If “Salt” had a baby — a very predictable baby — with “The Italian Job,” that underachiever of a child would be “The Tourist.” And I would quickly like to apologize in advance to anyone and everyone involved with the film, I promise this isn’t personal. It absolutely kills me when a movie featuring two of my favorite actors falls short on its delivery.
“The Tourist” didn’t fall flat on very many instances, but the component that was the biggest dud was the worst kind of lemon one could find in an eye candy fest. The predictability was monumental, which pretty much means the beginning and end of the film are just time fillers.
The story takes place in the city of Venice, Italy, and follows Elize (Angelina Jolie), a woman whose significant other is the primary interest to local authorities on account of a large sum of money. Elize crosses paths with a tourist named Frank (Johnny Depp) who gets swallowed by her world. A decent enough plot, nothing special, nothing new, nothing surprising. There were a few things that kept this film from being downright bad. Reason one: Johnny Depp has an awkward and very funny role which saves a lot of the scenes. Reason 2: Angelina Jolie is breathtaking and can actually act her face off. Reason 3: Italy, specifically Venice, is beautiful to look at. The canals flow so nicely in the background that the camera had very little work to do.
“The Tourist” had one thing that I haven’t seen too often in the media. An electric cigarette. I had a feeling Hollywood would catch on and turn the electric cig into a hip accessory. Katharine Heigl showed hers off on Letterman not too long ago and Depp sports his throughout the film.
All in all, “The Tourist” was barely decent in its storytelling, leaving much to be desired. Absolutely zero challenge to the general movie going audience. No need to be a film buff to figure this one out, sadly. Visually, a feature starring Jolie and Drop with a dreamy backdrop cannot go completely wrong. But the movie on the whole ends up being wildly disappointing and generic in general. I do not recommend seeing this at full price. Wait for discount theater releases or even Redbox or Netflix if you do intend on seeing it.
“The Tourist” is rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language. On the Jess-O-Meter it gets a “Have we met somewhere before?”
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Follow Jessika Owens on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessika.
I have to disagree with you to a certain extent. Although, yes, “The Tourist” was criminally predictable, there is enough natural chemistry between the film’s leads to warrant a viewing — I mean, it won’t win any awards, but I found myself thoroughly entertaining, even if the film lacked any sort of profound allegory.
Thoroughly entertained* — sorry.
Thats sad, I havent heard alot of good things about it since it opened, It came in second place this weekend at the box office, so that says something for it’s opening weekend debut. I will see it when my crazy hectic schedule calms down a bit or when it goes to a dicounted theater.
Ha ha. I love that first sentence.
Feelgood movie! Funny, lots of chemistry between the stars, Paul Bettany was awesome, Not a great movie but not a flop either. I say give it a watch. you’ll laugh and leave feeling good. teehee still smiling…….