The things in my life that receive the most scorn are: things that are deemed good when they are average and things that have wasted potential.

More than two years after first hearing about "Garden State" I finally saw it and realized why I dislike it so much. It takes things that I can relate to and makes them seem trite. One thing I feel art should do, especially movies, is to comment on things in life and give a new view point or expand on an old one. Instead, "Garden State" takes things that are familiar to me and makes me hate them. It is one thing to be like "Just Friends" or "Step Up" because I know that those movies are going to be bad before I see them. "Garden State" on the other hand tricks you by examining aspects of life that are interesting but then does a bad job of following through with it.

It is unfortunate when things gain expectations for reasons beyond their control. I can imagine a universe where "Garden State" is a nice little film and everyone agrees that they wouldn't buy it for 10 but would buy it on sale for 5. Congratulations "Garden State" you're the Robert Gallery of movies.