This Chris Pine film is a 100-minute snooze-fest: One of the worst of 2023

Hope…

The origin of the film Poolman is rather incongruous. Chris Pine, famous actor who we saw in Dungeons & Dragons: Thieves' Honor, Star Trek and Comancheria, was chatting one day with Patrty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman (in which he also appears): hence the idea for a story about a very, very unlucky swimming pool technician was born. Then, one thing leading to another, what was more of a joke turned into a real project. A project that Chris Pine himself ultimately directed, in addition to having co-written it with Ian Gotler.

A twist of fate, Pine nevertheless affirming “that he never really wanted to direct”, but that it was a combination of circumstances pushing him to direct Poolman for good in 2022. He thus plays the title role and shares the cast with other big names Danny DeVito, Anette Bening or DeWanda Wise, all in an offbeat tone and imbued with a certain good humor. The story is therefore that of a swimming pool technician who is tasked with investigating a theft… of water, which brings him into an unfortunate situation.

In the comments to the trailer (which can be viewed in our player above), some compare the film to a cross between The Big Lebowski and Inherent Vice, which are completely honorable references. Except… the press feedback is (really) not good.

…drowned before his time

Given the big names involved, Poolman didn't have too much difficulty getting people to talk about him. It was notably presented through many festivals and will be released in all American cinemas on May 10, 2024: only that, the press is anything but tender towards the feature film, it is just catastrophic.

“Disastrous. It's only 100 minutes long, but chances are you'll spend more than 99 of those minutes in silent boredom or irritated disbelief that you've been subjected to such innocent and naive nonsense.”says IndieWire for example after viewing the film during the Toronto Film Festival.

“Not only was it the worst film I saw during the fall festival season, but it would probably be one of the worst films of any year of release”, also releases the famous media Variety. Outch. Overall, these slightly negative opinions seem to be shared since Poolman results with an average of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.

A real cold shower for Chris Pine, for whom this is also the first film made. “Chris Pine's first film is a failure. Do yourself and everyone involved a favor by rewatching The Big Lebowski”, is launching Total Film. This shows that you shouldn't always trust trailers: in France, the feature film still has no release date… if indeed there is one planned.

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