Finally the infamous toilet scene from The Spirit, shown last month at Comic-Con, has been leaked online. And it’s just as bad as I imagined. Actually, it’s worse. Our own Kevin Kelly, who liveblogged the clip, described the setting as “extremely muddy and watery,” but I’d go so far as to say that stuff looks like shit. Considering the fact that a toilet is involved, I’m sure it is indeed shit, literally. I don’t think there’s been so much excrement in a movie since Trainspotting.
Now that I’ve seen the clip, I have to believe the makers of The Spirit actually mean for it to be humorous, but I wonder if those on stage (writer-director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and actors Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Jaime King) realize that the audience is laughing at the scene, not with it. OK, maybe some of the panel attendees seem to actually be enjoying the footage, but I definitely hear some awkward reactions in there, as well.
Such blatantly cartoonish slapstick action was barely tolerable in last year’s Shoot ‘Em Up, which at least attempted to be a commentary on violence. Do we really need more of this (excuse the word choice) shit? I have to agree with the response from I Watch Stuff: “The trombone slide was a nice touch, but I hope they aren’t done with the CGI yet. This scene could use some tweeting birds circling their heads.”
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog