Have Seen Better

Rating: 5/10 (18 March 2012)

I don't why I'm adding the 848th review to this thread, but here goes. Count me in the this-movie-is-overrated camp.
I absolutely hated the international market minimal dialog approach to screen writing. Not only subliterate, but it gives Ryan Gosling an opportunity to do a bad imitation of Keanu Reeves. I'd never really seen Gosling before, but have no reason to seek him out in other pictures. I also couldn't get over the idea of Carey Mulligan as a struggling waitress with $500 haircuts.
I Netflixed this on the basis of rumors of Albert Brooks' performance. I found it competent, but oddly bland. Dare I suggest that Barry from "Storage Wars" would have put more edgy psychotic humor into the character while retaining the West LA marginal showbiz player gone wrong persona? The pacing was odd. It took forever to get the movie started, but did pick up after 30 minutes.
Plot clangers. There is no way to get a car onto the LA river for a casual drive. The Chevy Impala is not best selling car in Southern California. Every one I've seen has a rental car barcode in the back window. The Toyota Camry has this distinction as sales leader, but you'd get tripped up on installing sufficient horsepower into this muffinmobile. And who in the movies is dumb enough to steal a million dollars from the Philadelphia mob? Could be trouble!
Finally, what's with the Star of David garage door in Shannon's shop when Brooks slices his veins open? That and Brooks reassuring him of the lack of pain and finality of this killing method suggests Kosher butchering technique. I haven't read all 847 previous reviews, so I'm probably not the first person to detect antisemitism here. I guess they thought they were just being cutely transgressive, but it was repulsive nevertheless.