Do you ever feel like "I'm not buying it" in a movie?

[lesterlong]

Now, I'm not talking about technical things in movies like blowing up an asteroid with a nuke. I'm talking about dramatic films. You go see a movie that's supposed to be taken pretty seriously and the movie just tries too hard to be great when it isn't. This really doesn't happen too much but 2 movies come to mind We Were Soldiers and Cold Mountain. We Were Soldiers because the movie had to throw in ridiculous unnecessary comments about racism and the fact that Chris Klein sucks. Cold Mountain because there pretty much was no story and none of the characters knew what they wanted and because the villain pretty much had zero development.

[RyoHazuki]

The scene in the chapel of We Were Soldiers made me chuckle a bit. Chris Klein talking about how holy he was and how his dream was to go to Africa to feed orphans and build churches and wash their feet and make dollhouses out of recycled paper and build a bird sanctuary in china and protect an endangered species of trout in Canada and rebuild the Great Wall and buy a house in Christiansville, Kansas and build a chapel on the back and have seven kids and have the local priest over for dinner every saturday night.


Other than that, I liked the movie.

[jaeufraser]

The Patriot. Didn't buy that movie one bit, and was actually glad when they burned all those people in that church. God they were obnoxious! Terrible movie.

[Corvin]

In The Bedroom. Totally didn't buy the end twist.

[DealMan]

Moonlight Mile

[movielib]

The Chris Cooper character in American Beauty.

Every character in Requiem for a Dream, Ellen Burstyn particularly. No one with a cerebral cortex is that stupid.

[TREX1993]

Originally posted by movielib
Requiem for a Dream, Ellen Burstyn particularly. No one with a cerebral cortex is that stupid. [/B]

Yeah, believe it or not, there are a LOT of people that stupid. Or naive. Or both. Sad, but true...

And I'd like to add a second to whomever said The Patriot. Miserably bad, IMO.

[scottall]

Rules of Attraction-the drug dealer. I did not buy it one bit and I have known a few of these fine fellows. I did not care for the movie, but I thought that character was just ridiculous.

[Giantrobo]

Originally posted by jaeufraser
The Patriot. Didn't buy that movie one bit, and was actually glad when they burned all those people in that church. God they were obnoxious! Terrible movie.

:confused:

[Giantrobo]

i didn't buy:

Keanu Reeves in love with Diane Keaton.

[Crocker Jarmen]

The beginning of The Pledge where Jack talks to the family of the dead little girl. The whole business of her making Jack pledge on the cross that he would find her killer was so silly and poorly dramatized. I knew it set up the movie so I had to force myself to pretend it worked so I could enjoy the rest of the movie.

I'm so easy with my suspension of disbelief, but The Human Stain asked far too much of me. I'm sure Coleman's secret works fine it the book, but in the movie I wasn't buying it.

[jaeufraser]

Originally posted by Giantrobo
:confused:

I didn't go into detail...in that section Heath Ledger's girl and her family are herded into a church and burned alive. The movie was just so poor IMO, and so lacking in the dramatic punch the film thought it had (god it wanted to be Braveheart SOOOO badly) that I was happy to see these ridiculous one dimensional, goofy and melodramatic characters die. Such an act in a film like this should be quite disturbing and emotional. The fact I was just happy to see these people die and get off the damn screen just points to my dislike of this poor movie.

[Jay G.]

Titanic, unless you were supposed to cheer for Billy Zane's character.

[Caoimhin]

Most recently, I felt that way about most of <B>21 Grams</B>, but especially during the climactic hotel room scene. I didn'y buy that for one second, given everything we had learned about those characters up to that point. It rang hollow and manipulative.

[Groucho]

Laura Linney's speech at the end of Mystic River. Came out of nowhere.

[movielib]

Originally posted by TREX1993
Yeah, believe it or not, there are a LOT of people that stupid. Or naive. Or both. Sad, but true...
...
Even if it's true (which I don't concede, at the very least insofar as the Ellen Burstyn character), it's a monumentally weak premise to hang the movie on. If that is the only way you can get your movie to even remotely "work" you should try another tack. IMO.

[Groucho]

A lot of movies hinge on the stupidity of the main characters. Aka "Idiot Plot Syndrome." It's a staple of the horror genre.

I also hate it when films hinge on coincidence.

Oddly enough, Mystic River (which I mentioned above), hinges on both. I still liked it, but there were a lot of flaws.

[Caoimhin]

Originally posted by Groucho
Laura Linney's speech at the end of Mystic River. Came out of nowhere.

I actually posted about this in another thread, but this was definitely a flaw of the adaptation. The book goes far more into her background, which completely justifies that speech. I saw the film before I read the book and was completely flabbergasted by how out-of-place and unearned that speech was, but the book makes far more sense in that regard. Without the backstory, the speech (which is almost word-for-word from the book) makes no sense.

[movielib]

Originally posted by Groucho
A lot of movies hinge on the stupidity of the main characters. Aka "Idiot Plot Syndrome." It's a staple of the horror genre.

Oddly enough, Mystic River (which I mentioned above), hinges on both. I still liked it, but there were a lot of flaws.
I don't disagree and I think you are absolutely right about Mystic River, a film I also liked despite its flaws. But in that movie, all the major characters are not idiots all the time.

Now a movie can work with the major characters being idiots pretty much all the time such as the Bill and Ted movies. But that's because (a) they are comedies and (b) the movie is so smart in the ways in which it is stupid.
I also hate it when films hinge on coincidence.
Unless that is the entire premise of the film and it's pulled off consistently, brilliantly and exquisitely, like in Magnolia. :)

All this my opinions of course.

[Groucho]

Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.

[sundog]

Originally posted by Groucho
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.

Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.

[Groucho]

Originally posted by sundog
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does. No kidding. I can just see P.T. Anderson writing the script: "I love the whole idea of an estranged father dying of cancer that I'll use it not in just one storyline, but TWO!"

[Giles]

Originally posted by sundog
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.

and the same thing could said about Neil La Bute's "Your Friends and Neighbors" where not one single character comes across as sympathic or redeamable. The film wallows in gutter speak, self indulgent narcacistic revelatoins that the whole tone of the film becomes a farce and ultimately trivial.

[movielib]

Originally posted by Groucho
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.
I suppose in a way you're right. Perhaps most of the film uses happenstance more than coincidence. Whatever, I think it is a magnificent movie.

To those who say it's about nothing but depressed, self-loathing people, it's also about redemption for at least some of those people.

Well, I should have known I'd take it on the chin for criticizing Requiem for a Dream and praising Magnolia.

[sundog]

Originally posted by movielib
Well, I should have known I'd take it on the chin for criticizing Requiem for a Dream and praising Magnolia.

Well, the last thing I want is to be considered a fan of Requiem for a Dream. I loathe the characters in that movie, but not as much as the director does. Really, I know of few instances where the filmmaker held his creations in such contempt, and then expect to make some grandiose statement about their predictable downfall. That and I hate Jared Leto (mostly for this movie). I'm glad that most movies I see him in his character suffers in one way or another.

[Crocker Jarmen]

Originally posted by Groucho
No kidding. I can just see P.T. Anderson writing the script: "I love the whole idea of an estranged father dying of cancer that I'll use it not in just one storyline, but TWO!"

I thought this was done in order to link the two men together. To contast one of them being forgiven before they die and the other not.

[Giantrobo]

Originally posted by jaeufraser
I didn't go into detail...in that section Heath Ledger's girl and her family are herded into a church and burned alive. The movie was just so poor IMO, and so lacking in the dramatic punch the film thought it had (god it wanted to be Braveheart SOOOO badly) that I was happy to see these ridiculous one dimensional, goofy and melodramatic characters die. Such an act in a film like this should be quite disturbing and emotional. The fact I was just happy to see these people die and get off the damn screen just points to my dislike of this poor movie.


Ok fair enough.

I really like the movie but I can see your point.

[Robert]

The <b>Tomb Raider</b> movies.

Hopefully we won't see anymore after Crade of Life bombed.

[DRG]

The biggest one for me is Deep Impact. I wasn't necessary enjoying the movie, but I wasn't hating it either. Until it got to the scene where the team of astronauts one by one say goodbye to their families for the last time via video. That was the most painfully sappy piece of crap scene I've ever seen. People complain about Bruce Willis' last scene in Armageddon, but this is that scene replayed four or five times consecutively! It just gets worse from there. Tea Leone and her dad, Frodo on his moped, all supposed to be high emotional moments. I was too busy laughing my ass off and getting angry looks from nearby girls who were crying into their tissues. Bah.

Second worst is John Q. They try to make a statement, but the silly melodrama in the ER with cliched characters, the way-too-obvious 10th grade-level debates masquerading as dialogue, and the over-the-top villainizing of Ray Liotta and Anne Heche's characters destroy any message they are trying to get across.

[jayson1017]

Originally posted by lesterlong
Now, I'm not talking about technical things in movies like blowing up an asteroid with a nuke. I'm talking about dramatic films. You go see a movie that's supposed to be taken pretty seriously and the movie just tries too hard to be great when it isn't. This really doesn't happen too much but 2 movies come to mind We Were Soldiers and Cold Mountain. We Were Soldiers because the movie had to throw in ridiculous unnecessary comments about racism and the fact that Chris Klein sucks. Cold Mountain because there pretty much was no story and none of the characters knew what they wanted and because the villain pretty much had zero development.


I felt the exact way while watching Seabiscuit.

[Giles]

Originally posted by jayson1017
I felt the exact way while watching Seabiscuit.

the problem with Seabiscuit was that the story took no chances, the progression of the story and characters was painfully predictable. It was a fail safe cliche ridden Hollywood movie. Sure the cinematography and racing scenes were expertly filmed, but everything else seemed like an afterthought to the filmmakers.

[Kudama]

Pearl Harbor! I sat through hours of this turd to watch the airplane fight and what a farce!

So I’m to believe that every pilot, American and Japanese fly like normal people and the love triangle dudes are Waldo Pepper and Han Solo. I can’t believe I waited through that flick for that terrible battle scene.
I don’t usually use the term “wasted 2 hours of my life” because I can usually be entertained by something in a bad movie, but not with this one

(And there was still an hour to go! I never got a disc out of my player faster than that one.)

[Tuan Jim]

Really didn't like "Thin Red Line" very much. Waaay too intellectual for a movie about Guadalcanal. Especially for the general enlisted men IMO (compare it to the book for instance).

I saw another movie about Guadalcanal on TCM a few weeks ago that seemed considerably more "realistic" comparably speaking - though the name escapes me offhand. Had a good jungle juice making scene though.

[CUBuffsMike41]

Originally posted by movielib

Every character in Requiem for a Dream, Ellen Burstyn particularly. No one with a cerebral cortex is that stupid.

Do you think most drug addicts are walking around at the top of their game?

This movie conveys what it's like to experience drug addiction, and I think it did an excellent job.

[CUBuffsMike41]

Originally posted by sundog
Magnolia also purports to be about different people. But everyone was entrenched in UTTER DESPAIR AND LOATHING. Yawn. Variation on a theme helps. Really, it does.

But the "utter despair and loathing" ****s up their lives in different ways. There is plenty of variety in each character. The psychosis overlapped, while examining the various ways in which dysfunctional people interact in our society.

Originally posted by Groucho
Magnolia tells us it's going to be about remarkable coincidence, but suddenly abandons that premise as soon as the marvelous introduction ends.

There is remarkable coincidence in the various characters and the ways their relationships and lives unfold, which is the point of the movie..

Does anyone here even know what the premise of this movie is? What this "coincidence" is that Anderson is talking about?

[QuikSilver]

Any David Lynch film, especially Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.

[veritasredux]

Originally posted by CUBuffsMike41
But the "utter despair and loathing" ****s up their lives in different ways. There is plenty of variety in each character. The psychosis overlapped, while examining the various ways in which dysfunctional people interact in our society.



There is remarkable coincidence in the various characters and the ways their relationships and lives unfold, which is the point of the movie..

Does anyone here even know what the premise of this movie is? What this "coincidence" is that Anderson is talking about?

Apparently no one else gets the movie. Sorry. :(

Anderson's self-indulgent filmmaking habits aside, the coincidence intro was necessary if for no other reason than to set up the frogs.

[movielib]

Originally posted by CUBuffsMike41
Do you think most drug addicts are walking around at the top of their game?

This movie conveys what it's like to experience drug addiction, and I think it did an excellent job.
Almost as good as Reefer Madness.

[Pants]

As soon as I read this thread I thought of Cold Mountain.

What a dud.

[IIG]

Hating to contribute to the lashing "Mystic River" is receiving in this thread, but... I would have to say Kevin Bacon's wife frequently calling and saying nothing was a little much for me.

[Sparrow]

Yes. I see very few movies at the theatre, so I choose based on some very strict criteria, usually, it's a movie that I anticipate loving. Well, that was not the case for Cold Mountain...that's one I'll have to skip. Everything else that I've seen this year is on my wish list to buy.

[Lastblade]

Punch Drunk Love.... most irritating, fulsome movie that tries to be something that it is not. It is so insipid that I almost wanted to turn off the DVD player (and would have if I wasn't watching it with my friends).

And Underworld, tried too hard to be like Romeo & Juliet with social commentary of racism and what not. Turns out to be just a bore-fest with very little credibility in ANY of the characters.

[onebyone]

Originally posted by Crocker Jarmen

I'm so easy with my suspension of disbelief, but The Human Stain asked far too much of me. I'm sure Coleman's secret works fine it the book, but in the movie I wasn't buying it. [/B]

I watched this movie last night, and I couldnt believe how much they were asking me to suspend my disbelief. The main "twist" just blew me away. Like I cannot believe they even tried to pull that off.

[Dean Kousoulas]

Friday The 13th

Come on, how does Jason catch up with these people he's chasing, when they are running for their lives and he's simply walking? ;)

[Debaser]

I liked the film 'Requiem for a dream' but agree that the Ellen Burstyn character comes off in the 'I'm not buying it' way. In the book I thought it was much more effective and 'you get more into the characters head' with her constant mindset of needing and wanting to be 'thin'. In the film obviously it's done over a very short time period and is less believable because of it.

[Rivero]

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CXA2.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Robin Wright Penn and Gary Sinise stole this movie from Hanks. It's message: Act like a dumbass and you'll be OK in life. As Janeane Garofalo once said, a movie only Tom Hanks/ Meg Ryan/ Dave Mathews Band fans could love.



http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004XPPG.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Most disgusting, one-dimenional jingoistic piece of shit I've seen in recent years.



http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CXTG.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Insulting piece of garbage.



http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CX9D.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Pretty entertaining movie. Plays more like a guy's fantasy than a convincing drama however, the dialogues are the typically strained Kevin Smith diatribes and Affleck's next-to-final scene with Adams and Lee where he makes his request is one of the stupidest turns for a seemingly intelligent character in recent memory.

[sundog]

Re: The Patriot

Originally posted by Rivero
Most disgusting, one-dimenional jingoistic piece of shit I've seen in recent years.

Describes my impression of the movie to the letter. It's still on my shit list and I despise you for resurrecting it from my vault of repressed memories.

[sundog]

Most movies that baffle me with the actions of the characters or outrageous developments at least distance me from the story enough to examine any possible subtext or at least glean a more instinctual response.

Usually this allows me to enjoy the film on a more forgiving level, at times it actually makes the work more interesting, and those few times my opinion of the film skyrockets and I consider it exceptional.

[Hiro11]

Pretty much all of One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest struck me as over simplified and obvious, particularly its treatment of mental illness (none of which is actually real according to the movie, it's just the reaction of sane people to, like, The Man, man). Nurse Ratched is too one-note and one dimensional to be anything resembling human. It amazes me that people love this movie so much or find it revelatory. Manipulative and shallow post-Vietnam hippy-dippy claptrap, if you ask me.

[Lastblade]

Moonlight Mile, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Village

[j123vt_99]

Any adult/mature movie

[Rivero]

Originally posted by Hiro11
Nurse Ratched is too one-note and one dimensional to be anything resembling human.

I've worked with people just like her.

[raven56706]

The Matrix being the real world......

Charlies Angels..... the entire series

From Justin to Kelly..... nuff said...

[tanman]

Gangs of New York Everyone ranted and raved about it but I just didn't buy it. I think it was the whole environment that really threw me for a loop. Nothing seemed to make any sense. And the whole end was almost pointless considering everything else that was going on.

Troy I didn't buy anything in this movie. People were fighting, for what I don't know. People stopped fighting for seemingly inane reasons. Brad Pitt was, well...Brad Pitt. Eric Bana was excellent as was Julian Glover. I didn't buy anyone elses performances, the writing was all over the place, and most of the dialogue was just ridiculous. I've never seen the Patriot but it seems to be along the same lines.

Counte of Monte Cristo (2002) Where do I begin. I know most people liked it but I was not buying it at all. First of all it has the most inane portrayal of Napoleon ever. I didn't even know it was him until he stuck his hands in his jacket. I didn't buy the friendly pirate with the New York accent. And I especially hated that the whole point of the story, revenge, was not settled. He ignored advice from wise old Richard Harris (the only saving grace of the movie) and ended up with the house the girl and his life? Where is the result of the character flaw? With this type of movie you shouldn't be able to have a fatal character flaw such as that and get away with it. The whole point of the movie was negated by the ending. Although it wasn't a very good movie to begin with.

So yeah, there are a couple movies that I didn't buy into.