Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: At 7:15, Expect A Train Wreck

At 7:15, Expect A Train Wreck

So tonight, after having dreaded the film for nearly a full year, I'm off to see Constantine. The film has been almost universally panned by the critics, and I can only hope it makes no money at all, simply because then there shall be no sequel.

Given this and the horrible reception given to Bride and Prejudice, maybe the Producers That Be will learn a valuable lesson here: if it was made in England, leave it in England. Only in Hollywood would someone try to make a Tandoori Cornish Pastie with a Budweiser/Guinness Black and Tan.

UPDATE: More later, but today is consumed by guests and grading. Long story short, it's an awful film, but has its bright bits. In other news, National Review Online continues its descent into madness by actually giving the film a positive review...

Posted by Anthony on February 18, 2005 1:39 PM | Permalink

Comments

Perhaps the popularity of High Fidelity gave them false hope. And I've been told that Bride and Prejudice wasn't bad, though it came from a Polish-American guy, so there's also the difference of standards. In fact, maybe audience is everything; if a sufficiently large percentage of the people you're targeting the movie toward also have read the book, the more you change, the more miffed they're likely to be. So High Fidelity was safe to transplant, but Bridget Jones (and God forbid, Harry Potter) weren't -- to hell with the Brits, the American fans would have been disappointed.

Posted by: PG | February 18, 2005 3:30 PM

Yeah, but the lead actress in Bride and Prejudice is really, really hot :)

Posted by: Tim Marman | February 18, 2005 4:11 PM

Bride and Prejudice was an excellent movie, a little cliche and predictable, but still pretty good. It's hard to mix bollywood actors, british actors, and american actors into one movie that spans across india, england and los angeles. Furthermore, the director is incredibly talented as she's made bend it like beckham and other noteworthy movies. South asians are only now breaking into the hollywood scene, and they're doing a pretty good job. We should be encouraging diversity. I'll admit the movie was pretty cliche, but so are other chick flicks in hollywood (think: most of julia roberts movies...i still love her though) cheers.

Posted by: jess | February 20, 2005 10:51 PM

Tandori Cornish Pasty? That's a fantastic idea! The drink though really does sound awful. One Tandoori Pasty and a pint of Guiness please...

Posted by: martin | February 21, 2005 3:21 AM

And the verdict on Constantine is? A friend (who's read every Hellblazer ever published) thought that, divorced from the comic book backstory it wasn't a bad horror flick, but that it sucked as an adaptation of Hellblazer. I'm on the fence as to whether I want to go see it; since I'm not that familiar with the character and the backstory it might not be a bad investment in a matinee admission though...

Posted by: Len Cleavelin | February 21, 2005 1:48 PM

Len, I've never read the comic, so to me it was "not bad for a Keanu Reeves movie" (possibly the ultimate in damning with faint praise). Some of the minor characters, especially the Angel Gabriel and Satan, were nicely done in themselves, though they'll probably disappoint someone who knows the source material.

Posted by: PG | February 21, 2005 5:13 PM

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