Hahahahahahahaha.
Really? Swept Away? Really?
This is a pure movie geek pick. Back in the late 90's/early 2000's, Guy Ritchie was hot as a pistol. He had made the British gangster comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and it as a sleeper hit. I own the movie, it's okay, but in my opinion, somewhat overrated. Then, he made Snatch, which is very much in the vein of Lock Stock, but with a bigger cast and in my opinion and funnier and more interesting script. So, it was on the heels of that he made Swept Away. Now, if he made a mistake in his whole thing at all, it was choosing to cast his real-life wife, Madonna, in the movie.
Now, I'm not picking on Madonna. I think she's fine, she showed talent in Dick Tracy and A League of Their Own and I'm perfectly fine with her as an actress. However, she is notorious of making some really bad bombs. Shanghai Surprise and Body of Evidence comes to mind. So, when you have an actress who is reviled for making some bad films with a director who is entering a genre that he is not really in his element, you're going to have a movie that is critically reviled and thus, "hated."
Now, I did not see this film. It didn't look interesting to me and even for the purposes of writing this series, I still did not watch it. Does this mean I hate the film? No. See, I can separate hate from just thinking a film was badly made. For instance, I do not think Battle Los Angeles was a particularly well-made film. It has holes in the plot, the camera work is dreadful, the characters are not interesting and the action is unwatchable, thanks to the bad camerawork. However, I do not hate Battle Los Angeles. I understand it has an audience and while I do not respect the movie opinion of people who like this film, I also realize that every movie has fans, no matter how bad it is. Battle Los Angeles didn't insult me personally or say someone like me sucks or say people of a certain race or gender or whatever sucks...it's just a bad movie. I'm sure Swept Away falls into the same category.
As for Guy Ritchie, he immediately went back to the genre that made him, making Revolver and RocknRolla after Swept Away (as well as divorcing Madonna, who everyone blames for making Ritchie make the film in the first place). Interestingly enough though, he had to wait until making Sherlock Holmes to have another big hit on his hand (and for the record, the 1st was okay, the 2nd Sherlock Holmes sucked ass). So, did Swept Away really derail Guy Ritchie's career, or was he really overrated to begin with?
Rating: Worth the hate? Unless you're a hardcore fan of Ritchie's previous two movies and just want him to make English comedies, I would say no, it's too generic to hate it.
- Stephenstein
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