A Terrible, Terrible Film

Rating: 1/10 (29 January 2008)

Here is some of my immediate problems (that comes to mind) with the film besides the overdrawn out length.
1. The storyline(s) wander all over the place. 2. A huge man goes around a street carrying a gas tank and an animal gun and not one cop (where are they?) stops him! 3. A huge man goes around a street carrying a large gun and a huge silencer and again no one reaches for a phone to say "O' look, we better ring the cops to check this out!" He shoots people in hotels, motels, offices, streets, cars, and what happens... nothing! 4. Its an insult to law enforcement in the 1980's if that when its meant to be in. They were an effective force then - it wasn't the dark ages! 5. Tommy Lee's acting alone was moan-filled and terrible. 6. Characters were introduced to us to varying degrees and then cut short completely without any explanation or reason! 7. The moral (I've discovered, there was one!) was so hidden, everyone I have talked to, couldn't see it, didn't know there was one and I have asked around. 8. The ending! O jeeze where do I start! I can't - it would be too long. Terrible, just terrible and that isn't my own view. EVERYONE in the cinema with me had the same immediate facial expression and words in their mouths "what the f**k" and outside the cinema doors were asking "did anyone understand it and who slaughtered the ending?" 9. The acting of a good deal of the cast was either over acted or they had adopted the attitude like Tommy Lee Jones, that they couldn't be bothered trying.
There is more but those are just the first few that spring to mind.
You know, people can set out to make an art film for art films sake. But sometimes, just sometimes a desert dusty film is what is visually it is and clearly is NOT a work of art for categorizing it into a juncture. The writer of the above review needs to take stock of the people that actually attend the cinema. 99% go to be entertained - not to be left scratching their heads! If this is an artistic film - it belongs more-so in an art house theater where it might get the respect it might deserve.
As a film to the masses, it fails clearly in many, many areas! So as for winning an Oscar, if the Oscars are supposed to be by their nature awards representing views of the majority who actually understands the films, this film fails in many categories. Its one thing to make it cryptic, its another thing to hide the whole theme, moral and story like a dead body - never to see the light of day.
If this film gets an Oscar, the awards yet again are a joke of epic proportions. All glitz, glamor but no substance. No wonder the public are being turned off the Oscars a lot more at this rate.