Shameful.
So many people are wondering, on this thread, WHY do some great actors, as Pacino and De Niro, accept such compromises. I must confess that today, at the press viewing, most of my colleagues, the best movie critics from Romania, were remarking about the same thing. Of course, we know why they do it - not necessarily by greed. They have contracts, obligations, all kind of sundry reasons to accept such routine work in movies with zero value.
The script here is very awkwardly written, with a messy structure and a total lack of dramatism. Even worse, it's completely predictable. The intended "false lead" meant to deliberately confuse the audience is so transparent, that everybody can guess from the first fifteen minutes the so-called "theater coup" in the end - and so, while waiting for it, friends and neighbors, what a bore! Limp pacing, flaccid storytelling, an absolute impotence in building-up the suspense... And as if this wasn't enough, the final scene is impossibly prolonged, diluted and tacky...
By the way, did you know that even great artists like De Niro and Pacino can act BADLY? In this all-over failure, they are outright unbearable! Their characters are simplistic, uninteresting, shallow, so the poor big stars quickly fall into what became their worst mannerisms - Bob De Niro, mainly, so full of grimaces and squinting... Even Jack Nicholson, in "The Bucket List", was an itty bitty better! A piece of advice: if you really HAVE to view this, carry on a thermos full of hard bitter strong coffee. AND ear-plugs, not to hear the snoring all around you.
So many people are wondering, on this thread, WHY do some great actors, as Pacino and De Niro, accept such compromises. I must confess that today, at the press viewing, most of my colleagues, the best movie critics from Romania, were remarking about the same thing. Of course, we know why they do it - not necessarily by greed. They have contracts, obligations, all kind of sundry reasons to accept such routine work in movies with zero value.
The script here is very awkwardly written, with a messy structure and a total lack of dramatism. Even worse, it's completely predictable. The intended "false lead" meant to deliberately confuse the audience is so transparent, that everybody can guess from the first fifteen minutes the so-called "theater coup" in the end - and so, while waiting for it, friends and neighbors, what a bore! Limp pacing, flaccid storytelling, an absolute impotence in building-up the suspense... And as if this wasn't enough, the final scene is impossibly prolonged, diluted and tacky...
By the way, did you know that even great artists like De Niro and Pacino can act BADLY? In this all-over failure, they are outright unbearable! Their characters are simplistic, uninteresting, shallow, so the poor big stars quickly fall into what became their worst mannerisms - Bob De Niro, mainly, so full of grimaces and squinting... Even Jack Nicholson, in "The Bucket List", was an itty bitty better! A piece of advice: if you really HAVE to view this, carry on a thermos full of hard bitter strong coffee. AND ear-plugs, not to hear the snoring all around you.