The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Rating: 8/10 (16 April 2014)

This movie has a %47 percentage rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For the life of me I can't figure out why. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I thought this movie was pretty freaking good.
Who is Walter Mitty? For the entire 114 minute length, I saw me. The average Joe among average Joes. Living in a world a bit too slow and small compared to the flashy universe that is his mind. The mind, where one minute I'm a surfboarding heartthrob ripping tidal wives the size of skyscrapers, caused by a storm of asteroids. Then the next, I'm a awesome super hero, stopping a Michael Mann style bank heist. It's an awesome idea to see an everyday, day dreamer go out and live a fantasy and take on an adventure. Some of the "zone outs" shown in the film are hit and miss, but I think the biggest plus I can give this movie, other than how much I saw myself in the title character's position, is the look of the movie. The set design's in the Life offices, to the gorgeous landscapes of Greenland and Iceland. Ben Stiller, knows how to make a good looking movie, we have further proof with Tropic Thunder. The scene parodying Benjamin Button, was comedy gold. Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of people got it at first. The movie isn't overly comical like some of Stiller's other films, but it really is a nice change of pace for Mr. Stiller, even Kristen Wiig was better than normal with her performance.
Some of the more dramatic elements didn't work with me as much as I think the script wanted, the random moment with an ex-boyfriend in the film seemed pretty pointless and the scenes with Walter's family are ironically the least effective when it comes to creating any sense of connection with the characters. Adam's Scott's character was also a pretty big negative. He was such a unnecessarily rude, and dreadful character. I understand he's the closest thing to a "villain" the movie has, but every scene he was on, I just wanted to light his horrible looking beard on fire.
I still had a blast with this movie, it was almost a relaxing kind of roller coaster. Ben Stiller is, surprisingly, an actor/director whose future projects I will eagerly awaiting, he hasn't disappointed me yet.