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source: Quintet

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Quintet

Unreal that a film could rival Paranormal Activity for inducing yawns, but Quintet pulls out the stops. It's not only as boring as PA, but it tries to make points that are so vague they are meaningless to anyone able to stay awake through the entire film looking for some substance. Problems: First, that annoying filter! REALLY, this blur filter, as if the entire film is a dream sequence. Next, the music. It seems so out of place trying to make you think something is happening, while nothing is. Almost like the conductor had the band playing for another movie. Plot! Where was this thing going? I'm sure there might be fans of Altman or Newman who might like this just because, but if you're neither, this is a brutal and boring experience. Excruciating for someone hoping to see interesting sci-fi and a glimpse of someone's idea of the future.

The earlier review is pretty much on target, which Altman was NOT with this film. I haven't seen it since its original release but I have seldom spent two hours in a theater feeling as miserable and disappointed as I was with this film. If some pretentious community theater attempted a sci-fi version of a Ingmar Bergman film, it might come off like this. I can't bring myself to give anything Altman has made a "1" but this is probably the nadir of a career that has had some remarkable highs and lows. I would have walked out, but as a paid film critic I couldn't. (Think about that the next time you envy movie critics.)

Robert Altman's "Quintet" is a dreary, gloomy, hard to follow thriller where you finally give up after awhile because it's so complicated. I remember seeing this at my local twin on opening weekend with a full house. By the time the picture ended it was less than a quarter full. Never have I witnessed such a mass exodus without there being an emergency to drive people out. That should tell you how bad it is. I believe it to be the worst film ever made involving such major talent in front of and behind the camera.

Sorry--whatever merits the story about the game may have, this movie really loses it with the details. This post-apocalyptic city seems to have plenty of light bulbs and electricity (where from who knows where), but apparently no one bothered to save an electric heater. I am sorry, but if you have electricity, why do you have to rely solely on fire for warmth? Also, some characters seem to have vaguely Italian accents while the rest are deadpan American. And the dogs--jeez! Why aren't the people eating them (instead of the reverse)? And apparently only one breed survived. The dogs are a distraction and rather stupid. The movie could have worked on the level of the game, but the stupid "realistic" details were just the reverse and made the movie false and unwatchable.

...now I wish it had remained that way. Warning: If you stumble upon this movie while surfing TV, keep surfing! This isn't even a good one-time watch. It's the most boring, senseless piece of trash I've ever watched. I can't believe someone pitched this script, much less made the movie. I can't believe Paul Newman signed on to play in this movie. This is a bad, bad, bad movie.

I really wanted to like this movie--I like Altman, I like Newman. I like science fiction and I liked the idea. And since this movie seems to be universally hated, I wanted to swim against the tide and find the intellectual quality in the movie that others seemed to be missing. All that going for it, and I still hated it. Incomprehensible drivel. And what's with the vaseline all over the camera lens? Folks who like this movie are fooling themselves, just because you dont understand a movie doesn't mean that it's deep, it means that the director and writer didn't know what they were doing.

I don't know why i had never heard of this movie before with Paul Newman and directed by Robert Altman. This movie doesn't even seem to have a cult following and this must of been a big flop when it came out to be this unknown. A lot of the other people writing comments on this movie seem to really hate it but i actually liked it. I liked the fact that it didn't give any answers about what happened to the earth or even what year it is. The first hour of the movie is very slowing and you really don't know what's going on. I would like to know what Newman and Altman would have to say about this movie now and i guess i can see why so many people hated it even though i liked it.