For multiple years, I have taken part in Dell’s Against the Crowd Blogathon. Last year, because I completely blanked out about it, I missed it. This year I’m participating again because this is one fun blogathon! The idea is to pick one movie that everyone loves but you dislike, and vice versa. To go against the crowd! I’ve traditionally picked romance movies to defend so this year won’t be any different. It’s also a bit sad that I have so many romance movies up my sleeve at this point. There seems to be a lot of hate for them, even the good ones. So it’s not surprising this genre has dwindled over the years.

The hype around The Florida Project was huge. It got a lot of festival buzz and all around, I thought it was very well received in the blogging community as well. I hated it. No, maybe hate is too strong of a word but I did dislike it in a very huge capacity. The movie was simply too boring, too slow paced and it had close to no actual plot that I could recall at the moment. It reminded me of Estonian films that want to “say a lot” by “showing a lot” but end up saying not much at all. I can understand why it is liked simply because I’m nice like that. Other than that, this movie does not deserve these high scores in my opinion.

With romance comedies, critics seem to be meaner than usual. And well, yes, the audiences sometimes agree with them but I can’t agree with these Catch and Release scores. I love this movie! It has emotion, it has some great scenes and it’s worth watching every now and then. Also, in case that wasn’t enough, it has Timothy Olyphant. Do you need any other reasons? I think not! Other things to love about this movie is how it portrays grief. I also love Juliette Lewis’ character. There’s just so much fun in this movie! Plus, it is written by Susanne Grant who also wrote Erin Brockovich so maybe the hate for Catch and Release stems from that. People went to see it expecting Erin type drama, and got a romance comedy instead.


Since today is the last day to participate, I’m just gonna leave a LINK HERE, in case you want to look over the rules. 

2

10 Comments

  • I’m weeping a bit on the inside because I love The Florida Project, but that’s what we’re here for, right? Haven’t seen Catch and Release, but now I want to. I mean, Timothy Olyphant sounds like a good enough reason for me.

    Thanks for joining us again!

    • You are not the only one who loves Florida Project and I’m okay with it. I won’t aggressively hate on it actively. Just here, just this once. 😀

      Thanks for hosting again! 🙂

  • I live in Florida and pass by that strip of road / hotel from The Florida Project all the time…I’ve struggled to watch it because that area doesn’t look as ‘mystical’ or ‘Hollywoodized’ as the movie makes it out to be. lol Nice picks!

    • Hah, see, that’s what I was feeling. I feel like it wanted to be or show something epic but like, I don’t know. 😀 Glad you like Catch and Release! 😛

  • I didn’t love but did like Catch and Release, much more than I expected too actually. It’s innocuous and predictable but I’ve certainly sat through much worse.

    For whatever reason I got a Boyhood vibe from The Florida Project. I don’t know what it was but the poster just made me think of the other film and I detest that movie (I actually used it for this blogathon one year) so I’ve never had any desire to see it and from your description it sounds like I made the right call.

    • It is predictable but considering what kind of romance comedies are here at the moment, it stands out for me. But I can totally see why everyone isn’t a huge fan.
      Oh, I disliked Boyhood so much. They are indeed similar movies!

  • I wanted to like Catch and Release more than I did. Honestly, I think there wasn’t enough Timothy Olyphant in it.

    • It was, I mean, Timothy was great! But like, he could just stand there and do nothing, and he’d be great. 😀

Leave a Reply