Movie Details
| Title: | 5-25-77 | |
| Director: | Patrick Read Johnson | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Genre: | Drama | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 06.06.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 06.06.07 | Alamo Downtown | So AICN threw this free screening. The little that I knew about it was that it had something to do with Star Wars opening and a guy really excited about it or something like that. I think it's a little unfair to pass judgement on what I saw because it was so rough. The director said he played it directly from his Final Cut timeline so... it was pretty clear thatit wasn't complete. So what we saw had temp music, a temp audio mix, un-finished effects shots, and displayed on a smaller pixelly frame. So really I guess it's conceivable that he could fix any problems I might have with it so anyone reading this don't take it as an official review or anything. But I didn't like it. It was two and a half hour long, didn't have any clear sense of direction or story and a really shoddy and weak delivery. I like John Daly (the main kid from Freaks and Geeks) and certain spots, like when he goes to Hollywood and Austin Pendleton (who's good in this) takes him around and he meets Spielberg working on effects shots for Close Encounters and John Dykstra walking him through the model shop and showing him a really early cut of Star Wars... all of that stuff is really great. It's just everything else that isn't. And it's so long and keeps refusing to end. It ends up playing much more like a biopic, but directed by the star. I think this is why they don't let you grade your own tests in highschool. I also don't really get why there's 700 effects shots in this movie. Weird little things like replacing one night sky for another or putting someone looking through a doorway that easily could've actually been there looking through that doorway but for whatever reason wasn't. I get that the director is an effects guy and maybe he just wants it to look perfect but... I don't know, seemed pretty superfluous at times to me. It's also much much less about Star Wars than I thought it'd be. It's actually a lot more about 2001 than any other movie. I want to say I liked the movie-geek overtones and inspiration behind the whole thing but it just didn't work for me. It seemed weird and sad and fake and not funny enough. I get that it wasn't really going for broad comedy but... eh, whatever. |
