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Reviews
Big Shark (2023)
Big Shark is a Big Bite to chew
The first star is for the appreciation and love shown to New Orleans. The second star is for the majority of the shot composition and lighting, that crew did a very great job and the style came through and worked. The third star is for character Tim and the actor's energy and commitment, he brought his A game to a sloppy and incoherent script and never wavered, bravo.
I love The Room and the Wiseau personality because they are entertaining, and that film was a genuine effort to make a good film that failed in many ways but succeeded in unexpected ways.
Big Shark feels like a film meant to be bad and succeeding as just that. Scenes are drawn out to the point of insanity, with pointless ad-libbed improv of certain phrases, possibly several takes worth of the same dialogue and plot beats. In fact, the film consistently retreads itself, the characters setting about a rarely discussed "The Plan" only to find them drinking or playing pool or having a stroll or a drive.
It almost comes across as allegory for the aimlessness and arrested development of modern men, bold attitudes and bravado as a facade for underlying insecurity and inaction, always proclaiming goals they never quite reach, with the big shark representing the chaos of the world and its perception as impending doom in broadcast reaction but its treatment as an inconvenient interruption in actual action.
I have heard the film is unfinished, and the lack of polish, fx, credits, or coherent editing reinforces that. Fixing the audio, more cuts, added missing fx, and some editing fixes would go a long way to making it less a slog than it needs to be. It is entertaining with an audience because Tommy Wiseau draws and interesting and eclectic crowd, but unlike The Room, this film is a hard watch and even the typical complementing Wiseau crowd was getting worn out of these sections.
I did enjoy it for what it was, but Best F(r)iends and The Room are better films in my opinion. Big Shark makes it seem like Tommy hasn't learned much as a filmmaker over his 20 year career. I am sure there are talented people willing to work with him, obviously there are, and his production side wasn't given the care the other aspects of the film deserved. I am not dismissive of TW's talent to entertain, but this film left me disappointed even for the skewed expectations I have as a fan of the man.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2017)
Just not as good as the original
Lame reboot that bilked money out of fans, created without irreverence to the original show. Wouldn't have needed as much if they weren't paying the likes of Oswalt I would assume. Should have known it was going to be terrible since Joel hadn't written much for the original series since Mike Nelson had become head writer. The new bots are nothing like the either sets of the old bots, the new Mads are irritatingly corny, and the riffs just don't land. If it had kept the old cast, maybe it could have worked, but I can't even make through an episode now. Another reboot reimagining that ruins the source material.
Quiet Desperation (2010)
Moments of hilarity and Allstonerian sketchiness
"NY is where you go if you are somebody. LA is where you go if you wanna be somebody. Boston is where you go if you wanna hang out with a bunch of nobodies." -anonymous
Rob Potylo really had a vision and some amazing local talents worked on this show. He is the weakest link unfortunately. He reuses his jokes to death and never lets them go. Is the "McRib is back" still posted every few months? Is "sings to lady cop" still going strong?
Anyway, after his Robby Roadsteamer character ran out of gas and he needed an outlet, he put together this hit and miss show, which as a local Allstonian, has its charms and kudos to him for his drive to create and ability to get people to work with him. You may notice though that basically every season has different people working on it, with a few recurring cast members and characters. He can be tough to work with and even bailed on the people in the show once he was done with them. Lame.
But artists gotta art and amazingly for a guy who couldn't afford rent he was able to move all the way across country to LA since he ran out of Boston area people to exploit. Weak.
Watch it on YouTube if you like underground sketch comedy, many of the cast really gave it their all. (I didn't, my bad)
The Shining (1980)
Loved this movie until i finally read the novel
So many reviews have been written about this film, but so many of them also heap praise upon it while ignoring the main gripe many fans of the novel, including the author, have for it; the lack of humanity.
Gone from the source are the shades of gray and nuance the characters possess, the history of the hotel, the intriguing supernatural elements, the heart and the hero.
Kubrick hacked his way through the novel like his version Jack Torrance through a bathroom door, complete with schlocky pop culture references and empty set pieces.
His treatment of Wendy and Dick are egregious at least and downright sexist/racist at most. Theres no strong wills or heroes in his version, just props to abuse.
Alluding to the minor bits of supernatural he does include seems tacked on and makes me feel he didn't understand the novel at all. Shoehorned in "indian burial ground" tropes really detracts from the novels subtler, and much more frightening, hauntings.
After finally reading the novel, the boredom I have felt for much of Kubrick's work has become justified and makes me glad he is no longer around to ruin any more great novels as he did with The Shining, Clockwork Orange, and Lolita.
The man was a style-over-substance hack.