Sunday, October 16, 2011

Movie Review: The Big Year


"The Big Year" stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and the amazing Steve Martin. I found this to be a nice little film but the caste would lead you to believe this is a comedy. IMDB even has it mislabeled as such. I strain to think of a more accurate genera for it though. It's really more of a light hearted drama than full on comedy. Most of the "jokes" you can see in the trailer to give you an idea how light humored they went. It's all situational but believable enough that it's not really that funny. John Cleese is credited as the Historical Montage Narrator, which sounds impressive but really he has one line of dialog the whole movie and he says it in the first 2 minutes of the film. He's unnecessary and they could have casted anyone for that par. I kept hoping he's show up as a zany tour guide or something but he never did. :(

The topic of birding is treated with respect and there are a lot featured in this movie. Which brings me to my biggest complaint with the film. As soon as the credits start rolling the audience is Assaulted! by 755 bird pictures which all flash on the screen at a nauseating pace. This is completely out of character with the pacing and attitude of movie preceding it, and down right distracting from the people names of people who made the movie. I couldn't tell you who directed, who the writer was, weather or not it was based on a true story. I had to look away a couple of times because I was getting flashed by so many birds. I felt like a nun stuck in the middle of a naked marathon. 

The bottom line is the general public will hate this movie. For people who are into birds or have an appreciation of taxonomy (not taxidermy! though they might like it too,) you'll get more out of this film. If you plan to see it in theaters, do so A.S.A.P! It's opening weekend and I saw a 9:30 showing in a theater with only 3 other people. That is an awful opening week for any film. I wouldn't be surprised if it was out of theaters by next Friday. Visually speaking the landscapes aren't that impressive so it may be just as well to wait for it to come out on DVD.