Reviews of "Punch-Drunk Love" by The Four Bastards
Wireless Phones and Pudding
Hot Chick: Emily Watson!... shit.
Hot Chick Factor: 9! Ahh, more like 6... or 5
Synopsis -- Adam Sandler plays a crazy asshole who figures out he can
screw
the airlines and Healthy Choice by taking advantage of a
free-frequent-flyer-miles-for-pudding-promotion. He buys a shitload
of
pudding! He also finds this harmonium out in the street. A couple
days
later he decides to bring it to his office. Nobody really knows
what's
going on with it. He turns out to be totally nuts and depressed. He
calls
a phone-sex line for some expensive companionship, and the phone sex
people
actually come to his house to beat him up when he won't give them more
money
just to be a nice guy. During the beating-up process, they hurt his
girlfriend who he meets and inexplicably follows to Hawaii a day later.
He
gets really mad and kicks the shit out of the phone-sex thugs. After
making
nice with the girl after leaving her at the hospital to take care of
business with phon-sex guys, he decides he's going to use his
lifetime
supply of frequent flyer miles to follow her around on business
trips,
presumably happily ever after.
Nate's review:
Well, this was a strange movie. You feel good for the Sandler character
at
the end, but he's so crazy it makes a lot of character identification
and/or
empathy impossible. It's almost like you're watching some freak on
the
verge of self-destruction and you can't do anything about it. PT
Anderson's
direction is awesome, of course, with good use of handheld shots and
singular framing (emphasizing his lonliness?), and the "I'm going
insane/bleeding colors" transition device was interesting. Unfortunately,
I
walked out of the theater with a WTF look on my face. You never felt
like
you could tell where the arc of the story was going-- was it going to be
a
silly typical Sandler movie focusing on the pudding thing and whacking
off
or was it a romantic comedy? Romantic dark comedy is probably the
most
appropriate short description of the genre, with emphasis on the "dark"
and
less emphasis on the "romantic." Sandler is awesome in the movie--
he
seriously freaks you out, he's so nuts. What the hell is he selling,
plungers? Anyways, lack of character identification and his slow
development make the movie a little difficult to get into; you're not
really
sure what you should be feeling for the Sandler character. It's
suggested
that his sisters are driving him crazy-- looks like if I had his sisters,
I
would be nuts too. The harmonium may be some sort of symbolic
representation of his psyche-- he is shown at "harmony" towards the end
of
the film playing this thing while Emily Watson is draped all over his
back.
Again, not sure about this reading. Pretty sure the girl has
something to do with it, though. PTA likes to see his characters
self-destruct-- in a way you get the feeling that Watson is doing
that
simply by being with this crazy asshole! Ryan, you're all about the
PTA, what do you think? I obviously don't know what the hell I'm talking about...
Rating: a very qualified 8 out of 10 huge fake penises for Boogie
Nights/Magnolia fans, 5 out of 10 huge fake penises for everyone else
Ryan's review:
Ryan has yet to review this film.
Jason's review:
Jason has yet to review this film.
Tim's review:
Tim has yet to review this film. Whatever!
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