Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

WATCHMEN (2009)

Under Zach Synder’s heavy-handed helming, Alan Moore & Dave Gibbon’s much-acclaimed graphic novel comes off as a series of violent incidents looking for a plot. And when it shows up, it’s default James Bond; the one where a suave villain preps a nuclear attack, but makes it look like the USSR is doing it. Add in a gang of underutilized super heroes: tack on a morally dubious twist ending: trim it off with a reverse fillip (to set up a sequel); and bake. Or rather, nuke it. Things start well with a nifty montage that lays out an alternate potted-history to bring us up to 1985, but after that, Synder’s narrative instincts falter. His last film, ‘300,' was from a graphic novel one-fifth as long, and the added complexity defeats him. He covers everything up with buckets of massed effects, near visual quotes from famous pics, noise & CGI overkill; yet when he needs to block & shoot basic fight stuff, he’s all thumbs. (Watch some with the sound off to see how lame things get.) It’s certainly full of sound & fury, but the most memorable thing in here is the shifting blot on Rorschach’s knitted wool mask.

SCREWY THOUGHT(s) OF THE DAY: Patrick Wilson may get to play the one ‘regular-guy’ Super Hero, but he really should sue the film’s hair stylist. Jackie Earle Haley, playing the psychotic Rorschach, looks like the diseased love-child of Letterman announcer Alan Kalter. And then there’s poor, butt naked Billy Crudup. Forget his radiation overdose backstory, only prolonged abuse of steroids could account for the pecs & pecker.

No comments: