Review: Sucker Punch

-
Lets step into Zack Snyder's mind..


Apparently in his deepest fantasies, mental institutions are cover ups for brothels. Scantily clad babes battle Nazi zombies, dragons, and travel to Middle Earth to battle orcs. Everyone wears fake eyelashes, and 90% of the men are rapists. (or at least attempt to be) Yep, Zack Snyder loves pulp. He's got a very unique vision, which I've always admired about him. But his first original screenplay is all over the place, despite the awesome scenery.

We meet a 20 year old girl known only as Baby Doll. (Emily Browning) Her evil stepfather has thrown her into a mental institution and has scheduled her to receive a lombotomy. Baby Doll happens to be a mesmerising dancer, and everyone stops what they are doing to watch her. As a coping skill, she escapes into a fantasy land where she must find objects to help her escape. She's joined by a group of fellow patients, Sweet Pea, (Abbie Cornish) Rocket, (Jena Malone), Blondie, (Vanessa Hudgens, who still can't act her way out of a paper bag) and Amber. (Bai Ling) Take note of Sweet Pea, as we see her fantasy land as well.

Clusterfuck would've been a great title for this movie, because that's what it really was. We quickly go back and forth between fantasy, another fantasy, and reality. The script had nothing to hold it together and felt very cluttered. The actions sequences were visually stunning. I absolutely loved those parts of the film. The music blended great and I always love the talents of Browning, Cornish and Malone. The ending was horrible, plain and simple. The overall message of the film (or at least, what I think it was trying to say) didn't really mesh with the rushed ending. Although we did get a Jon Hamm cameo, which I really can't complain about.

Sucker Punch is a different breed of film. I really dug the "now fight" point it was trying to make. See it for the visuals, and for Browning, Cornish, and Malone, but don't expect much from the scattered plot.

Recommended: Yes - for the reasons I listed above.

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "You have everything you need, now fight." - Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish)

Comments

  1. LordSlawApril 1, 2011 at 6:42 AM

    I agree Brittani. Sucker Punch wasn't everything I hoped it would be, but I liked it nonetheless. I'd give it a B grade, simply on the strength of those amazing fantasy action sequences. I'm glad to see you found merit in the film. Most everyone else I read trashes in unreservedly. There is good stuff in there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LesyaApril 1, 2011 at 9:05 AM

    Thanks for the review, Brittani. I think I'll wait for the dvd, I'm not a Snyder fan. I almost hated 300 and Watchmen... However, the sucker punch trailer looked interesting, although the flaws that you've mentioned are predicable to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Candice FrederickApril 1, 2011 at 9:59 AM

    oh my...so no bueno, huh? i have to say your review kinda enticed me, but it sounds like you really have to suspend logic to watch it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more