I don't know what I can add to what the review called "The Sara Lee Of Films" said.
This movie was an absolute waste of my time, and of the talents of the actors and actresses in this who have talent (meaning, not so much for Tom Hanks, who should have quit after making Big. Or maybe after The Green Mile)
This incredibly frustrating movie start out with potential, except after a while, his ability to seemingly do ANYTHING he wants - in the shortest time period - and escape in any manner he chooses - all without explanation - becomes very tiring, and also, completely unbelievable. (Oh, and the end, it telling us the fact that the guy this is based on, in some form, is a multi-millionaire and has been happily married for 26 years, is the biggest insult of all)
All the things he does - they're all little stories; the big story here is impossible, if containing all these things - it's like Good Will Hunting meets Houdini and God knows what else........He could never do all these escapes....or be all these people, do all the jobs he magically gets....
I wanted to see the romance with Brenda (Amy Adams) go somewhere; her performance, along with Christopher Walken's, comes across completely sincere; the story of her getting pregnant by some friend of her father's - implied rape, not stated - is quite believable here, and the way she conveys it, and her love for Frank, it would have made a much better movie - the love story of a young woman falling for a young man who helps her escape from her family would have had the potential for a great movie, if in the right hands...
This movie was DEFINITELY not in the right hands, be it Spielberg, one of the most overrated directors of all time, or in the hands of the writers......
Hanks just plays the same character he always does, and adds his own choice of an "accent" for it....
This movie is one of the most frustrating watches I've ever had; it truly seemed like it would be a great movie early on...
Christopher Walken's portrait as a man losing his wife and remaining utterly torn apart by it is fantastic.
There are simply too many stories, or vignettes, as that review phrased it; they also don't have endings, the movie continues to another story and the previous one is left behind as are the characters; this doesn't WORK in a movie... I actually wondered near the end "what happened to the girl?" - what happened to Brenda? It doesn't matter apparently.
And the stories continue and go on and on forever (with the movie seeming to go on forever), never mind how much things change....with him working for the FBI; I almost thought he would actually be fleeing at the end...as if it would matter, his breaking free...as if there was some way to justify or make real the incredible, ridiculous amount of stories told which are preposterous for the most part, and all the time wasted.
Don't watch this unless you like to be CHEATED.
*Edit: after seeing this last night I have found out that the guy this is based on, Frank Abagnale Jr., was a complete lair (huge surprise for someone who forged checks, huh!), and his stories are not to be believed for the most part. Spielberg then "embellished" it by adding more lies to it! This should NOT be presented in any way as some sort of real story. The relationship he has in the movie, one of the most moving parts of it, is completely fictional; his never-getting-caught until the end is ALSO a lie. He never worked for the FBI. You can't believe most anything he said, and you can't believe or trust Spielberg either, this shows.
This movie should have been presented as fiction. An absurd, impossible, and, as it goes on, ultimately boring movie filled with deceit, to solely rip off people, through LIES. Forget it.
This movie was an absolute waste of my time, and of the talents of the actors and actresses in this who have talent (meaning, not so much for Tom Hanks, who should have quit after making Big. Or maybe after The Green Mile)
This incredibly frustrating movie start out with potential, except after a while, his ability to seemingly do ANYTHING he wants - in the shortest time period - and escape in any manner he chooses - all without explanation - becomes very tiring, and also, completely unbelievable. (Oh, and the end, it telling us the fact that the guy this is based on, in some form, is a multi-millionaire and has been happily married for 26 years, is the biggest insult of all)
All the things he does - they're all little stories; the big story here is impossible, if containing all these things - it's like Good Will Hunting meets Houdini and God knows what else........He could never do all these escapes....or be all these people, do all the jobs he magically gets....
I wanted to see the romance with Brenda (Amy Adams) go somewhere; her performance, along with Christopher Walken's, comes across completely sincere; the story of her getting pregnant by some friend of her father's - implied rape, not stated - is quite believable here, and the way she conveys it, and her love for Frank, it would have made a much better movie - the love story of a young woman falling for a young man who helps her escape from her family would have had the potential for a great movie, if in the right hands...
This movie was DEFINITELY not in the right hands, be it Spielberg, one of the most overrated directors of all time, or in the hands of the writers......
Hanks just plays the same character he always does, and adds his own choice of an "accent" for it....
This movie is one of the most frustrating watches I've ever had; it truly seemed like it would be a great movie early on...
Christopher Walken's portrait as a man losing his wife and remaining utterly torn apart by it is fantastic.
There are simply too many stories, or vignettes, as that review phrased it; they also don't have endings, the movie continues to another story and the previous one is left behind as are the characters; this doesn't WORK in a movie... I actually wondered near the end "what happened to the girl?" - what happened to Brenda? It doesn't matter apparently.
And the stories continue and go on and on forever (with the movie seeming to go on forever), never mind how much things change....with him working for the FBI; I almost thought he would actually be fleeing at the end...as if it would matter, his breaking free...as if there was some way to justify or make real the incredible, ridiculous amount of stories told which are preposterous for the most part, and all the time wasted.
Don't watch this unless you like to be CHEATED.
*Edit: after seeing this last night I have found out that the guy this is based on, Frank Abagnale Jr., was a complete lair (huge surprise for someone who forged checks, huh!), and his stories are not to be believed for the most part. Spielberg then "embellished" it by adding more lies to it! This should NOT be presented in any way as some sort of real story. The relationship he has in the movie, one of the most moving parts of it, is completely fictional; his never-getting-caught until the end is ALSO a lie. He never worked for the FBI. You can't believe most anything he said, and you can't believe or trust Spielberg either, this shows.
This movie should have been presented as fiction. An absurd, impossible, and, as it goes on, ultimately boring movie filled with deceit, to solely rip off people, through LIES. Forget it.