I would give this film a 2 or a 3, but since the votes are stacked in the positive range, I figured I would give a 1 to help balance it out.
I came in with an open mind, and knew nothing of the ratings when I watched this movie. I enjoyed it, for the first third of the movie. The cinematography was good, and the cast/plot seemed to be well thought out, until...
I realized they weren't. After awhile, the vague and intriguing plot didn't pan out. It seemed like it was setting up to go somewhere, then never left the driveway. The actors and their relationships felt like they had potential, and I really wanted to enjoy them, but found I couldn't. All of the interactions between the under 30's were stale, lifeless, and forced. When was the last time you saw a group of guys who drink, hang out in bachelor apartments, and frequent topless bars (receiving a lap dance or two) say something like "hey man, when are you going to realize you can't treat women like that. Life is full circle man, that (dehumanizing women) is going to come back and bite you." Ouch. Once I realized how bad the interplay was between the characters, I couldn't stop noticing it.
Also, I was reading into the plot and analyzing it throughout the whole movie more than I realized I needed to. The plot seemed open ended, and I kept pondering where it was headed and what the connections were. I actually thought, for most of it, that the younger friends were flashbacks of the older men, or symbolic at least of how their history panned out to make the older men who they were. I would have found that more interesting than what actually occurred... which was just two mildly interesting sub-plots (to no actual plot) taking place in parallel.
Finally, the ending felt like it may have saved the movie, but it in fact killed it. I realize the writer was trying to cut it slightly short and leave it open-ended and up for the viewer to decide what happened, a "lady and the tiger" storyline... but I actually have no idea what happened at the end. It was cut so short, that I was left clueless as to what happened... and frankly, it took me about 3 minutes after the cut to black to stop caring. I'm trying to think of an analogy to the lady and the tiger here. Perhaps, if after the hero was in front of the two doors, trying to make his decision, we see him begin to quote Hamlet, and the princess pulls out a pistol and asks her father if it is loaded, then casually rests the pistol against her temple, then the story "fades to black," then we hear a pistol shot, Hamlet misquoted , and the sounds of a tiger in heat. Basically, after the story ends, you have no idea what happens. That is what I'm trying to convey with the analogy.
While I really wanted to enjoy this movie, and maybe even keep it on the back shelf of my DVD collection, I really can't. The character interactions and the plot make it a large failure. Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket" is one of my favorite movies because of it's off-beat characters, but "Wild Seven" feels like a failed attempt to recreate the dynamic cast from "Bottle Rocket" other "group of friends" based movies.
I came in with an open mind, and knew nothing of the ratings when I watched this movie. I enjoyed it, for the first third of the movie. The cinematography was good, and the cast/plot seemed to be well thought out, until...
I realized they weren't. After awhile, the vague and intriguing plot didn't pan out. It seemed like it was setting up to go somewhere, then never left the driveway. The actors and their relationships felt like they had potential, and I really wanted to enjoy them, but found I couldn't. All of the interactions between the under 30's were stale, lifeless, and forced. When was the last time you saw a group of guys who drink, hang out in bachelor apartments, and frequent topless bars (receiving a lap dance or two) say something like "hey man, when are you going to realize you can't treat women like that. Life is full circle man, that (dehumanizing women) is going to come back and bite you." Ouch. Once I realized how bad the interplay was between the characters, I couldn't stop noticing it.
Also, I was reading into the plot and analyzing it throughout the whole movie more than I realized I needed to. The plot seemed open ended, and I kept pondering where it was headed and what the connections were. I actually thought, for most of it, that the younger friends were flashbacks of the older men, or symbolic at least of how their history panned out to make the older men who they were. I would have found that more interesting than what actually occurred... which was just two mildly interesting sub-plots (to no actual plot) taking place in parallel.
Finally, the ending felt like it may have saved the movie, but it in fact killed it. I realize the writer was trying to cut it slightly short and leave it open-ended and up for the viewer to decide what happened, a "lady and the tiger" storyline... but I actually have no idea what happened at the end. It was cut so short, that I was left clueless as to what happened... and frankly, it took me about 3 minutes after the cut to black to stop caring. I'm trying to think of an analogy to the lady and the tiger here. Perhaps, if after the hero was in front of the two doors, trying to make his decision, we see him begin to quote Hamlet, and the princess pulls out a pistol and asks her father if it is loaded, then casually rests the pistol against her temple, then the story "fades to black," then we hear a pistol shot, Hamlet misquoted , and the sounds of a tiger in heat. Basically, after the story ends, you have no idea what happens. That is what I'm trying to convey with the analogy.
While I really wanted to enjoy this movie, and maybe even keep it on the back shelf of my DVD collection, I really can't. The character interactions and the plot make it a large failure. Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket" is one of my favorite movies because of it's off-beat characters, but "Wild Seven" feels like a failed attempt to recreate the dynamic cast from "Bottle Rocket" other "group of friends" based movies.