Review of Rubber (1936) by Justin H — 02 Aug 2011

I had fairly high hopes for this movie, after having seen the trailer for it. Unfortunately, by the halfway point, those hopes were thoroughly dashed. First of the many, many problems here is that "Rubber" could not be more padded if the DVD was made of the titular material. A vast majority of the scenes last at least twice (and quite often more) times as long as they need to. Case in point, nearly the entire first half hour of the film consists of nothing but the introduction (more on that in a minute), and the tire rolling through the desert and either running various things over, or making them explode with its mind. It's precisely as dull and repetitive as it sounds.

But back to that intro. There are essentially two films going on simultaneously here: the first being the story of a mobile, telekinetic tire, and the other about a group of people watching the other film through binoculars in the middle of the desert. Oh, and the people behind the film (who are also acting in movie #1) need to poison or otherwise kill all the spectators before the killer tire movie can end.

If none of that makes sense, it's for a good reason. By its own admission (there is effectively no fourth wall here), "Rubber" is "a celebration of no reason." One of the characters narrates (at length) about things in other films that happen "for no reason," as if that somehow lends some weight to their movie, where nothing ever gets explained or elaborated on. In essence, the producers are missing a vital distinction between "Rubber" and the examples they give. Because the fact that E.T. is brown "for no reason," is not an integral part of that movie, whereas EVERYTHING in "Rubber" happens for no reason. Hell, by the 45 minute mark, some of the characters actually try to wrap things up and go home, but they can't because one of the "viewers" didn't eat the poisoned food. When even your cast looks annoyed that there's another 40 minutes of movie left, you know you've got problems.

In short, "Rubber" is an utterly terrible film, that lacks the sense of humor and wackiness (if not cohesion) that a premise like this needs to be entertaining. It's dull and slow moving, pretty much from beginning to end, and I can't really see myself recommending this to anyone.