Its Lawrences first movie since the controversial and divisivemother!last year.
Nashawaty:Leah, weve all been seeing trailers forRed Sparrowfor a while now.
Actually that, and whats the deal withLawrences Boris & Natasha Russian accent?
Credit: Murray Close/Twentieth Century Fox
What do you think, is it any good?
The movie, not the accent.
Well, I guess both…
Greenblatt:The accent was a real hurdle.
But seriously, I think I went intoSparrowexpecting something very slick and camp;Atomic Blondein a tutu.
The visuals were mostly grim, grey cityscapes, and the violence was brutal, not balletic.
Which is ironic of course, considering Lawrences character is a fallen prima ballerina.
Fool me four or five times, shame on… well, pretty much everybody involved.
Nashawaty:Is it too late to get the airline version ofRed Sparrowdubbed into Transylvanian Creole?
Because I think thats the only way I would voluntarily watch this movie again.
Not that its terrible.
Its totally fine in a forgettable sort of way.
Clearly she trusts the director, Francis Lawrence, who worked with her on theHunger Gamesmovies.
Shes too big of a star to be playing the Sean Young role inNo Way Out.
Who do you think seemed to be having the most fun?
Greenblatt:Mary Louise Parkers boozy Senate staffer was definitely in her own, much funner movie.
Though I think youre right, theyre A-level guys hustling hard to bring C material up to a B.
(All actual current events aside.)
Which begs the question: What doesSparrowbring to the cineplex that hasnt been done before, and better?
Still, Id watch it on a rainy day, or an airplane.
Or a rainy airplane.
Would you not go that far?
Nashawaty:I think that sounds about right.
Unfortunately, theyre only about 10 percent of the movie.
The other 90 percent is a mix of utterly pedestrian and shamelessly prurient.
