Review of Postman (1995) by Janika Maria B — 23 Mar 2013
Costner really couldn't win, could he. His second post-apocalyptic movie was received even worse than Waterworld and essentially tanked his career for a while. Thing is, it's not bad, just uneven.
It's incredibly passionate to the point of schmaltz, which is the fault of the overly dramatic score and slow motion scenes of people smiling (and a lot of patriotism too). I'm sure a lot of people hated its 3-hour length, but I actually had no problem with it.
Too often, directors keep their films to the 90-minute length and don't give their characters or settings enough time to develop. I'm sure a couple of scenes could have been shortened, but no one complained at the length of Braveheart.
The problem is that the trailers promised an epic, which in a lot of viewers' minds equals action and grittiness, but instead they got something a lot slower and overly optimistic, with broad themes and a tad ignorant of human nature.
But, it makes a point, which too often you don't see in movies nowadays. The concept is actually pretty neat, and I'm sure it's the fact that it all didn't gel together that led to the impressive amount of flak he got for this.
It's certainly not as bad as The Patriot was.
This review of Postman (1995) was written by Janika Maria B on 23 Mar 2013.
Postman has generally received mixed reviews.
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