Review of Meet Joe Black (1998) by Nathan C — 18 Aug 2011

An overindulgent fantasy that's a steaming pile of bullshit. Hell, even for a chick flick, this is terrible.

On the eve of his 65th birthday, a businessman is confronted by Death. They make a deal: businessman lives as long as Death understands the world. Death takes the body of Brad Pitt, gets addicted to peanut butter, lives amongst the rich, and falls in love. Meanwhile, unnecessary subplots take up a HUGE chunk of the plot as they have to do with a business merger, a birthday party, and a relationship.

Seriously, this movie is a pretentious little... well, you get the idea. A story that easily could've been told in half its runtime has 3 hours padded on with stupid moments, those subplots, laughable scenes (Brad Pitt's death was hilarious!), and other stuff. By the last hour, sanity starts to slip as the last remnants of patience dissipate. Brad Pitt is too cold to identify with (or acts like he's an alien, whatever justifies best), but at least he's trying. The supporting cast is so one-dimensional. By the way, any hope for a thoughtful commentary on "The Bright Side of Death" is replaced by corny dialogue. Forced chemistry really shows during that painful-to-watch sex scene. Doesn't help that it's boring, drawn-out, emotionally manipulative, senselessly directed, and highly implausible.

The only reasons why I'm not going to beat this Martin Brest person are because: 1. Anthony Hopkins is really good, and, again, Brad Pitt does show some effort; 2. The scenery, of course, is lush inside and outside, day and night; 3. It's a little effective. But not very much. After all, I already sucker punched him with my two cents on... "GIGLI" *insert dramatic music*.

For the record, I hated this movie. No doubt that it has the worst of both genres, it's an ambitious failure. Yet somehow it's managed to find a fanbase, and it's not because of that "Star Wars" trailer.