MESMERIZED BY "THE ROOM"

don't say we didn't warn you

Normally, I'm not into bad movies for the sake of bad movies - I never was an Ed Wood fan or followed Mystery Science Theater 3000. However, I was reading EW's recent feature about the 2003 film, The Room by writer/director/producer/actor Tommy Wiseu and it just sounded too good (or, er, bad) not to check out. I first started with this trailer and by that point, I was game:



So then I managed to, ahem, "acquire" it. And then watched it with my wife (who is even less into "bad movies for the sake of badness" than I am).

It was completely mesmerizing. As Sharon put it, it was "so fascinating because it was so bizarre" whereas I kept going back to this quote from the EW article: "It's not like there's one or two or three things that are bad about it. There are several hundred."

That's not an exaggeration. Every scene in the film has something completely off with it - the script, the acting, the timing of the dialogue, subplots that go absolutely nowhere, characters who make no sense, etc.

It's as if a plane crashed into a train which then demolished a bridge and then the debris fell onto a nuclear reactor which then blew up. But instead of being tragic, it's completely awesome.

For those of you who manage to track down a copy (it's available on DVD and "circulating" online elsewhere), I highly recommend group viewings - this was meant to be shared. Like love. Or chocolate. Or lice...whatever.

Just see this.

Here are a few inside jokes to whet your appetite:

*Rose petals
*Denny
*"The tests came back."
*"Let's throw the ball around."
*San Francisco skylines.
*Tuxedos.
*Buying flowers.
*Chocolates.

--O.W.