To all these people saying Mark is only slating this film because it was directed by Madonna. He loved her in Evita and even said she should have been nominated for an Oscar. Trust me, if he liked the film, he'd be the first to admit it.
If anyone thinks the Oscar nomination for costume design is some sort of vindication of the film's quality - remember that Norbit was nominated for best makeup. Doesn't mean it's not terrible.
@mediasansnom Or maybe he actually loves cinema as a medium, and hates to see it shat upon from a great height by vanity projects. The funding for this could have made twenty interesting indie projects
Yes they did all you said but as I said previously they were not alone in that. Also, it is not wise trying to understand their actions after the fact as we do not understand the full context of what was going on at the time. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie and that is all it is, a movie, not a documentary. :)
Madonna : was in Evita and W.E, can't help but think she has a tendancy to romancise people with discutable political views if they are able to show themselves as glamourous enough
To those charging that Mark Kermode has an obvious dislike for Madonna and that's what is fuelling this review, he has gone on record a few times saying that she was brilliant in 'Evita' and that she was robbed of an Oscar nomination.
@didilietoo I never said Madonna was a victim.. The movie just should of been in wide release.. Lots of horrible movies are in 2,000 theatres across the country and they either to well or bomb..If you didnt like the movie then fine.. However I have not seen it due to its limited release, and when I do see the movie. Hell, I may not like it...The movie just should of been given a chance... The movie is now in 20 theatres across America now! lol
@MrTomasDUDA Bidisha isn't a critic, she's just a rent-a-mouth who the Observer dragged into that panel for reasons unknown. Amusing how she thinks Nazi sympathisers are more sympathetic than people trying to overcome disabilities, though.
@MrTomasDUDA Drive - only one Oscar nomination. Still eats most other films this year for breakfast. I suspect W.E. may do rather better at the Razzies
Well when something takes so much money as a movie it should be critiqued artistically. So everyone has their own opinion, critics watch 10 movies a week, they can see what is worthwhile film making and what isn't.
For a film critic he did totally fail to see the point of the movie. "In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she PERCEIVES as the ultimate love story". Watching the film you can't fail to notice that Wally Winthrop is obsessed with a fantasy to the point that she imagines talking to Wallis Simpson. The film is miss marketed and with a few flaws but it is by no means a bad movie
@enuthal1 I can't comment to much on it because I haven't seen the film and I don't plan to. I have heard the song that won a Golden Globe and it was pretty awful and I'm too young to really know much about Madonna and I don't really care about her or have anything against her. From the way it sounds the film seems to portray that they weren't Nazi sympathizers which is factually wrong and quite a big inaccuracy.
@Suzz78 " Oh, and guess what, Madonna's W.E. is a thousand times better than royal borefest The King's Snooze, in which a man spends two hours overcoming a speech impediment while Helena Bonham Carter looks on. W.E. actually has proper roles for women in it - and, sorry haters, Madonna can direct." official expression of critic
@enuthal1 No he does not. Madonna is judged on her past work, even acting and singing, all directors who did other things before directing are. He gives dozens of examples of why the plot aka the writing is cack! When a script is bad-NOTHING can save a film. Leaving out their Nazi affiliations is like making a film on HUAC and leaving out McCarthy and Hoover! is supposed to be all "brave and challenging" and she just made a fashion spread/vanity project and that's why it has flopped.
i'm a huge madonna fan, but i have no interest in her acting or directing, i wish her all the best but i just can't say that i enjoy her movies, sorry.
This movie just got a bad wrap cause Madonna directed it.. If someone else directed it Im sure the critics would luv it I'll never understand when Madonna did act she get good reviews for supporting roles and bad reviews for th movies she got top billing for. I know sum of them were bad movies but just doesnt make sense to me. I neve thought Madonna was the greatest actress but lets face it there are actors out there that make 20 million a picture and cant act there way out of a paper bag!
I agree with Mark, I have been a Madonna fan for years but in the last 10 years she just produce rubbish after rubbish and this film is the cherry on the top of the pile of s***t. Once thing only I think everyone forget Abel korzeniowski soundtrack is beautiful and that is the only thing that I loved about this whole Madonna's project.
If it were NOT Madonna's film it would be ignored but for a costume nod at the Oscars. The academy rewards any film with good costumes w/a nod. FAR better films are ignored because they don't have the Weinstein PR machine for endless, endless "premiers" like this. She should not make narcissistic hagiographies of rich Nazi sympathizers if she wants an audience beyond her fans. Her film would have been popular in Nazi Germany or the Vichy era but not today.
For heaven's sake, please mix the audio before you post your videos. I can hardly hear anything even after raising the volume on my computer as high as I can!
I think it is clear that John Lydon (who allowed the song to be used) knew it was going to be so horrendously awful that he could not resist. And he was right!
Critics and were so unfairl rude to Madonna when it came to this movie. It was unfairly judged and and wasnt given the proper release in theatres like it shouldve deserved. Its a bloody good movie, beter than alot of crap thts out there, but it got some bad reviews just because madonna directed it. So people have tall poppy syndrome. WELL DONE MADONNA ON A FINE MOVIE!
Maddonna can't direct. If this movie doesn't state the obvious, she's just gonna keep at it. She's just trying to be the same, if not better than her ex husband is at the directing. And He is in my opinion, not the best director around.
I had read reviews on W.E but still wanted to watch it for the actors and the general story, I thought it was a brilliant film, beautiful and stylist but still great acting. I can see faults, every film has them but I do think W.E is slated just because who directed it...and now I respect Madonna (her music isn't my taste), but it does seem people made their minds up before the film and everybody jumped on the hate bandwagon...
I also liked it. Not the best movie I have ever seen but it is good and does not, in any way deserve to be ridiculed and dissected as Mark did in his piece.
That's her fault as a filmmaker for postponing the original release date of the Christmas holiday and pushing it back to do a big corporate loop with the Super Bowl and the flop singles. Madonna and Harvey W were VERY foolish to pass up one of the biggest US movie ticket weeks of 2011. Angelina Jolie's film "The Land of Blood and Honey" is far superior but it is getting barely an attention and when she is criticized for being a novice she and her fans are not crying out "victim".
@didilietoo None of what you wrote made any sense. First madonna is a victim because she can't direct, can't write and won't take acting lessons. Then what you perceive to be the failure of more popular actors is supposed to excuse her or make her bad acting ok? W.E. is one of the worst films I've ever seen-it was murky and lame.
Director Madonna’s dreary sense of direction is poor as the film’s unfocused, poorly written, poorly acted, cheesy & an incredibly dreadful biopic. (11%) (1/5 stars) (negative)
Bloody hell this sounds like an utter pile of smelly stuff , i hate it when they make historical films and revise history to suit their crappy ideas ,nothing worst .
I just don't understand..its just entertainment. All of this pretentiousness and reading so much into things. I guess we all have different taste. I liked the movie.
Having seen the film I can say that yes he does have some valid points the script is bad and Abbie Cornish is a horrendous actress. But Madonna has said time and time again she did not set out to make a biopic. Her main theme of a story is how the duchess of windors life became an obsession and inspiration for a a women living in the present to search for a better life. This guy clearly has something against Madonna. Masterpiece having might I say deserved the globe win is more catchier than El
Nobody knows for sure if they were Nazi sympthasiers. People say that because they met them but so did many other powerful people and politicians just as today. Look at all the politicians who met with Ghadaffi and others.
As well as Kermode's terrific reviews, I love watching the technicians cracking up in the background.
To all these people saying Mark is only slating this film because it was directed by Madonna. He loved her in Evita and even said she should have been nominated for an Oscar. Trust me, if he liked the film, he'd be the first to admit it.
"I care about these people less than I do about the people in Sex and the City 2"
That pretty much tells you everything you need to know.
I love the phrase "plumbing adventures." I shall always use it wherever relevant.
Glad Simon Mayo called out people trying to revise facts and history.
If anyone thinks the Oscar nomination for costume design is some sort of vindication of the film's quality - remember that Norbit was nominated for best makeup. Doesn't mean it's not terrible.
The best comment ever!
Just a further thought, her ex made Revolver........
Love the guys in the production booth at 2:00 laughing at Mayo's line.
hahah dang this guy is cold. The peeps in the backgroudn just smilin.
It is a great looking movie. The art direction and cinematography are top notch. However, everything else is laughable.
"The police are Effitie-Jeffities?"
Oh, the dialogue gems you hear on this show...
Edward said ....'if they won't have me as king, they can have me as leader.
The reference at 1.00 really pleased the guys in the background. I wonder if he/they won a bet.
@sabalos Was it not the remake? Possibly?
On the plus side, nice skirts.
@mediasansnom Or maybe he actually loves cinema as a medium, and hates to see it shat upon from a great height by vanity projects. The funding for this could have made twenty interesting indie projects
@sabalos Zero was a master. Love him as the Albatross in Watership Down and in a very rarer film with Harry Belafonte called The Angel Levine.
"madcap nutsiness" - brilliant
I'm going to pass that phrase as my own in the future, cheers Mark
:)
Yes they did all you said but as I said previously they were not alone in that. Also, it is not wise trying to understand their actions after the fact as we do not understand the full context of what was going on at the time. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie and that is all it is, a movie, not a documentary. :)
Madonna : was in Evita and W.E, can't help but think she has a tendancy to romancise people with discutable political views if they are able to show themselves as glamourous enough
@enuthal1 In the same way that diptheria is actually quite good?
This movie was only released in 4 theatres in the US!!
@Princeaj200 Norbit was also nominated for an Oscar. A nomination doesn't necessarily mean that the film is any good.
To those charging that Mark Kermode has an obvious dislike for Madonna and that's what is fuelling this review, he has gone on record a few times saying that she was brilliant in 'Evita' and that she was robbed of an Oscar nomination.
How to put off potential viewers on a movie poster?
Above the title 'W.E.' 'A Film By Madonna'.
What next? The Charles Manson Summer Camp?
@didilietoo I never said Madonna was a victim.. The movie just should of been in wide release.. Lots of horrible movies are in 2,000 theatres across the country and they either to well or bomb..If you didnt like the movie then fine.. However I have not seen it due to its limited release, and when I do see the movie. Hell, I may not like it...The movie just should of been given a chance... The movie is now in 20 theatres across America now! lol
@MrTomasDUDA Bidisha isn't a critic, she's just a rent-a-mouth who the Observer dragged into that panel for reasons unknown. Amusing how she thinks Nazi sympathisers are more sympathetic than people trying to overcome disabilities, though.
"No, no, no, no and NO'. Perfect!
@bingdiddley To be fair, W.E. has made me reconsider Norbit. It now appears to be a masterpiece in comparison
@MrTomasDUDA Drive - only one Oscar nomination. Still eats most other films this year for breakfast. I suspect W.E. may do rather better at the Razzies
@enuthal1 Actually its a film that has been universally panned.
@hanshotfirst1138 i wouldn't dare presume to comment on that. But what is wrong with historically preposterous?
Zero Mostel not Dom Delouise
Brilliant thumbnail.
The guys behind laughing make this review that extra bit golden!!
Maddonna collects another raspberry award .
Stop holding back, Mark. Tell us all how you REALLY feel.
Well when something takes so much money as a movie it should be critiqued artistically. So everyone has their own opinion, critics watch 10 movies a week, they can see what is worthwhile film making and what isn't.
If the Sex Pistols are so anti royalty how do they feel about free downloads?
Not Dom DeLuise in The Producers...
Zero Mostel?
For a film critic he did totally fail to see the point of the movie. "In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she PERCEIVES as the ultimate love story". Watching the film you can't fail to notice that Wally Winthrop is obsessed with a fantasy to the point that she imagines talking to Wallis Simpson. The film is miss marketed and with a few flaws but it is by no means a bad movie
@GlossyShoes this guy is right, pt2.
@MrBronzefonz
Class!
@enuthal1 I can't comment to much on it because I haven't seen the film and I don't plan to. I have heard the song that won a Golden Globe and it was pretty awful and I'm too young to really know much about Madonna and I don't really care about her or have anything against her. From the way it sounds the film seems to portray that they weren't Nazi sympathizers which is factually wrong and quite a big inaccuracy.
@Suzz78 " Oh, and guess what, Madonna's W.E. is a thousand times better than royal borefest The King's Snooze, in which a man spends two hours overcoming a speech impediment while Helena Bonham Carter looks on. W.E. actually has proper roles for women in it - and, sorry haters, Madonna can direct." official expression of critic
All the dislikes are by irate wrestling fans who didn't notice the missing E.
@MrBronzefonz Mark. Even more than Cooking With Dennis Neilsen.
@ilovetati91 Neither does Madonna, it seems
I suppose Madonna rather watched some crap like "Moulin Rouge" rather than Copolla's movie.... anyways - nice rant!
Best rant so far... It´s epic in every way.. Almost fell down laughing on the bus, people thought i was having a seizure XD
nice one gd.
@woofalot13 no you can make that much worse. have madonna make it
@didilietoo Not any more...
He doesn't get the use of the Sex Pistols.
@enuthal1 No he does not. Madonna is judged on her past work, even acting and singing, all directors who did other things before directing are. He gives dozens of examples of why the plot aka the writing is cack! When a script is bad-NOTHING can save a film. Leaving out their Nazi affiliations is like making a film on HUAC and leaving out McCarthy and Hoover! is supposed to be all "brave and challenging"
and she just made a fashion spread/vanity project and that's why it has flopped.
shocks these comments awake , i just watched this movie , i liked it but im a drunk and a lier
i'm a huge madonna fan, but i have no interest in her acting or directing, i wish her all the best but i just can't say that i enjoy her movies, sorry.
so quiet
I want some raspberry pudding
@frogtastic1000 because her ego is too big my friend.
This movie just got a bad wrap cause Madonna directed it.. If someone else directed it Im sure the critics would luv it I'll never understand when Madonna did act she get good reviews for supporting roles and bad reviews for th movies she got top billing for. I know sum of them were bad movies but just doesnt make sense to me. I neve thought Madonna was the greatest actress but lets face it there are actors out there that make 20 million a picture and cant act there way out of a paper bag!
I agree with Mark, I have been a Madonna fan for years but in the last 10 years she just produce rubbish after rubbish and this film is the cherry on the top of the pile of s***t. Once thing only I think everyone forget Abel korzeniowski soundtrack is beautiful and that is the only thing that I loved about this whole Madonna's project.
If it were NOT Madonna's film it would be ignored but for a costume nod at the Oscars. The academy rewards any film with good costumes w/a nod. FAR better films are ignored because they don't have the Weinstein PR machine for endless, endless "premiers" like this. She should not make narcissistic hagiographies of rich Nazi sympathizers if she wants an audience beyond her fans. Her film would have been popular in Nazi Germany or the Vichy era but not today.
For heaven's sake, please mix the audio before you post your videos. I can hardly hear anything even after raising the volume on my computer as high as I can!
I think it is clear that John Lydon (who allowed the song to be used) knew it was going to be so horrendously awful that he could not resist. And he was right!
Critics and were so unfairl rude to Madonna when it came to this movie. It was unfairly judged and and wasnt given the proper release in theatres like it shouldve deserved. Its a bloody good movie, beter than alot of crap thts out there, but it got some bad reviews just because madonna directed it. So people have tall poppy syndrome. WELL DONE MADONNA ON A FINE MOVIE!
@enuthal1 Zero camp. Madonna has never been campy, funny or goofy in anything she does.
CHUNDER!!!!
Maddonna can't direct. If this movie doesn't state the obvious, she's just gonna keep at it. She's just trying to be the same, if not better than her ex husband is at the directing. And He is in my opinion, not the best director around.
“Insufficiently anti-Nazi in public”
I had read reviews on W.E but still wanted to watch it for the actors and the general story, I thought it was a brilliant film, beautiful and stylist but still great acting. I can see faults, every film has them but I do think W.E is slated just because who directed it...and now I respect Madonna (her music isn't my taste), but it does seem people made their minds up before the film and everybody jumped on the hate bandwagon...
This movie was directed by Madonna, of course it's gonna suck!
W.C. *flush*
I also liked it. Not the best movie I have ever seen but it is good and does not, in any way deserve to be ridiculed and dissected as Mark did in his piece.
That's her fault as a filmmaker for postponing the original release date of the Christmas holiday and pushing it back to do a big corporate loop with the Super Bowl and the flop singles. Madonna and Harvey W were VERY foolish to pass up one of the biggest US movie ticket weeks of 2011. Angelina Jolie's film "The Land of Blood and Honey" is far superior but it is getting barely an attention and when she is criticized for being a novice she and her fans are not crying out "victim".
It’s pretty nice to see REAL BRITS DUMPING on this utterly fecal movie!
I can't hear shit
I think W.E. was underrated. Years from now, critics will re-evaluate it.
As worse than they feel about it here!
@didilietoo None of what you wrote made any sense. First madonna is a victim because she can't direct, can't write and won't take acting lessons. Then what you perceive to be the failure of more popular actors is supposed to excuse her or make her bad acting ok? W.E. is one of the worst films I've ever seen-it was murky and lame.
@TheForeverM The film is awful. TOTAL RUBBISH.
Director Madonna’s dreary sense of direction is poor as the film’s unfocused, poorly written, poorly acted, cheesy & an incredibly dreadful biopic. (11%) (1/5 stars) (negative)
It was not that bad...ridiculous.
@MrTomasDUDA hahaha!! Madonna cannot direct, write or block a basic scene! hahaha E./W> HAS FLOPPED!
Bloody hell this sounds like an utter pile of smelly stuff , i hate it when they make historical films and revise history to suit their crappy ideas ,nothing worst .
I just don't understand..its just entertainment. All of this pretentiousness and reading so much into things. I guess we all have different taste. I liked the movie.
Having seen the film I can say that yes he does have some valid points the script is bad and Abbie Cornish is a horrendous actress. But Madonna has said time and time again she did not set out to make a biopic. Her main theme of a story is how the duchess of windors life became an obsession and inspiration for a a women living in the present to search for a better life. This guy clearly has something against Madonna. Masterpiece having might I say deserved the globe win is more catchier than El
Nobody knows for sure if they were Nazi sympthasiers. People say that because they met them but so did many other powerful people and politicians just as today. Look at all the politicians who met with Ghadaffi and others.
We now know for sure. They were.
HAHA :D :D lol W.E. 2 nominations Golden Globe (1WIN), 1 nomination OSCAR (?) :D :D eat this HATERS !!! :D
@MrTomasDUDA THE FILM IS GARBAGE!! Did not even make the UK Top ten all the US critics HATE it. FLOPDONNA!