Well, well... this was some hell of a ride. I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie, but certainly not this drug fueled trip. I really wanted to like this film, but sadly it has so many flaws that, at least for me, ended with a sour taste in my mouth.
First of all, the good things: I liked the concept, the acting (I recognized Cameron Diaz but I had to check it out to make sure), John Cusack is great as the loser hopelessly in love, and the puppet work is amazing - probably the best part of the movie. I loved all the comedy that had nothing to do with the main plot: the silly office, the deaf secretary, the crazy boss, Charlie Sheen cameo... basically, during the first half of the movie, it had its moments of laughs. Sadly, it went downhill from there.
Now, the bad: the plot went nowhere. I was hoping for some kind of conclusion or idea behind the ego or something like that, but it never came. It basically dwelled 100% in the sexual side of the characters, and never moved away from there.
For example, when Craig takes full control of John and he performs in front of Maxine, I was really hoping for him to discover that his skills with the puppets were gone, since he was using another body and his fingers weren't the same, but sadly that didn't happened. That would've been amazing to show us that, regardless of how bad our lives are, everything that makes us "us" is unique and personal. Yet, here it seems that if you're very strong and transport to a skinny guy, your strength goes with you... in your mind, I guess?
The whole old-people-trying-to-live-forever thing made no sense. Who took control of John's body after all? Just the main guy? The rest of the people were just prisoners in his mind? What kind of eternal life is that?
While I think the actors were good, the characters sucked. Maxine is really cruel and mean, then suddenly she's nice, she hates Craig's puppets, then she asks him to perform for no reason, she doesn't like Lotte physically, then she spends her life with her. Craig only wants to perform with puppets, then he completely forgets about them because he "fell in love". Lotte is simply bizarre. At the end, I didn't cared about any of them, because they didn't cared about themselves.
The ending is just bitter, at least for me. Basically, nobody learned anything, except that the chicks liked each other. No one seemed to care about John like, at all. Why not a single one of the hundreds of people going into his mind managed to take hold over it, by the way?
So, whatever. I'm pretty sure this movie doesn't get bad reviews because it's "psychological, original, and deep", therefore if you say anything bad about it it's because "you didn't get it". I'm sorry, I think it's just a mess. Great idea, but poorly executed and went nowhere. It does have its moments though, but they're short and crammed in the beginning.
First of all, the good things: I liked the concept, the acting (I recognized Cameron Diaz but I had to check it out to make sure), John Cusack is great as the loser hopelessly in love, and the puppet work is amazing - probably the best part of the movie. I loved all the comedy that had nothing to do with the main plot: the silly office, the deaf secretary, the crazy boss, Charlie Sheen cameo... basically, during the first half of the movie, it had its moments of laughs. Sadly, it went downhill from there.
Now, the bad: the plot went nowhere. I was hoping for some kind of conclusion or idea behind the ego or something like that, but it never came. It basically dwelled 100% in the sexual side of the characters, and never moved away from there.
For example, when Craig takes full control of John and he performs in front of Maxine, I was really hoping for him to discover that his skills with the puppets were gone, since he was using another body and his fingers weren't the same, but sadly that didn't happened. That would've been amazing to show us that, regardless of how bad our lives are, everything that makes us "us" is unique and personal. Yet, here it seems that if you're very strong and transport to a skinny guy, your strength goes with you... in your mind, I guess?
The whole old-people-trying-to-live-forever thing made no sense. Who took control of John's body after all? Just the main guy? The rest of the people were just prisoners in his mind? What kind of eternal life is that?
While I think the actors were good, the characters sucked. Maxine is really cruel and mean, then suddenly she's nice, she hates Craig's puppets, then she asks him to perform for no reason, she doesn't like Lotte physically, then she spends her life with her. Craig only wants to perform with puppets, then he completely forgets about them because he "fell in love". Lotte is simply bizarre. At the end, I didn't cared about any of them, because they didn't cared about themselves.
The ending is just bitter, at least for me. Basically, nobody learned anything, except that the chicks liked each other. No one seemed to care about John like, at all. Why not a single one of the hundreds of people going into his mind managed to take hold over it, by the way?
So, whatever. I'm pretty sure this movie doesn't get bad reviews because it's "psychological, original, and deep", therefore if you say anything bad about it it's because "you didn't get it". I'm sorry, I think it's just a mess. Great idea, but poorly executed and went nowhere. It does have its moments though, but they're short and crammed in the beginning.