Friday, December 19, 2008

Does Seven Pounds Suck?

Admittedly, I wasn't wowed by the the vague trailers for Will Smith's new holiday release, Seven Pounds. Not much was revealed, but it looked a lot like Pay It Forward. Still, this is Will Smith we're talking about, the biggest movie star in the world. It can't be that bad, right?

With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 29%, it seems it can be. Entertainment Weekly named it one of the worst movies of the year. And now AO Scott of the New York Times has given it an outright pan. AO Scott is one of my favorite critics for his very reasonable approach to film. Even if I disagree with his overall assessment, I often understand his points. He's certainly my pick over Manohla Dargis, who is far more pretentious and has beyond questionable movie taste. So it's great to see Scott just lash out at a movie. Here's a snippet:
Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?
Ouch. The rest of the review is equally entertaining, so check it out here. With all the negative press, the Will Smith factor and morbid curiosity are the only things making me consider seeing this movie. So what do you think? Will you see Seven Pounds over Christmas, or have all the bad reviews scared you off?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I DID see it, BEFORE I saw all the horrible reviews. To tell you the truth, my first impression was not that bad. It was way too depressing for a christmas movie, but I didn't think it sucked at all. Then I read the reviews... and many of the criticisms made sense to me, except, I didn't really think about any of them while I was watching the movie.

So, my point is this: Usually when something is below 30% on rotten tomatoes I either don't see it or agree "it sucks." But this time, when I saw the movie, "I bought it." So maybe you should see it. Although, based on your reviews and what I know about you, I think you'll agree with the critical consensus. Had I read the reviews beforehand I might have too.

ps: how's it going man!?