Joe Black Meets Forrest Gump

Rating: 3/10 (27 December 2008)

I was apprehensive about this one going in...there was of course the glut of rave reviews and Oscar guarantees, but enough terds in the punchbowl to make me wonder.
Fincher has made great movies, Fight Club and Seven to name a couple, but Panic Room was brutal and I could never get into Zodiac. So I was somewhat hesitant to brave the corn syrup swamp that is the megatheatre but Pitt, Blanchett, a day off of work and a hangover were enough to get me there.
The bad news started in the coming attractions...nothing that even seemed worth renting...and this reel of banality continued for the next three hours. It seemed like the filmmakers, concerned about making another Forrest Gump but likely hired to do just that, decided to take out everything that made gump great and left only the empty shell. Case in point...you have an old man and a little girl forming a highly unlikely bond...work with that! Sure its a little "on the nose" but its comedy gold! There was only one scene that hit on this strange relationship, and really no scenes at all that gave us any idea why these two beauties might truly love each other.
Don't get me started on the man struck by lightning either...this gimmick within a gimmick movie made me cringe every time. Totally unimaginative and cheap.
Tilda Swinton was the lone bright spot, but even the relationship struck up by she and Pitt could have been given more depth.
Overall, it's two pretty people on the screen for a good while and if this is enough to get you theatre, fine, but I wouldn't even recommend a rental.