CRIMEWAVE tells the story of a hapless hero who innocently and unwittingly gets entangled in a murdering duo's crime spree and is about to be executed for it.
The style of the movie recalls that of those old black and white slapstick films with the protagonist looking like a Harold Lloyd clone, and the murder duo almost like Laurel and Hardy's evil twins. There is lots of over-the-top physical humor, complete with funny sound effects and visual gags. The characters are intentionally all cartoon-like.
I very much enjoy the original slapstick movies, and find them often funny, but somehow this homage or imitation was unable to reproduce that old movie magic.
I really wanted to like this movie, given that it is directed by Sam Raimi and co-written by the Coen Brothers, but while I did admire the imagination and craft that went into some of the scenes, I just could not find it funny. In fact, I found some of the humor (e.g. After a gag was repeated several times), and especially the hero's whininess positively irritating.
This movie is probably most of value to film-makers who want to make their own slapstick movies: studying what exactly got lost when revamping the old stuff might help avoid making the same mistakes.
Unless someone is really into this type of humor, it is not recommended.
The style of the movie recalls that of those old black and white slapstick films with the protagonist looking like a Harold Lloyd clone, and the murder duo almost like Laurel and Hardy's evil twins. There is lots of over-the-top physical humor, complete with funny sound effects and visual gags. The characters are intentionally all cartoon-like.
I very much enjoy the original slapstick movies, and find them often funny, but somehow this homage or imitation was unable to reproduce that old movie magic.
I really wanted to like this movie, given that it is directed by Sam Raimi and co-written by the Coen Brothers, but while I did admire the imagination and craft that went into some of the scenes, I just could not find it funny. In fact, I found some of the humor (e.g. After a gag was repeated several times), and especially the hero's whininess positively irritating.
This movie is probably most of value to film-makers who want to make their own slapstick movies: studying what exactly got lost when revamping the old stuff might help avoid making the same mistakes.
Unless someone is really into this type of humor, it is not recommended.