uneasy mishmash of styles and genres .
this film 's relationship to actual tension is the same as what christmas-tree flocking in a spray can is to actual snow : a poor -- if durable -- imitation .
by the end of no such thing the audience , like beatrice , has a watchful affection for the monster .
director rob marshall went out gunning to make a great one .
lathan and diggs have considerable personal charm , and their screen rapport makes the old story seem new .
a well-made and often lovely depiction of the mysteries of friendship .
none of this violates the letter of behan 's book , but missing is its spirit , its ribald , full-throated humor .
although it bangs a very cliched drum at times , this crowd-pleaser 's fresh dialogue , energetic music , and good-natured spunk are often infectious .
it is not a mass-market entertainment but an uncompromising attempt by one artist to think about another .
this is junk food cinema at its greasiest .
it 's also heavy-handed and devotes too much time to bigoted views .
it helps that lil bow wow ... tones down his pint-sized gangsta act to play someone who resembles a real kid .
watching the film is like reading a times portrait of grief that keeps shifting focus to the journalist who wrote it .
moore 's performance impresses almost as much as her work with haynes in 1995 's safe .
reinforces the talents of screenwriter charlie kaufman , creator of adaptation and being john malkovich .
now trimmed by about 20 minutes , this lavish three-year-old production has enough grandeur and scale to satisfy as grown-up escapism .
a journey through memory , a celebration of living , and a sobering rumination on fatality , classism , and ignorance .
a remarkable 179-minute meditation on the nature of revolution .
waydowntown is by no means a perfect film , but its boasts a huge charm factor and smacks of originality .
it 's just incredibly dull .
