comment #1

BurmaShave says ...

Zacharek is consistently behind the times and against the grain, so why not?

comment #2

Pinko Punko says ...

She even phones in her hate sometimes. Blech.

comment #3

Edward says ...

Iron Man, Dark Knight and Hellboy II, seems like a pretty good trio of blockbusters.

comment #4

citizenmilton says ...

Zacherek is a total mystery - it's just stunning that she has a platform that high-profile to consistently serve a big Nothing Sandwich every week. And that Salon actually gives her pieces front-page giant-graphic status? Salon would be better off surveying random comments on Rotten Tomatoes or giving a weekly guest critic gig to college freshmen.

comment #5

Geoff says ...

No critic, blogger or film snob is ever happy with summer. Which is fine, but it's the same bitching every damn year.

Just hunker down and become a stoic. Soon, when the leaves change color, you will rise from the ashes like a Phoenix and...be happy I guess.

But just shut up. We get it already.

comment #6

BurmaShave says ...

This has been a pretty good summer at the movies for me. IRON MAN, THE FALL, THE VISITOR (saw it in June), GONZO, THE WACKNESS, TELL NO ONE, THE DARK KNIGHT, HELLBOY II, WALL E, EDGE OF HEAVEN. Would seem like this "Blockbuster Fatigue" is mainly a problem for critics who have to see all this shit.

comment #7

coxcable says ...

I like this gal. If Pauline Kael were alive today and forced to see studio fare to pay the rent, she'd be Stephanie Zacharek. Miss Z may not have Kael's skills as a writer (who does now?) but she's certainly got a nose for the cinematic... and that bullshit people today are trying to pass off as cinema. The Dark Knight? Please!

It's not hate. It's called actual taste. And if critics today had any, and started scaring studios and poser auteurs with some old school vitriol, maybe things would get better.

comment #8

citizenmilton says ...

BurmaShave - that's exactly the point. If Zacherek had anything useful to say, perhaps she'd write a piece comparing the summer experience of critics, hardcore film buffs, and average moviegoers.

Let's run a checklist of seemingly obligatory cliches in this medicore critic's Summer Groan piece?

Tired "Jaws" reference - check.
Complaining about unspecified "hype" - check.
Claiming an international filmmaker is more sophisticated - check.
Complaining about the frequency of comic-book sources and sequels - check.
Slavishly structuring the commentary's emphasis based on box office revenue while not realizing it undercuts the point the critic is trying to make? - check.

One thing that baffles me about these predictable pieces in recent years is tone-deafness as to "hype" and anticipation. Zacherek claims the higher number of loud trailers, promoting movies with even further time horizons, is reducing the experience. Has this person ever sat in a real audience in the past 5 years with an opening weekend audience? Trailers are becoming draws in and of themselves. Many a time over recent years I've overheard people in line mention a desire to see a trailer that is rumored to be debuting with the feature we're in line for.

If I had to see *every* major movie of the summer, I'm sure my attitude would change somewhat - but for an enthusiastic film buff, this has been one of the best summers in memory. And I include fare such as Herzog's "Encounters" and "Man on Wire" when coming to that conclusion.

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

coxcable (nice handle unless you actually work for them, in which case, fuck you haha), it's fine if you have a crush on her, but this is not an example of taste. It's dim-bulb contrarianism masquerading as being iconoclastic.

From someone's post on AwardsDaily a few weeks ago, this is her rating of recent filmsr:

ROTTEN:
The Dark Knight
Wall-E
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Stop-Loss
There Will Be Blood
Sweeney Todd
Lust, Caution
The Darjeeling Limited
The Assassination Of Jesse James
Into The Wild
In The Valley Of Elah

FRESH:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Swing Vote
Meet Dave
The X-Files: I Want To Believe
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanomo Bay
Baby Mama
The Forbidden Kingdom
Drillbit Taylor
Redacted
Lions For Lambs
Mr. Bean’s Holiday
The Nanny Diaries
Rush Hour 3
Nancy Drew
Spider-Man 3

I really don't think she is the arbiter of what is cinematic or not. And get off your DARK KNIGHT bitching, you know you don't feel it inside you were just one of those kids who hated when bands got popular even though you owned all their albums.

comment #10

Mgmax says ...

Batman Begins is 10 times better than The Dark Knight.

I'm going to say this once a month until the day comes, about six or seven years from now, when suddenly everyone agrees with me and always has.

comment #11

hiviper says ...

Burma,
If that's accurate, well, that's pretty damning of her taste. I'm a subscriber of Salon, but maybe that explains why I rarely agree with their reviews. (Heather excepted)

comment #12

coxcable says ...

She's not a hipster critic that gives a crap about trends or celebrity artsy farts. She's keyed into storytelling. She doesn't let any success off the hook nor does she skip over the little throwaways nobody wants to see (like Mr Bean or Swing Vote). I think that's a good thing. And I disagree with her all the time as I do every other critic. Big deal. But know, Burma, that great critics are made by their minority opinions.

And yes, Batman Begins was terrific. Loved it. I had no axe to grind with the new one. But I'm not, like so many others, letting it off the hook because of its monster pedigree. The film is a bit of a dramatic con-job. And the director's attempts at big apocalyptic metaphors are downright hand-jobs.

comment #13

bmcintire says ...

I don't think she's necessarily complaining about the quality of movies this summer. It's the extended onslaught of weekly "blockbusters" that has been happening the last couple of years. Her analogy to ALL ABOUT EVE nails it. The success of THE DARK NIGHT has been refreshing in that we've had a sustainable #1 for more than one or two weeks. And August (the perennial "dumping ground" for studio-perceived risks/misses) has seen $40M and $23M weekend grosses come in at second place. I'm not necessarily expecting it, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see TROPIC THUNDER do better than PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. And (unless DEATH RACE surprises everyone) the actual flops won't be flung against the wall until the last two weekends of August. It's been non-stop. And September looks somewhat strong out of the gate.

comment #14

citizenmilton says ...

Cox- I disagree somewhat with this: "great critics are made by their minority opinions."

They aren't *made" by those minority opinions. But it's what helps separate the great from the good. And in order to even enter that argument, you've got to ante up with some core competencies. And she just can't deliver. One thing a critic needs is a sensibility, a personality, a reliable and *consistent* perspective. You've got to be able to calibrate the hyperbole - ; for example, when Jeffrey is reviewing a flick, you can reasonably infer if you'll consider it worth your while, once you read him a little while.

Whereas with Zacherek's body of work, it gives you nothing to go by. The only organizing principle that I can detect by the work is some transparent faux-contrarianism.

comment #15

bmcintire says ...

Christ, looking through the weekend grosses for 2008 so far, April was really the only disappointing month! Had the release schedule for March and April been reversed, we would have been looking at a five-month summer season of releases:
10,000 BC - $35M
HORTON - $45M
HORTON - $24.5M
21 - $24.1M
* * *
IRON MAN - $98.6M
IRON MAN $51M
NARNIA - $55M
INDY 4 - $100M
SATC - $57M
KF PANDA - $60.2
HULK $55.4M
GET SMART - $38.8M
WALL*E - $63M
HANCOCK - $62M
HELLBOY 2 - $34M
TDK - $158M
TDK - $75M
TDK - $42.6
TDK - $26.1

comment #16

Kristopher Tapley says ...

She's been bitching all year...

comment #17

Aladdin Sane says ...

I like reading her reviews, but she sometimes misses the boat big time.

comment #18

DarthCorleone says ...

I don't even know who this person is, but if that list Burma posted is accurate, I can't imagine how I would have even use for reading critical input. Are you sure you didn't get the "Fresh" and "Rotten" lists mixed up?!? It's mind-boggling!

comment #19

worrywort says ...

AUTHOR: worrywort
EMAIL:
IP: 71.201.124.71
URL:
DATE: 08/12/2008 11:56:07 PM

comment #20

Doug says ...

I very much like "Batman Begins," but in terms of story it kind of fizzles out at the end - the old 'the world is too far gone so the only thing to do is exterminate and start again' story we've seen over and over (including in "Moonraker" and "Batman and Robin").
As most of the world seems to agree, "The Dark Knight" is a far more impressive achievement. It will probably even be Oscar nominated for Best Picture.

comment #21

transmogrifier says ...

Both Burton Batman films are 100 times more interesting than anything in either Nolan offerings.

comment #22

Verhoeven02 says ...

I like Zacharek. She sticks to her guns and, you can tell, her gut. I am with her all the way on The Dark Knight and There Will be Blood.

I really dug Batman Begins, but thought TDK left basic storytelling in the dust. It was one dramatic climax after another with none of the in depth characterization that made Batman Begins so engrossing. TDK was a big disappointment for me.

There Will Be Blood was basically a two hour and forty minute character study of a completely unrealistic human being. Day Lewis played it so over the top, that I stopped believing in the character. And if you lose the character ... what do you really have? Loved Boogie Nights and Punchdrunk Love, but TWBB was a let down.

Keep up the good work Zacharek.

comment #23

calraigh says ...

Mgmax, I'm with you on the Batman Begins front. TDK to me, is like a 2 and a half hour gorgeous trailer, with a so bad-it's good finish. It doesn't feel like a narrative film, just beautiful snaphots from one.

Zacharek is no Kael, by any means but there's something very interesting about the comparable list BurmaShave posted. She actually reviews every film that's released, by and large. Not many people out there doing same.

comment #24

Rob says ...

I like Zacharek's reviews. She's able to look with fresh eyes at genre films that most critics dismiss outright. Remember her raves for The Skeleton Key and Mr. 3000? Even if you don't agree, it's nice that someone can set aside her critical prejudices.

This trend piece, on the other hand, is totally stale. Wait a second...JAWS ushered in the era of the blockbuster?! Film at eleven!

comment #25

markj says ...

TDK has got to be the most overrated film around. I feel it's Nolan's weakest film so far. The last half hour is a mess. I was a big Nolan fan up until now but TDK has unexpectedly made me question this.

comment #26

sardine says ...

Zacharek is exactly right.

comment #27

Chase Kahn says ...

I absolutely despise Zacharek. She ripped on THE DARK KNIGHT and then went so far as to rip on the people who like THE DARK KNIGHT, making it sound like zitty teenagers are the only human beings capable of even being able to sit through it.

VERHOEVEN: fine, you agree with Zacharek on TWBB and TDK, but how can anybody honestly tell me with a straight face that RUSH HOUR 3 or SPIDER-MAN 3 is a better movie than THERE WILL BE BLOOD? Her opinions are extremely contrarian, to the point where it's almost as if she's so self-conscious she's just doing a bit now...

MEET DAVE is better than ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES...come on!

comment #28

T. S. Idiot says ...

I am no Zacharek fan, but in The B List: The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love, to be published Oct. 6, she has nifty essays on OUT OF THE PAST and VANISHING POINT. Her paragraph about Mitchum's face is lovely.

comment #29

Rob says ...

It's not "Meet Dave is better than Assassination of Jesse James" per se. It's "Meet Dave goes a better job of achieving what it sets out to do as a film than Assassination" (in her eyes, at least).

Roger Ebert has explained this many times to justify why he gave, say, Blue Velvet two stars and Pineapple Express three and a half.

comment #30

Rich S. says ...

"Batman Begins is 10 times better than The Dark Knight.

"I'm going to say this once a month until the day comes, about six or seven years from now, when suddenly everyone agrees with me and always has."

Can I agree with you now and beat the rush?

The best presentation of Batman to date outside the comic books is still the first two seasons of The Animated Series and the best Joker is still Mark Hamill. There, I said it.

comment #31

Mgmax says ...

Actually, her piece on Tropic Thunder, up right now, includes a better take on the current state of Hollywood blockbustering than the big think piece does.

comment #32

neamia says ...

Tired of being pandered by Hollywood? Get mad as hell and tell me your story:

file-film.blogspot.com

comment #33

anti-sardine says ...

OK, I'm looking at the Fresh/Rotten list or hers that Burma posted. It's fine to knock a critical darling or two if you have good cause, and I certainly enjoy my fair share of mass entertainment flicks, but from this small sample it looks to me as if she has a case of plain old bad taste. Maybe someone can post some different takes of hers that could change my mind, but it ain't looking good.

comment #34

T. S. Idiot says ...

Her top ten of all time, as cited by Rotten Tomatoes, is certainly eclectic, though IRMA VEP is a definite puzzler:

10 Favorites (Always Subject to Change): The Wild Bunch, Irma Vep, The Right Stuff, Blowout, Top Hat, The Godfather Part II, A Hard Day's Night, Breathless, Before Sunrise, L'Atalante

comment #35

citizenmilton says ...

One final gripe about this piece. It's dated Aug. 12th. Her point? Blockbuster fatigue.

August 13th? She praises, what can be safely presumed to be another blockbuster, what she calls an "imperfect work of genius."

A critic has to have some measure of a narrative. What they're looking forward to; whose career trajectories excite them, which disappoint - what a film season brings or fails to bring - and it's got to evolve within some sort of minimal consistency. It's not too much to ask that two pieces, within 24 hours, exist within the same universe of ideas.

comment #36

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