I remember hearing this review at the time and laughing then a few years later stumbling across this film on tv one night and it’s even worse than I could of imagined
Shared by the Kermode & Mayo's Film Reviews Facebook page today--pretty cool. I had a lot of fun posting all my favorite rants back in the day. Pretty sure this was the first one I uploaded.
Guessing you don’t have ‘sex lives of the potato men’ hanging about anywhere still, I keep hearing about it but it’s not on youtube or the web in general as far as I can work out.
Sadly, no. I e-mailed the BBC about it several years ago and they said they didn't have any podcasts archived before May 2005. I've scoured the internet and found a lot of Kermode deep cuts from his days with Mark Radcliffe but still no Sex Lives of the Potato Men. It's the Holy Grail of Kermode rants, heh.
I saw this at the cinema in Finsbury Park/Holloway. The film suddenly stopped and everyone thought there was a problem with the projector - but that was the end of the film.
Another reference to that horrific monstrosity that is "Sex Lives of the Potato Men"... I would LOVE to hear Mark Kermode's review of that film. I've been searching for it for months but only ever found written quotes from it.
"If I was a GP and someone came into my office and pitched Revolver, I would reach for the medicine cabinet, I would prescribe electroshock therapy, leeches, get men in white coats, take their shoes away..." LOL
I'm loving Kermode. Though I differ with him on many movies, his Tarantino critiques & Ritchie hatred mirror my own - the only difference would be I hated the Holmes movies. This is hysterical!
@Svelter I'm with you. Kermode admitted in another review that he liked elements of Lock Stock, particularly after the Americans branded it as a comedy. As far as mindless entertainment, Lock Stock, Sherlock Holmes and even Snatch are good fun. It's when he took himself seriously as an auteur that things went south.
To be honest, I like Lock Stock as well, and in my mind, Ritchie has yet to make something that good again. Snatch was an incoherent mess, Swept Away while still enjoyable was very campy & while the Sherlock Holmes films were good, they were just good mainstream films. I hope his next film. The Man from UNCLE may be that good, but I doubt it.
Andrew Tregoning True. I thought that Snatch was incoherent. It tried to juggle too many plots, and because of it, it becomes really incoherent. If people are calling Ricthie a Tarintino knock-off, and that Lock Stock was his Reservoir Dogs, Snatch is definitely not his Pulp Fiction, but rather his Four Rooms.
I remember reading a preview of this film in a magazine (probably Empire) describing the complex themes of this film and it said "He's read a few books that Guy Ritchie" Yeah, and it seems like he didn't understand any of them! Guy Ritchie has always struck me as being a bit thick.
"We will bleed you dry ,You will give us every penny you have got. Its only natural that you somehow thing you are being conned." *Somehow being conned!!!* I think the fact that you straight up told Jason to give you all his money was a bit of a give away.
I still remember Guy Ritchie said that the only people who would like Revolver are super intelligent. I thought it was an arongant statement and killing your audience. There was nothing clever about this film.
Believe it or not, I actually think he's pretty good in Revolver. The one redeeming feature. And he's also good in a movie called London. He just needs to step out of his comfort zone every once in a while.
Back when I uploaded all these, I found a torrent that went as far back as May 2005. Lot of great rants in those days, especially because he had more of a time crunch to work with. This rant was beautifully built up throughout the episode. But the holy grail of Kermode rants that I still haven't been able to locate is that of Sex Lives of the Potato Men.
im sure I saw it on here recently... I love the dirty grandpa rant. someone claims to have seen mark kneeling down in a chapel near broadcasting house a few hours before the show...
@ 5:04-5:15 is why, regardless of how much I dislike Guy Ritchie or his appalling movies, I will always have more respect for the person who risks something by creating a film(or a song or a book or a game or whatever) than for the critic who risks very little, sometimes nothing at all, by giving their opinion on it. I quite like Kermode - he's entertaining in a frantic sort of way, and...prolific, I suppose(I can always find a YT Kermode review of any film - which is cool) - but that quote perfectly, and unintentionally, crystallises the difference in terms of honesty, guts, risk, etc. between artists(or Guy Ritchie) and their critics.
guy Ritchie has lots of money though so it's not much of a risk and if he made a good film Mark would endorse it like he did with sherlock homes. I do understand what you mean about the critic not having made a film themselves however anyone could probably do better job at making revolver.
kermode is an artist in his own right ... his review are elevated to artistic status, plus which hes a prolific musician and writer, hes a cultural entity with contemporary validity and relevance
He's always been a ratchet Tarantino, but part of me wants to watch this movie just for the commentary. Which I hear is DREADFUL. But 7(?) years on I still can't bring myself to part with my money.
+cx1735 Search for Adam and Joe Revolver so you can hear little bits of it. It's hysterical. Ritchie genuinely seems to believe that he's the first person to come up with the notion that chess is analogous to life.
I feel like he's trying to defend it artistically at first, by saying that you shouldn't look at it as a typical Guy Ritchie movie. But then almost everything he says from then on contradicts that.
@nightwatchman86 Ah yes, in which Guy Ritchie refuses to explain any of the film's plot holes or red herrings while a "journalist" no one has ever heard of fawns over every word he utters.
@Svelter I'll take your word for it. I haven't seen it in years. And I agree on Snatch, but I still enjoy it as disposable entertainment. Plus, I absolutely love Brad Pitt as a mumbling Irish gypsy.
When I first started watching "Revolver" it was the philosophical stuff that I really liked about it because it did feel different and clever. I felt like I was watching a new take on things which is always kind of exciting. Now I feel like an asshole. Thanks for that.
NP! If you've ever experienced depression, anxiety, or any other mental suffering, there's a greater chance you'll be able to appreciate the underlying message.
@marasmusine I agree with you! Mark Strong was amazing in this turd of a movie. Those glasses! The sinister quiet! It was the first movie I've seen him in, and I was really impressed. The rest of the movie was stunningly bad. When Ray Liotta snapped up in bed and PULLED ON A HAIRNET, I lost all respect. And THE NERVE of Ritchie, to get philosophers on at the end to try to legitimize that rubbish. Ick.
I enjoyed this movie very much. It is not top-shelf drama by any means, and the central idea of the film is overcooked, but the actors are charismatic and engaging, the cinematography and editing are wonderful, and the movie is just plain fun, not a boring scene in it. I never saw Swept Away. I mean, why would I, it had fucking Madonna on a deserted island, anyone who saw that deserved what they got. You were supposed to know better than to watch that movie in the first place. But Lock, Stock and Snatch are classic, and Revolver is a pretty good effort, and worth seeing if you like Guy Ritchie movies.
I mean this guy put "Mary Poppins" in his top ten list of favourite films and I'm supposed to take him seriously about this review? I'd like to see him come up with a clever idea for a movie...
+FR amps That's an impressive "ad hominem" argument you've constructed. Mark loves a film that has nothing to do with Revolver whatsoever; therefore, he's wrong about Revolver. Moreover, he's a critic. It's not his job to come up with clever movie ideas. Whenever you criticize a movie you don't like, are you expected to come up with a clever movie idea in response?
TulseLuper I'm saying that all he did was to criticise Guy Ritchie because he was being too pretentious on the way he produced the movie (with all those quotes and the "non-sense" plot and stuff). He's saying the film is crap, but he doesn't explain why. He doesn't discuss plot flaws, actors' performances (apart from Jason Statham), camera work, photography, symbolism, soundtrack and so on. So it's not a review: is non-constructive criticism based on the fact that he doesn't like the director (even though towards the end he says he likes him). You can't ask this guy to give you a review of a Ritchie's movie and be objective about it because he hates him, so of course he's gonna think that everything he does is rubbish! He even despises what many would argue being the best Ritchie's movies ("Lock & Stock" and "The Snatch"). And I know a review is subjective in its definition, sure; but you can still keep a degree of objectivity within your subjectivity. I mean, he could have definitely argued that he didn't enjoy the movie and why, I would have respected that. But to say that he found it so terrible that he can only feel pity for the director, c'mon now...
+FR amps You have to remember that Kermode is an entertainer. I take your point, but if you want serious constructive criticism, he's not the person to go to. People like me listen to Kermode because he's like a guy in a pub ranting about the movies he loves and hates. I also think there's more review than you're giving him credit for. He's clear that the film is not as deep or profound as the movie thinks it is by using superficial quotations or building a deliberately convoluted plot around a rather simple concept which is, "You might your own worst enemy." I've seen Revolver. In fact, I saw it before I heard this review. He's not that far off IMO...although I think Statham does well in the role, and as many have pointed out, Mark Strong is BY FAR the best thing in the film. As to your point that he hates Guy Ritchie, well, he quite liked the Sherlock Holmes movies and was looking forward to The Man From UNCLE--don't think he got around to it. So I genuinely think he went into this with an open mind. He's been out-of-step many times before and since, after all...
+TulseLuper Couldn't agree more. Anybody with a even a inkling of the good Doctor's work, would be very familiar with his own film-related documentaries like The Fear of God; 25 Years of the Exorcist, Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell's The Devils, The Edge of Blade Runner, and The Cult of The Wicker Man.This rather blows out of the water that Dr Kermode is a two bit hack that pops up every Friday, not that I agree with him all the time. Which poses the question why would anybody defend this pile of utter tosh? This is a good film, if you've never seen the Usual Suspects, Goodfella's,Godfather (I and II) Scarface, Carlito's Way, Bad Lieutenant (the original) or even a film like Aguirre: Wrath of God, when examining the human condition or a complex crime drama . I'd go further and say you'd only rate this if a steady diet of Fast and Furious has been your bag for the last 15 years. If the original poster needs an explanation on how terrible this film is, I'd suggest googling Alfred Hitchcock if this guy needs a lesson on how to build tension into a scene, or Martin Scorsese on how to construct a crime movie.......
Heres proof that people have no idea what constitutes fimmaking anymore. No one understands anymore that films tell stories. The caller liked it bacause he thought that the visuals were a bit clever.
This film is a masterpiece. It is Truth staring back at you. Look in the mirror, face your demons and stop caring what other people think of you. It's not about cheap thrills and funny jokes it's a letter from the Director telling you to WAKE UP! "If we knew this we wouldn't be doing it" After watching it for the first time literally today I'm surprised to find out it isn't well received. I personally think it's up there with the Matrix Trilogy as one of the most thought provoking films of all time and if people can't get the topics it touches on then they just aren't ready to contemplate life and are more interested in films that offer an escape from reality opposed to a film that chooses instead to confront it.
I thought it was campy but really quite enjoyable and different. Mark Strong was fantastic. I think a big part of how you like it depends on which cut you see- I can't remember how many different cuts there are, but I saw the one with the 'pool' ending. The other versions are shit and about 20 minutes shorter.
@TheDistilledMan The problem is that the philosophy of the movie makes no sense. It tells us to destroy the ego, except...you can't! You can mediate the ego, of course, but if you were to actually kill your ego stone-dead, you would essentially become a neanderthal because all you would have to rely on (in Freudian terms) is the id. No wonder Ritchie fell into this crap through Madonna; it's the same kind of claptrap that materialistic, ego-driven celebrities adore.
Guy Ritchie is a mockney chancer who has been given chances that no other person would have been given. it pays to know the right people, just wish it wasn't so painfully obvious.
THE LAST PLACE YOU WOULD LOOK FOR YOUR ENEMY IS THE HEAD INSIDE THE FOOT OF THE COLOR GREEN AND THE NUMBER SEVEN...Absolutely superb.
Reminds you immediately of the The Counsellor review
"He has to wake up tomorrow and think, I made Revolver"
@JOE IS DRIVIN SUNNY FLORIDA Not that bad. I’m not a critic though.
Ray Lee Otter, the greatest actor of a generation.
Director of 2001: A Space Oddity. Very strong Alan Partridge vibes here
" 2 stars out of 20 " Died of laughter right there.
I fucking love Mark Kermode. Especially in rant mode. The only film critic I have any respect for by far.
did they stop letting people phone in after Barry? Good decision
I remember hearing this review at the time and laughing then a few years later stumbling across this film on tv one night and it’s even worse than I could of imagined
Could have
"Pithy but a bit rubbish quotes" great line
9:48 'numerical, kabbalistic, colour spectrum claptrap'
What a great turn of phrase!
"He has to wake up tomorrow morning and think: I MADE REVOLVER!!" Hahahaha damn so hillarious.
Shared by the Kermode & Mayo's Film Reviews Facebook page today--pretty cool. I had a lot of fun posting all my favorite rants back in the day. Pretty sure this was the first one I uploaded.
Guessing you don’t have ‘sex lives of the potato men’ hanging about anywhere still, I keep hearing about it but it’s not on youtube or the web in general as far as I can work out.
Sadly, no. I e-mailed the BBC about it several years ago and they said they didn't have any podcasts archived before May 2005. I've scoured the internet and found a lot of Kermode deep cuts from his days with Mark Radcliffe but still no Sex Lives of the Potato Men. It's the Holy Grail of Kermode rants, heh.
SkagWinesack you posted this 9 years ago. FUCKKKKKKK
I saw this at the cinema in Finsbury Park/Holloway. The film suddenly stopped and everyone thought there was a problem with the projector - but that was the end of the film.
play this at 0.75 speed and kermode is every drunk guy that ever tried to speak to you during your lunch break
Why would he be drunk during your lunch break? Doesn't make sense
Another reference to that horrific monstrosity that is "Sex Lives of the Potato Men"... I would LOVE to hear Mark Kermode's review of that film. I've been searching for it for months but only ever found written quotes from it.
I was forced to endure this movie by a dude I sort of knew. It's nice to hear someone sensible slag the movie off.
i can relisten to this clip so many times
"If I was a GP and someone came into my office and pitched Revolver, I would reach for the medicine cabinet, I would prescribe electroshock therapy, leeches, get men in white coats, take their shoes away..."
LOL
This review always makes me laugh my ass off and feel good
I’ve just found out from my TV Guide book that Revolver is on Comedy Central on Friday the 13th of March at 10pm!
I love Kermode's Madonna impression!
That caller is crazy. He loved it, and then calls it a 2 star film. What the hell?
I'm loving Kermode. Though I differ with him on many movies, his Tarantino critiques & Ritchie hatred mirror my own - the only difference would be I hated the Holmes movies. This is hysterical!
"Lock Stock and Snatch" sounds like a separate film on its own.
😂
Green isn't in the middle of the colour spectrum. Cyan is.
@Svelter I'm with you. Kermode admitted in another review that he liked elements of Lock Stock, particularly after the Americans branded it as a comedy. As far as mindless entertainment, Lock Stock, Sherlock Holmes and even Snatch are good fun. It's when he took himself seriously as an auteur that things went south.
This movie has just come on Netflix, I was so annoyed by it, That I had to see what kermode has said 😂
"I'm going to play the trailer to get it out of the way"- foreshadowing
Looks like a criminal in you prof
Thank you. I feel cleansed.
lock stock is a great film, it just depends what you're judging on - substance or entertainment imo
Anything that's truly entertaining (i.e. not just entertaining for idiots) is always substantive as well.
To be honest, I like Lock Stock as well, and in my mind, Ritchie has yet to make something that good again. Snatch was an incoherent mess, Swept Away while still enjoyable was very campy & while the Sherlock Holmes films were good, they were just good mainstream films. I hope his next film. The Man from UNCLE may be that good, but I doubt it.
i watched snatch for the first time yesterday actually, i totally agree with you, it made me mad!
Andrew Tregoning True. I thought that Snatch was incoherent. It tried to juggle too many plots, and because of it, it becomes really incoherent. If people are calling Ricthie a Tarintino knock-off, and that Lock Stock was his Reservoir Dogs, Snatch is definitely not his Pulp Fiction, but rather his Four Rooms.
...Unless you think Pulp Fiction is an incoherent mess as well. Snatch is much, much better than his later films, anyway.
"I feel sorry for Guy Ritchie because I can wake up tomorrow thinking'I didn't make that film' but he's going to wake up thinking 'I made Revolver'!!"
I remember reading a preview of this film in a magazine (probably Empire) describing the complex themes of this film and it said "He's read a few books that Guy Ritchie" Yeah, and it seems like he didn't understand any of them! Guy Ritchie has always struck me as being a bit thick.
"We will bleed you dry ,You will give us every penny you have got. Its only natural that you somehow thing you are being conned."
*Somehow being conned!!!* I think the fact that you straight up told Jason to give you all his money was a bit of a give away.
I am so pleased that Mark defends Fire Walk With Me. Great movie.
"Honestly, it's one of the most beautiful films that I produced in six years. I'm in love with this film."
Luc Besson
"Two stars of?" Kermode: "Twenty"
i enjoyed revolver. then again i am a big fan of existential films.
"I loved it!"
2 mins later
"Not that bad, not brilliant"
Ray? Ray? I mean...you've done some funny things in your career, but really?
It's a movie in the rare position of not being quite as bad as many people say... but also being a movie that dares you to admit just how bad it is.
Totally sweet Sham 69 reference.
would love to see kermode's face when the caller says he loves it
Thank you.....I havn't seen Revolver yet. If you have let me know what you think.
"We can't get it, so, lets hate it"
P.S: BEST MOVIE EVER.
4:30 - Ray Liotta's screen test for Avatar...
Jason Statham in a wig???
i saw it when it came out and just thought it was very dull. i think i'm ready to watch it again
Funny that he says that he never liked Lock Stock even though he praised it in other reviews....
He does change opinion a bit, which to be fair mine does too, but normally films grow on me , not the other way round lol
I genuinely think that Mark Kermode is the most entertaining man on the planet.
I still remember Guy Ritchie said that the only people who would like Revolver are super intelligent. I thought it was an arongant statement and killing your audience. There was nothing clever about this film.
I'm glad we agree I'm the only one with a point to make. Anything else to add?
Ray LiottaR?
Ten more years!
Exactly. His three best films.
I like it. I bought it on DVD and have watched it a few times.
Kermode's laugh at 10:00 is brilliant
:)
What has this got to do with Mark Kermode on Revolver?
'I can wake up tomorrow morning, and think: I didn't make that film!'
Believe it or not, I actually think he's pretty good in Revolver. The one redeeming feature. And he's also good in a movie called London. He just needs to step out of his comfort zone every once in a while.
They have people phone in??
They used to. The show was completely different in the 2000s. I remember one podcast in which a guy called to rant about Norbit.
Huh, i was really surprised to ehar it, ive listenet to the podcast as far back as it goes, but thats only 5 years or so
Back when I uploaded all these, I found a torrent that went as far back as May 2005. Lot of great rants in those days, especially because he had more of a time crunch to work with. This rant was beautifully built up throughout the episode. But the holy grail of Kermode rants that I still haven't been able to locate is that of Sex Lives of the Potato Men.
im sure I saw it on here recently... I love the dirty grandpa rant. someone claims to have seen mark kneeling down in a chapel near broadcasting house a few hours before the show...
SkagWinesack Please find Mark's review of Sex Lives of the Potato Men; I've been searching for it myself.
Reviews are only opinion, it's not like Kermode is standing outside cinemas preventing people from buying tickets.
I can’t think of a film on a lower multiple of talent involved to quality of product.
@graemeoliver84 Reminds me of an exchange from A Fish Called Wanda: "Apes don't read philosophy...yes they do, Otto, they just don't understand it."
You hit the nail on the head ha ha niice one !
Admit it, how much you admire Barry for calling in ?
@ 5:04-5:15 is why, regardless of how much I dislike Guy Ritchie or his appalling movies, I will always have more respect for the person who risks something by creating a film(or a song or a book or a game or whatever) than for the critic who risks very little, sometimes nothing at all, by giving their opinion on it.
I quite like Kermode - he's entertaining in a frantic sort of way, and...prolific, I suppose(I can always find a YT Kermode review of any film - which is cool) - but that quote perfectly, and unintentionally, crystallises the difference in terms of honesty, guts, risk, etc. between artists(or Guy Ritchie) and their critics.
guy Ritchie has lots of money though so it's not much of a risk and if he made a good film Mark would endorse it like he did with sherlock homes. I do understand what you mean about the critic not having made a film themselves however anyone could probably do better job at making revolver.
Then you've obviously never heard of criticism as art, and as such, should probably have a think about that, and get back to us.
kermode is an artist in his own right ... his review are elevated to artistic status, plus which hes a prolific musician and writer, hes a cultural entity with contemporary validity and relevance
Did this film leave Mark SCREAMING LIKE THIS? SCREAMING LIKE THIS?
F E A R M E !
I wanna watch the movie now JUST because of Kermode's review! #Mad4Kermode
Honestly, it is so tiresome, it is physically impossible to watch the whole thing.
Very charming.
I loved Revolver
Yeah maybe halfway through he realized the error of his ways and tried to correct himself.
revolver is the only movie showing in hell
Eraserhead should show in hell. Great film, but nothing else would fit the atmosphere so well.
Along with A Serbian Film and Fred: The Movie
What the heck would Barry know?
I can't imagine people so dense that they'd compare a masterpiece like Fire Walk With Me with Revolver
He's always been a ratchet Tarantino, but part of me wants to watch this movie just for the commentary. Which I hear is DREADFUL. But 7(?) years on I still can't bring myself to part with my money.
+cx1735 Search for Adam and Joe Revolver so you can hear little bits of it. It's hysterical. Ritchie genuinely seems to believe that he's the first person to come up with the notion that chess is analogous to life.
I feel like he's trying to defend it artistically at first, by saying that you shouldn't look at it as a typical Guy Ritchie movie. But then almost everything he says from then on contradicts that.
May actually check this out just to see if it's as bad or as weird as Mark made it out to be
@RockBottomRiser21 maybe he meant 2 stars out of 3
@nightwatchman86 Ah yes, in which Guy Ritchie refuses to explain any of the film's plot holes or red herrings while a "journalist" no one has ever heard of fawns over every word he utters.
It's not that nobody really got it, it's just not many people are able to appreciate the message.
@Svelter I'll take your word for it. I haven't seen it in years. And I agree on Snatch, but I still enjoy it as disposable entertainment. Plus, I absolutely love Brad Pitt as a mumbling Irish gypsy.
When I first started watching "Revolver" it was the philosophical stuff that I really liked about it because it did feel different and clever. I felt like I was watching a new take on things which is always kind of exciting. Now I feel like an asshole. Thanks for that.
NP! If you've ever experienced depression, anxiety, or any other mental suffering, there's a greater chance you'll be able to appreciate the underlying message.
What has MK created in his life I hear you say well music for one as a double bass and harmonica player in the dodge brothers.
Just finished watching Revolver I really liked it but I can see why people wouldn't like it.
Lock Stock and two smoking sna.... no wait... that's a totally different kina movie :\
He's a film critic. It's his job
@TulseLuper Your shot choice for the example scene is a lot better than the one in the actual movie.
@marasmusine I agree with you! Mark Strong was amazing in this turd of a movie. Those glasses! The sinister quiet! It was the first movie I've seen him in, and I was really impressed.
The rest of the movie was stunningly bad. When Ray Liotta snapped up in bed and PULLED ON A HAIRNET, I lost all respect. And THE NERVE of Ritchie, to get philosophers on at the end to try to legitimize that rubbish. Ick.
To be honest, I've just won £900 at a Casino (ironic, given the movie) and don't really care about your attempts to bring me down.
I enjoyed this movie very much. It is not top-shelf drama by any means, and the central idea of the film is overcooked, but the actors are charismatic and engaging, the cinematography and editing are wonderful, and the movie is just plain fun, not a boring scene in it. I never saw Swept Away. I mean, why would I, it had fucking Madonna on a deserted island, anyone who saw that deserved what they got. You were supposed to know better than to watch that movie in the first place. But Lock, Stock and Snatch are classic, and Revolver is a pretty good effort, and worth seeing if you like Guy Ritchie movies.
I mean this guy put "Mary Poppins" in his top ten list of favourite films and I'm supposed to take him seriously about this review? I'd like to see him come up with a clever idea for a movie...
+FR amps That's an impressive "ad hominem" argument you've constructed. Mark loves a film that has nothing to do with Revolver whatsoever; therefore, he's wrong about Revolver. Moreover, he's a critic. It's not his job to come up with clever movie ideas. Whenever you criticize a movie you don't like, are you expected to come up with a clever movie idea in response?
TulseLuper I'm saying that all he did was to criticise Guy Ritchie because he was being too pretentious on the way he produced the movie (with all those quotes and the "non-sense" plot and stuff). He's saying the film is crap, but he doesn't explain why. He doesn't discuss plot flaws, actors' performances (apart from Jason Statham), camera work, photography, symbolism, soundtrack and so on. So it's not a review: is non-constructive criticism based on the fact that he doesn't like the director (even though towards the end he says he likes him).
You can't ask this guy to give you a review of a Ritchie's movie and be objective about it because he hates him, so of course he's gonna think that everything he does is rubbish! He even despises what many would argue being the best Ritchie's movies ("Lock & Stock" and "The Snatch").
And I know a review is subjective in its definition, sure; but you can still keep a degree of objectivity within your subjectivity.
I mean, he could have definitely argued that he didn't enjoy the movie and why, I would have respected that. But to say that he found it so terrible that he can only feel pity for the director, c'mon now...
+FR amps You have to remember that Kermode is an entertainer. I take your point, but if you want serious constructive criticism, he's not the person to go to. People like me listen to Kermode because he's like a guy in a pub ranting about the movies he loves and hates. I also think there's more review than you're giving him credit for. He's clear that the film is not as deep or profound as the movie thinks it is by using superficial quotations or building a deliberately convoluted plot around a rather simple concept which is, "You might your own worst enemy." I've seen Revolver. In fact, I saw it before I heard this review. He's not that far off IMO...although I think Statham does well in the role, and as many have pointed out, Mark Strong is BY FAR the best thing in the film.
As to your point that he hates Guy Ritchie, well, he quite liked the Sherlock Holmes movies and was looking forward to The Man From UNCLE--don't think he got around to it. So I genuinely think he went into this with an open mind. He's been out-of-step many times before and since, after all...
+FR amps Mary Poppins is a genuinelly good film though.....
+TulseLuper
Couldn't agree more.
Anybody with a even a inkling of the good Doctor's work, would be very familiar with his own film-related documentaries like The Fear of God; 25 Years of the Exorcist, Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell's The Devils, The Edge of Blade Runner, and The Cult of The Wicker Man.This rather blows out of the water that Dr Kermode is a two bit hack that pops up every Friday, not that I agree with him all the time.
Which poses the question why would anybody defend this pile of utter tosh? This is a good film, if you've never seen the Usual Suspects, Goodfella's,Godfather (I and II) Scarface, Carlito's Way, Bad Lieutenant (the original) or even a film like Aguirre: Wrath of God, when examining the human condition or a complex crime drama .
I'd go further and say you'd only rate this if a steady diet of Fast and Furious has been your bag for the last 15 years.
If the original poster needs an explanation on how terrible this film is, I'd suggest googling Alfred Hitchcock if this guy needs a lesson on how to build tension into a scene, or Martin Scorsese on how to construct a crime movie.......
Heres proof that people have no idea what constitutes fimmaking anymore. No one understands anymore that films tell stories. The caller liked it bacause he thought that the visuals were a bit clever.
@alanwakeish
If they'd put you on the poster, they'd have sold more fucking tickets.
This film is a masterpiece. It is Truth staring back at you. Look in the mirror, face your demons and stop caring what other people think of you. It's not about cheap thrills and funny jokes it's a letter from the Director telling you to WAKE UP! "If we knew this we wouldn't be doing it"
After watching it for the first time literally today I'm surprised to find out it isn't well received. I personally think it's up there with the Matrix Trilogy as one of the most thought provoking films of all time and if people can't get the topics it touches on then they just aren't ready to contemplate life and are more interested in films that offer an escape from reality opposed to a film that chooses instead to confront it.
Brillant
I thought it was campy but really quite enjoyable and different. Mark Strong was fantastic. I think a big part of how you like it depends on which cut you see- I can't remember how many different cuts there are, but I saw the one with the 'pool' ending. The other versions are shit and about 20 minutes shorter.
I loved Lock Stock, Snatch, Revolver and RockNRolla. All of them rock.
Love when Mark quotes from the press notes and calls it out on its BS! LOL. Great fun!
@TheDistilledMan The problem is that the philosophy of the movie makes no sense. It tells us to destroy the ego, except...you can't! You can mediate the ego, of course, but if you were to actually kill your ego stone-dead, you would essentially become a neanderthal because all you would have to rely on (in Freudian terms) is the id. No wonder Ritchie fell into this crap through Madonna; it's the same kind of claptrap that materialistic, ego-driven celebrities adore.
Guy Ritchie is a mockney chancer who has been given chances that no other person would have been given. it pays to know the right people, just wish it wasn't so painfully obvious.
I dont care if he have connection or is the son of a famous whatever that kind stuff is irrelevant really
Don't talk shit.