I had to laugh like hell when I read the other reviews of this movie defending this hopelessly confused, jumbled mess as pure Vonnegut - "because that's how Vonnegut's novels are!"
Wrong.
My God, the excrement hit the air conditioning when they made this movie.
Everything Vonnegut is lost. Vonnegut's trademark sardonic wit is nowhere to be found. Instead of Vonnegut's subtlety, instead of his ability to convey both tragedy and comedy in the seemingly mundane, this movie simply throws up all over the viewer continuously in depressed version of Brady Bunch optimism. Only Kilgore Trout and Harry LeSabre's characters are even remotely close to the novel's intention. Barbara Hershey is utterly useless and unecessary.
Though Bruce Willis delivers a very acceptable performance he is plagued by perhaps the worst writing possible. From the opening of the film he's a neurotic rampaging idiot. We never see the transformation of this character. We never identify with him. We never feel compasion for him.
Not one single character in this movie is believable. Wayne Hoobler is the worst offender. From the first moment he appears on-screen the viewer is forced to dismiss him instead of realizing the tragedy of his position.
Everything Vonnegut conveys in the novel about American Idealism is never even touched. Oh sure, they thought they were conveying all this in the film by flooding the viewer with a non-stop acid nitemare of advertisements and such but it's so cliche and forced the viewer can't possibly take it seriously.
To the makers of this movie, let me say the following: Vonnegut was never about creating a totally unblievable, bad acid trip, as this movie is. He was about showing life as it is and showing how absurd and complicated it can be if we just stop and look around a little - how tragic and comedic and in some cases, meaningless it can be. The book, especially, was about adapting to chaos because order is simply a fantasy so many would like to believe in.
To this end, the creators of this film performed the greatest injustice by tacking on the hokiest pokiest pie-in-the-sky ending. The ending of the book has Vonnegut transcending his characters - throwing out all that is meaningless. This movie says, in effect, "well it's just life, thanks for playing."
Kurt Vonnegut now has a novel's worth of material on how ridiculous this movie is.
Look, if any of you out there read the book you will realize something. Next time you go to work, or to school or anywhere you will see that there's a lot more beneath the surface of your fellow man: tragedy, comedy, heroism, and evil - all us in this world adapting to chaos in the best way we know how. This movie, on the other hand, is about what happens when you throw up in a blender, turn it on, microwave the contents, bake it for five hours and then film it.
It is utter trash. An insult to everyting Vonnegut. Another reviewer said it right when he said that Magnolia was a much better translation of Kurt vonnegut's book. And I thought Slaughter House Five was a failure (although an ambitious failure).
Gah! I can say no more. It's just too awful. Even if you just buy the novel and beat yourself over the head with it you will get move Vonnegut than this film could ever hope to deliver. Even a written apology from the producer and director could not make me feel any sympathy for this film.
Wrong.
My God, the excrement hit the air conditioning when they made this movie.
Everything Vonnegut is lost. Vonnegut's trademark sardonic wit is nowhere to be found. Instead of Vonnegut's subtlety, instead of his ability to convey both tragedy and comedy in the seemingly mundane, this movie simply throws up all over the viewer continuously in depressed version of Brady Bunch optimism. Only Kilgore Trout and Harry LeSabre's characters are even remotely close to the novel's intention. Barbara Hershey is utterly useless and unecessary.
Though Bruce Willis delivers a very acceptable performance he is plagued by perhaps the worst writing possible. From the opening of the film he's a neurotic rampaging idiot. We never see the transformation of this character. We never identify with him. We never feel compasion for him.
Not one single character in this movie is believable. Wayne Hoobler is the worst offender. From the first moment he appears on-screen the viewer is forced to dismiss him instead of realizing the tragedy of his position.
Everything Vonnegut conveys in the novel about American Idealism is never even touched. Oh sure, they thought they were conveying all this in the film by flooding the viewer with a non-stop acid nitemare of advertisements and such but it's so cliche and forced the viewer can't possibly take it seriously.
To the makers of this movie, let me say the following: Vonnegut was never about creating a totally unblievable, bad acid trip, as this movie is. He was about showing life as it is and showing how absurd and complicated it can be if we just stop and look around a little - how tragic and comedic and in some cases, meaningless it can be. The book, especially, was about adapting to chaos because order is simply a fantasy so many would like to believe in.
To this end, the creators of this film performed the greatest injustice by tacking on the hokiest pokiest pie-in-the-sky ending. The ending of the book has Vonnegut transcending his characters - throwing out all that is meaningless. This movie says, in effect, "well it's just life, thanks for playing."
Kurt Vonnegut now has a novel's worth of material on how ridiculous this movie is.
Look, if any of you out there read the book you will realize something. Next time you go to work, or to school or anywhere you will see that there's a lot more beneath the surface of your fellow man: tragedy, comedy, heroism, and evil - all us in this world adapting to chaos in the best way we know how. This movie, on the other hand, is about what happens when you throw up in a blender, turn it on, microwave the contents, bake it for five hours and then film it.
It is utter trash. An insult to everyting Vonnegut. Another reviewer said it right when he said that Magnolia was a much better translation of Kurt vonnegut's book. And I thought Slaughter House Five was a failure (although an ambitious failure).
Gah! I can say no more. It's just too awful. Even if you just buy the novel and beat yourself over the head with it you will get move Vonnegut than this film could ever hope to deliver. Even a written apology from the producer and director could not make me feel any sympathy for this film.