A piece of crap by any other name

Rating: 3/10 (8 September 2006)

V for Vainglorious, more like.
This film was awful - every moment, every frame. Oh sure, it looked great, and being a serious progressive, its politics (worn with prejudice on its sleeve) were spot-on. But that's hardly enough as a sum-total artistic/movie experience. 20,000 miles from enough.
My problems? The dialogue - atrocious. The story - vapid. The characters - beyond V (and the screenwriter's "Hey I know big words and I bet if I string enough of them together it'll sound real intelligent-like!" tendencies re: V's monologues), utterly forgettable. (And that's saying something, considering Stephen Rea and John Hurt were in the cast. If you can waste them, you can waste anything.) The cinematography - gorgeous. The music - wretched, and then some. The politics - like I say, spot-on, but delivered with all the grace of a skyscraper- dropped anvil. The mask - fantastic. And the day you find a mask that carries a film all by itself, please, let me know, because this sure wasn't that film.
I absolutely abhor movies these days; V is a shining example of why. In a nutshell, it's artless, soulless, graceless, and not in the least possession of anything magical about movies. This movie was made 22 years ago, and it was called 1984, and it also starred John Hurt, and it was directed by Michael Radford; see 1984, and stay away from this stinking rubbish. Unless you want a primer on how to make an inartistic blunt instrument that's boring as hell and feces-stupid.