I read once, in James Garner's Biography, that he did roles in quality TV like (Barbarians at the Gate). Now whoever wrote this lie will burn in hell forever, because this movie isn't quality TV, unless TV stands for Tormenting Vanity!
It's natural that too much of something is bad enough. Here you are a movie to know that better. The dialogue is just TOO MUCH to unbearable degree. It could destroy the movie and us.
The first 20 minutes are a headache. The characters speak with tons of elegant gibberish. The dialogue has too many very deep information, and most of all, it goes on non-stop too. Plus, it couldn't make any tie-in between us and the main character. I couldn't make any initial viewpoint towards him. They were busy making him talk, talk, and talk for all the time without presenting him appropriately. So, it was exactly like a stock market program, running annoyingly on-screen, without any drama but the tragic one in my brain!
After that, the stock market channel breaks loose. There are more stiff characters in suits. Too many stiff characters, with no true presentation, so with the unbroken mentioning of their names, I couldn't tell who's who?! And the case is that we have them talking in great energy, with more of the same - fully detailed - gibberish, without funny comedy, clear drama, something to understand, or a MOMENT OF SILENCE!
Larry Gelbart, the scriptwriter of this movie, is such a unique person. He proved for someone like me, who watched countless good and bad American movies before, that America has real windbag scripts! It's a lethal flaw that I saw in many not American movies. But who said that anyone or anything is perfect. Actually, Gelbart's dialogue can fill 3 movies and 4 newspapers which I don't buy! The main event, as I desperately understood, is ironic, satirical, and supposedly hot. But this 1000-words-per-minute dealing made it like a sweeping speech torrent where nothing is distinct or intelligible from start till the very end; why they selected the lower offer? The lead is portrayed eventually like a defeated knight, so why he's a knight? Why they wanted to defeat him? And how they did it?!! I'll never know.. from this movie!
To make the matter worse, Glenn Jordan's directing was dead, literally dead. The image doesn't say a thing. I believe there isn't one in the first place, since none was portrayed by it. All what I saw was people talking while walking across closed rooms, and that's it. Without much concentration, you can notice that Jordan intended to wrap it up as fast as he could, even if so many things, if not all the things, died out of heart failure, or we did earlier out of apoplexy. Hence, the outcome was the most long, unfunny and humdrum sitcom's episode in history!
The sets are all the same. Forget the cinematography. The music is primitive electronic thing; aside from being wearisome, it fits more a kid's show. Save Jonathan Pryce, all the actors talked the same tone. The good acting was like a fish in deep black water; hard to hunt, and hard to see. The editing made the movie so crowded without a space to breathe. Sometimes I wanted the cast to speak slower, sometimes I wanted a translation's boards, and sometimes I wanted to just scream!
So, with no smart writing and no directing, this lost its way, being a huge turn-off. Whenever I recall an American movie where its dialogue ruined it, this is the first one to remember. I saw theatricals, but flu hallucination, with more vitality and less talks. (Barbarians at the Gate) isn't a comedy about money. It's a nightmare about something I, with considerable struggle, couldn't totally catch on!
Uninteresting isn't the right word for it. It's SHUT UP!
It's natural that too much of something is bad enough. Here you are a movie to know that better. The dialogue is just TOO MUCH to unbearable degree. It could destroy the movie and us.
The first 20 minutes are a headache. The characters speak with tons of elegant gibberish. The dialogue has too many very deep information, and most of all, it goes on non-stop too. Plus, it couldn't make any tie-in between us and the main character. I couldn't make any initial viewpoint towards him. They were busy making him talk, talk, and talk for all the time without presenting him appropriately. So, it was exactly like a stock market program, running annoyingly on-screen, without any drama but the tragic one in my brain!
After that, the stock market channel breaks loose. There are more stiff characters in suits. Too many stiff characters, with no true presentation, so with the unbroken mentioning of their names, I couldn't tell who's who?! And the case is that we have them talking in great energy, with more of the same - fully detailed - gibberish, without funny comedy, clear drama, something to understand, or a MOMENT OF SILENCE!
Larry Gelbart, the scriptwriter of this movie, is such a unique person. He proved for someone like me, who watched countless good and bad American movies before, that America has real windbag scripts! It's a lethal flaw that I saw in many not American movies. But who said that anyone or anything is perfect. Actually, Gelbart's dialogue can fill 3 movies and 4 newspapers which I don't buy! The main event, as I desperately understood, is ironic, satirical, and supposedly hot. But this 1000-words-per-minute dealing made it like a sweeping speech torrent where nothing is distinct or intelligible from start till the very end; why they selected the lower offer? The lead is portrayed eventually like a defeated knight, so why he's a knight? Why they wanted to defeat him? And how they did it?!! I'll never know.. from this movie!
To make the matter worse, Glenn Jordan's directing was dead, literally dead. The image doesn't say a thing. I believe there isn't one in the first place, since none was portrayed by it. All what I saw was people talking while walking across closed rooms, and that's it. Without much concentration, you can notice that Jordan intended to wrap it up as fast as he could, even if so many things, if not all the things, died out of heart failure, or we did earlier out of apoplexy. Hence, the outcome was the most long, unfunny and humdrum sitcom's episode in history!
The sets are all the same. Forget the cinematography. The music is primitive electronic thing; aside from being wearisome, it fits more a kid's show. Save Jonathan Pryce, all the actors talked the same tone. The good acting was like a fish in deep black water; hard to hunt, and hard to see. The editing made the movie so crowded without a space to breathe. Sometimes I wanted the cast to speak slower, sometimes I wanted a translation's boards, and sometimes I wanted to just scream!
So, with no smart writing and no directing, this lost its way, being a huge turn-off. Whenever I recall an American movie where its dialogue ruined it, this is the first one to remember. I saw theatricals, but flu hallucination, with more vitality and less talks. (Barbarians at the Gate) isn't a comedy about money. It's a nightmare about something I, with considerable struggle, couldn't totally catch on!
Uninteresting isn't the right word for it. It's SHUT UP!