that comes 'round seems to feature some sort of shambling, undead being bent on devouring the weak flesh of regular humans. Once upon a time, zombies have have been used as a metaphor for the blind consumerism created by our capitalist society, or the perceived depletion of resources by immigrants, or even the ravages of time and disease on our frail bodies. Now it seems that the deeper social commentary has been lost as audiences mindlessly consume "zombie fiction" in an attempt to keep up with trends. ( How very meta - a film buddy of mine commented on this assessment! ) All of this is just a sideways rant, leading up to my actual point: it seems that zombie may actually
1 comment
Read more