lazy cinema, another wasted opportunity

Rating: 4/10 (9 March 2008)

This film really has the cast one usually dreams of. There are so many familiar faces explicitly there that it's easy to overlook several others who are partly masked by their roles as dead people, for example. Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert de Niro both coast through, relaying on their innate magnetism and charisma to make up for the deafening lack of direction and appalling script. Above all else, this is a lazy film. It depends on a trite, cliché-ridden musical score to lift every change of scene and hint at a chase: it really pounds one into submission (not me, I hasten to add) with its feeble, derivative invention. The editing of the film seems almost random. One moves from one strand of the plot to another with the randomness of a game of snakes and ladders. The premise of the story is enchanting; everything was in place for a great fantasy adventure; but first one needs a bit of drive and flair from those in charge. Apart from a few witty moments, not least with Ricky Gervais almost reprising his Office persona, this film is a waste of two hours and a huge sum of money.