George Clooney Gets My Goat (New movie a "cinematic Katrina" )

New York Observer ^ | November 3, 2009 | Rex Reed

[tlb]

A non-terrorist story might be a good change. Rex Reed isn't the sort people on this board would generally like, but he takes movies seriously.

[Darkwolf377]

Kevin Spacey, whose special talent is spoon bending

Actually, Spacey's special talent is man bending.

[Darkwolf377]

BTW, while I’d probably agree with him in this instance, Rex Reed is to intelligent film criticism what Barack Obama is to modesty, a complete stranger.

[BenKenobi]

My brother and I who never like any movies, just flat out loved the trailer for “Men who stare at goats”.

We’ll be seeing it when it comes out up here.

As for the reviewer, “political satire”? Please. This is just good natured fun. The reviewer might try actually having some. He seems drier than King Tut’s mummy. If he laughed he’d probably fall apart like dust.

[Darkwolf377]

He's a terrible critic.

Haven't seen the trailer, but the description in the article makes it sound like fun!

[fr_freak]

I don’t even have to see it to know it’s going to be gay. Clooney will make it so. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

[USNBandit]

abominable Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

I thought that movie was pretty funny. "R-U-N-O-F-T"

[FredZarguna]

In fact, the marvelous and insightful Good Night, and Good Luck is the only major exception in a career notable for frat-house one-liners and photo op mugging over artistic quality.

Of course, we understand your need to carve out an exception for an homage to the usual anti-McCarthy nonsense, but there's no need to do that for Good Night, and Good Luck Rexy, ol' girl. That one sux, too.

[Boiling point]

Wow, he makes it sound like a Burt Reynolds movie from the seventies.

[Darkwolf377]

Me, too. Res Reed has deplorable taste.

[FredZarguna]

Well, one reason might be that O Brother, Where Art Thou? isn't a project by one of George's buddies. It's a Coen Brother's film. Rex Reed is, frankly, worthless.

[Drew68]

We’ll be seeing it when it comes out up here.

Yeah, I'll be looking forward to renting it from a Redbox (which is how I see all my movies these days).

In giving poor reviews to this picture, Reed praises a film I didn't care for (Good Night, and Good Luck) while panning two Clooney films that I loved (Three Kings and Oh, Brother...) so this one might actually be good.

[lawnguy]

Holy Crap, I had no idea Rex Reed was still around.

[midway]

I read a fair number of Reed’s reviews (because I love movies) but unlike some critics I can’t rely on his opinion lining up with mine.

In the course of his review of the Coen bros. A Serious Man
he refers to The Big Lebowski as ‘dreadful’ (IMO it’s extremely funny and a fave of mine, one of just a few DVDs I own) and about the Coens’ Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men (a very very fine film I have watched 3 times) Reed kvetches about ‘a confusing and maddeningly unsatisfactory ending’.

Rotten Tomatoes rating on Goats is a modest 59% so I may rent it eventually but the moral is, I guess, that Reed has an underdeveloped funny bone (yes No Country was a black comedy as well as a thriller and morality tale).

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Rex Reed isn't the sort people on this board would generally like, but he takes movies seriously.

For a second there I thought he was about to say bad things about "The Big Lebowski", or about Jeff Bridges' performance in it. That wouldn't have been cool.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Actually, Spacey's special talent is man bending."

I would've said frontwards-bending, but I think we're both in agreement.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"...[regarding] the Coens’ Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men (a very very fine film I have watched 3 times) Reed kvetches about ‘a confusing and maddeningly unsatisfactory ending’."

That tears it. NCFOM was a freakin' masterpiece, one of those gets-inside-your-head films that never quite leaves you. Brilliant and engrossing and supremely well done, and marvelously acted, with every single player delivering total perfection. If Reed felt the ending was maddeningly unsatisfactory then he missed the entire freaking point of the movie. Yes it's maddeningly unsatisfactory!! That's the point!

What a dunderhead. What a nimrod. Jeesh.

You, meanwhile, have good taste.

[BenKenobi]

Chigurh was amazing.

Still cannot believe that performance.

He also pans Ocean’s 11, which I thought was completely awesome.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Chigurh was amazing. Still cannot believe that performance."

Wasn't he stunning? There are moments in cinema when an actor owns a character so utterly that their merest inflection of expression or voice conveys entire volumes. One example: In the second of the Bourne movies (the first two were nifty, IMHO; too bad the third sucked), when Matt Damon was being interrogated by the police and responding with stone-faced silence, a slight flicker in his eye communicated his intent and signaled the moment of his escape. For me, the moment revealed Damon's capability as an actor and separated him from the rest of the current pack of action-movie stars. But in Javier Bardem's astonishing turn as Chigurh, there was a whole movie full of such moments, such as his momentary flash of surprise, cloaked anger, finality and maybe a little sadness as he offered the doomed young widow the heads-or-tails bargain. His was perhaps the single most relentlessly effective dramatic performance that I've ever endured. And if Reed can't appreciate that, well he's a worthless old troll. I'm just amazed that he missed the entire point of the movie. The entire point.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

By the way, dittos on Ocean’s 11. Very enjoyable.