Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Criticwatch - If I had a hammer . . .

Erik Childress discusses the exchange from this week's At the Movies on the movie Orphan (among other things):

LYONS: “For me I don’t know what’s really fun about seeing a nine year-old girl take a hammer to somebody’s head over and over again. That’s not enjoyable for me at the movies.”

MANKIEWICZ: “IT’S A HORROR MOVIE, BEN!”

Thank you Mank for shouting out what so many of us have wanted to spit back in his face through all his stomach-churning logic and overly biased attitude towards horror films during this last year on the air. Oh boy, so you liked Drag Me To Hell. That PG-13 rating suits you, does it? You gave a positive review to Let the Right One In? Only three people on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 144) gave it a negative. (For the record those three morons are Amy Nicholson from Box Office Magazine, Prairie Miller and Owen Gleiberman who should have his “top critic” moniker erased on the basis of this one review.) You want to knock Orphan – have at it, sir. There’s a lot to pan it for. I recommended it on the basis of pure comedy and not as a horror film. But within my review I knocked how poorly directed it was if it really had aspirations to be a true-red horror flick. All you can say is how uncomfortable you get when little Esther bashes in a skull with a hammer.


Click here to read Erik's other musing about this week's episode

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it unbelievable that someone would dedicate this much time to hating someone.

Lyons Den said...

It was Ben M who used the word "fun" to describe "Orphan" so Ben L's (valid) comment was a direct response to that. Mank couldn't back up his own statement so he fell back on calling "Orphan" a horror flick.

Anonymous said...

The fact that you believe its just about "hate" proves you're missing the entire point.

Erik Childress said...

How does that in any way "validate" Lyons' comment? It's just another in the long line of Lyons wearing his non-horror stomach on his sleeve. As for Mankiewicz "falling back" on calling it a horror flick - what does that even mean? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A HORROR FLICK. Horror flicks can't be fun? Whether or not Mank articulated his position on how well it succeeded as a horror film vs. an unintentional comedy is another matter. Except Mank was reviewing it as a horror film that he enjoyed and NOT as a riotous comedy the way I saw it.

Joe said...

Well, I agree with Ben Lyons on this one. I hope I never have to say that again. But I'd say about 95% of horror movies ever made are unnecessary. Orphan was funny because it was so Godawful. If they had camped it up it could have been a good movie. Orphan wasn't scary, it wasn't funny, and it wasn't original. It was just unpleasant and gratuitously gory.

Lyons Den said...

Erik, since you prefer to make your case by using quotes out of context even when you're called out on it you're obviously going to think you're always in the right so you have your little rants all you want.

Erik said...

Do you know what out of context even means? I go out of my way to make sure his/your quotes aren't taken out of context. Read the whole piece. Not just the parts you want to take out of context.