The Game was what made me vow to avoid Michael Douglas movies from there on in. Still saw Traffic, and kinda regretted it. A teeny bit.
Time to slay. Vampires of the world beware!
Buffybot ,'Dirty Girls'
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
§ ita § - Mar 18, 2005 10:56:58 am PST #321 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Lyra Jane - Mar 18, 2005 11:01:05 am PST #322 of 10002
Up with the sun
I don't have any reason to think it was conscious cribbing, ita. It's more that Charlie Kaufman clearly spent time trying to come up with the stupidest possible plot twist, expecting the audience to recognize it as a dumb one ... and then a movie comes out using it with a straight face, expecting the audience to ooh and aah at how clever it is.
It just bugged me, and I didn't even especially *like* Adaptation.
Scrappy - Mar 18, 2005 11:03:00 am PST #323 of 10002
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Traffic had the Benicio del Toro subplot, which rocked. And a GREAT cameo by Topher Grace. The rest of it was meh.
§ ita § - Mar 18, 2005 11:03:30 am PST #324 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I liked the movie without thinking the twist (or unexpected explanation, except I'd already worked much of it out) was clever. It was just ... it just was.
I guess I need twists to be clever to appreciate the movie, but not necessarily the explanations.
Probably a me-specific dividing line, too.
§ ita § - Mar 18, 2005 11:04:24 am PST #325 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Traffic had the Benico del Toro subplot, which rocked. And a GREAT cameo by Topher Grace. The rest of it was meh.
ARE YOU DISSING DON CHEADLE??? ARE YOU???
-t - Mar 18, 2005 11:04:29 am PST #326 of 10002
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
The multiple personality thing was revealed pretty early in Identity, though. I thought the "twist" was who survived and was responsible for the murder.
Not that it was good, in any case.
I give the Game a pass mostly because I loved Se7en so much. Fincher gets a lot of slack from me.
Scrappy - Mar 18, 2005 11:05:42 am PST #327 of 10002
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
No, but he didn't make a huge impression on me in that movie, unlike, say, Devil in a Blue Dress in which he IS GOD.
Kate P. - Mar 18, 2005 11:08:32 am PST #328 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
I guess I need twists to be clever to appreciate the movie, but not necessarily the explanations.
Probably a me-specific dividing line, too.
I don't think it's just you. For me, it depends somewhat on my expectations going in. For example, I know a lot of people hated The Village because they thought the "twist" was really dumb. But I knew what it was going in, so I was able to think of it merely as an explanation rather than as a shocking and clever reveal, and I ended up liking the movie quite a bit.
§ ita § - Mar 18, 2005 11:08:40 am PST #329 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
he didn't make a huge impression on me in that movie
::sniffs::
::haughtily::
I thought he was marvellous. Didn't have the screen time of Del Toro, but it's his face I associate with the movie. Well, in the positive associations, anyway.
Jessica - Mar 18, 2005 11:08:58 am PST #330 of 10002
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?
Whereas The Game drove me nuts, because it's not sufficiently hinged on the "Oh! That's what it was!" at the end. It just shifted from dumb movie A to dumber movie B.
Ugh. If ever a movie needed to end 40 minutes early, it's that one.