KEMP1601

As movie fans,we are expected to accept most any crazy idea filmmakers can cook up. But I'll be damned if I'm going to accept a 60 year old Gerard Depardieu doing karate kicks. For real, it took me right out of the movie. Karate aside, it really wasn't too bad. A famed detective hunts his nemisis, the Alchemist (very cool), in 19th century France. This film is put together very well, but nothing stands out within the production. The writing, acting, and directing were all average. Dark fantasy would be the genre, with a bit of mystery tossed in for your brain. I say "tossed" because if you can't guess the ending 1/3 of the way through, you probably can't read the subtitles anyway. If your into adult fantasy, queue it up.

Crimewave is not as impressive as the team involved in creating it. Somewhere in this mess of a story are two cartoonish hitman looking for something...or somebody. I couldn't make sense of it. Raimi's directing is so sloppy it actually confused me. And yes, I'll say it, the writing sucked. The Coen's trademark style is imperceptible here and comes off more like a script for an old Road Runner cartoon, with a drunken Sam Raimi in charge. There is absolutely no production value whatsoever. I do not recommend this movie to anybody, die-hard Coen fans included.