The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 scifi thriller starring Matt Damon, and Emily Blunt. It was based upon a Phillip K. Dick short story called "The Adjustment Team". Matt Damon plays David Norris, a NY State politician seeking a seat in the US Senate. Emily Blunt plays Elise Sellas, a woman whom fate does not want him to be with. John Slattery from AMC's Mad Men plays a character named Richardson, who is a member of the ominous Adjustment Bureau.

I had high hopes for The Adjustment Bureau. If memory serves, the trailers made it out to be a sci-fi thriller. So when I went out and purchased the movie, that was what I was expecting. That was not the case. I would have considered it more of a romance, with some sci-fi undertones. The thrills were not so thrilling. Matt Damon is a great actor, Emily Blunt is great, and I love Slattery's character on Mad Men. There were so many lines in the movie like "We cannot sense you near water," and "Our special hats are what let us go through doors," the Bureau was able to use doors to movie quickly through space, that just screamed "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS. THIS IS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT LATER." Every time I hear these lines all I can think of is that scene in Wayne's World when Wayne and Garth get locked out of the Alice Cooper concert and they are talking to Chris Farley's character, the security guard. I believe the line Wayne says is "For a security guard, he had a lot of information, don't you think?" Then him and Garth giggle into the camera. Once that information because relevant again they say something like, "Aren't we lucky we were there to get that information? It seemed extraneous at the time." I feel like if I can tell that you are giving us as a viewer is blatantly a MacGuffin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin then you need to work on your story telling.

The other thing that was disappointing was that, which I seem to always find this to be the case, but Philip K. Dick's stories are real hit and miss when translated to film. Total Recall is a mindless action movie, Blade Runner is great if you watch the correct version, Paycheck let me wanting more, as did A Scanner Darkly, and Next stars Nicolas Cage and he is never in anything good. If so many of this guys stories are "worthy" of being turned into film, why do they flop so much? Why cannot adaptations of his work be received like The Godfather, or The Lord of the Rings, or Silence of the Lambs?

Did not enjoy this movie.

2 out of 5 stars.