I hate admitting to this sort of thing because, 1) I fear that I'm going to be flamed mercilessly, and, 2) it makes me feel severely un-American. But here we go anyway.
Once in a while, I will watch some movie that is considered to be a "classic," one of those films that defines cinema as an art form. I'll watch it and... I'll hate it.
It's very rare that this happens, truth be told. But when it does, there's nothing I can do about it.
This one makes me feel particularly bad because I generally love films by Alfred Hitchcock, I'm a fan of Cary Grant, and this film fared pretty well in the AFI Top 100 (both times).
I'm sure you've guessed by now, but the film in question is North by Northwest.
[commence hissing and catcalls]
This was a movie I've been wanting to see for years. Literally years. To break it down, Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive who is mistaken for somebody else. This mistaken identity leads him on an adventure to clear his name and regain the life he knows.
Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it fell completely flat to me. The acting was strained (to say the bad guys are even two-dimensional is a stretch), there was no chemistry whatsoever between Grant and his female lead Eva Marie Saint, the plot was disjointed and lacking any sort of flow, and, Jesus, talk about abrupt endings.
When this sort of thing happens, I typically question whether I was just not in a mood for this particular film. A good way to confirm this is to find out what Katie thought. If I was not in a mood for it, she likely would've enjoyed it and then I would give it a second chance. Yet, after watching North by Northwest, we just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. It did nothing for either of us at all.
The only other time this happened to me with what I consider to be a legitimate classic was Gone With the Wind. It's been a while since I've seen it so I can't really remember why I didn't like it, but I just didn't.
Two film classics and I didn't like either. I'm going to Entertainment Hell, aren't I?
Update: Allison helped to remind me that there is actually a third "classic" film I hated... Breakfast at Tiffany's. The movie made no sense whatsoever. That's three. I'm gonna burn.
Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): The other night, after receiving about my fourth or fifth notification that someone is "following me" on the Twitter account that I set up last May and never used, I decided to finally log in and give it a fair shake.
Jesus, you people are all over that damn site, aren't you? This was during some clearly orchestrated attempt by the Twitter community of people I know to all watch the President's State of the Union address and provide Twitterized commentary on it. At first, I set up my cellphone to receive notifications of updates. Within an hour, I shut off the notifications because my phone was going nuts with text messages.
But I am intrigued by this whole pseudo chat room styled means of keeping in touch. So I'll keep playing. And if any of you would like to follow me and be followed by me in return, visit my Twitter page (the link is also in my left menubar - second row under "Personal").
