Rendition

Sunday, March 9, 2008

I didn't have much interest in seeing this, but my dad rented and asked me to watch it with him.

Just like the reviews indicated, this isn't a very good movie. As a thriller, it's good looking but uninvolving. As a serious piece of art dealing with topical issues, it's pretty much a disaster. I mean, even the premise is fucked. It seems to think that the whole torture debate comes down to "it's wrong to torture innocent people." Well, no shit sherlock. Everybody agrees with that, that's not the argument. As someone personally opposed to the United States condoning torture, I argue that we shouldn't torture the guilty people either. Dipshit.

The movie has this whole self-serious, Oscar-grab vibe to it that rubbed me the wrong way. Especially the actors, who all overact in that brooding, serious, "I'm just a humble actor, pay no heed to me, but hey maybe I deserve an award for this" sort of way. Except Reese Witherspoon, who actually gets to go into some full-on overacting hysterics once or twice.

Skip this one.