The Old Man and the Sea (1990)
If I weren’t honoring Anthony Quinn as Hot Toasty Rag’s Star of the Week, I never would have sat through The Old Man and the Sea. As it was, I had to give myself a manicure and a pedicure while watching it just to save my sanity by not giving the movie my full attention.
I’m not really a Hemingway fan anyway, and this story is far from my favorite. In it, an old man goes out to sea to try and catch a fish, even though everyone tells him he’s too old. He’s out there for months, waiting to catch a fish, talking to himself and annoying the pants off the audience. As a side plot, that I supposed was written to help audiences not start screaming—but for me, it had the opposite effect—Gary Cole and Patricia Clarkson are on-again, off-again lovers in town who sometimes talk about Anthony Quinn’s futile boat trip but mostly talk about their very boring struggle between needing to find themselves and wanting to stay together. Gary just didn’t know what to do with the terrible lines he was given, and Patricia did her usual delivery of, “In using an annoying monotone, I’m actually showing how profound these words are.” Then of course, there’s the young boy, Alexis Cruz, who idolizes and believes in Anthony Quinn, even though he really has no reason to.
If you actually like this story, feel free to disregard my review. Perhaps this is a very well done version, but since I can’t stand it, it drove me crazy. I didn’t like Moby Dick either. I preferred All is Lost. There’s much better acting, hardly any talking, and no irritating side plots.
More Anthony Quinn movies here!
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1958's The Old Man and the Sea here!
I’m not really a Hemingway fan anyway, and this story is far from my favorite. In it, an old man goes out to sea to try and catch a fish, even though everyone tells him he’s too old. He’s out there for months, waiting to catch a fish, talking to himself and annoying the pants off the audience. As a side plot, that I supposed was written to help audiences not start screaming—but for me, it had the opposite effect—Gary Cole and Patricia Clarkson are on-again, off-again lovers in town who sometimes talk about Anthony Quinn’s futile boat trip but mostly talk about their very boring struggle between needing to find themselves and wanting to stay together. Gary just didn’t know what to do with the terrible lines he was given, and Patricia did her usual delivery of, “In using an annoying monotone, I’m actually showing how profound these words are.” Then of course, there’s the young boy, Alexis Cruz, who idolizes and believes in Anthony Quinn, even though he really has no reason to.
If you actually like this story, feel free to disregard my review. Perhaps this is a very well done version, but since I can’t stand it, it drove me crazy. I didn’t like Moby Dick either. I preferred All is Lost. There’s much better acting, hardly any talking, and no irritating side plots.
More Anthony Quinn movies here!
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1958's The Old Man and the Sea here!