Stay Away...

...from these video releases. I had the misfortune of renting two duds last week. I think somebody owes me a refund of my money and my time.

The first dud was Christmas with the Kranks starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Ackroyd. Lord it was god-awful. I wanna smack whomever produced that trash. I was suckered in with a high energy, quick paced movie trailer a few weeks back. I assumed it'd be the perfect holiday, hijinks comedy that I love watching during this time of year that gives me that "aww" feeling. Well, no such luck. This movie fell well short of my expectations. It missed the mark in every category. The jokes weren't funny, the gags were very predictable, the acting was bad (especially Jamie), the storyline was beyond dumb, the chemistry was none existent between the actors and the story line resolution wasn't satisfying at all.

The second dud was War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. Before I dog the movie, let me first heap loads and loads of praise on little Ms Fanning. She is phenomenal. I have yet to witness a bad performance from this young actress. She makes the utmost of her screen time. For me, there is nothing more irritating than watching a really bad child actor that you can tell got the job because they had the cutest face or features. Fanning is none of that cute with no talent stuff, she's the real deal. Kudos! Now back to the bashing. What a load of crap. I expect way, way, way more from a Steven Spielberg directed flick. Maybe my expectations are too lofty but I feel cheated and robbed. I am really not that much of a Tom Cruise fan so maybe I shouldn't have watched this flick. His performance was hollow and left me wanting. I generally tell friends that I "don't do Tom Cruise" films but I am a Sci-fi movie fan and an action movie fan so I felt those points of interest would keep me entertained; not to mention I found Minority Report thoroughly enjoyable. I had hoped another Spielberg directed/Cruise starrring venture would be as enjoyable but it wasn't. I expected WotW to be action film with a sci-fi twist; instead, it was family drama with a sci-fi backdrop. What? Are you kidding me? is what I kept asking myself as I sat through this trash. Anyhoo, like I said, the movie is a family drama. But the family's drama never pulled me in. I never became invested in the characters. There's something about the 'petulant teenager that hates their parent' storyline that turns my stomach. I can not relate to it the way it's presented on tv or in film and that dynamic has been exploited so much it's worn my nerves thin. Since the filmmakers chose to make use of that dynamic they should have figured out a way to make it different than what we've seen in the past. I think the filmmakers made another mistake by not including a second or 3 storyline that wars against the main plot. I think the quality of writing was extremely poor. A whole lot of something was needed to make this movie better. WotW is about a man's personal journey while on a physical journey. I found neither journey compelling and would recommend everyone avoid this film at all costs.