About Wake Up Dead Man (A Crime OF a Movie)
Post 1903:
You’ve got appreciate the good stuff. I’m reminded of that when I see something as dumb as Wake Up Dead Man. I’m not particularly disposed toward scathing criticism, but I have to call this one out. To be clear, the people behind the scenes did fine. It looks like a movie. It might even seem like a movie. No, my issues lie elsewhere.
Why? Fair question. Maybe because I write stories. Some of them are mysteries. Some are even whodunits, as this purports to be. They are tricky to make work, I’ll admit. Sometimes things don't come off. But this is number one on Netflix. People think they like it. It has a big budget and huge actors. What is happening?
A story is never perfect. I don't want to be cruel. But this is like they didn’t even try. Well, they have nice cameras. They have actors and actresses saying things. It’s lit pretty well.
I can’t make a movie. It would be shambolic. I do know one thing about making movies though—you have to have a script that isn’t slapdash knucklehead brain-swallowing trashola. This story doesn’t make sense. Basically none of it. It’s also stupidly mean-spirited and pretends to be in good faith. It was written by an immature person who is either wantonly careless or, I hope, doing this to make money and screw with people’s minds. If he is a literal criminal conman I think it’s better and more moral.
And if it is the latter, well done. Many viewers are walking away with good thoughts. I would be embarrassed to have good thoughts. This movie is embarrassing. I’ve thrown away manuscripts twenty times better, and I’m a nobody.
I’ve listened to some positive responses to the film. They weren’t paying attention. That’s my argument. Stylistically bad. Shallow in the most infantile ways. And of course, the big one: Nothing works. It’s mechanically some of the laziest stuff I’ve ever watched. In that way, it was sort of fascinating.
I don’t know who makes decisions about what gets produced, but I understand that it’s not easy. So many things have to come together for art to be good, especially when it’s collaborative. That’s why I prefer the solitary nature of writing novels. One man band and all that. Anyway, I say I understand because bad things get made, but I don't think it’s usually down to a lack of effort. Here, I can only conclude that the creators didn’t care and think people are dumb enough to like it.
I will say this. A lot of misdirection and characters are thrown at the audience, so it’s reasonable to think that the initial response would be to believe it’s clever. Think about any single element, though. The whole thing collapses. This is amazing. I’m actually impressed. From here on out I will make points rather than sense. It appears to make money. Cheers and see you after.
