Postman

Year: 1997

Grade: D

Country: USA

Director: Costner

Review

the first half of the three hour film was very average and had me thinking that its reputation as an awful film was undeserved; then came the second half. it’s basically just a rehash of waterworld (with a bit of battlefield earth mixed in), and not a very good one. it’s not that the film is unable to convince us of the symbolic importance of the mail (a seemingly difficult task), it’s that the screenplay has too much slack and the characters aren’t well-drawn. from a directorial point of view, the film is too melodramatic and doesn’t earn the right to be so. the score can be a bit much and decisions to switch to slow motion are often ill-advised. not a very good film, but it’s still no battlefield earth or gigli.