My main motivation to watch this 100-minute movie from last year was certainly BAFTA-winning writer and director Thomas McCarthy (actually mostly an actor). I really love his "The Visitor" and I know that he also made "Win Win" and "The Station Agent" that received good criticisms, so I was curious. Oh yeah, and he also wrote Pixar's "Up" which brought him an Academy Award nomination. The story here is pretty simply. A man who owns a shoe repair store gets a magic heirloom and from that moment on he can transform into complete strangers simply by wearing their shoes. Now, I like this idea. However, you could ask many questions that sort-of make it look bad: What if the real guy sees him(self)? What if he wears the shoes of a dead person? Or what if he wears shoes that get carried by several people? This film somehow implies that shoes are intelligent being who are able to identify their current owner. And why did the protagonist not ask himself all these questions, but just kept wearing them as he wanted. He seemed to be an intelligent, thoughtful fella. Anyway, lets forget about this now.
The main character here is played by Adam Sandler (approaches his 50th birthday) and I can hear the haters already ask why Sandler did not pun on the shoes of an actor before making this movie here. However, he really isn't that bad here. It's been quite some time since the last Sandler movie I saw, so I believe he did a decent job here. However, I have to say I enjoyed watching this film. Especially the first scenes with Dustin Hoffman were pretty good and touching as we gain a deeper insight into his relationship to his son and wife. Steve Buscemi is a nice addition as always too. The first hour of the film was pretty good and I might have given it a higher rating even, only based on that. However, the entire crime plot between minutes 60 and 90 is a complete mess. It's almost impossible to understand what is going on who is who and if Sandler is currently in disguise. This is really a shame as the introduction of Method Man's character at the shop early on wasn't bad at all and they really could have done something great with that. Sadly, nothing involving Ellen Barkin's character (looks like an old Cameron Diaz) worked in this film and I wish they would have left out the entire crime story, even if the movie had only run for slightly over 60 minutes this way. Or come up with something less chaotic and confusing. The ending with Hoffman back in action (it was a bit expected who he is) is pretty solid again.
All in all, it is a decent movie, but it could have been actually pretty great without the filmmakers messing up a crucial section of the movie. Also, i watched the entire Nip/Tuck series in the past and there was a pleasant surprise for me watching this. Recommended.
The main character here is played by Adam Sandler (approaches his 50th birthday) and I can hear the haters already ask why Sandler did not pun on the shoes of an actor before making this movie here. However, he really isn't that bad here. It's been quite some time since the last Sandler movie I saw, so I believe he did a decent job here. However, I have to say I enjoyed watching this film. Especially the first scenes with Dustin Hoffman were pretty good and touching as we gain a deeper insight into his relationship to his son and wife. Steve Buscemi is a nice addition as always too. The first hour of the film was pretty good and I might have given it a higher rating even, only based on that. However, the entire crime plot between minutes 60 and 90 is a complete mess. It's almost impossible to understand what is going on who is who and if Sandler is currently in disguise. This is really a shame as the introduction of Method Man's character at the shop early on wasn't bad at all and they really could have done something great with that. Sadly, nothing involving Ellen Barkin's character (looks like an old Cameron Diaz) worked in this film and I wish they would have left out the entire crime story, even if the movie had only run for slightly over 60 minutes this way. Or come up with something less chaotic and confusing. The ending with Hoffman back in action (it was a bit expected who he is) is pretty solid again.
All in all, it is a decent movie, but it could have been actually pretty great without the filmmakers messing up a crucial section of the movie. Also, i watched the entire Nip/Tuck series in the past and there was a pleasant surprise for me watching this. Recommended.