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Harry's DVD Picks & Peeks - 1st wk of June - Graduate, Glory, Road House, Fletch, Godard, Anaconda & more!!
Hey folks, Harry here… with the first column of June this year! This isn’t a great day of releases. And you’ll see that reflected, but there are some jewels. As always the images and titles link to Amazon for more information and if you feel like purchasing the item – a small percentage goes to support the efforts of this column. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy…
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
WEEDS – Season 4
I’d love to tell you that I checked this out. The discs are here, but the latest Fox/MGM & Lionsgate releases don’t seem to want to play in my system, it is updated. So I’m probably going BluRay player shopping later this week. As I’m getting very aggravated. WEEDS has been an outstanding show for the first 3 seasons and I have no reason to believe otherwise on Season 4.
FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN Complete (Blu Ray)
Absolutely gorgeous looking imagery, but story wise it makes me yawn too much. That said, turning the sound off, playing like the collected works of QUEEN loudly and man. Fantastic background entertainment with some wow visuals throughout. I’m not a gamer, so I’m not really up on the mythology of the series. The additional scenes are awesome to look at, but it didn’t do much to change my mind about the overall film, but they’re nice to look at!
DEFIANCE
I really hope this isn’t THE PERFORMANCE OF DANIEL CRAIG’s career. It’s nice, but he has been better and I hope he continues to be better. Actually, Live Schreiber was really quite good in this. Everyone is. And it is a fascinating story from WWII that I hadn’t heard and enjoyed seeing told. It is a great story from history. But I feel it is lacking overall. It didn’t leave me completely satisfied as entertainment or drama. It is a bit like RED DAWN structure wise, and I prefer that film. Gorgeous on Blu Ray.
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Great actors, Great director… in completely undesirable material. Their performances are solid. The story is told as well as Mendes could tell it, but frankly – there’s no reason for me to ever revisit it. To really reference it in any way in my life – and I really felt these two characters were just miserable to be around. So negative and whiney about everything. I just thought – these are exactly the sorts of people I avoid in my life, why would I want to spend time with them in a theater or home entertainment system?
THE GRADUATE (Blu Ray)
The best release of the week! Flat out brilliant film at every level. Gorgeous to watch and listen to. I watched this as a double bill with REVOLUTIONARY ROAD – and the former really underlined everything about why that film bored the fuck out of me, while this one. A film about infidelity, fucked up relationships and situations can be done brilliantly! With charm, wit, humor, pathos and intelligence. Of course – it really doesn’t get much better than Dustin Hoffman’s performance here. Or the Simon and Garfunkel songs used throughout. Or the Buck Henry script? Mike Nichols’ direction is spot on! And how fucking amazing is Anne Bancroft in every moment of this film? My favorite moment on the film is the somber final shot after the elation and joy – there’s just a look on Ben & Elaine’s faces that tells me that not all is happy in this ending. That they’re nowhere near out of the woods yet. AND I NEVER WANT A SEQUEL!
GLORY (Blu Ray)
There’s something about this film that never really sat just right with me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the vast majority of the film, but I just was never quite happy with the casting of Matthew Broderick. But overall – a brilliant film and the best work of Ed Zwick’s career thus far. Sony didn’t send a preview disc on this, but I fully intend to pick it up today!
AIR FORCE ONE (Blu Ray)
Again – Sony didn’t get this one to me in advance of this column, but I’m a big fan of this ludicrous President as Action Man genre that was going on around the time this film came out. But I don’t care, because it tickled the shit out of me! Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close really keep me interested in the lunacy that Andrew Marlowe concocted and Wolfgang Petersen put together for this film! Another purchase for me today!
INSIDE MAN (Blu Ray)
I really love this Spike Lee film! I love the concept of “a perfect crime” where nobody gets hurt, nothing seems to be gone, but some people really score at the detriment of the real white collar bad guys of this world. Clive is impossibly cool here, as is Denzel and Jodie. I love how the story keeps you guessing. I did check out this disc, as I have the HD DVD as well. Image quality is gorgeous and the discs are pretty much identical to my quick examination of features.
ROAD HOUSE (Blu Ray)
I’ve got this disc, but due to it being an MGM title – it isn’t playing on the system. But I’ve heard nothing but good things on the disc so far. And if you don’t know why you need ROAD HOUSE on Blu Ray… just go back to your HIGH SCHOOL THE MUSICAL 3. And let the men enjoy their awesome via the asskickery of Patrick Swayze! I love ROAD HOUSE!!!
THE JETSONS: Season 2, Vol. 1
I remember when suddenly THE JETSONS returned in the mid-eighties with a vengeance, after only surviving a single season on its original run. I’m really quite fond of these 21 episodes from 1985. However, they’re nowhere near as cool as the work from that one amazing season back in 1962! Definite fun for the family!
FLETCH (Blu Ray)
God I love this movie! Chevy Chase was one of my childhood Gods that I loved in comedies that I probably shouldn’t have been seeing, but that I never missed in theaters or on cable. Watching Chevy in this film – you just can’t help but notice how charming he is, how great his timing is and how physically adept he is to making a scene hilarious with seemingly minimal effort. This Blu-Ray is perfect. My only wish is that Chevy could recapture some of this magic. Amazing and a must own! At least to me.
UNE FEMME MARIEE
Infinitely superior to REVOLUTIONARY ROAD in every way. That it’s just 24 hours regarding an exceedingly surprising “wife” I was never bored, never tired of it. But then I love Jean-Luc Godard. Nice to finally have a print of this to take home!
ANACONDA (Blu Ray)
This is a trashy, shitty film. THAT I LOVE TO WATCH! When that fucking snake vomits out Jon Voight – I cry laughing. Jennifer Lopez is pretty terrible in it. Ice Cube is hilarious. The fx are terrible. And it’s all the funnier in 1080p. This is wildly entertaining shit… just like when you hesitate to flush your own Anaconda, because it is grotesquely amazing to ponder. Same thing here! In 1080p! Giggle.
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (Blu Ray)
Now this was a Jim Carrey COMEDY PERFORMANCE, not YES MAN. I’m so annoyed that James Franco didn’t get the proper props on THE TWILIGHT AWARDS the other night. But seriously, I have fun with this comedy, in particular I like some of the more serious turns when the ramifications of what being GOD means – well I like that. And the effects gags are just better than the ‘kinda sequel’ that occurred to the silence of the world. Fun flick.
DIRECT CONTACT
Like Vern, I liked this flick! It is silly as hell – and very much feels like a throwback, but the surprises, although predictable, were still fun! And Dolph is just so much fun to watch in this. But if you read Vern’s full length review – you probably already are primed to check this out!
THE LEGEND OF THE BLOOD CASTLE
The best film on the Elizabeth Bathory story. Do a wikipedia search on her if the name has you scratching your head. This was made back in 1972 in Spain and is an excellent little film with style and hot hot hot Euro women from the era. But the main thing is, this is a wonderful Bathory film. And one that I’m betting not many of you have seen! This release should solve that for those of you that love the Bathory history and legends!
ROLLERBALL (Blu Ray)
This is a really tragically awful film. It seems they’ve gone in and let it become an R-rated film, though there was a time it was PG 13. That difference doesn’t make a lot of difference unfortunately. This is just fucking dreadful. The greatest shame is that this came from John McTiernan – someone that in many ways is the father of the modern action film – so to see that man, reworking the truly great original ROLLERBALL into an impenetrable load of shit. The greatest travesty is what became of the game itself in the film. Once a game I absolute believed could be real, is now a bullshit American Gladiator crapfest with no real sense to any of it at all.
THE SWEET PUSSYCATS
Aha! You may have see Edwige Fenech in HOSTEL 2, but unless you’re a foreign film perv like me, you probably haven’t! It’s sexy and fun stuff – and Edwige is a delight throughout!
Grindhouse Double Feature: PUNK ROCK / PLEASURE PALACE
I have this, but haven’t seen it yet. I like the Grindhouse Double Feature series. And I love the porn from this era as it’s just more genuinely sleazy than anything we have today. They have a pretty good breakdown over at Amazon – I’m intrigued by the music in PUNK ROCK. This should be interesting.
RETARDEAD
Doesn’t that look brilliant? I saw the box and had to share. This may be the most politically incorrect zombie film yet. Have any of you seen this?
That’s it for this first week of June, next week we’ll be looking at GRAN TORINO, the final season of THE SHIELD, the amazing WOODSTOCK Blu Ray Collector’s edition!, THE INTERNATIONAL, PREDATOR 2 (Blu), Jack Lemmon Collection, FIRED UP, FATAL ATTRACTION (Blu), ZANE GREY THEATRE season 1, INDECENT PROPOSAL, PUPPET MASTER box set and not much else… so I’ll probably talk about THIS AIN’T STAR TREK XXX. Cuz it rules!
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Except for the guy who gets pistol whipped, because he tried to hide his cell phone. :)
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Never seen WEEDS but i'm liking that box art. Can someone explain how a show about a woman growing cannabis can stretch to four seasons??
ps. GLORY is glory. -
The direction, the structure, the brilliant acting. It's been ages since I've cared that much for on-screen characters. I love it. Too bad most people don't like depressing movies. For some reason "depressing" is only cool when it's "edgy" (like Seven, for instance). But Revolutionary Road is brilliantly depressing in that Cries And Whispers kind of way. Mendes is a very talented man, and this is, in my opinion, his best film. And Road to Perdition is awesome.
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.. at a german flea market. Don't remember seeing Chevy Chase doing THAT shit in the cinema ...
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You need to get her in line, Harry.
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The Sweet Hereafter is the film I measure all so called "depressing" films against. I plan on watching Revolutionary Road soon but I doubt it will be as depressing as The Sweet Hereafter.
God do I love that movie. -
It was nice to see a movie with full on raw emotion bleeding across the screen. I love the film's direction and pacing. It border's on the voyeuristic. Michael Shannon is simply amazing in this. (Joker)
Man, that's quite a few films I want there. As for how Weeds "stretches" the premise? There's a whole lot more situations beyond the weed aspect. Also the 3rd season really changed directions with a different angle with the whole Suburbia mom needs cash so she sells weed. It's a fun show. And she's not to bad to look at either.
GLORY!!! Fuck yeah. That final charge... tears. Heh. -
Another one that makes you feel like you should never have been born is Irreversible. Fuck, that one completely floored me.
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and you will never have these sorts of problems.
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is better. There's also the Sony 350.
But my PS3 blows them away at load times. I still prefer the panasonic due to how quiet it is. -
Where the hell is Conrad? One good thing though is to see that Julie Bowen gets hotter and hotter w/ age. And RetarDead? Wow. Just WOW!!!
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Have surpassed the PS3 for visual and audio quality, albeit, not by much.
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...review.
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Harry are you forgetting The Legends of the Fall?! That's a masterpiece in every regard...
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I agree on Weeds Season 4. No Conrad was seriously unfotunate, and basically they turned Nancy into a character with no redeeming qualities, as before she kinda seemed like she was doing it to survive, now it just seems she is doing it for fun plus I hated the twist of the end.
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Luckily, since it's the only thing I ever use it for. Never had a problem with any discs. It's hooked up to a 67" Samsung, and it looks phenomenal.
Also just picked up a Sony 350 for $99.00 at Best Buy for my stepson.
It hasn't choked on any discs yet either. -
And apparently they're making a sequel that I guess will go deeper inside a man or something. Maybe Jodie Foster's character will actually serve a purpose by the time we get to part 3.
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ya gotta wonder why it took someone so long to do this
I'll be lurking my local blockbuster for this one -
THIS AIN'T STAR TREK XXX does indeed rule, and everything you need to know about it can be found at http://buncheness.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-aint-star-trek-xxx-2009.html
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as opposed to rappers? Has LLCoolJ ever been good in anything?
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...I like the Italian sex comedies myself...
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Never seen it, but I came very close to buying it the other day and I'm now thinking I should have.What do you think, do I (a complete stranger) need to see this movie, in your opinion?
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my former roommate walked out after the movie and roamed the city for two days. still dont know why.
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I'll have to check that out. There's far too much joy in this world.
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but not Terminator Salvation? Where's the emoticon for rolling my eyes and shaking my head before I call him a sad ginger cunt!
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And to OGoncho . . . Please watch Roadhouse. I would LOVE to hear a review of an adult movie fan watching it for the first time in 2009. It is such cheesy fun for me.
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Will the Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier Commentary Track Be on the Blue Ray DVD?
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yipeee, enough with the stupid blu-ray.
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if i found myself in a bar fight i'd want jeff healey to have my back.
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A great adaptation of Springsteen's song.
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It's a direct sequel to "Monsturd", and is EXTREMELY cheap. That said, it has the same loony low-budget comedic spirit as a flick like "The Janitor" (which is hilarious), so it's worth a watch if you are into this kind of thing. That said, if you really want a low-brow horror-comedy that works, get "The Janitor" instead.
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I actually saw it in the theater when I was a kid, by myself. It was the first film I went to see by myself. It is a very low key comedy, but Chevy's performance is Oscar-worthy. My friends and i still quote lines from the movie all the time. I remember at the time looking forward to the many sequels I envisioned to follow, but boy was the sequel a disappointing piece of crap, along with pretty much everything Chevy Chase has done since Christmas Vacation. "It's all ball bearings these days!"
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Beverley D'Angelo in those VACATION movies... milf-tastic mate...
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"Candy" with Heath Ledger as a heroin addict who prostitutes his girlfriend and eventually himself for drug money. I challenge anyone to watch the scene when Heath and Abby Cornish hold their miscarriaged dead baby in the hospital and tell me it is not the most depressing thing ever. If you have kids you want to scare away from drugs show them this film. If that doesn't work nothing will.
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Ever notice that Anaconda is basically a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake with a snake rather than a Creature?
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Jun 02, 2009 10:16:40 AM CDT
Most Depressing Movie Ever: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
by writefromleft
Seriously, how could they f--- that up so badly?
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No. Never, never.
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Jun 02, 2009 10:38:06 AM CDT
Ultimate Super-Prize Geek Award Depressing Movie: "Family Nest"
by dogstardude
"Threads" Nuclear Apocalypse done documentary style. Horrific because it is so accurate and offers no feel-good platitudes or empty spiritual promises. Bela Tarr's first movie "Family Nest" is also one of the most horrendously depressing thing I've ever seen. Set during the Hungarian housing crisis of 1977, with 88 minutes of no likable characters save for one, with ugly black and white social-realist close up camerawork, cacophonous overlapping dialogue and two of the most depressing ten minute monologues in the history of cinema to round it all out. Close third is "The Crowd", which is basically just a movie which points out how painfully ordinary and pathetically mediocre 99% of the population is, including you. I found those much more depressing than any faux-tragedies because at least they had the veil of narrative and grand death-based catharsis rather than the ugly realities of humanity.
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AMERICAN BEAUTY was his only materpiece. One of the most amazing debut films ever. ROAD TO PERDITION is intelligent but lackluster. JARHEAD is just plain dull. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is muddled and ugly.
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Now there's a depressing (but brilliant) film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is captivating in it. Nothing says "light-hearted romp" like child molestation.
Stabby, you're spot on about CANDY. I watched it while stoned one night and it almost ruined me.
Why did I watch a movie about drugs ruining peoples' lives while high on drugs?
Only God knows. -
Just a note. {g}
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8MM depressed the living shit out of me...and I loved it.
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Turn in your nerd card... you're done.
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If you want to do some real reaserch on the Bathory history check out Mcnally's DRACULA WAS A WOMAN published about 1984. He is one of the writers of IN SEARCH OF DRACULA. I saw Legend of Blood Castle Years ago, didn't make much of an impression on me except I am with you Harry on the Hot Euro Girls from the 70's
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Don't drink this early in the day, kids...
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Harry is right about this movie being a show-case for Chevy at the top of his game. However, anyone who has read the absolutely brilliant and funny novel will be disappointed and probably pissed off as I was. Fletch was nothing like what the movie turned him into. I highly recommend the novel for anyone who enjoys a good mystery with the best payoff in the last pages you'll ever read.
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back to back and was so depressed I couldn't get out of bed for a week.
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Written by same guy who wrote Requiem, really ugly stuff. One of the most depressing gangbangs in film. Powerful but grimy stuff.
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I've always wondered that. I've been a member of AICN for 10 years now at least, and I've always wondered why every single story seems to require one or more exclamation points. It could be as simple as "Capone interviews _________" and it always ends with "!!!!!"
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German film - watch German soldiers get slowly ground down into gibberingly insane frozen pieces of pulp. Of course, after the atrocities they performed in Eastern Russia, they pretty much deserved it.
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There are a bunch on the recent dvd 40th anniversary disc but I wonder if there are any new ones on here? I might have to invest in a Blu Ray if there are...
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http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-series-of-emails-from-cyberdynes-tech-guy/
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But they had to go and make a sequel that wasn't based on one of McDonald's books and focused on the costumes (in the books, Fletch would sometimes pretend to be somebody else, but he didn't get dressed up in elaborate costumes). This could have been a great series, but I still love the first film - a comedy with tons of great lines AND a plot!
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What an absolute sleep fest. I couldn't make it through the whole film. It felt like a Jewish propaganda film. Were the Jews the ONLY ones who suffered in WWII?
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They should have killed Jennifer Lopez halfway through and made Kari the star...
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I don't know if you caught that one Harry/others but it wasn't even historically accurate! It was a 'what if she wasn't all that bad and wasn't really a mass-murderer/blood bath taker?! Can you beat that! She was just framed by the church!
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This also came out this week & sounds cool.A western with Yul Brynner,Richard Crenna & Spock as an assassin.Anybody familiar with this film?
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There is a special edition on Region 2 with audio commentary with Ingrid Pitt, as well as a few other cool extras.
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Hands down, one of if not the saddest and most depressing and infuriating films EVER. Plus it's a documentary and 100% true. Look it up, its amazingly well crafted and if you're not affected by it, you need serious help.
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Please SHOW equal AMOUNT of DVD & Blu-Ray?
Long live the poor....or not -
sorry...i love glory; legends was silly with the poor stroke acting of sir tony (plus aidan quinn has yet to give a memorable performance); blood diamond is a real accomplishment and also an important story. Defiance brought holocaust movies to a new low, of which i love most of them.
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I'll consider the DVD instead, and that way my parents can watch it when I'm done. They like the show.
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"The discs are here, but the latest Fox/MGM & Lionsgate releases don’t seem to want to play in my system, it is updated."
take a god damn english class for the love of god, man. -
Why do you think Tarantino named one of his "Basterds" characters
'Ed Fenech'.....positively the
all time sexiest Euro-Trash babe
EVER....if you haven't seen her films, start checkin' em out, like right NOW.... -
and perhaps the best vehicle for Chevy Chase ever. But it ain't the book. The original novel (and its sequels - I think there eight in all) was written by Gregory McDonald. Get yourselves copies of the FLETCH novel, and if you dig that, CARIOCA FLETCH is my favourite of the sequels. And if you like that one, try the spinoff novel (also by McDonald) called FLYNN.
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Jun 02, 2009 2:26:16 PM CDT
most depressing movie--league of extraordinary gentlemen
by iwasredempted
great comic book. but holy fuck. they could have just used the money spent on making that movie to feed homeless children. what a total waste.
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Well, first, Revolutionary Road was indeed an absolute masterpiece. It was by far the best film of the past year. I couldn't shake this film for weeks; it is just that upsetting. There is no doubt that this film has two of the most unpleasant protagonists ever to inhabit a movie. What Harry seemed to miss was that even though they seemed to have no reason not to be able find any happiness, it didn't matter, because whatever the reason, they are just miserable, and in a seriously tragic way. The film, and the book, take a very humanist approach to the material. They believe that they are destined for something special, and they aren't, they are just destined for normal lives, and it destroys them. Justified or not, their downfall saddened me beyond description.
But really, shame on Harry for not mentioning the truly breakthrough release of the week, or the year, or the entire history of Blu-ray, which is Volume 1 of the Neil Young Archives. Ten blu-rays, highest quality pcm sound, the first release ever of Neil's film Journey Through the Past, and a never before seen interactivity that will singlehandedly put blu-ray on the map. Don't take my word for it, just google the reviews of this incredible, historic release. Then buy it, an immerse yourself. -
Go on, top that! I dare you!!!
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If the book was an indication, The Road will have us hanging our heads for days.
As for Zwick: Defiance had some nice performances but was prety average and historically inaccurate.
Legends of the Fall is the cinematic mud-butt by which I measure all bad films. To this day, members of my family exchange it on major holidays as a gag gift. The shrink-wrap has survived several cross-country trips via UPS.
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Is one of the most depressing movies you'll ever see. First everyone makes fun of him. Then is friend gets screwed, and then Charlie screws up at the spelling bee. Downer.
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So what is it about one of my absolute favourite films that is so bad? I find it a hilarious concept that it's become a gag gift in your family, but why? I honestly can't even begin to imagine what could possibly be unintentional hilarious about such a powerful film; it'd be like making a gag gift out of Schindler's List!
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There were 2 reasons why I got my PS3. 1st Blu-ray won, second God of War 3.
My 80gig PS3 has been rock solid- watching on my 61" Samsung LED DLP with Onkyo surround is great. -
The fact that they used to show this in schools back in the day either makes me think that A) teachers had some major balls back then, or B) the schools were run by Commie spies, who figured they'd depress Western school-goers so much, it'd take little more than a couple of Slavs with machineguns to take over the entire Western world.
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I love it when they put bullshit comments and ratings on dvds. The best was '10/10' for American Psycho 2. The source? A single vote from IMDb, I shit you not.
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Jun 02, 2009 6:06:55 PM CDT
I was going to watch Revolution Road last night actually
by outlawsdelejos
But I knew it was probably going to depress the fuck outta me. I'll do that when there's less alcohol in me, or more.
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They go through all that, and end up dead anyway?
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Anyone else remember that scene near the end where she's sitting in a bench while talking to Denzel and she's practically wearing a miniskirt. Smoking smoking legs.
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I found it absolutely invigorating because I knew I was watching a GREAT film, a movie that made me feel things deeply. DiCaprio and Winslet made for a magnificent screen couple going through hardship. I don't understand exactly why Harry found their characters so unlikeable - two human beings yearning, striving, for a freedom and happiness few people in their world were venturing to even dream of. These are not "negative and whiney" people, as Harry calls them. They are brave individuals willing to recognize their lives are not being fulfilled, people willing to dream and challenge the status quo of their time and place - they are almost heroic. Almost, because they don't quite make it. And they fall hard. And that's what makes this powerful film so tragic and such a MASTERPIECE.
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That was a depressing movie, but excellent cinematography. Very well done. But watching that late at night alone in the dark is fucking eerie. (the story was also very triumphant, but the idea that it was based on a real occurence as far as a parent and what they feel they have to do.)
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The 1985 version of George Orwell's "1984".
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Yeah, Requiem is one hard film to get through. It's almost too good.
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Jun 02, 2009 8:17:13 PM CDT
Most depressing movie: What Dreams May Come
by kevin_costners_recycled_piss
A couples two kids get killed in a car crash, then the husband gets killed in another car accident then the wife commits suicide. Yeah I know it doesn't end there and we get all that bullshit in heaven and hell but still... plus it's got Robin Williams in a serious role. Need I say more?
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Jun 02, 2009 8:52:47 PM CDT
Most Depressing vs. Biggest Let-down.
by information_retrieval_officer_dz105
moondoggy2u, I agree with you but consider Episode 1 to be more of a let-down than depressing in and of itself. Dancer in the Dark is certainly depressing, but also beautiful. Another downer movie is Love Liza with Philip Seymour Hoffman. As for 'What Dreams May Come", that movie just sucks.
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Are you implying that "Glory" is *not* an important story?
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Although it's great to have a "what's new on blu-ray" list, it would be cool if you broke it down into what's actually NEW on disc and what's an "improved" release on blu-ray. Surely there's a way to do both, either in the same list sectioned out, or in two lists? Not all of us have gone blu-ray yet...
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Is the best Elizabeth Bathory story and Delphine Seyrig is the best Elizabeth Bathory!
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I watched that one morning and it tore my shit up. I think I cried for an hour.
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(Not that anyone cares, but) I give Episode 1 a higher rank than 2, at least I could glean Maul and Qui-Gon and it had been 16 years and so hey, he's learned and the next one will have to be better! I get Papa Fett and "you're not sand" and Dooku (the vooku that youku) and let's not forget Yoda-man commercials. (Damn, I really do try to not get into the prequels, but I always fail.)
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Jun 02, 2009 11:01:19 PM CDT
If this new PELHAM is even a fraction as enjoyable as INSIDE MAN
by darkman
I'll be very surprised.
RETARDEAD...I strongly believe that this is one of those projects where the people behind it believe that they didn't need to think beyond the title. -
"No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing. I am elated at the end of a great tragedy and depressexd at the end of a bad comedy."Preach on, brother.
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Drop tha x
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Can I make a PS3 region free? I want to watch Japanese, American, British and Australian DVD's/Blu rays on it???
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I remember seeing that movie in the theater, and thinking she was a much better actor at the time (though thats not saying much when comparing to J-Lo). Also, Kari was WAY hotter!
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The Philadelphia Story Singin' in The Rain The Adventures of Robin Hood Star Wars Viva Las Veges Roxeanne Naked Gun If none of those films are able to improve your mood, shoot yourself now so that others are not pulled in by the black hole that is your soul.
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Most any MST3K! Or do they not count?
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Your list ought to be an alternative RX to Prozac. Couldn't agree more. Singin' in the Rain should be a douchebag litmus test. Don't like it: automatic douchebag prognosis.
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You guys are weird. I'm not going to spoil it in case anyone hasn't seen it but reconsider the ending. Not the ending ending, but what the whole point was for her.
My choice for most depressing. Seul Contre Tous.
And I'm not generally a fan of zombie movies, but Retardead might be the most brilliant title I've ever heard. I must watch it. -
Everyone DIES at the end, and they all wind up in the hole. Yeah, some of the cast goes through the hole but we don't know where the heck they end up. Very depressing.
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Neglected film but it shows he does have a glimmer of ability.
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I have to admit that people discouraging a film due to it being depressing is one of my biggest pet hates. It is not a film choice, more a morally subjective one. Revolutionary road is an excellent film, the mood it evokes is irrelevant. Most depressing films for my money are: Requiem for a dream, The War Zone, The Grey Zone, London to Brighton and Vera Drake. Yet I would go in to bat for these films any fucking day of the week.
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Amen.
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sequel to Monsturd? From the shit monster to retarded zombies. I've gotta netflix both now.
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his words were something along the lines of" i want a 'horizontal' player.. (a ps3 can be put in vertical postion you see..) so now he's gonna to buy yet another blue ray player. can't argue with such logic. god bless capitalism.
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surprisngly enough
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Bicentennial Man. Watching the family grow old and die is something I don't want to see again. EVERYONE you care for will eventually die. What can be more depressing. And that movie is a piece of shit by the way.
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I'm just sayin'
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The opening scene tells you how it ends. Sure, knowing that, throughout the movie it is sad to watch but I think the emotional impact at the end would have been much more powerful had it not been already shown. I think I'll rent it and watch it again in the Fall before going to see The Road.
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It has it all. Lots of supporting female characters with teased up hair ("You're goin to be my regular Saturday night thing.."), a great fight scene that begins with the line: "I used to fuck guys like you in prison.", and last but not least- Sam Elliot looking like he crawled out of a gutter in Vegas after a five day tequila bender wearing the same clothes.
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. . . Dot and the Kangaroo.
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Best war film ever made. And Broderick is quite good in the film. Gotta disagree with you there, Harry. But Denzel, Freeman and Braugher are the standouts in my opinion. Elwes is great too in a difficult role.
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...but not too crazy about Fletch. It was okay because the original book had a great plot. But I waited years for that movie and they fucked it up bad. I did like how they matched Chase with Matheson but Chase was actually miscast(if you read the book, he's more of a young Brad Pitt type, or Jan Michael Vincent- blond beach bum) and why all the disguises? It's like a Jerry Lewis movie. Why wear a disguise when you only are gonna see a person once? And considereing that you guys interview most of yiour subjects by phone, I would have thought you'd slam Chase for being able to just hop on a plane and go interview someone for a minute. Could have been a great movie, as it is, so-so. And I et tired of everyone slamming Broderick in Glory. The real life shaw was a young rich kid. The guy was like 26 when he was killed. I thought MB did a good job as Shaw, but was slammed at the time because everyone say him as Ferris. Drop that prejudice and watch it for what it is.
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going crazy on-air courtesy of Bruce is one of the funniest scenes in movie history.
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It has some very cheesy, melodramatic lines in it. Not a bad film, but not as good as I remembered it almost 20 years ago.
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brilliant acting all around. wonderful score by Horner. Fields did great shooting. beautiful time and again
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A.I. by the end I was in such a funk.
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Watching a beloved franchise die for two hours.
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Ryan the only person at the end who lived.
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Try 1984, Boy A or House of Sand and Fog.
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I'd have to say Event Horizon didn't exactly end well. Lol!
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It's this close to being another one of those Team America cliche-satires, but it's fun. And you get to see Ford hit someone w/ a barstool. That buy itself was worth the price of admission.
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Shit shit shit I suck.
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No worries. Happens to the best of us. And to Me to (too).
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If I remember correctly, so do Jeremy Davies and Edward Burns.
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cloud your enjoyment of the film. I thought the film did a great job of blending a genuine detective story with the subdued humor and wit of Chevy Chase. If Fletch would have been played by a pretty boy tough guy like Brad Pitt as you suggest there wold have been nothing unique to distinguish it from any other detective story. But, a good detective comedy is hard to come by. The Big Lebowski is another successful detective comedy that comes to mind.
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Don't forget that he started out as a writer, so he's funny even without doing his old shtick, it's just different. More likely, it seems like he never really bounced back from the talk show. Or maybe he's just avoiding the limelight.
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Jun 03, 2009 6:31:11 PM CDT
Fletch is great. I wonder why they never did a series?
by lockesbrokenleg
A lot of those cops/mystery shows today are a lot like Fletch with their humor.
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No other Civil War film comes close, they all seem like History channel dramatizations in comparison. I would place Glory in the top 5 or 10 war films of all time. Saving Private Ryan is the standard by which most are judged because of its stunning, horrifying opening, but judging the two films as a whole I'd say that Glory's ending is more powerful. Glory is a better film taken as a whole, mainly because the characters have deeper humanity and complexity whereas SPR's protagonists are character types. As realistic (as opposed to surrealist war films Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Thin Red Line, etc) war films go, maybe only Platoon and Bridge On The River Kwai are better.
Broderick's casting was right on, because the guy he's playing needs to have the right balance of likability and the arrogant, imperious quality that even benevolent officers have. His attitude towards his soldiers is paternalistic, which is weird and yet true to the period, when black people gaining their freedom was dependent on the white northerners who wavered between sympathy and indifference towards slaves. So it's important that we like Broderick's character, sense the burden of his responsibility and yet feel uncomfortable with the power he weilds over his soldiers. Broderick gets the balance between sensitivity and callousness just right. One not only believes, but also hopes, that his historical counterpart acted as he did. -
It's fun. I still have the vhs. I remember I watched it in Beeville Texas back in summer of '85 when it was out. Not a bad time there either.
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ROAD was beautiful to look at but emotionally constipated (Paul Newman was great, though). His other movies always scream of Oscar bait to me (as badly as Rob Marshall and Ed Zwick movies do). REVOLUTIONARY ROAD was exactly like Harry said: a depressing, annoying, whiny movie about depressing, annoying, whiny people. Go rent LITTLE CHILDREN for a better take on the same subject. ROAD is only worth watching because DiCaprio is actually terrific in it.
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Cause the babes with the hot tits always get murdered. :(
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Jun 03, 2009 10:31:37 PM CDT
id like to offer my vote for most depressing film ever
by phoenixmagida5th
Schindler's list. stayed with me days after seeing it and just made me sad during those days. A haunting film and old steve at his most artistic. Anyone agree?
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GLORY also has Sgt. Major Mulcahy. Actor John Finn plays such a tough, handle-bar mustache son-of-a-gun drill sarge in GLORY. It is great acting, because on TV's CLOSED CASE John Finn play's such a sweet boss, Lt John Stillman. He is Detective Lilly Rush's boss. Great acting range.
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Jun 03, 2009 10:39:42 PM CDT
House Of Sand & Fog is too unintentionally funny to be depressin
by nasty in the pasty
"Must get to "HOS-PIT-AL!""Must get to "HOS-PIT-AL!""Must get to "HOS-PIT-AL!"
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That Robin Williams shitfest was so unbelievably depressing. He losses EVERYONE in his life, and it has this weird religious nutfest going on where his wife kills herself but goes to hell for it.
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in his hotel room.
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depressing? wtf? did you even understand it Harry?
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was found dead in the capitol of Thailand
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a great tv series. Kevin Smith was supposed to make a Fletch movie with Jason Lee, which would have sucked! But, I think Jason Lee would have been perfect for the role in a tv series. And it would have spared the world My Name is Earl, which is unwatchable!
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Harry, most likely if you put a usb flash drive in the memory slot all this disk that won't play for you will work. I had the same problem because the disks were looking for blu ray live even if disabled and needed memory. After inserting a 2 gig flash drive every movie will play for me now.
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What an awful, suffocating mess! I saw that crap in the theater and wish I hadn't!
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...and of course it clouded my judgement of the movie. They took a mystery with comedic tones and made a comedy with mystery. And in the book, Fat Sam is called that because he is a skinny heroin addict. Movie? They cast George Wendt. Maybe they were afraid that audiences wouldn't get the irony. Look, if I catch Fletch on tv, I'll usually watch it. I can enjoy it for what it is. But the movie could have been so much more.
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I'd like to point out that I did not hate Rev Road because it was depressing. No, I hated it because everything about it sucked. From the pointless story we've all heard a thousand times before, to the over the top ACTING! to the shitty...I just hated it all. In fact I didn't think it was depressing at all, Kate Winslet's outcome at the end made me very happy. It was the most uplifting part about a very awful movie.
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...The planet of The Apes. All made my cry. I Guess I just have a thing for apes.
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There are quite clearly some people whose brains suffer what you'd call sympathy fatigue or sympathy exhaustion. Show these people eight straight Holocaust dramas or documentaries and by the eight movie they'd be rooting against the Jews, just because they were so damned tired of caring, already.
The idea that brilliant talented women in the 50's who were trapped in the Mommy role were often hugely unhappy in their marriages while their husbands largely remained oblivious to their pain -- yes, it is absolutely true that everyone knows that and we've seen it a million times. But obviously the *characters* in such a story (well, at least the wives) are not inherently unsympathetic, any more than a puppy with its leg in a bear trap (whining, no doubt) is. It's only if you're sick to fucking death of that story line that you might suffer a failure of the sympathetic and empathetic reaction that the filmmakers are expecting of you. You no longer find the *situation* sympathetic simply because you're tired of it. Your dislike of the movie is not a statement about the movie: it's a statement about you and your limitations.
Personally, I had no special interest in revisiting this tired situation. I don't think anybody did. But, hmm, an A-list director and cast are adapting an acclaimed novel -- that would seem to indicate that something interesting would be done with the cliched setup. So I went in with an open mind. I felt immediate sympathy for the trapped characters, and I was thrilled (but not particularly surprised) to see that an actual STORY quickly develops, involving Kate's character's proposed solution to her malaise and Leonardo's character's reaction to it (I think that's a sufficiently un-spoilerish description).
Statements that "we've seen this story so many times before" indicate an almost complete cessation of neural activity on the part of the viewer. No, it's the SITUATION that we've seen so many times before (at which point the brain cells went off, one by one); the STORY that plays out off of that situation is completely novel and engaging.
Oh yeah -- and brilliantly acted, brilliantly photographed, and brilliantly scored.
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It lacked any sense of depth or emotion, except in scenes with Liev Schreiber on screen. That guy pretty much elevates every movie he's in.
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Aside from finally getting to see Gran Torino (which I hope doesn't suck) there really isn't anything to buy or rent next week.
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the story and concept of complacency within the American suburbian setting did absoulutely nothing for me. And Winslet's performance is overrated.OK the climax was the only thing that was worth sitting through almost 2 hours for. It's not as good as it could be but much better than that beyoncee shitfest called Obsessed.
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I actually prefer it to the Sixties one.
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I agree with Lone Gun that a film like Revolutionary Road can't really be depressing for a film lover, because whatever the subject matter, a film that is brilliantly made will send me out on a high. I don't however agree with his analysis that the couple in film are "heroes" because they fight the status quo. While that was how Hollywood talked about the film, the couple fighting conformity and being destroyed, that just isn't what the film is about. They aren't corageous, they are cowards. Neither, particularly April, can come to terms with the fact that they aren't special. April wanted to be an actress, but she just wasn't that good. One of the interesting things about the film is that the children are left out, which isn't the case in the book. Are these two "heroes" because they destroy not only their own lives but that of their children? I don't think so. When the first production of the community theater doesn't go well, does April say "next time we'll do better"? No, she just gives up. Nobody tells them they can't be different,or who they are. In fact, the real estate lady actually likes them because of that. They have a choice, which is to accept who they are and the choices they have made, or to fight and generally act like spoiled children, and if you've seen the film, you know the choice they make. Where I come from, it's called "manning up", particularly when you make a decision to have kids. They didn't ask to be born, so you have responsibility to try to make their childhoods as happy as you can. I understand that the choice to leave the kids out of the movie (they are constantly present in the book) was an artistic choice by Mendes, but I'm not sure it was the right one. Perhaps (seriously perhaps) it was the one wrong move he made in an otherwise perfect film.
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Casino (ending), RFAD (didn't wanna jack it for like a week), Eraserhead (although the ending is strangely beautiful), and Midnight Cowboy.
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Because someone mentioned Road House:
10. He will park a big city car where your horses like to stand
9. He will do tai chi on your lawn
8. He does not wear pants much
7. He may or may not have a woman up there
6. He is frequently on the overhang though he technically didn't rent that part and he even doesn't have pants on there most of the time, too
5. He may or may not have a woman on the overhang though he technically didn't rent that part and they are probably doing it there
4. He leaves the lights on even when he is gone
3. If a woman is up there and they are not doing it on that overhang he might be doing it with her against the wall with the lights still on
2. Ben Gazarra will probably explode your house
1. He may sully your watershed with the body of a dude who used to fuck guys like him in prison
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