The Final Cut Reviews – It’s Getting Cut To Pieces

TheFinalCutPoster.jpgAny movie coming out that has Robin Williams in it will immediately get my attention. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I believe Robin Williams is the most all-round talented actor working in film today. The man can do it all… any genre, any role, any movie. Comedy, Drama, Thriller, Good Guy, Bad Guy, Quiet Guy, Whacko Guy… He’s been there done that. I just can’t say enough about the man. Won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, SHOULD have won an Oscar for Good Morning Vietnam, SHOULD have won the Oscar for Dead Poets Society (Don’t get me wrong, Michael Douglas was great in Wall Street, but I thought Williams was just a little better that year). Unlike a lot of todays best actors who excel at certain type of character, Robin WIlliams has no boundaries. Ok, now I’m just rambling.

Having said all that, it broke my heart to hear that his new upcoming film, The Final Cut, is getting hammered by the critics (even though they all seem to be saying Williams is great in it). I’m disappointed to hear this for 2 reasons: 1) Obviously because Williams is in it, so I was hoping it would be good; and 2) the synopsis for the final sounded so darn cool. Yahoo Movies describes the film like this:

In the future, microchips implanted in your brain record everything you see and hear. Then when you die, a “cutter” assembles the footage into a memorial video for your funeral, editing out all of the unpleasantness. The most sought-after cutter is Alan Hakman (Robin Williams), a detached man who believes his work can absolve the dead of their sins. While editing the memories of another cutter, he uncovers a disturbing piece of his own past which leads him to question the way he’s lived his life.

Come on! How cool does that sound! But alas… apparently the film doesn’t really go anywhere and fails to really go into the deeper moral questions that arise when thinking about the voyeuristic trends our society is embracing. They’re saying it got so caught up in it’s premise, that it forgot to develop it much. Too bad. I’ll still see it once it hits wide release. Oh well, at least Ebert said this about it:

“Williams has extraordinary success in channeling this other person. How strange that the same actor can play some of the most uninhibited of all characters, and some of the most morose.”

Comment with Facebook

8 thoughts on “The Final Cut Reviews – It’s Getting Cut To Pieces

  1. Wow, a real discussion with arguments. Normally I only read stuff like: “he sucks!” or “wow, he’s the best”, but never a message where people explain their opinion.

    I don’t have to explain why I adore Robin’s work so much. It’s the diversity he brings in everything he does. When he’s on stage doing all the wild stuff and then see a movie like One Hour Photo, or The Final Cut. It’s the total opposite and I haven’t seen a lot of actors do that.
    Even when it comes to acting he’s very divers. Doing thriller, comedy, animation, drama…it’s all there. And I don’t think he failed a single time….several of his movies did though.

    It made me furious when I was at the Berlin Festival watching the World Premiere and the guy next to me was boo-ing out loud, while Robin was in the audience. I don’t think I’ve been more furious before. No-one can say a bad thing about Robin’s work when he and I are around. The boo-ing guy survived me, so it wasn’t all that bad ;)

    And it made me so sad reading all those reviews about The Final Cut. Having contact with a lot of people who worked, with everything they had, on this movie, I was hoping the best for them.
    I was happy Lions Gate was going to release it anyway, but it didn’t last long. Only 3 weeks.

    Now I am happy again because they’re gonna release the DVD with, I think, great extra features.

  2. Yes, I’m sensing a difference of opinion here (but I have no problem with that!). Agree with Deniro and Pacino (and to a lesser extent Christopher Walken) have been doing parodies of themselves for the past 10-15 years with only a few high-quality exceptions: De Niro in Ronin and Jackie Brown, Pacino in Glengary Glenross, and Walken in Catch me if you Can and Pulp Fiction.
    Williams just looks so damn ingenuous in most of these role-model types of films, I think he is universally bad in Both Good Will Hunting (which should not have been shown on public access, let alone bet nominated for any awards…It’s so darn tired and formula it hurts to watch). Dead Poets Society is quite a bit better, but I still didn’t buy Williams in the role (although he doesn’t look bad, he just doesn’t stand out).

    KuRt.

    FYI: You may find this interesting, you may not…But it might show us what page we are on…

    Some of my favorite actors: Timothy Spall, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, Edward Norton, Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, Campbell Scott, Tony Leung, Bruce Campbell, Harvey Keitel, Toshiro Mifune, Christian Bale, Philip Seymore Hoffman.

    A few of my least favorite actors: Robin Williams, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr.

  3. Hey Triflic.

    Well, it is all subjective… that’s the great thing about movies… but WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!!?

    Williams was BRILLIANT in Good WIll Hunting, for which he won the Academy Award for… and I thought he was even better in Dead Poets… which he was nominated for, and SHOULD have won the Academy Award.

    Even when he’s in bad movies he stands out. Any actor can look good in a great movie… the great actors look good in bad movies. Movies like Jakob the Liar, Patch Adams, The Birdcage, Moscow on the Hudson and The Fisher King (with Jeff Bridges… who I think is awsome by the way) are all so-so movies, but the critics basically universally raved about Williams in them.

    Now, take some other great actors like Al Pacino or Robert Dinero… they are just plain awsome when in a good movie… but as soon as you put them in a bad movie… they look totally flat. Williams doesn’t.

    Like I said, it’s all subjective and we all have our differnt points of view. SO I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Cheers!

  4. My point here is this, Robin Williams only effective performances are the ones where he is an outsider loser type(One Hour Photo, Insomnia, Cadillac Man). When he goes sappy, it’s brutal and he has two of the worst ‘mentor’ performances (Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society) that scream phoney. So for an ‘all-around’ guy he is a failure. Perhaps Jeff Bridges is a good compare/contrast example because even though he typically plays a type (the straight-forward although slightly naieve type from Heaven’s Gate to Starman to Tucker to The Big Lebowski) he has far more range than Williams. Williams just chooses a wider palette of different roles. I can’t fault the man for trying, but he fails far far more than he is successful (for the record, he is good in Aladdin and Death to Smoochy for his more in-your-face roles, but he has yet to do a non-psycho drama where he is not completly disengenuous). And (also) for the record…Mork and Mindy was television at its worst.

    Sincerely,
    Triflic

  5. If you log onto http://www.metacritic.com and type “The Final Cut” into the “Movies Only” Advanced Search capture form a listing of the critics’ reviews of the film (or any film for that matter).

    Despite what the critics have to say about this film I’ll still pay to see it at the theatre because I like Robin Williams a lot also. Actors on the most part do their best with what they’re given but not even they can control the final film that gets released.

  6. I would say that Jeff Bridges is a good actor but he comes from the John Wayne school of acting, plays himself every time. He is definitely engaging as an actor though and I do think he is excellent at his trade, but all rounder? Don’t agree.

    Jim Carrey?! Oh lord. There are only two films he’s been bearable in, and those have been non-comedy roles.

    I do think Williams is a cracking actor, and without a doubt an all round talent. Sure he’s had stinkers, hasn’t every actor?

    I was looking forward to Final Cut for sure, and this is very disheartening news. He was excellent in One Hour Photo.

  7. John:

    I respect your opinions and have been visiting your site for a while now, but I think your underlying insanity is bubbling to the surface!

    First “The Oscars are the last remaining REAL awards ceremony where they honor the art of moviemaking.” (I almost spewed my coffee)
    Then “I believe Robin Williams is the most all-round talented actor working in film today.”

    I mean c’mon Jeff Bridges, Ian McKellan, or even Jim-frickken-Carrey are more compelling (and far less sappy in their choice of film roles) than Robin–Mrs Doubtfire/Bicentennial Man/Patch Adams/Jakob-the-liar–Williams.

    I believe you are too far gone for recovery at this point.

    /agrees to disagree though..

Leave a Reply