One of the worst movies in history? Chris Pine’s directorial debut is showered with savage criticism

The end of summer, as you know, makes people angry. And to film critics, even more so, because it marks the beginning of that festival season how much work it entails. So, sometimes you want to choose a perch of blows on which to unleash all your fury… and this year it seems that it was the turn of Chris Pine.

The actor of Star Trek and Wonder Woman He debuted behind the camera with Poolman, a film that he also stars in and that has been released in the Toronto Festival. Much to Pine’s chagrin, we fear, the film could earn a place on the list of worst movies of the decade If no others appear to replace it in the focus of the nibs.

Why does everyone hate ‘Poolman’?

With a cast that also includes Danny DeVito, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Annette Bening, Among others, the film is a parody of the mystery genre similar in its premises to The Big Lebowski. Its script, written by Pine himself and Ian Gotler, tells the story of a disastrous pool guard in Los Angeles who uncovers a conspiracy centered on the city’s water supply. Echoes of Chinatown? Well, it will be yes.

At the moment, the film only has 22% positive opinions on Rotten Tomatoes. And practically all the most important titles of the Anglo-Saxon press have agreed to go after her, dedicating very unkind words to her.

Thus, despite declaring himself a fan of Pine, the Variety critic Owen Gleiberman states: “It is not only The worst movie I’ve seen during the fall festival season, but it would also have been one of the worst films of any year in which it was released.

On IndieWire, Siddhant Adlakha describes her as “disastrous” from the same owner. If it weren’t for Pine’s presence, the critic adds, “it would be easy to take ‘Poolman’ for the attempt to make a film by aliens who only knew cinema by hearsay”. “It lasts 100 minutes, but more than 99 of them are spent in silent boredom, if not irritation,” he emphasizes.

“Do yourself a favor and review The Big Lebowski instead of seeing this,” he advises Matt Maytum in the British Total Film. While, in The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen laughs at attempts to “reinvent chinatown like a movie Coen brothers” and talks about an “insufferably tedious” story that is only saved by the interpretation of Stephen Tobolowski as a rabbi who acts as a drag queen (imitating Blanche of The golden girls, for more details).

Sometimes, films directed by movie stars unfairly earn the hatred of the press. In others, films overly ambitious are massacred upon their release and later reach the status of cult classics. Is this the case of Poolman? It’s still early to say, but one thing is clear to us: judging by these opinions, Chris Pine is unlikely to get behind the camera again for a long time.

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