Scale: 7/10 Should you see it? YES, BUT IT’S QUIRKY, NOT YOUR AVERAGE ADAM SANDLER How’s the writing? GOOD Any gaping holes in the plot? NO What stands out? Adam Sandler with more depth than he’s ever shown See it in the theater or wait to rent? GOOD DATE MOVIE
That’s your 20 seconds, but there’s more
This is an off-beat movie. Not the usually ha-ha little off-beat movie, but a comedy that covers over a drama that lingers just under the surface.
One of the little quirks is that Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Watson are in this movie together, and I just saw them together in Red Dragon. Emily Watson’s characters need some serious help in the dating department, because she’s dated a mass murderer in Red Dragon and a social phobic in Punch Drunk Love.
Yes it’s a bit odd, but it’s a good odd. It’s a well-written odd. Sandler, who I’ve never particularly liked, gives us a glimpse that he has far greater range than he has previously shown.
What is also interesting is to see the recent trend back towards shorter movies. For awhile it seemed that every movie had to be 2.5 hours at least (Dad calls it “Kevin Costner disease” after Dances with Wolves and several other long movies he made). Several movies lately have been 2 hours or less. (Of course the next Lord of the Rings is coming out soon, so the trend isn’t completely gone.)
Also saw a trailer for the new Bond movie which looks very good.
Punch Drunk Love @ IMDB, and at PDL @ MRQE
By the way, if you haven’t noticed already, I don’t talk a lot about the content/storyline, because I think it’s better to go into a movie ready to be surprised by where it takes you rather than having pre-conceived ideas. There are plenty of places to get a synopsis if you want one (Hollywood.com or IMDB come to mind)
{ 22 comments }
This was probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I got up and walked out for the first time in any theater. And…. please don’t say this is a good movie just because it’s so off-beat and so it naturally “has” to be good. It’s terrible regardless of the fact that it’s weird as well.
This was truly a terrible movie. I like Adam Sandler and appreciate that he has depth, but the movie was slow, suffering from ‘trying to act like you are not acting’.It was very difficult to watch a ‘social phobic’ cave to all those people, and also hard to believe that he didn’t get more abuse about it than he did. Not an upscale movie. NOT a date movie. In fact, there are very few movies I can’t stand because there is SOMETHING to be got out of almost any movie, situation, relationship, etc. In this case, I, and the other 3 people in the theater, considered asking for our $1 back. I didn’t because I figure that not asking for my money back was worth the $1.
Punch Drunk Love was so terrible it almost made me cry. I consider myself to be an open-minded person, but I guess I am not the psycho artsy kind of person I never wanted to be. Adam Sandler fans should NEVER watch this movie, they would never be able to recover again. I left after watching one whole hour of the movie, and still never understood the importance of the damned piano, the car crash at the beginning, the screwed-up seventies colour interrupions that lasted for what seemed like hours, the bongo music, the blurred vision, the awful camera angles, the stupid focuses on various objects following an already irrelevent scene. I can’t tell you to what it was irrelevent, because I still do not know the stupid story. To say it all ties up in the end would be a joke, even a perfect ending would not justify the waste of an hour I gave. If all the movie was about was this psychopath guy with a psycho world around him, with everything trippy and depressing, then the producer and writer need therapists because I think some dark inner feelings came out and too many people have had to suffer the consequences since. (I spent $6) Luckily I got a refund. Mind you I have NEVER in my life left a movie or asked for a refund.
I, for one, thought it was the best movie I’ve seen in a theater.
i haven’t seen the movie, so i don’t have anything helpful to offer.
brilliant film. really sensitive use of sound and vision - very thought out and not condescending. i like silence!
i liked that it didn’t develop things very much, yet there was a strong ‘growth’ in the story.
i want to see more adam sandler films, even though i know they’re much more poppy than this one. i’m pleased such a weird film got mainstream support.
I thought this movie sucked nuts. Sandler needs therapy off set. All his crappy movies revolve around him being a frustrated underdog with violent tendencies, but since he talks like a retard it’s supposed to be funny. Only good part was when he beat four guys with a tire iron.
I’m glad that I downloaded this movie because I would be very pissed off over spending $5 on it.
My wife and I rented this movie thinking it would be funny and interesting (like most of Adams’ films) but to our disappointment it was not very good…maybe we are not deep thinkers or get the inner meaning or symbolism or whatever the artsy shit that it represents but it was just waaay to weird and off beat for us. Definetly not what we were expecting from Adam Sandler. I won’t go so far as to say it was a terrible movie but like I said it was just way to weird for us. We stopped watching it about half way through. So, I hate to say it but I wouldn’t recommend this movie to Adam Sandler fans.
My Wife and I rented this movie thinking it was going to be a little off the wall but I didn’t realize that it was going to be a heaping pile of dung.
We consider ourselves to be really open when it comes to off beat films but I had to shut my eyes and cringe.
The use of sound was horrible. At times it was distracting and louder than the dialogue. Couldn’t even imagine how loud it must have been in the theater.
I agree with the other person who was confused by the harmony and the car crashing. Also why did it seem that Barry was slow and confused but later you see him acting normal running a business. It left me wondering how he could start up a business when he has had so many problems in his life.
Just my 2 cents.
So, all in all I wasted 4.01.
3.99 for the movie rental .02 for my thoughts.
Wow, that was the worst movie I have ever sat through. I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Sure it was a little break from Adams comedy, but i mean god damn- that was horrible!!!! Adam, stick with the comedies.
I just finished watching this movie, and came onto the net to try to find a web page to decipher the twisted and drug addled plot. Would have stopped half way through, but I found myself watching with a morbid curiosity to see if it made more sense at the end. Movies are supposed to be about interesting situations, struggles, conflict. This could have been achieved if it wasn’t complicated with so much fucked up shit!
I myself enjoyed this film for its worth in a certain category of its kind. The fact that in order to see what I mean, you must put yourself in a different state of mind..well thats all up to you.
You need to understand that this film was made for the mind, and that you need to do something with your life…
I WANT MY MONEY BACK
i went to the movie store tonight to get a movie for a group of friends, i picked it up not knowing a thing about it except that sandler was in it. i guess i expected a more funny sort of comedy. i found the movie very good from an artistic point of view, but the girl i was with didnt think much of it. kinda made me and my friends look like we were a bunch of pychologist trying to analyze the weird things they kept throwing off the walls
I have seen “artsy” movies. This was just too pitiful. It was too pitiful to even fall asleep during. I would have LIKED to go to sleep but the music was too damned annoying. I would appreciate it just a little bit more if I knew what the HELL the director was THINKING. PT ANDERSON….come on man. Magnolia was good. This is a DYING CARNATION>
Next time you watch the film, keep this in mind. The harmonium is a symbol of Adam Sandler’s heart and the phone is a symbol of his problems. Ever wonder why he’s crying over the harmonium one minute and duct taping it the next? Or why he brings the phone all the way to Utah and gives it to the guy at the end? It’s a great film, you just gotta understand the symbolism to appreciate it.
That movie was beautiful…I’m sad to see so many of you couldn’t appreciate it. I myself adore adam’s comedys, but this, this was something else. I think the title hits it head on. I think the music is amazing. I guess MTV is taking it’s toll. I agree with julian all the way up there. I disagree with all the sleepers and eye gougers. Off-beat? No. Artistic? No. If you could stop expecting and stereotyping, maybe you could enjoy the film.
judging by the reviews, i’m guessing not everyone sees the value in a pt anderson “romantic comedy”. for those simple minded, easily amused folk, i suggest PRETTY WOMAN. there are plenty of bright colors and fun songs for you in that movie. this film is indeed deep, but you dont have to be artsy or even witty to find the beauty within. any writer/director who can bring burt renyolds back, for an OSCAR nomination none the less, or get adam sandler to display this much depth, deserves more credit than these reviews.
I’m tired of all those cheesy love stories. Hollywood endings where the handsome hero and the beatiful heroine escape some kind of “impossible” situation to be together at the end. The last moment is perfect happiness…yet if we fast forward a few hours, days, months…the two would have broken up for some superficial reason.
This story is about a true love story. It may not be a perfect love, but at least it is real. Theirs is an honest love, perhaps a sick love, and in a sick world. We dont’ all live in wonderland.
I’ve watched this movie over a half-dozen times and it is now one of my all-time favourites. It has so many layers that you get more out of it each time you watch it. This is a love story about real people with real issues, not that predictable Hollywood bullshit that rakes in all the money. Allow yourself to learn from this movie. It has a lot.
Please do not watch this film. It is not arty. It is not good. I get a feeling of the Emporer’s Clothes here. If you don’t like you are dumb - hence every pseudo intellectual says it’s great. I like to be entertained and I also like thought provoking movies. This did neither. It’s awful. Let people who like to think they are intelligent watch it. If you’re a normal person avoid. Save yourself before it’s too late.
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