I finally saw A Dog's Breakfast.

[icarus]

I finally saw A Dog's Breakfast.

Anybody wanna buy a DVD? Only partially used?

Yes, that's right. About halfway through the movie wildernessguru started complaining, "This is really bad."

I said, "Wait. Hang on. People have said it's funny."

Ten minutes later... "This is really bad."

"I'm bored," I admitted. And cringed, trying to explain. "I find have no sympathy for these characters."

He said, generously, "Every actor is in a bad movie from time to time. He [David Hewlett] was really good in serious movies. Like that one where he was in a tree."

"Treed Murray."

"Yeah. That was great." (He doesn't know ADB was written and directed by DH.)

I said, not as generously given DH wrote this, "The writing was better in that one. Here, the characters have been written deliberately weird, and I find I don't care about any of them."

We got as far as the scene where the DH's character was in the basement, chastising the dog. Then we clicked it off.

I thought the camera work was self-conscious but good (my favorite shot was how it kept returning to that ugly brown house -- I don't know why that cracked me up). Definitely this movie is a director's "toy."

The acting was okay, not brilliant, definitely a bunch of people throwing something together on their weekend and not trying hard. DH oversells his role. Paul McGillion was okay, I couldn't see much difference between his role here and Doctor Beckett. Kate I really liked, she played it lightly but there was a richness to her delivery that was just a little bit serious, like she was weary of her brother's antics. But then the script was just mean to DH's character, cutting away any empathy I'd have for any of them.

The score was professional, well-timed, not overbearing, fit the subject well -- the sound mixing expert.

The problem is the script. It's very common to make one of three mistakes in ones first original character "creations":

1) A Mary Sue, self-insert.
2) A bland Everyman.
3) A character overloaded with quirks (usually done to avoid the first two).

David went through door number three.

The pacing in the beginning was slow, wallowing in the main character's OCD. Without a spoiler or two you didn't get a feeling for where the story was headed until late. There wasn't a good hook. The dialogue had snap and all the actors had good comic timing. But it kept coming back to, wow, I don't care about these people. I keep feeling like we needed some explanation of what was going on with DH's character, or we needed to start somewhere we could empathize -- like with Kate, chivvying her fiance out the door, trying to explain her brother and not being able to.

Then, the plot, well. I'll finish the movie sometime before I make a final statement about the plot. But as far as I got, I kept thinking, "I've seen this before. This is a live action version of a Road Runner cartoon and DH's character is Wile E. Coyote -- with less arrogance and more mental disorders."

wildernessguru's summation is simpler. "It was stupid. DH was constantly sweating and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, taking everything seriously. It's been done to death. A joint and being half-drunk wouldn't make it funny."

Comments

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Not trying to appear stupid, but: what's OCD?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You know what? I had to look up exactly what the letters stood for: it's Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. When the DH character split all the Fruit Loops into separate colors that was classic OCD behavior.

Icarus

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Ah, now I get it. Thank you. :)

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it, mostly because I think I'd have a similar reaction. I really cringe at embarrassment humour.

[moxie-brown.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to see the movie either; DH's humor isn't my type of humor at all. But I think he's a great business man and awesome at promotion. He needs to hook up with some indie writers/directors and stay in front of the camera while he learns more about behind the camera intricacies.

Also, Treed Murray was really good.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Based on my limited knowledge of directing, I think he did all right at it. It's the writing he needs to stay away from.

Hey. Maybe Joe Flanigan can write his next movie. *g*

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It could be I just didn't like the type of humor. Though... I like embarrassment stories in fiction. I certainly write them enough (especially starring Percy).

Icarus

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

*skimmed your post, won't be spoilered because might have a mostly broken copy to watch later on*
Hah. ARgh. It was meant to be like Fish Called Wanda or I Hired a Contract Killer. I guess I've seen too many movies in the past, but I was meaning to give him the benefit of doubt, despite my huge reservations due to his overbearing (and annoyingly fake IMO) marketing campaign *sigh*

[enname.livejournal.com]

I have Indian arthouse waiting for me, so I think I will pass. Whilst I can take Roadrunner in short fits and bursts having to see it sustained over an entire film would be a bit much. Nice to read a review though that is not full of squeeing that hurts my eyes, no matter how I might enjoy the bizarre image that would give me of you and WG.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

There are no spoilers for the plot in here, never fear. I would have cut-tagged if there were.

His marketing campaign started more real than it has become. I'm appreciating Joe Mallozzi's blog more. At least it's his personality and viewpoint. David seems... edited.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I ran it past WG -- he loved Steve Martin's "The Jerk," which is classic embarrassment humor, So for him it wasn't the humor. It just wasn't funny.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yes. That would be weird. We only squee over Monty kitty -- but he's a very cute cat. You know how the snugglers are.

I expected to like this movie. I like Indie films. I like Hewlett. I like comedies. I like low-budget flicks that don't take themselves very seriously (for example, I loved Death Race 2000 with David Carradine which we watched instead -- it had a scoring system for running over pedestrians, and eventually they ran over the president). I'm rather taken aback that I couldn't even finish ADB.

Icarus

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

So, do you think it is in any way like Wanda (did you like that or similar films)?

Precisely. I'm deeply disturbed andactuallypersonallyoffendedforbeingplayedafool by people faking themselves like *handwave*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Wanda is one of my favorite films. Oh, God. I'm probably mangling this quote, but that line, "An ape can read, he just doesn't understand it. News flash. The Buddha doesn't teach every man for himself--"

Oh, and those poodles! Oh no... *whimpers with laugher* That was sick but so funny.

No, this wasn't like A Fish Called Wanda at all. Those characters you believe. They aren't cartoons. They were unique. The idiot thug who wanted to be considered smart. The sexpot who gets off on foreign language -- they were real. Weird, but real. Layered. The criminal who loved animals. You could understand their flaws.

DH's characters, even the one with the OCD, were flat.

Icarus

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

1) A Mary Sue, self-insert.
2) A bland Everyman.
3) A character overloaded with quirks (usually done to avoid the first two).


Brilliant. How you nail it. Hah.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm speaking from experience. I've done all three. The trick is to let the characters come alive and grow themselves.

Icarus

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I actually felt quite relieved when I read this; well, not relieved, but sort of 'ooh, I don't do any of these, I must be doing something right'. But I recognise them as pitfalls. It's nice to have a list! The quirky character thing always gets on my nerves in Hollywood movies; sometimes scriptwriters and directors seem to think the way to make a character individual and non-cliché is to put lots of obvious eccentricities in; it is very tedious. I think the thing I'm most prone to is the bland character; I love blandness as a correction to quirkiness, where the quirkiness is all inside and the character on the outside is just an ordinary receptionist or an office worker. It reminds me of Jane Austen and others whose names escape me right now. I love respectable characters with a twist inside themselves, perhaps hidden from even themselves and the plot brings it out.

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

Judging by the ads, I think I'd feel the same way. I don't much like Hewlett's sense of humour when he's being himself, let alone writing himself as a whipping boy.

[wyomingnot.livejournal.com]

...trade you a pair of wee chevron socks for the dvd...

(Really. I've got spare yarn)

I just watched it yesterday. I liked it. I got it through Netflix. No, I'm not rushing out to buy it, but I might want to see it again.

What can I say? I'm easily amused.

[fractalreality.livejournal.com]

I liked it. But then, I grew up watching that type of humour every weekend on TV; it is a very British thing, veering more towards Pink Panther I think than A Fish Called Wanda.

What cracked me up was the silence - I know that sounds weird, but waiting for something funny to happen is always funnier than the actual event, and it did have that PP build-up. Clever, humourous wide-shots too, with random people in the background being more amusing than those in the foreground (a particular fave of mine).

Saying that, it's nice to see some opinions of it that aren't all in complete praise of it; film studies grad in me likes to analyse the difference in opinions.

[tonicollins.livejournal.com]

Labeling DH's character with OCD is going pretty far over the top. The cereal separating in and of itself does not indicate OCD and there were no other instances of that behavior. True suffers of OCD have no choice but to do their repetitive rituals.

[coquettemoves.livejournal.com]

I totally agree -- although I felt like even the delivery was off sometimes. Lots of weird pauses, and everyone leaving mac truck-sized gaps between setup and punch line. My favorite part was actually the little snippets of Starcrossed, which was 1000% funnier.

We all turned it off about halfway through, and that's because we realized it was actually ruining our evening of boozing and we weren't even enjoying our wine anymore.

[feanna.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie and I don't know a lot about OCDs, but I know that in an interview DH said that the character was meant to be OC. He also jokingly accused his wife of beeing OC and I got the feeling that he didn't really know a lot about the topic, but if it's a mislable it comes from the person who wrote the character.

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

I am seeing this next Friday; will let you know what I think.

*is trepidatious*

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

In a sense I'm relieved to hear that it's bad, as I'd watched a preview and thought "that looks awful" amid squeeing from fans at advanced screenings who apparently thought it was the best movie ever. So, not just me.

I like Hewlett, but I think his contingent of fangirls is on the verge of crossing into Spikefen divorce-from-reality territory. I've been reading comments all weekend that gush about how sexy he is in MGM promotional photos that look to me like the poor guy's fighting not to upchuck in front of the photographer.