THE WALL (THE MOVIE)

What an utterly miserable movie to watch! I consider myself a PINK FLOYD fan, but this project was only barely under the control of the band. I have no idea what possessed ALAN PARKER and GERALD SCARFE to do some of the things they did with this, but overall, the movie comes off as a very pretentious and very graphic attempt to pretend to be an "art film" pushing the boundaries of cinema. They pushed boundaries all right...the boundary of what I can watch without going completely out of my mind. The movie is simply too abstract for what is in the album a much more straightforward story, and as for certain scenes...that simply doesn't float my boat. I guess others might do all right watching that sort of graphic thing, but it's not my style.

The only thing that is keeping me from dragging it all the way down to one star is the fact that PINK FLOYD's music really isn't that bad, including the tracks missing from the album like the wonderful "What Shall We Do Now". Also, I do have to admit some of the animation is excellent--but some sections are utterly needless. The movie vacillates between completely shocking and completely boring me...I'm sorry to say I only got halfway through it before I had to turn it off, and I can only report honestly about that. This isn't like when I say I can't sit through DREAM THEATER's Scenes from a Memory, where I like the individual components on their own...I simply could not tolerate this experience at all because it's an absolute overload.

And based on what I did see, though, I have absolutely no need to try again. Don't buy this DVD until you've rented it once and are sure that this is really your thing.