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Seabiscuit was the little horse who could. He was too small, walked with a limp, and had a jockey who was too big and blind in one eye. Yet, somehow they managed too overcome their underdog status, become champions, and capture that adoration of millions of down-and-out depressioners looking to overcome themselves. Seabiscuit the movie might be a bit of an underdog itself. It's about horses, the Great Depression, and it's special effects don't involve towering fireballs and lame car chases which makes this movie very different from your usual summer flick. It's just too bad that ends up being a little disappointing.
There is no doubt that Seabiscuit was made with deft skill on all parts, but, from the standpoint of the writing and directing, this skill was sadly misdirected. Gary Ross, director of the fantastic Pleasantville, constructs Seabisctuit with the audience seemingly the first and most important thing on his mind. This lends an unauthentic air to every scene despite the nice cinematography and good acting. It's as if every scene is made more to try to please us than to just simply tell the story, and this is probably why the film follows the generic sports movie formula sans romance to such a 'T'.
Seabiscuit isn't a bad film, just a bit underwhelming. The story is an interesting one, it's beautifully filmed, and the cast is terrific, but it's also overwrought, it's characters slightly uninteresting, and it sets it's goals to be higher than just telling us a good tale.
**1/2 of ****
Note: Kong suggests that everyone here at MoFo go see this film. Whenever Kong dislikes a movie here everyone else seems to love it, so there is no reason why this would be an exception.
There is no doubt that Seabiscuit was made with deft skill on all parts, but, from the standpoint of the writing and directing, this skill was sadly misdirected. Gary Ross, director of the fantastic Pleasantville, constructs Seabisctuit with the audience seemingly the first and most important thing on his mind. This lends an unauthentic air to every scene despite the nice cinematography and good acting. It's as if every scene is made more to try to please us than to just simply tell the story, and this is probably why the film follows the generic sports movie formula sans romance to such a 'T'.
Seabiscuit isn't a bad film, just a bit underwhelming. The story is an interesting one, it's beautifully filmed, and the cast is terrific, but it's also overwrought, it's characters slightly uninteresting, and it sets it's goals to be higher than just telling us a good tale.
**1/2 of ****
Note: Kong suggests that everyone here at MoFo go see this film. Whenever Kong dislikes a movie here everyone else seems to love it, so there is no reason why this would be an exception.
