Feedback of the Week: Hollywood Explosions and Gunfire

Welcome to another Feedback of the Week. Remember, the best way to get your feedback featured is to email me at newbs@shufflingdead.com.

This week’s feedback was sent in as an email way back on August 5, 2008, and came in response to our review of the film Children of Men.

Viewer Andy wrote:

Hi,

Just seen an interesting You Tube review of Children of Men from 2006.

This dystopian sci-fi was almost universally praised at the time of its release, one review even claimed it was the Blade Runner of the 21st century. I certainly thought it was one of the best films of the year and couldn’t understand how anyone could’ve been disappointed or bored by this groundbreaking movie. DMUSER, however gave it only 1 star out of 5 in his review claiming he, ‘didn’t get it’ and couldn’t understand how the film had even been made.

Checking this out further on You Tube, I’ve found other reviews by people of a similar age, claiming the same level of boredom. One guy even claimed the scene in the art gallery was too long and boring – it’s just over 3 minutes for fucks sake! So, I’d like to ask Newbs, who gave the film 4.5 stars, whether this is due to a generation of kids basically falling asleep in the cinema once the Hollywood explosions and gunfire have died down or is there something else that I’m missing? What kind of films does DMUSER actually rate highly, and has he changed his mind at all over the last years as Children of Men is now up there with some of the best films of the decade?

Hope this email’s not so long that you can’t be arsed reading it and thrown it straight in the trash!

Thanks for your time.
Andy.

I appreciate Andy’s email for two reasons. Number 1: he manages to use the internet without sounding like an idiot. Number 2: he destroys DMUSER.

Andy, I think you’re right that older kids often only appreciate explosions and gunfire in film. I’d add though, that people in general are idiots and that this isn’t really anything new. For example, in the realm of CG movies, younger children appreciate not only the well made Pixar films, but also the derivative shit that DreamWorks pumps out. The point is, they don’t care about quality, just that neat looking things are bouncing around the screen. Similarly, adults made the horror that is Norbit successful.

I don’t know what movies DMUSER would rate highly, but he recently claimed that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was “definitely not a bad movie.”