Movies
Meet Joe Black
Maddeningly slow remake of Death Takes a Holiday, at more than twice the length of the 1934 version. There is a shocking special effect early on, when that darling Brad Pitt, right in front of our eyes, without apparent edits, gets bounced around between two cars in a crosswalk. (This is shocking for a second or two, until we can think of the magic word to explain away all the new wonders of the cinematic world: computers.) The dead but otherwise undamaged body, along with its undamaged dove-gray suit, will furnish a shell for the Grim Reaper during an information-gathering sojourn on Earth. His stranger-in-a-strange-land persona -- part space alien, part happy idiot, part pothead, all agog -- threatens continually to bring the already slow proceedings to a complete standstill. (The actor has a couple of amusing scenes conversing fluently in the patois of "the Islands" with a dying hospital patient, though this lingual dexterity doesn't accord too well with his ignorance of the most basic American idioms.) The main sources of information for our visitor are the powerful media mogul he has come to "collect" at the end of his stay, and the man's blushingly marriageable daughter: triumphs in the boardroom and the bedroom ensue. The rules-changing ending is calculated to please all those who are satisfied to ask no questions. With Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Jeffrey Tambor, and Marcia Gay Harden; directed by Martin Brest. 1998.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13