What is this? Another movie? Cor!
“Network”’s another one of those movies I’ve been meaning to see, to get the context of that well-known quote. If I could describe this movie in one word, it would be quotable. Everything in it seemed to be written to be quoted, it was epic speech after epic speech. Every word seemed very calculated and meaningful.
Good thing? Well, on one hand, it means it was extremely well-written. But personally, I see it as a not-so-good thing. In real life, people do not give epic speech after epic speech. Regular people are not quite so articulate and, let’s face it, intelligent.
It also seemed to go on a bit too long and I lost interest at points. It was one of those movies where I felt its intelligence level was beyond me, although it shouldn’t have been, really. I have no problem with “smart” movies, they are generally quite good. But movies smarter than me? I’m not your average “Two and a Half Men”-watching, beer-drinking lowlife. I’m a pretty smart cookie. And if I get bored by a movie’s pretentiousness, then how is the average person going to view this movie?
The “boring” factor aside, it was still a good movie. I know some people praise it for accurately predicting the future of television, but that doesn’t give it any real merit. If one day aliens start coming down to earth and resurrecting the dead, does that make “Plan 9 From Outer Space” a good movie?
I know, I know. I keep saying “this is bad, this is bad, bad bad bad… but it’s still a good movie!”. And I have another one for you: Faye Dunaway’s character — extremely annoying. And yet, a great character. The first time I saw her, I didn’t notice anything. By the third or fourth time I realized “wow. She talks extremely fast”. And eventually, I realized that she never ever shut up.
And then, and then I realized — oh god. That’s just like me. When my dad drives me back home on weekends, the entire hour or so drive, I’m yakking away extremely fast about things that he could probably care less about. Even before university, when my mom came home from work everyday, I’d blather on about my trivial day while she made supper. I don’t understand how the rest of my family can stand me.
And for once, I can say I actual found the romance subplot believable! On IMDB, everyone’s going “what did he see in her?” and “eww gross!”. What did he see in her? How about the fact that she was a good 20-30 years younger than him? “But no, no!” you cry, “it would be understandable if he was younger, but he was an old man! He’s sensible!”. Ah-ah-ah, I say. When it comes to sex, no matter how old they are, men are not sensible. If they can get it, they will take it.
Another complaint that people had was the fact that two of the main characters (Howard and Diana) never had a scene together. Quite makes sense, you see, in ways that others have explained much better than I. Basically, Diana didn’t see Howard as a real person. If they had interacted, then who knows? “But yeah” you say, “it would still be nice for them to have a scene together. Just a little one”. But just a “little scene” would ruin the meaning of having no scenes. If they’re going to interact, they do it full out, or not at all. There’s no point in seeing them together for just a second.
Anyway, the ending, without spoiling it, I can say was quite good. Some people find it ridiculous, but I quite liked it. It was also pretty obvious during the meeting about “what they were going to do” what was going to happen. A tad comical, maybe even a tad… likely? Someone on IMDB said that the movie became increasingly more absurd as it went on, and this was just the culmination of the absurdity. I think that pretty well sums it up. When the show got a rehaul, I actually laughed out loud. Not sure if that was the intention or not, but it was certainly ridiculous — in a good way. There were lots of little funny moments like that, but if you aren’t paying attention, they’ll pass you by.
It also made quite a lot of sense because it brought a seemingly unconnected subplot together with the main plot — like an episode of “Full House”! It all worked out in the end, and we now realize why these other characters were there.
Good movie, nice message, well-written, good characters, funny, but slightly pretentious. I think it’s allowed it, though, considering how good it was overall.