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Meet Joe Black
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake
Weber, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Tambor
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| MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
| Released By: |
Universal
Pictures
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| Web Site: |
www.meetjoeblack.com
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| Kiddie Movie: |
Deep subject matter - probably not.
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| Date Movie: |
She'll probably make you go.
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| Gratuitous Sex: |
One scene of Death, having no clue how to do it,
with Susan.
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| Gratuitous
Violence: |
See "Memorable Scene" below.
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| Action: |
Nope.
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| Laughs: |
Lots of chuckles.
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| Memorable
Scene: |
Brad Pitt's coffee shop character bouncing off
of a couple of cars. I even blurted out "Whoa!"
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| Memorable
Quote: |
Bill Parish asks: "Will you be staying long?"
Joe Black/Death replies: "We should hope quite a
while."
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| Directed By: |
Martin Brest
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| Produced By: |
Martin Brest
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Meet Joe Black
A Movie Review |
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"Meet Joe Black" is about three hours long. Yep, that's
right, three hours. It's not that it shouldn't be three
hours, it takes that long to put all of the intermingling
story lines to rest (ha, ha, get it, to rest - dying,
alright, nevermind), but couple a three hour
movie with six trailers and my butt hurt. Alright, enough
griping.
"Meet Joe Black" seems like it should be a quick movie -
Joe Black (Brad Pitt), a.k.a. Death, a.k.a. The Grim Reaper
if "Death" didn't make sense, comes to the world of the
living to see what it is like. He decides that Bill Parrish
(Anthony Hopkins) shall be his guide, because Death's had it
on good authority that Bill could help Death understand
nearly every emotion and experience earth has to offer. In
exchange for Bill helping him out, Death gives Bill a slight
delay in his inevitable. But this movie isn't simply Bill
and Death hanging out. Nope, we also get a story line about
a conniving asshole named Drew (Jake Weber) trying to force
a takeover of Bill's company, and we get a love story of
Bill's daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani), trying to find her
true love. All three parts could have almost been movies of
their own, so I guess even though three hours long, you get
three movies for the price of one.
It's easy to see how all three parts of the story can
intermingle, especially since Susan is dating Drew, but then
falls in love with a dude in a coffee shop (also Pitt), who
proceeds to get run over, well, not actually run over but
rather bounces off of a couple of cars because Death needed
a body. Susan meets up again with her hopeful new love,
although it's now Death in the coffee shop dude's body.
Death, meanwhile, has made his deal with Bill, who now has a
few more days to play loving father, slick businessman, and
a dude who just really seems to get what life is about.
In the end there aren't many surprises, at least not for
me - I saw all of the intermingled endings a mile away, but
I won't spoil them for you. I will just say that the dude in
the coffee shop is going to be really confused for a while,
and if Susan sleeps with him like she did with Death, which
time will she count as the first time they had sex?
Yea, it is three hours long so make sure you hit the
bathroom before the show. But even so, there were enough
enjoyable moments and a few chuckles, especially Death
taking most things literally (Susan: "I'm with (meaning
dating) Drew." Death: "Not now (meaning he's not here).").
Brad Pitt plays all his characters great, and I found
especially funny as his character interacted in reggae
tongue with a dying old lady; Claire Forlani comes off as a
girl just looking for her true love; Jake Weber comes off as
a total asshole, spurring the line from Bill "You're a
worthless piece of shit Drew."; and Anthony Hopkins, well,
he's Anthony Hopkins and puts in another great performance.
With that, I give "Meet Joe Black" four stars out of
five. You don't get much in the way of action, but some
comical moments and three movies in one.
That's it for this review, I'm The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
