127 Hours

Some kind of commission should be set up to investigate and explain the bizarre and disturbing fact that critics were virtually unanimous in heaping high praise upon this MTV video about a man who finds himself in the unfortunate position of having to cut off his own arm.

90 minutes of "No Man Is an Island," filmed in such an inappropriately hyper-kinetic style that it feels like the bloodiest Mountain Dew commercial ever made. Nods to man's relationship with nature come off as lip service.

Boyle makes all the wrong decisions here. Not to lose our attention, he uses all cinematic means imaginable which in the end do nothing but annoy. More importantly, they create no sense of the terror and tediousness, the main character must feel in his grueling situation. In a film primarily consisting of one character in terrible distress, sympathy is key, and Boyle simply doesn't create it - in spite of Franco's fine performance. A Hollywood version of the much more intriguing 'Buried'.

Behind all the split screens, the wide angle shots, the subjective elements, the pop culture references, the loud music and the very pretty Dod Mantle pictures that Boyle throws at you throughout the entire length of the film, there is a petty good performance by James Franco. Sadly it is obscured by the gimmicky nature of a film that is hysterically afraid of not being entertaining at all times and by all means necessary.

A decent film that was well made and everything but it just feels so damn long, especially for a 96 minute run time. I'm just indifferent to the entire film, there's nothing really wrong with it (minus some poor directorial choices) and there's nothing special about it either. Some amusing moments but it's always hard for me to enjoy a film when I'm just waiting for what I know is going to happen to actually happen. Get to da chopping!