Michael Clayton

I'm not all that sure why, but I decided to see another movie today. Yea, what else is new... Right? Anyways, hearing great reviews from a number of different people, I gave a George Clooney movie a chance. In most cases, I abhor this man's acting. However, there are a decent number of his movies that I like (Good Night and Good Luck, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, Three Kings, From Dusk Till Dawn) but the reason I like each is DEFINITELY not because he is in them. I don't know what it is about him, he always just seems dry and about to fall asleep.

As for Michael Clayton, it wasn't a horrible movie by any standards but I do have some issues with it. First and foremost... It was SLOWWWWWWWWWWW. I mean, interesting plot and good development with some good directing, use of camera angles, etc. However, I ended up checking my watch thinking that it had been 2 hours and it had only been 1. It REALLY needed something like a court scene or some random pick-me-up around the middle. Being a frame story, the first 5-10 minutes caught your interest, the middle died down to numerous dry actors progressing the story, and the last 15-20 minutes picked back up again. Here you go... this is what it felt like: You know when you have a craving for something stupid like a peanut butter sandwich, you make it thinking it will be great, begin to eat it and realize that it takes so fucking long to chew and it keeps sticking to your mouth and, ultimately, it takes forever to eat and almost seems like it wasn't worth it? Yea, same thing, just 86 the PB and add Clooney.

Oh yea, and I make it an effort not to ruin any movie that I review so I will not go into too much detail with this. However, if you see this movie, I'm sure you will have the same reaction I did at the end. It was one of those movies where it just ended SO abruptly that people were still sitting down thinking... "Should we stay? Is anything else going to happen? I'm confused." I don't know if it was an attempt to create an artistic and potent ending but... Uh... It was absolute idiocy.

As it seems with most of the movies I review. I would suggest renting this one. If you don't mind dry and slow movies, it has a great plot and good development. I did enjoy that. Other than that, if you cant take slow movies, stay far away.

Overall: 3.5/5