The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
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Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (5) | DVD (4)
Magnificent production, combined with excellent casting and direction, make The Day of the Locust as fine a film (in a professional sense) as the basic material lets it be.
The narrative is often confused and confusing.
Schlesinger has conceived his film as an epic, which was a daring thing to do with such slender material.
A painfully misconceived reduction and simplification.
Accurately captures the intent of West's dark masterpiece.
John (Midnight Cowboy) Schlesinger's version of Nathanael Hawthorne's powerful novel about Hollywood and its dreamers and losers in the 1930s is not always effective, but it's ambitious, daring, and very well acted.
The casting choices are brilliant but the production is let down by a haphazard screenplay that misses the novel's point, and weak direction.
Much has been made of the climactic riot scene, which may have seemed novel when Nathanael West first wrote it back in the '30s, but it's just plain goofy when viewed today
Blistering film version of the novel. One of Schlesinger's best works.
A fascinating, if flawed, example of the film industry turning the lights on itself and finding nothing there but darkness.
Wow, what an ugly film. Presumably, this cynical tale of Hollywood wannabes was green-lit following the success of "Chinatown." Not one likable character in the cast -- even the lead Tod (William Atherton), with his shallow love for Faye (Karen Black), is hard to embrace. Donald Sutherland gives a remarkable performance as repressed neurotic Homer Simpson (now why does that name sound familiar?), but should have entered the story much earlier. Burgess Meredith? Wonderful, but wasted in a minor part. As if the other depravities weren't enough, there's even a repulsive cockfighting scene needlessly thrown into the mix. Meanwhile, the surreal climax is like an entirely different movie (shades of "The Wall"?) and goes way, way over the top. Interesting to see the often villainous Atherton as an innocent, William Castle in a cameo as a fictional director and the pubescent Jackie Earle Haley as an insufferable child-star brat.
Super Reviewer
Profoundly sad view of the lower rungs of Hollywood life in the 30's. Disturbing and unsettling. The climatic sequence is both horrifying and mesmerizing.
Allegorical film that depicts the moral decay of 1930's Hollywood. Donald Sutherland gave an unusual performance as Homer Simpson. The epic, horrifying climax is the true highlight of the picture, one of the best sequences of cinema ever filmed. Masterpiece.
An often surreal but always intriguing morality tale. This film has it's sights set mostly on "Hollywood", with a few "pop shots" at organized religion (which if you think about it is not so different from Hollywood). Sure the characters are "over the top" and "steretypical", a virtual cornucopia of Hollywood has beens and hopefuls. But that's kind of the point. It's meant to be a sort of snap-shot of 1930's-40's Hollywood and all that it entailed. The acting is solid with the casting spot on. Especially Donald Sutherlands performance as Homer Simpson and the seemingly under appreciated William Atherton as Todd Hackett. The cinematography is brilliant, ranging from glorious to bleak but always captivating. The last 15-20 minutes are genius!
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