The Sci Fi Guy

It’s hard to admit sometimes when you enjoy a guilty pleasure that essentially everyone has said time and time again is bad for you. The world of Science Fiction is no better off - critics from all sides have weighed in on some titles and rendered them meritless, stupid, and downright bad. One of those examples that comes to mind is Kevin Costner’s post-apocalypse The Postman.

First off, the truth. I liked The Postman even before I knew what a single reviewer or friend had to say about it. Once I did realize that it was panned as a goofy post apocalypse story of essentially zero merit, I shared my enjoyment of this film with only a select few. Well, this Internet thing changes who those “select few” are, and so it’s without the guilt and shame of childhood that I say once and for all, “I liked that movie!”

Okay, there’s really nothing spectacular about The Postman. It delivers a sappy story about postmen, which I still don’t quite see as being the most important link from one town to the other. It seems so much easier to believe that radios would’ve survived the devestation that wiped out our future history. But, alas, if its postmen that are needed to restore order and faith in the future, so be it.

What Postman delivers is a couple hours of suspend-your-belief-of-what-the-future-even-after-an-apocalypse should be like story. The good-versus-evil between Costner and Will Patton (as the silly General Bethlehem: former copy machine salesman turned war monger) is enjoyable, since Patton delivers a performance that kinda makes you like the crazy leader of the war tribe he’s set up. Just like Dennis Hopper’s “smokers” of Waterworld, the Holnists are the archetype “stormtroopers”. I’m pretty sure their slogan would be “be bad because someone has to.”

Okay, it’s a junky movie. It’s a guilty sin. It’s ordering cheesecake when you’re on a diet. Sure you shouldn’t have it, and even more you shouldn’t enjoy it. But it’s there and sometimes you just need some mindless joy. Thanks, Kevin. Got time for a sequel?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Science Fiction Movies, post apocalypse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.