Review of Powder Blue (2009) by Farhan A — 12 May 2009

What happened? this was supposed to be an instant camp classic. at about the 86 minute mark, forest whitaker's character asks jesus, "why are you doing this to me?" and I wondered the same thing.

why? it's not good enough to be average and it's not bad enough to be spectacular. it actually is fun to look at, so I can't even make fun of that. there are a few laughs to be had with the dialogue.

and some ridiculousness at the end was welcome. I guess they didn't want to totally rape magnolia, so instead of frogs we get.... blue snow? I know patrick swayze is ill now and it might not be a good time to make fun of him, but wtf? like, what was that? again, funny, but only on the surface.

jessica biel, lisa kudrow, and eddie redmayne are the only ones that come out unscathed. one would think jessica biel would be horrible in this, but she's not. she's actually pretty decent. she's good enough that you feel bad for her acting her heart out as if there will be some sort of award at the end of it.

the person that's confusing the shit out of me is forest whitaker. I like to think he's a smart man. he's a great actor. and yes, he's in battlefield earth, but I like to think that was him paying the bills.

but since crash ruined cinema, he's been in four (!) post-crash heavy-handed messes.... winged creatures, the air I breathe, american gun, and powder blue. and the last two he produced as well as starred in.

what's going on, dude? anyway, back to powder blue. the pacing is a mess. the acting, overall, is meh. the soundtrack is mostly lifeless. and I guess the worst part is how is just blatantly rips off other movies.

like badly. like magnolia. like a lot. the whole weather thing was making me nuts the whole time, but when the mortician and the stripper hug! the entire scene is lifted from magnolia. down to the cocaine! speaking of which, has there been one movie where jessica biel ISN'T doing coke? because I can't think of ONE.

I don't know. it just wasn't good. and now i'm cranky because I sat down tonight expecting to laugh. hard. and to see what the future of camp looked like. and it didn't happen. the film's got nothing on I know who killed me.