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

"I live, I love, I slay & I am Content."

Let me tell you a little about myself; something real about the home I grew up in. There were lots of people around all the time. I was the only child. And, thankfully, I wasn't treated as such. Much like today, I was just the shortest member of the household. But what's that really mean? Above and beyond it means that I had many influences growing up. For this entry, my father's influence is the most important. My father loves arms and armor. He loves history and mythology and the art of warfare. And as any good father would, he shared these passions with me as a kid. I remember him making me wooden swords to play with. We played chess together. And I remember him reading me Greek myths and comic books before bed. He also shared his nerdy love of scifi, fantasy, and horror movies with me. For all of this, I am grateful. And I am now passionate about the same things. Spoiler alert: the following statement is not a dick joke. I have a love of swords. And barbarian...
3 comments
Read more

Dark Ride (2006)

Spoilers, typos, and bad grammar ahead. You've been warned. I remember a time when horror was still a relatively underground genre and fans slunk around in the shadows, keeping their fandom to themselves for fear of judgement. Now, it seems everyone and their mother is a horror fan and has something to say about the genre - for better or worse. While this does mean horror movies (and related goodies) are easier for long-time genre fans to get their hands on, it also means an over-saturation of the market (leading to an excess of crap.) It also means tons of great opportunities (like festivals and conventions) have cropped up all over the place.  The After Dark Horrorfest (or "8 Films to Die For") was at the forefront of the horror festival circuit and offered directors (and audiences alike) a terrific venue for checkin out new, original horror films. Pros and cons aside, I've often avoided the movies coming out of this festival - not because of the hype and ...
Post a 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