Overall, I would rate documentaries as my least favorite movie genre. Now, there are a couple of huge exceptions - "Food, Inc.", "Sicko", and the recent "Exit Through the Gift Shop" are some of the best I've seen. Most of the time though, what would serve as an interesting human interest piece on a news broadcast is overblown into a full length film, with the makers of the film adding so much extra, often boring, material, that the story becomes so bogged down and the viewer impatient. My selection for today, "Man on Wire", falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.First, the "Man on Wire", Frenchman Phillipe Petit, comes across in this movie as an egomaniac. The film centers around him and some buddies pulling off a prank of sorts - and extraordinary prank - but a prank none the less. The prank is sneaking into both towers of the World Trade Center, stringing up a line between the two buildings, and crossing over as in a circus act. Because of this "feat" they feel they should be revered as heroes. I find their disobedience more annoying than impressive. They strike me as the type of group the guys on Jackass will end up being in ten years or so.
The movie does drag in spots (91 minutes of planning to cross from one building to the next...yeah), and we all know the outcome as the hero in question is sitting there narrating the thing. I hate movies where there is no element of suspense in situations that obviously should generate some. On the positive side, the archival footage of the event and of the World Trade Center was very interesting. This isn't a bad movie by any means, more-so just an annoying one. I think some people are bound to love this, and others will hate it. As I said, I'm somewhere in the middle. I would give it a 6 out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment