As adults we seem to be focussed on the practical things of life: Work, our family and friends. The moments where we don’t have anything to do are far and few between. You might still daydream, but I’m sure it won’t be as much as when you were a kid. A time when you could imagine anything and where you didn’t have the life experience yet to realise a lot of those daydreams would never be realised. Walter Mitty is a character though who has kept daydreaming and who zones out when he imagines the most fantastic imagery. It could be him saving people or standing up for something which in reality he doesn’t. He has never realised those dreams, not been anywhere and is stuck in his job.
He works as a negative assets manager for Life magazine, which is about to print its very last magazine. Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott sporting one of the most ridiculous beards I have seen in a while) is moving the magazine to an online format which means a big transition and lots of people getting fired. It’s Walter Mitty’s job to provide the negative for the final cover. A photographer he has worked with for many years, Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn), has sent him a picture which he considers his best work. When Walter can’t find the picture he decides to track the photographer down. Following up clues he has found in the photographer’s he starts travelling. It will be a journey that will take him all over the world.
This movie let’s you dream away and it is exactly for that reason I enjoyed watching this. The moments where Walter is daydreaming have been realised in a believable way, resulting in some awesome moments with one of the highlights being an epic superhero like battle across the city about a Stretch Arm Strong figure. You could also see this as a movie motivating people to head into the world and experience as it can make you a lot more interesting person. One thing in this movie I could not stand though were the moments where Walter is interacting with eDarling. The very obvious product placement was distracting and during some ver important moments Walter would be called by them. Another was that the obvious product placement for Cinnabon near the end of the movie. I am sure these companies helped finance the film, but when subtlety isn’t used it can really stand out as it does here. If you can look past that though I can say it is an entertaining and enjoyable movie which should appeal to the daydreamer within us.
The strong arm stretch figure being traded for a skateboard was wholly unrealistic, even within the context of a completely unrealistic film, and took me right out of the movie. Otherwise, i thought this was not bad, not bad. Stiller is solid, but Adam Scott overdoes his role somewhat. 7 sounds about right.
You had an issue with that one? Maybe in Iceland those figures are extremely value…we don’t know what the stretch arm strong prices are doing in their economy 😉
I loved the fact that Adam Scott was overdoing his role…completely unrealistic but it fit the part.
Was surprised it got razzie nominations, I actually thought it was pretty entertaining. No masterpiece, but quite fun to watch. Agree the story motivates people to head into the world. I wasn’t distracted by the product placement myself, but I can see why other might be.
It did? That surprises me as well, couldn’t imagine for which categories that would be. It was a lot of fun indeed.
The nicest thing I can say is that it’s inoffensive. It’s bland and mild. Some nice special effects I guess. I like Ben Stiller but he’s done better.
I can understand your feeling, but it is all about how much you want to along with the world that is set up in the movie….I enjoyed that.
I thought this was a pretty good movie. Wasn’t great but it certainly wasn’t as bad as some had made it out to be. And I’m not normally a big fan of Ben Stiller but I was very impressed with his performance.
No, it was really a feel good/adventure type of movie. Stiller was good in this one, he played it quite down to earth.
I might give this a rent. I’m not a huge Ben Stiller fan but the trailer did look pretty intriguing.
It’s a fun watch. Don’t have too high expectations and you will probably have a good time with it Ruth.
Wasn’t it eHarmony?
I think I’ll be going to Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan. 🙂
Yeah, it probably was…thing is there are a lot of commercials over here for eDarling, explaining the mixup 🙂
Don’t know whether I would like to head to Afghanistan. Greenland and Iceland should be interesting.
No worries. I just felt that a guy from eHarmony would NEVER call back to help out with a profile. But it did help the story along and Oswalt Patton is pretty funny so it was all good.
Still wouldn’t eat a Cinnabon though. 😉
If I can’t make it to Afghanistan, maybe Iran or Syria would work… 🙂
Of course he wouldn’t. You don’t like Cinnamon, the company has started over here last year I think and I wrote enjoy them. Only east one every few months though, so I’m not hooked to them
You like excitement then….