[Movie Babble] A Murder of Crows

I watched a movie this morning called A Murder of Crows. It starred Cuba Gooding Jr. as a disbarred lawyer battling his conscience after publishing a late friend's book under his name. Oh, plagiarism. Anyway, the book grabs him a lot of success in no time at all, which is all quickly taken from him when it is revealed that the gruesome murders depicted in this story had actually occurred. So off he goes on a quest to figure out all the details of this impossible situation he now finds himself in.

Yeah.

Okay, right from the get go I knew this was a set up. The moment the old man appeared, looking very much like a young man in old man make up, I knew what to expect. Plus, the constant narration practically beat me about the skull with all it's 'subtle' hints at the suspicious old man and his strangely convenient death.

Plus, I know a little bit about literature, so when the name Christopher Marlowe pops up, I know to be on the look out for foul play. Two seconds later we get Gouthe the police officer and I check out. Faust. Yeah, that's a hard one to catch. Oh, and how about the really convincing biker out fit this dude dons in order to get the book signed and send it to that real copper? So real, I totally didn't know it was a plot point.

Oh, look, the acting professor is the baddie. Is there potency in his talking about Macbeth when Gooding Jr. rolls around to figure it all out? I'd imagine so, but I was so far from enjoying myself at this point that even a mention of Shakespeare, which usually tickles me to no end, was not enough to drag me back. Besides, he already referenced Shakespeare with his 'kill all the lawyers' crack.

I guess what really bothered me about this flick was how it failed at being subtle. It looked and felt like it wanted to be a thriller, that it was supposed to be suspenseful and interesting, but then it goes about and gives you every single thing that might have, played a different way, been surprising and fun. As I was watching I find myself thinking 'this would probably be a good book', because books can get away with that kind of crap. People forget details they read, and it takes longer than two hours (unless... you're a fast reader, I guess) to get through the complete story and digest all the information thrown at you. When it's presented in a visual form, as most people are visual learners, it's much more difficult to be obvious and subtle at the same time. This movie was just obvious.

And some of the ridiculous things the narration said... I can't even go there.

But besides all that bitching about plot and writing, it wasn't that well acted, either. I'm pretty much indifferent when it comes to Cuba Gooding Jr.. I know he's good, and I've seen him in a few other things, but I never felt compelled to make a statement about his ability in definitive terms. This film was not, I imagine, one of his better portrayals. The character felt flat, and I was never invested in his journey. Maybe I was just mad at the writing, but the longer the story went on, the more unsympathetic the character became. That's the opposite of what they wanted to happen.

Tom Berenger shares the cover with Cube Gooding Jr. ... and isn't much better in the movie. The only other movie I've seen him in, or remember seeing him in, is The Gingerbread Man and I can't recall if I liked him there. I know I didn't here. I mean, I get that the character was written that way, but did he really have to be so spectacularly cliche? He was a stock investigator, with nothing unique or interesting about him to make him worth watching. He did not stand out above any of the other cops on screen, which was just a bummer. He tried, of course, with his sarcasm and his rough attitude, but it didn't do much. It was actually pretty satisfying watching him get shot in the middle of that shitty line of his.

It's kind of funny that this is the movie that gets to be my first post on here. Ah, well. There will be better ones, I'm sure.