Reviews

I expected more with all the critics' reviews (that were probably hyped in a poor movie season). The movie was too long, with unfocussed direction, odd narrative shifts and confusing battle scenes. The CGI in the arena fight was cringy-bad. After all this, the director clearly pointed the way to another sequel. Ho hum. It's interesting that Hollywood is plowing so much money into films that require you to have read the book before in order to understand what all this noise is about. Without knowing the book, this would be an incomprehensible film. Actually, the director's attempt to make it as true to the book as possible has made it less of a film.

There's an awful lot of "myself" in a Bret Baier newscast. Plugging his Grant book which was presumably mostly ghost-written; bragging about new set on this show, which I suspect was done to please him; several shots of him playing golf with hot-shots, etc. I also cringe at most of his interviews, which are always "gotcha" attempts to make him look good. I long for the quiet humility and humor of Brit Hume again.

Hard to believe Scorsese directed it - it lacks pace, energy and humor. The few climactic scenes have no build-up of suspense, so there are no thrilling pay-offs to them. The whole thing reminded me of one of these sports champions who are old but come back for one more contest. and when it happens you realize that he's over the hill.

As a confirmed Ralph Richardson fan, I can say that this is one of his best performances. I watch it happily avery several years or so and always come away delightfully entertained.. I've probably seen it ten times and I always laugh at the same bits.

I don't begrudge anyone's fond memories of seeing this years ago but, please, this movie is really bad. It's the kind of movie that would go well on Mystery Theater 3000 or whatever that show was where these guys in the front row make rude remarks about the movie on the screen. To have someone say that this was good sci fi must mean that that person had never seen something like the original Day the Earth Stood Still. That was good sci fi.

(Contains spoilers): What I like about certain scenes in the movie is the way they turn certain film clichés on their heads, with unexpected results. The most obvious one is when Serge's sister's head comes out of the basket, instead of Agathe's, which we are led to expect. Another one is when Gustave is accosted by the police in the lobby and accused of the crime. The expected follow-up is that the accused will stand there and try to talk his way out of it, but Gustave unexpectedly hightails it. Another more subtle one is the scene in the prison when Gustave is serving mush. When he serves it to the ferocious-looking convict, we expect that guy to go into a rage, a la the guy in the prison mess scene in "Stir Crazy", but the convict likes it.There are probably more of these things that other people can spot. Then, on top of those are the references to other films: Jopling cracking the ice from under Gustave on the cliff, a la "North by Northwest", and the cable car transfer, a la each least one Bond movie. All in all, a totally funny movie that has to be seen many times to get all the funny bits. (How about the gas station with the big "FUELITZ" sign over it!