Movie Journals |
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Empire/25th Hour
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Empire and 25th Hour Last night I let my husband make the film choices for our movie night. Yeah, well, never again. After watching both Empire and 25th Hour, I thought I might have to open a vein. I guess taken individually, each movie would be bearable, but taken together was just too much thinking man’s gang member makes good. Both of these movies had far too much dialogue and far too little action. Similar in setup with the main character providing voice over narration, they both provided perfect examples of why film writers should avoid use of a narrator. Blah blah blah is about all I remember from the pseudo-deep dialog of either of the movies. Spike Lee, director of 25th Hour, seems to make the same mistake in his most recent films. He tries to cram too many messages into one film. How ‘bout telling me a story? I don’t mind movies with messages, but for goodness sake don’t short change the story in the process. 25th Hour felt about that long and didn’t have much of a payoff in the end. Although many scenes and much of the camera work were interesting, the drag factor outweighs most of the films merits. Empire, starring John Leguizamo, was also lacking in many facets—first being plot. The transparent plot twist made the movie almost comical. Additionally, I found it difficult to see John Leguizamo as a hard gansta leader; he’s just too naturally funny. It is a shame that actors get pigeon holed into certain roles, but I suppose the really good ones can make audiences believe they are like the characters they are playing. So, next movie night, I’m making sure I choose at least one of the films we watch. And yes, that may mean my husband will have to sit through a chick flick, but that can’t be worse than spending 25 hours watching two 2-hour movies.
Karen Walker 8 December 2003
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