As Bad As It Gets

Rating: 3/10 (8 August 2000)

My roommate and I refused to go see this in the movie. Nothing hyped that much could be good and besides, we heard it was bad. Well, finally, at long last, we borrowed a copy of it on videotape and we are now very proud of ourselves for being so on target.
This movie is an example of a lot of things that can go wrong in movies. Primarily it's an example of moviemakers being out of touch with their audience and with the notion of what makes a good movie. It's also an example of special effects becoming a total distraction, with F/X people seemingly obsessed with doing things just to show off. The dialog is often ludicrous and the characterizations are extremely shallow -- guess they were worrying about effects, not plot. This movie also employs a lot of bizarre, mismatched accents (including ones that are difficult to understand) and on top of that, they lay on the ethnic stereotyping very thick (are those guys holding down the Naboo supposed to be Japanese?)
On the positive side, I think the guy playing Obi-wan was very good. I loved the sets/stages used for the capital of Naboo -- looked like the Hagia Sophia. The pod race had awesome effects. I thought the Jedis' spacecraft was very sleek and nice. Overall, though, this movie sucks like a rotten egg.