Hereafter

I'm beginning to think Clint Eastwood is a bit overrated as a filmmaker. I'm not saying he's worthless, or the films are without merit, but maybe we should just step back and stop acting like everything he pumps out is a national treasure. Lets take a look at his recent filmography shall we:

Invictus - Not bad, but a little full of itself and formulaic

Gran Torino - Great lead performance from Clint, rest of the film pretty uneven

Million Dollar Baby - Again great performances, but I'm unsure how I feel about the ending and the way that Hilary Swank's family is portrayed borders on mencia level subtlety

Mystic River - I think this is one of the stronger ones, but overall I can't shale the feeling that it feels its a little more important than it actually is

Space Cowboys - Gold, exception that proves the rule

Unforgiven - I'll admit I've only seen this once and it was over a decade ago, but I remember feeling severely underwhelmed when all was said and done. Whatever

Anyway this brings us to his current offering, Hereafter, which I found to be tedious as all get out. The film's pace is languid to say the least, and I found myself paying a lot of attention to how much time was spent following people walking, or doing other similiarly mundane tasks. Never a good sign. The film reminded me a lot of the Brad Pitt vehicle Babel, in that it follows multiple 'seemingly' disconnected stories only to bring them all together in as contrived manner as possible at the end to make some grand point that it didn't earn. In Hereafter's case we have three different storylines, only one of which is even remotely interesting (Matt Damon as a legit psychic who really doesn't want to be). The other two (a boy who lost his twin in a car accident, and a french reporter who had a near death experience in a tsunami) just never connected with me, and for all the film's ruminations on what happens after we die nothing ever feels particularly profound. Really there's not even any debate that there is an afterlife as they make it perfectly clear that Damon's character can communicate the dead.

So yeah, the whole thing just didn't connect with me on any level. However if Clint decides to pony up for the Expendables sequel I'm there. Also I'm fully aware that when I see JAckass 3-D in a few weeks and give it a positive review it will confirm everything you ever thought about me.