The Room is one of those movies that everyone loves to quote despite having never seen it. It's a rather notorious film that's been hailed as one of the worst movies ever made, and it has a large cult following. But the question is- Is it really that bad? The answer is yes. It really is that bad.
The most obvious flaw here is writer/director/actor Tommy Wiseau. He's a poor writer, a terrible director, and an even worse actor. Everything about his acting is atrocious; he butchers all of his lines and gives a very soulless performance when emotion is required. Heck, he can barely enunciate, let alone act. But that being said, he's part of what makes this movie so entertaining. Tommy Wiseau is so over the top that virtually every line he says is enough to make you laugh.
The supporting cast is equally poor, but slightly entertaining. Wiseau's girlfriend, Lisa, is an unfathomably whiny and indecisive character; and while normally this type of character would be extremely annoying, the actress playing her gives such a choppy performance that it becomes comical. The rest of the cast are all really annoying yet comical characters, and the actors who play them do their roles so poorly it's hard to take the movie seriously.
And that's part of the charm to The Room; the movie takes itself seriously. Tommy Wiseau wrote this as a serious drama, and while he failed at that, it makes the movie even funnier. Had this been written with nods towards the audience or played up some of the sillier aspects of the movie, the effect would have been lost. This movie is a train wreck, but it remains pleasantly unaware of that.
Even from a technical aspect, this movie fails. The editing is extremely poor; almost every scene in the movie opens someone opening or closing a door, and the cinematography is often jumpy and feels rushed. There's also a great deal of unnecessary football-playing scenes that have little to do with the plot, as well as a great deal of unnecessary location shots of San Francisco. The set design is terrible as well; the rooftop set is shoddily constructed and the backgrounds are obviously green-screened in.
Overall, this is a total disaster of a movie. It fails in every aspect that was attempted. But good golly is it hilarious. The Room is one of the best "so bad it's good" movies ever. Everything is so hackneyed and over the top that it becomes comical. I highly recommend it, and it's a great introduction to "bad" movies, if you're new to the genre.
Enjoyment- 5/5
Quality- 1/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368226/
April 2, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)