Amusing, interesting and odd, then begins to drag.
Comment
04/11/07
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Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2007)
96
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:46
Fresh:44
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Plagues And Pleasures is a thoroughly engrossing account, both humorous and disheartening, of a once bustling community ravaged by ecological change and human greed.
Theatrical Release:2006
Synopsis: Fabulously offbeat and refreshingly upbeat, this lovable film gets friendly with the natives of the Salton Sea, an inland ocean of massive fish kills, rotting resorts, and 120 degree nights located... [More]
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Reviews for Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
A sad but interesting sociological study of a not completely abandoned desert outpost that seems to be saying, "where there's water there will be humanity."
09/16/07
[An] occasionally lighthearted but always affecting cautionary tale.
06/01/07
Top Critic[A] charming, yet sad documentary.
11/30/05
If Metzler and Springer were on path to becoming environmentalists and their documentary was their thesis, they’d get an A.
11/30/05
The documentary is informative and entertaining and gives you both sides of the great debate. You may not want to take a vacation to the Salton Sea, but you'll enjoy the visit there.
11/04/07
Narrated with morbid relish by John Waters, this witty doc chronicles the rise and ruination of the Salton Sea, a tiny inland ocean once promoted as 'California’s Riviera' but now a festering, apocalyptically hideous ecological disaster zone.
07/12/07
It makes for a strange, but somewhat endearing, melange of the grim and comic.
12/06/07
Top CriticJaunty and fun for a while, with a cast of colorful locals who make the residents of Vernon, Florida seem normal, pic ultimately overstays its welcome and overstates its case.
03/01/06
Top CriticPlagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is an engaging, entertaining snapshot of a long, tragicomic moment in American history.
11/28/07
Even if the Salton Sea itself stinks, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer’s documentary about the improbable body of water where, the witty Waters deadpans, 'utopia and the apocalypse unite to dance a dirty tango' certainly does not.
04/20/07
If Divine were still alive today, he-she might well be wintering on the edge of The Salton Sea.
10/03/07
[A] thoroughly engrossing documentary.
11/30/07
As documentary subjects go, the Salton Sea was ripe for the plucking: This man-made phenomenon is one of the weirdest stories of the West.
06/04/07
Top CriticIt's a human freak show of sorts, but Metzler and Springer never expose these folks in a way that derides their way of life, but rather let's us admire their unbroken, adventurous spirit.
02/28/06
The ridiculous and the sublime collide, with tragicomic results, in Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's lively, fascinating chronicle of "Paradise Lost" in the Southern California desert.
10/03/07
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a sort of ecological morality tale. This film is fascinating like a slow motion road accident.
09/17/07
California dreaming meets good old American eccentricity and ecological emergency in the story of the Salton Sea.
02/13/06
Top Critic[Provides] a funny, poignant tribute to a most unusual place and the people who somehow call it home.
05/11/07
Narrated by John Waters, Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is an odd bird -- wacky and poignant, funny and sobering, but this portrait of a forgotten paradise is a must-see.
09/13/09
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