Gerry (2002)

I have said this many times before during my trips through hundred of movies, but I can say with all certainty that Gerry is the worst movie I have ever seen in a theater. I do appreciate some of its aspects. I am all for experiential art, and I honor those attempting it. I absolutely love Damon and Affleck, who did an excellent job of conveying heaps w/o words. The score was excellent. Above all, I laughed hysterically at the dialogue when it showed up. AhemÂ… Now: This movie is unlike any experience I have ever experienced. The closest thing would be one of those 8 am classes with a tenured professor with his pile of index cards and a monotone drone. This was sheer torture! If you have the patience to stare at a rock for ten minutes straight, then circle the rock, while never varying your distance or focus, only to move on to a new rock, than this is the movie for you. This movie felt like a bad joke on the entire movie-going public. I'm all for minimalism, but this was just plain boring. Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that I personally think that Death Valley is stunningly beautiful, but this movie did very little to capture that. I was also very frustrated with the two boys for getting lost in the first place. They parked in a giant valley and walked towards the hills. When you want to find your way backÂ…walk away from the hills! This took a major suspension of disbelief, which I was able to muster up at that early point of the film. On a side noteÂ…I couldn't help but smile every time they were right next to a parking lot, or the main road. All of the shots up on Dante's view had to be chosen very carefully. Looking down there is a road and looking behind them was a parking lot. PlusÂ… I think I saw a car drive by in the background. This turned into more of a tirade than I had planned, but I was extremely frustrated. I'm not the most patient guy in the world, but no one should be patient enough for this absolute failure of a movie.

Fmovies: Why does it have to happen to me? I just seem to pick bad movies one after another. But this one tops them all. To put it simply: watching the grass grow is probably more fun than dedicating one hour and forty minutes to this poor excuse for a movie.

The premise of the movie hast potential: two guys go hiking and get lost in the wilderness. However, one should realize they have no food, water, a compass or a map, no hats or sunglasses (to protect against sun!), no cell phones... The list of the items they had "missed" before their hike is so incredibly long, one doesn't have to be a Magellan to know that.

First, these two "explorers" decide to venture off the hiking trail, and they get lost! I hope you are not too surprised at this turn of events. They start searching for the way back, and the way they do it is what makes this movie so unbelievably bad. They go from the BUSHY FLAT wilderness to the mountains(!) where one Gerry, somehow, proceeds to climb a 12-foot rock for no apparent reason. As if they didn't have enough problems already! To improve their plight, they decide to venture into the DESERT and cross it in the broad daylight, with the sun in full blast!

I think, someone commented that this movie is serving as a tribute to human determination not to give up in the face of danger. To that I can only say: the only tribute these two characters should get is a Darwin Award.

I saw this movie at the Sundance Film Festival and hated it. There is no plot or character development to speak of. There is beautiful scenery and some very lovely camera shots, but the camera frequently lingers for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, circling around the object of its attention, without any dialogue at all. I understand that there were only about 100 camera shots in the entire film. It was reminiscent of Blow-up in some ways, but without as much interest. I'm sure it's an "important" film from the director's point of view, but the audience seems to have been entirely ignored. Of the 25-30 people I talked to about it, one liked it and the rest hated it.

Gerry fmovies. Two friends (both called Gerry) take a drive out into the New Mexico wilderness to go and see the thing. Following the trail they assume will lead them right there they eventually decide they are not going to find it and decide to head back to their car. However they have been blindly hiking for hours and before long they realise that they are lost. Sleeping rough that night, they continue their trek across the desert in search of a way out, putting their friendship under stress with every passing hour.

Perhaps this is one of those like it or hate it type movies but I do dislike the way that those that love it feel the need to lash out at those that don't, claiming that they are perhaps stupid or hollow people for not getting the beauty of this movie. Personally I do slightly suspect that the viewers who fall over themselves to love this film have never really seen many films that compare and perhaps mistake being different and non-multiplex as being the same as having depth. That the film is minimalistic and different is not in question but there is no substance to this film other than what the viewer forces into their own experience of it.

Having said that the film is still hauntingly beautiful to watch. The desert landscapes are impressive and really well captured – what a shame that you do not go to the cinema just to stare at landscapes. The cast of two have nothing to do but, as they are also responsible for the concept then they have nobody else to really blame. Affleck and Damon stumble around the place vaguely improvising but they have nothing about them; most of the time I found them an intrusion in front of the landscapes that were of much more interest.

Overall then a beautiful but empty film. The landscapes are haunting but I could not find any of this beauty in the material (such as it was). Those desperately seeking something deep will find it, but that is different from the film actually having depth.

Casey Affleck and Matt Damon decide to take a trip into the desert and they get lost. This is the plot, and there is also hardly any dialogue, and no meaningful dialogue. And yet the movie manages to be almost 2 hours long. I had to fast forward through some parts. However there was some nice camera work and scenery. Very boring film.

This is not a good film.

But it's not a bad film either.

Consider the blank canvas hung in the museum. Questions arise: What is this? Why is this here? Who did this? Why did they do this? And most importantly, do I care about this?

These are the type of questions you will be left with after seeing `Gerry.'

The film is painfully slow to watch, the dialogue unrewarding, the landscape more interesting than the cinematography, the characters undefined, and the plot full of holes.

And yet, the film sticks with you and makes you think... just as the blank canvas does.

After leaving the theater, you truly contemplate the strange trip you just took through the middle of nowhere while you draw parallels to your own adventures.

And for these reasons the journey is worthwhile... the film, worth seeing.