The Raven

It's hard to figure out John Cusack's career. If you look at his imdb page it's actually alot better than you'd think. We all love him as the kind of cool geek from Sixteen Candles, Better Off Dead, and Say Anything. Then, with the exception of The Grifters, he disappeared into nothingness until Gross Pointe Blanke. A cool, dark comedy with gun play, lots of explosions, and a chubby bad guy who looks like Jaws from the Bond movies. But from that point on, he was in all kinds of action movies, dramas, and horror flicks; which all spit out mixed results. Some good (1408 and Malkovich) and some forgettable (2012 and Must Love Dogs). The good news is he's batting .500 with movies that only have numbers in the title. I guess what I'm getting at, is, is Cusack as versatile as Hollywood thinks he is? Unless it's an off beat comedy with possible explosions, I personally think that he should stay away. He just looks uncomfortable on screen; giving you the Nic Cage over acting vibe. Except Nic Cage is awesome at this and that's the reason we all see his movies, well at least the people in my circle do. More on this to come...

So when I saw the trailer for The Raven, I thought it was a cool concept but wondered why they cast Cusack and not Ryan Phillipe. Or really just anyone who doesn't look awkward in the movie! That was a joke btw, I think Phillipe is kind of awesome but only in movies about rich girls he's trying to bang. Seriously though, was Guy Pierce too busy? He's in everything else this year! He really should think about firing his agent. Anyway, when I saw it, I got exactly what I was expecting. It's a cool concept about a murderer who goes on a killing spree using Edgar Allen Poe's stories and poems as inspiration. The police, accompanied by Poe, are trying to track down the killer using clues from his stories in an attempt to save the life of his fiance' whom the killer is using to taunt Poe. There is a ton of killing and deception in it and by the description I am giving it sounds like it would be suspenseful. However due to poor writing (and this is coming from me) and even worse editing, it's just not. It's just a bunch of scenes of cops running from building to building looking exasperated when they finally reach their destination. If they had simply focused on just a few of his stories for the murderer to use and not his entire library, they could've drawn out the creepiness of this concept  and you could have been more invested in what was happening. Instead, you just kept waiting for the next close up of Alice Eve's breasts. BTW James Mcteigue must have been just as impressed by them as I was because there are multiple shots of Eve's assets. Im not saying, I'm just saying. I dont want to just single out Eve with my next point, because honestly looking back, every actor in here gave the worst performance of their career. Perhaps Mcteigue shouldve casted a smaller breasted Keira Knightley instead so he could have placed his focus on drawing more out of his actors and also spent more time in the editing room.

Oh well, this movie wasn't a complete loss. You do get to look at Eve, and the story does incorporate real events and situations from Poe's life. The highlight of the movie was the murder based upon the Pit and the Pendulum. It's the movie's longest, most gruesome, and funniest murder scene. Honestly, if the movie were 90 minutes of this, it would have received a rating of fresh instead of really WEAK!