#2 - Motorama

I look at this picture and I think to myself, "Hey, Drew Barrymore is in this movie. She's got a nice flower in her hair and looks to play a prominent part. Perhaps she may be the object of desire for the kid with the eye patch." After watching this movie, I couldn't have been more wrong. Why, she's barely in the movie at all. She's in a brief fantasy sequence as a symbol of the tropical paradise that is waiting should the one eyed kid be able to spell out Motorama using the game pieces earned at his not-so-local refueling station. THATS IT!!!! Oh, if that was only the one wrong thing with this movie. But alas, I'm just getting started.

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed the premise of this movie. A young boy begins an odyssey to collect all of the neccessary game pieces to win a contest. It is very abstract and at some times surreal. There are odd, exaggerated characters that actually blend in well with the environment the film creates. But in my mind, it just falls flat in the execution department.

Now, I don't like to criticize a movie because it doesnt have a large budget, but in this movie, it made a huge difference. Some of the special effects are awkward and pretty damn cheesy looking. I'm still not sure that even if they had a budget to make those effects look good that it would have made a difference. The main culprit was towards the end of the movie and I think it was too late. The damage was done.

So, we've got this kid going all over some country trying to get his game pieces and all I can think is, "Man, I really wanna punch this stupid child actor kid in the face." He wasn't very good and I dont give any slack to child actors for bad performances when they are in movies. You get to that point and you suck, then you suck. It was really painful the more obsessed and exasperated he got with his journey. Macauly Culkin called and said you weren't very convincing as a little kid acting like an adult.

Here's another thing that was just dumb and really reflect the problems with the movie as a whole. The character the kid plays apparently spends a lifetime on this journey, and he ages accordingly. Except that they put old man makeup on the kid when he is in old age. Okay...... I understand the abstraction, but I am at a loss to understand why. I'm sure that there is a message about society and people and all that crap, but I find it hard to care enough to even think about what that may be. Its not a good movie when you are constantly befuddled. THATS RIGHT, I SAID BEFUDDLED!!!! It was so dissapointing I cant even find any good jokes to make about it. What a waste.

Anyways, I'll talk more about my system for movie selection at some other time. Just trying to write this review has made my brain hurt.