Spidey and ‘Greek Wedding’
I read Kenneth Turan’s movie reviews every week, and I agree with him 90% of the time. Sometimes he’ll say something that surprises me, and this is one of those times. I really felt he got it all backward with “Big Heart, Big Box Office” (Sept. 1).
He says there was an emotional connection in “Spider-Man.” The only emotion that the film created for me was fear. Fear that studios will make more and even worse mindless, incoherent drivel like “Spider-Man.” Poor Kirsten Dunst, all those bad lines she had to speak.
Then Turan says, “The remarkable thing about ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s’ success is that, by most standards, it is not a very good film.”
Granted, the film does not bring up philosophical debates, but it is a good film: Good casting, good dialogue, a simple and coherent script, good cinematography, and it’s warmhearted and funny.
That’s more than I can say for the old Spidey. Every aspect of that film was terrible, especially the script, and when the script’s bad, you can throw in all the computer-generated imagery you want, it’s still gonna be another “Godzilla” or “Planet of the Apes.”
Like I said, he got it all backward.
ALEX RANARIVELO
Agoura Hills
*
What Hollywood bigwigs have forgotten in their quest for first-weekend grosses is that people will pay once to experience visceral feelings, but they will pay multiple times to re-experience human feelings.
RICHARD SHOWSTACK
Newport Beach
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