Celldweller7
Inphrequent Poster
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« on: November 26, 2006, 05:38:22 PM » |
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I can't believe there is not a thread on this movie.
I thought it was good. It was honestly the best time I've had watching a movie in a while. It really reminded of why I was once addicted to movies.
I haven't come to a conclusion on how great a piece of art I think it is yet.
Anyway, I am sure someone else has seen this that has formed a deeper opinion of it than I have.
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AldaForPresident
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« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2006, 05:43:38 PM » |
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I liked it quite a bit; I thought it was for the most part very funny and sometimes poignant. The ending was a terrible cop-out and very unsatisfying, but the performances made seeing it worth it to me. I loved Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman particularly, and enjoyed seeing Will Ferrell basically play the straight man. But the early reviews comparing it to Eternal Sunshine were way, WAY off the mark.
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Brenden
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« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2006, 05:47:27 PM » |
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I loved that Will Ferrel wasn't playing his usual character. One of my complaints about comedians is when they start to play the same kind of role in every movie (Adam Sandler is always an awkward loser, Owen Wilson is always a slightly naive sounding charming guy, Will Ferrel always played wacky, clueless guys, Jim Carrey was always crazy), so it was interesting to see him playing such a straight man type of role to the rest of the cast. I hope he does some more of these kinds of roles in the future. I think in a way you could call it Will Ferrel's Eternal Sunshine, in the sense that ETotPM was a dramatic shift for Jim Carrey and this is a big shift for Will Ferrel.
Dustin Hoffman is one of my favorite actors, even when the movie itself failed to impress me (Sphere, Rain Man), he has always done a great job. His role is somewhat similar to the part he played in I Heart Huckabees, and it's just as hilarious.
The story itself was fairly clever, I liked the way they told it to us, though I did think the ending was kind of weak.
There was a post on IMDB about the Christ metaphor that can be drawn easily from the movie, which was interesting. There was a lot more depth to this movie than the average comedy.
As you can see from my film journal, it's one of my favorites this year.
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murlough23
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« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2006, 06:07:40 PM » |
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I saw it, and enjoyed it. I kind of thought the "cop-out" ending was funny, like something a writer would come up with at the last minute out of desperation. So it fit, in a comedic sense. I think the movie had a good message about how fear of what might go wrong keeps us from deviating from our routines. The plot developed a bit slowly, especially during the periods where the author's voice inexplicably disappeared for a while, but I had fun with the film as a whole.
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Josh Powell
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« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2006, 09:19:28 PM » |
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It's right up there with Borat on my "must-see comedies" list. The premise (sp?) looks hilarious.
I have a feeling I'll really enjoy it.
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I was at a resteraunt. I ordered a chicken sandwich, but I don't think the waitress understood me. Cuz she said "how would you like your eggs?". So I tried to answer her anyhow, I said incubated, and then raised, and then beheaded, and then plucked, and then cut up, and then put on a grill, and then put on to a bun. Damn, it's gonna take a while! I don't have time - scrambled! -- Mitch Hedberg
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Celldweller7
Inphrequent Poster
Posts: 30
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« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2006, 11:58:02 PM » |
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****POSSIBLE, SORT OF, MAYBE, KIND OF, SPOILERS*****
At first I thought it was a cop out also, but I think I may have been wrong. It is hard to discuss it in a place where some have not viewed it, but what would one think of Emma Thompson's character if she did it?
She'd be a very cold hearted woman, one who was only human in a purely biological sense. There was no other way she could end it, if she had any humanity in her at all. I agree they ran past the ending and should have just ended with her narration and left out the sappy montage.
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AldaForPresident
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« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2006, 08:15:44 AM » |
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One other thing that did bug me was that how Dustin Hoffman's character and Will Ferrell's character talked about how great the book was, and how it was a masterpiece that no one could ever dare stand in the way of, when, really, it was about a guy with a boring life who fell in love and learned to live and then got run over saving a little boy. That's not exactly life-changing as far as I'm concerned, and certainly not good enough for Will Ferrell to decide it's worth his life.
In films and TV shows about writers, the greatness of said writer's work should never, ever be given too much lip service. Or at least, it annoys me to no end. I realize it's more convenient and moves things along faster to just tell the audience that the writer is great, but it's so much more effective (to me) to just be shown. It's one of the problems with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a show I've watched all season and really like a lot in a lot of ways, but it sucks that they can only crow about how great a writer Matt Albie is, and not have anything to back it up.
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