Comments on: LFM Review: Knight and Day, an Exercise in Perpetual Adolescence

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Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:17:10 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mr. K, Libertas Film Mag. Libertas Film Mag said: New LFM Review: "Knight and Day," an Exercise in Perpetual Adolescence … See: http://bit.ly/aai9qv [...]

By: K

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:53:15 +0000

the agents of its home country – America – as the villains.

This is only true if you assume that the movie was made for the American audience. For the world audience this is great, there’s probably a movie reviewer in Spain or Indonesia typing away right now about how great this movie is. She may be noting how even Amercian movie makers know the CIA is evil.

Are we the only country stupid and venal enough to make world class quality propaganda movies about how horrible we are – because the investors are mostly from Saudi Arabia? That would have to be a “yes” I think.

By: Govindini Murty

Govindini Murty — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:36:17 +0000

Yes – I will fix it – thanks again for commenting!

By: Govindini Murty

Govindini Murty — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:35:48 +0000

Yes, johngaltjkt, I totally agree with you that it’s a real problem of basic movie-making craft. Hollywood is so unused to competition (because it has such a monopoly on the film industry) that it has grown intellectually and artistically flabby. The screenwriting, editing, and direction on $100 million dollar plus films is often so bad that I’m amazed. I think it’s literally because the studios have so much power, between owning not only the means of production but also TV channels, radio stations, entertainment magazines, internet sites, etc. that they think they can just put this stuff in 3000 theaters and spend $60 million on marketing and brainwash everyone into thinking its good. That’s why they don’t bother doing a better job.

Also, it’s a problem of our education system. Things have been so dumbed down that you have screenwriters and development executives in their early 20s who barely know how to read, let alone come up with good stories and scripts. As you say, there is so much more they could have done with this film to develop the humor and romance. That scene with the truth serum could have been great! She could have really said a lot of funny stuff, but it was just dropped. Another opportunity lost.

This is why we cover a lot of independent and classic films on LFM – they’re often the only films with high quality writing and direction any more, and we personally find them a lot more inspiring as writers and filmmakers. You have to watch the good stuff as often as possible to keep your own personal standards up.

By: Govindini Murty

Govindini Murty — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:13:00 +0000

Thank you Looksoverpark – I agree completely! It has become a very tiresome plot device, and it really concerns me what effect this stuff has when it is sent around the world. American popular culture is so enormously influential – and there are many people around the world who take this kind of portrayal of the CIA as the literal truth. As for what this reveals about the current American creative psyche, as you well put it, I think that is ultimately a matter for psychologists to figure out. This sort of American self-loathing amongst our creative class is so deranged (just look at “Avatar”), that I think it is now beyond cultural analysis and is now almost a medical problem. I wonder what a psychologist/psychiatrist would have to say about this issue?

By: Looksoverpark

Looksoverpark — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:22:43 +0000

Me again – realize I didn’t spell villains correctly. Hope you will fix that for me!

By: johngaltjkt

johngaltjkt — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:26:22 +0000

I saw this movie on Wednesday and agree a 100% with your review. I really believe that We’re seeing a crisis of literate screenwriting, complete loss of the movie making craft and please GOD stop using the CIA as a foil. It was nothing original and in reality you don’t even have to be original, just be competent and even that seems impossible for Hollywood. Cameron Diaz can sparkle on the screen and they made her as boring as dishwater. There was a scene late in the movie when she’s taken hostage and given a truth serum that makes her coquettish. They do nothing with it! It’s dropped completely. I’m finding that each successive year that movies are getting worse and the decent to good ones are completely overrated. The latest example is Toy Story 3, which is very very good but not on par as it’s being portrayed to the first two Toy Story movies.

By: Looksoverpark

Looksoverpark — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:47:38 +0000

Yes! Yes! Yes! We are getting so tired of CIA bashing in films! Thank you so much for saying this so forcefully Govindini. New villains please. It is not just films. Lately I have been reading the novels of David Baldacci and while they are always well written and fascinating page-turners that are hard to put down with wonderful characters, again, I find myself saying, “Why do the villains so often turn out to be people working for the US government?” What is it within the current American creative psyche that makes screenwriters and novelists keep coming up with this pattern? It is surely something unhealthy in the cultural mental make-up and something that needs to be fixed!