For the love of God and all that is holy and just, will somebody please tell Kevin Costner to stop making movies?? He sucks as a writer, he sucks as a director, and he sucks most egregiously as an actor. He is the kind of movie star that makes an appearance in a great movie or two and considers himself the crux of its success. Dances with Wolves, for example, was an epic tale, one that was well-written and well-choreographed; however, I did not go see it because I wanted to watch Kevin Costner bumble around and gather arrows in his ass. A similar example concerns Field of Dreams. Somehow I managed to enjoy that movie without even acknowledging the presence of Mr. Costner. The thing is, his movies have just started to reek since Field of Dreams, with the exception of Thirteen Days. I'm not really sure of the reason for this degradation in quality, but I do know that it is very real and just won't go the hell away.
I have to admit, Dragonfly caught my attention. I basically ignored it when it was released at the theaters, but it earned a second chance as a trailer at the beginning of The Mothman Prophecies (a very good movie, by the way). Suffice it to say, I guess I was in the mood for a supposedly creepy movie about ghosts and all that pooh. Silly me. I neglected to pick up on a simple aspect of the Dragonfly preview when I made the decision to rent it: Dragonflies are about as creepy as a horde of bloodthirsty cotton balls. I honestly was not creeped out once during the viewing of this movie. Kevin "will sleep with the director for work" Costner plays Joe Darrow, a physician who loses his beneficent pregnant wife to a raging mudslide somewhere in South America or Mexico (who cares). Darrow becomes obsessed, you see, and is seemingly contacted by his deceased wife through his patients' near death experiences. He then sets out to find out the truth behind his wife's assumed death. Yeah, the storyline's hokey, and it'll probably bore you to tears until the last 45 or so minutes of the movie when the setting changes dramatically. Then it might only partially bore you.
As a parting thought, here's what I believe to be the best way to gauge the quality of a Kevin Costner movie nowadays. If Costner is the first actor's name you see, run for the hills; if his name is in a supporting role, it might not be too painful. |
