Why I loved Dazed (10/10) and not this (6-7/10) - spoilers.

lets just say it was alot better than i thought it would be.

Enough about Eyes Wide Shut.

I'm right with you. You're more kind to it than I am, actually.

Your fourth observation points to an especially galling tactic by Linklater: ripping off his own scenes. And yes, I can imagine the arguments for this. Some directors have "trademarks", if you will, like the Kubrick demonic close-up or the low-angle Tarentino shot (opening the trunk in Reservoir Dogs, e.g.). It just doesn't seem that way here. It comes across as a lazy, perhaps, and maybe even a little desperate in its attempt to recreate the "magic" as you put it of Dazed, where the characters seemed to be real people inhabiting a real world. For the most part, not only are these characters unpleasant, they are unforgivably bland or cartoonish.

There are even a number of wasted opportunities. Precious time is devoted to quasi-philosophic conversations that come off mildly preachy, instead of insightful and revealing. Their conclusions often have an air of "do what you feel" banality, when just a little bit of passion and principle would have not only gone a long way, it could have provided an idea of what makes these guys tick, and just been plain more interesting. There aren't any stakes. This film wants to be anything and everything, which ironically wipes it clean of any real identity.

I very much wanted to love this movie as well. But we shouldn't have to force ourselves to like it (to be fair, there are, in fact, a few things I did like about it). It's simply a mediocre film, imo.

And there definitely was potential in this cast. Some of them are clearly athletes, which could have been used to great effect (we see this during the baseball sequence, which I wish was more integrated into the whole). Our lead guy, Jake, comes off as so bland, but I blame the director more than the actor. The actor had a certain vaguely Erik Estrada-like charm that I remember a certain sect of guys having back then. Ladies loved them and guys wanted to be them. And they weren't all jerks either. Some of those type of guys were very cool individuals. Jake could have been that guy. But they never let him inhabit that persona. It starts with the bad wig and awkward clothes and continues from there. And this is not just 1980 fashion awkward, it's just poorly done. The actor never looks comfortable in his environment and, at times, looks downright nerdy. Should never have been.

I agree with nearly everything said here. One thing I'll add - I really didn't like the portrayal of women in this film. I found the depth of the female roles in the film to be like clip-art. American Pie had more fleshed out female roles than this movie, ffs. It actually reminds me of Sam Peckinpah films, it's that bad.

I'm still struggling to understand what the *beep* this movie was supposed to be. Baffling.

I'll admit I an no expert on whatsoever on Richard Linklater movies. The basic knock on anyone criticizing this movie on here seems to be that we should expect this movie from him. I do love Dazed and Confused though and it's one of those movies from my youth that holds a special place for me. I enjoyed watching this movie, but I can't really see myself watching it again where as I have watched Dazed and Confused many times. I agree with some of the points in the original post, and what the movie lacked.

I think part of the reason it didn't grab me is maybe I can't really relate to a bunch of baseball jocks as the main characters. And from my days in a rural school, I just can't imagine a group of jocks who would be open minded enough to be going to Punk shows, discos, and art parties, and seemingly fitting in everywhere and getting along with everyone. I was young in the 80's, but I just don't remember things being like that.

Dazed and Confused also had such a mix of people as main characters. Just easier to relate to I think,

Asking me to help you embrace this film is futile. I think I gave this one a 5. Like you, Dazed was either a 9 or 10 in my book. Point 1 is the telling of the tale here. Watching Dazed, I felt like I was one of the ones wearing rebel gray. I was not watching the film as much as I was immersed in it. Much better characterization in Dazed. Even the mailbox shooter and quicky mart clerk stand out in my mind to this day. I barely remember any of the leads in Want Some. And unfortunately for Linklater, I don't really care.

I agree with all of that. EWS felt very lacking in most areas. The sets and clothes were great but the characters and charm was missing. I don’t remember any of the characters and see them as rather bland. I could identify with several characters in DAC and had friends that resembled others. EWS is just hollow