Last Movie You Watched?

laurel · Post by **laurel** » 12/11/2007, 2:40 am

it was the most hideous cute thing i've ever seen.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 12/11/2007, 8:07 am

hideously cute.... interesting :O

myownsatellite · Post by **myownsatellite** » 12/11/2007, 10:49 am

Lando wrote:Don't worry, if you like the characters, then that says something bad about you.

So, by your logic, my love for some of the bad characters in literature says something "bad" about me. There are plenty of movies and books where you root for the bad guy. God forbid you like a bad character in a movie but still consider yourself a good person!

Lando · Post by **Lando** » 12/11/2007, 3:01 pm

That's not what I meant. I meant respect the characters. It's set in a very realistic tone, no hollywood special effects or unreal plot points. they made it like they're real people and if you respect people like their characters... that's a bad thing.

everyone likes the bad guy once in a while, but if you respected people like the people in this movie, you wouldn't be a very trustworthy person to marry or date!

Henrietta · Post by **Henrietta** » 12/11/2007, 6:22 pm

Damn, what movie are we talking about? I could back. I could. But I won't.

Post by **xjsb125** » 12/12/2007, 1:00 am

I still haven't read where Megan said she respected those characters. :freak:

I believe that was Annie who said that, and this is not a direct quote, merely my interpretation, that she liked the purpose the characters served in the movie. Nobody said this is how they feel about people in reality, where I'm certain all of us exist with the exception of Sand, Johnny, and possibly Nam. I think you're taking a stab at someone for no reason, Lando. If I read correctly, Megan said she liked Annie's argument, not that she likes cheaters and women who don't have sense to get out of a bad situation at the start.

Lando · Post by **Lando** » 12/12/2007, 2:13 am

Megan hasn't even seen the movie man! I thought she made that pretty clear... I wasn't even directing my comments at anyone. It was a generalization of if you respected those types of people in real life, you'd have some problems to sort out.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 12/12/2007, 5:51 am

existence is futile!

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 12/12/2007, 5:53 am

sunshine
at first i liked it
then i got bored
then i got confused
and more confusion
then i got bored
then i got really confused
then it ended
i was pleased

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 12/12/2007, 10:10 am

The Bourne Ultimatum

It kicked a sweet amount of ass. :nod:

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 12/13/2007, 1:05 pm

superbad
it was better than the american pie movies and i agree with what you said lando... :nod:

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 12/16/2007, 2:01 pm

I don't respect the characters in terms of thinking what they did was alright, but I respect the fact that they're not perfect and that's how the movie portrayed them.
It interests me that you list her leaving her husband AND not ending up with Nathan Fillion as a negative point. The character has learned something from the situation, gained the strength to get out of her marriage, become self-sufficient instead of relying on a man in her life, and does the morally right thing by ending the affair (both for herself, and because of his wife). Would you have preferred they ran off together and left their spouses in the dust?

Also, I don't think it's fair to say his wife is the only respectable character. We know nothing about her. One could argue that Shelley's character was respectable as well. It's debatable.

I agree there's no strong male lead. Does every movie have to have a strong male lead? Isn't it okay for a movie not to have strong, good characters for people to look up to or approve of?
Most of the people in this movie are flawed. They make bad choices, they're in bad situations, they do morally ambiguous or wrong things. The way I saw it, the point was to show imperfect people with imperfect lives, who work things out okay in the end.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 12/16/2007, 2:33 pm

rush hour 3

Lando · Post by **Lando** » 12/16/2007, 4:08 pm

AnnieDreams wrote:I don't respect the characters in terms of thinking what they did was alright, but I respect the fact that they're not perfect and that's how the movie portrayed them.
It interests me that you list her leaving her husband AND not ending up with Nathan Fillion as a negative point. The character has learned something from the situation, gained the strength to get out of her marriage, become self-sufficient instead of relying on a man in her life, and does the morally right thing by ending the affair (both for herself, and because of his wife). Would you have preferred they ran off together and left their spouses in the dust?

Also, I don't think it's fair to say his wife is the only respectable character. We know nothing about her. One could argue that Shelley's character was respectable as well. It's debatable.

I agree there's no strong male lead. Does every movie have to have a strong male lead? Isn't it okay for a movie not to have strong, good characters for people to look up to or approve of?
Most of the people in this movie are flawed. They make bad choices, they're in bad situations, they do morally ambiguous or wrong things. The way I saw it, the point was to show imperfect people with imperfect lives, who work things out okay in the end.

I'm confused. I do not remember a Shelley... Also, yeah I do think that after they've cheated on their spouses that they should've left their spouses and tried to make something of a 7 month relationship. Leaving their spouses in the dust as you say would've been more respectful to the people they betrayed because how can you go back to someone you've betrayed so many times? At the end when she breaks it off with the doc... There's no way that guy can live a life with his wife without extreme guilt the rest of his life unless he's a complete piece of garbage. She could've ended up with the doctor. She doesn't need to rely on him. She didn't rely on her asshole husband either.

Yes these people are flawed, which is good because you get to see real human characteristics in the characters, however they're flawed to the point that you can't really say you want anything good to happen for either of them, (except for her getting away from the abusive relationship) Neither of the main characters have enough balance of good vs. bad characteristics to make them worthy of being someone you want to succeed or root for. You can't say something like "Deep down she's a good person." To warrant her getting the money she did from Andy Griffith... She probably took the money to put towards opening her own pie place, hired a bunch of married bus boys, cooks, male servers and fucked em all... only this time she was single... so that makes it okay right?

myownsatellite · Post by **myownsatellite** » 12/16/2007, 4:58 pm

Wait...what? Lando, your last paragraph made absolutely no sense!

Now that I've seen the movie:

[x] I can see why she would be drawn into an affair. If I had to put up with a husband like that, I would probably seek solace in someone who actually cared about me. Especially if I were unable to get out of the marriage because I was (a) afraid of him and (b) pregnant with his child, that I didn't want, and felt trapped and didn't know what to do.

[x] Yeah, the doctor was pretty shitty for getting into a relationship with her, but that doesn't change the fact that he did. I'm not sure how he felt about her exactly, since I noticed that he spent a lot of his time with her dictating the relationship. She had gone from an abusive husband to a dictatorial doctor. I don't think either relationship was healthy for her.

[x] I think her choice to leave him was, in the end, the right decision. I mean, how would she be able to trust him? He cheated on his wife! He cheated with her, but he still cheated.

So that's my 2 cents. I thought the movie was boring, and the characters who surrounded Jenna and Earl had almost no development whatsoever. The ending left something to be desired. I returned it to Blockbuster as soon as I'd finished it.

laurel · Post by **laurel** » 12/16/2007, 5:09 pm

she definitely wasn't 'unable' to get out of the marriage as you said. her being afraid of him, being pregnant with his kid, and feeling trapped? that's a HUGE sign to get your ass out of there, and as fast as possible. those things should make her get her ass in gear. a strong person would be able to do that. she obviously had support from her friends...making it that much easier.

i think i hated her character so much because she was weak for being unable to do anything about her abusive relationship, and she was weak for cheating. as lando said, they're flawed to the point where you can't root for them. if i knew the female lead in real life, i'd think she was a complete idiot for handling things how she did.

i do agree with you about your final point about not being able to trust him, however. and it was also very boring. painfully. boring.

Sonya · Post by **Sonya** » 12/16/2007, 6:11 pm

'jesus camp' was probably one of the most disgusting things i've ever seen.

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 12/16/2007, 6:44 pm

she definitely wasn't 'unable' to get out of the marriage as you said. her being afraid of him, being pregnant with his kid, and feeling trapped? that's a HUGE sign to get your ass out of there, and as fast as possible. those things should make her get her ass in gear. a strong person would be able to do that. she obviously had support from her friends...making it that much easier.

She tried to get away from him. Remember, the packing her suitcase, the going to the bus stop, the being-about-to-leave? Remember that part? Remember how he came and slapped her around and brought her back home?
Remember how she didn't have any money of her own because he took her wages? How she was saving up so she could run away? How he found that and spoiled that plan too?
What more do you want her to do?
It was obvious from the way his behaviour was tolerated that no one was willing to confront Earl. Who was going to stand up for her if he came looking for her? None of the characters we saw would. They just stood by while he crashed a wedding, threw stuff around, caused a scene, damaged the diner (and from their reaction we know he's done that kind of thing before). Who was she really supposed to turn to?

Henrietta · Post by **Henrietta** » 12/16/2007, 7:42 pm

Home Alone

Post by **xjsb125** » 12/16/2007, 11:03 pm

I Am Legend.

Pretty good. Open to a lot of interpretation I think.