Unpopular Opinions

[Joe]

5 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

I don't hate The Phantom Menace.

That's fair enough. I neither love nor hate the prequels, I just focus my attention on the movies I do love.

[SlovakPrincess]

On 12/4/2017 at 6:44 PM, UYI said:

I guess my UO is that I have little to no interest to ever seeing ANY of the Star Wars movies. I've gone my whole life without watching any of them, and while I've sometimes considered forcing myself to watch them, I have yet to do it. And part of me also feels guilty that if I ever do watch them, it will be after Carrie Fisher is dead (yes, I know that sounds weird). 

I have seen the first two of the 70s and 80s movies, saw and hated the first of the Natalie Portman ones, and actually loved Rogue One.  I have no compelling need to re-watch or watch any more of them.   

 

I generally don’t like the big blockbuster action movies, though sometimes I can be in the mood (loved the first Jason Bourne movie, for instance and The Italian Job).  

Part of it is the relentless loud sound effects. As a reviewer once said of The Dark Knight (which I loathed), its often like the sound of “two mattresses enthusiastically humping in an echo chamber.”   

[Browncoat]

17 hours ago, Joe said:

That's fair enough. I neither love nor hate the prequels, I just focus my attention on the movies I do love.

I mostly just ignore the prequels, and pretend they never happened.

[QueerGirrl]

23 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

 the sound of “two mattresses enthusiastically humping in an echo chamber.”   

Hahaha!!!  I'm using that for something!

[Blergh]

Even though I've not watched any Star Wars movie since ROTS, just the TITLE of "Last Jedi" seems as though it's a guarantee of a bummer that's befallen every depiction in virtually every authorized media every since ROTJ ended . Hence,  I'm passing this one up,too, without regret.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Scandal aside, I found Spacey's performance in American Beauty just dreadful, and I'm still baffled that he won an Oscar for it. Not only did he fail to make us overlook what a pervy loser Lester Burnham really was, but what was up with his voice in the more emotional scenes? He sounded like Inspector Gadget on 'roids!

To be honest, though, I've always hated American Beauty, and it's even skeevier now in hindsight. I mean, it's a two hour validation of narcissism and attempted statutory rape. I think if it had been about middle-aged Annette Bening lusting after Wes Bentley, American Beauty would have come and gone without a trace. 

[Silver Raven]

9 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Scandal aside, I found Spacey's performance in American Beauty just dreadful, and I'm still baffled that he won an Oscar for it. Not only did he fail to make us overlook what a pervy loser Lester Burnham really was, but what was up with his voice in the more emotional scenes? He sounded like Inspector Gadget on 'roids!

To be honest, though, I've always hated American Beauty, and it's even skeevier now in hindsight. I mean, it's a two hour validation of narcissism and attempted statutory rape. I think if it had been about middle-aged Annette Bening lusting after Wes Bentley, American Beauty would have come and gone without a trace. 

One of my most hated movies of all time.  Not to mention the kiddie porn scene.

[cpcathy]

I used to love American Beauty, but now that I think about it, it was mainly for the Thomas Newman soundtrack.

[SmithW6079]

Although I've watched the Star Wars movies and like them well enough, I hate all the marketing and tie-ins. No, I really don't need a shaving cream can shaped like R2-D2 or BB-8. 

[methodwriter85]

4 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

One of my most hated movies of all time.  Not to mention the kiddie porn scene.

There is absolutely no way in hell a wide-release American movie could get away with showing an actual 16-year old girl's breasts now. Jane would have been cast by an 18-year old girl at least.

Wes Bentley was absolutely beautiful in that movie, so that's where I find the worth in that movie. It's also a pretty decent time capsule of the values and material greed of late 1990's American suburbia.

Edited December 21, 2017 by methodwriter85

[ShadowHunter]

On 12/15/2017 at 8:55 PM, kiddo82 said:

I don't hate The Phantom Menace.

I don't either. I don't hate the prequels at all.  

Han Solo was not my favorite SW character.  

[katha]

I love Steve Jobs, despite its numerous flaws. I think the performances are brilliant and for all that it is incredibly self-indulgent, a lot of the Sorkin dialogue is also entertaining. But man, every rewatch makes Lisa's, the daughter's, situation even more horrible for me. Talk about worst parents ever. I know Sorkin took a lot of creative licence and the situation he portrayed actually says more about his priorities as a writer than about the reality (at least I hope that is the case, because...geez), but still. She's stuck with a mother who is emotionally manipulative, emotionally abusive and it's hinted at that she's also physically abusive at her worst, who refuses to take on the responsibilities of an adult and forces Lisa to be the grown-up and caretaker in the relationship.

And her father first doesn't want to admit his paternity, then is cold and emotionally withholding and only offers affection in small, conditional doses. Then Sorkin wanted to swipe that away with a treacly redemption arc or whatever, I think. IMO Fassbender made the right decision to undercut the unconvincing sentimentality of the last act by letting the manipulative streak and coldness of Jobs shine through the "reconciliation" at the end. So yeah, dramatically it saved the screenplay from itself to some degree. But the consequences for Lisa again: She's somewhat broken free emotionally from her father. But then he reels her in again and she's still so heartbreakingly desperate for his love and approval, and he might be as sincere as he knows how to be and he probably loves her in his own dysfunctional way. But you can just see it playing out like that again and again: He's cold and demanding, then will offer some degree of affection to bind her again when she threatens to break away from him. On an emotional level, that movie is a total horror story for that girl.

Edited January 1, 2018 by katha

[SlovakPrincess]

I've never understood why Wendy (and Shelley Duval) in The Shining have been criticized as annoying so much over the years.  The amount of crying and screaming Wendy does is ... actually pretty appropriate for the situation she's in.  And she does ultimately get her kid out of there safe, which she should get some credit for!  

[Wiendish Fitch]

8 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

I've never understood why Wendy (and Shelley Duval) in The Shining have been criticized as annoying so much over the years.  The amount of crying and screaming Wendy does is ... actually pretty appropriate for the situation she's in.  And she does ultimately get her kid out of there safe, which she should get some credit for!  

I've heard people criticize Shelley Duvall's acting in The Shining as "theatrical". Sooooo, I take it that she should have done what actors nowadays do, which is stand slack-jawed and bored while her husband is waving an ax at her?!

[ChelseaNH]

Carrying over from the If It Wasn't For That One Thing topic:

Quote

But I think the number one issue is that they forgot it was Bilbo's story.  ...  LOTR was actually an ensemble story, so it worked there, but the Hobbit is supposed to be Bilbo's journey, and they got away from that too much.

The most frustrating thing is that they cast the perfect Bilbo--Martin Freeman was fantastic in the role--so his scenes are great.

I think LotR was pretty much perfect from the production side, but had major flaws with the story/script, and I have the cynical hollow laugh reaction whenever anyone says that Jackson is a great interpreter of Tolkien. 

Edited January 3, 2018 by ChelseaNH

[PepSinger]

I love Steve Jobs, too. I watch it anytime I see it on HBO. Kate Winslet was robbed of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year, IMO.

[Spartan Girl]

Unpopular opinion about Star Wars: why is Boba Fett such a popular character?  He doesn't really do anything, he's just there.  It's more or less the way the new movies handle Captain Phasma.

[Crs97]

2 hours ago, PepSinger said:

 

I love Steve Jobs, too. I watch it anytime I see it on HBO. Kate Winslet was robbed of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year, IMO.

 

I loved reading that one of the insiders watched the movie and told Sorkin essentially, “None of this happened, but all of it is true.”  Great film!

[Raja]

9 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Unpopular opinion about Star Wars: why is Boba Fett such a popular character?  He doesn't really do anything, he's just there.  It's more or less the way the new movies handle Captain Phasma.

He was an extra toy to have, just as faceless as a storm trooper but different.

[andromeda331]

10 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Unpopular opinion about Star Wars: why is Boba Fett such a popular character?  He doesn't really do anything, he's just there.  It's more or less the way the new movies handle Captain Phasma.

I have wondered that for decades. All he did was show up to take Han to Jabba and then got eaten in Return of the Jedi. I laugh every time he dies because it was such a stupid way to go. Good job Han. 

[Joe]

11 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Unpopular opinion about Star Wars: why is Boba Fett such a popular character?  He doesn't really do anything, he's just there.  It's more or less the way the new movies handle Captain Phasma.

He looks cool. And he knows Han's trick. Sometimes that's enough to start projecting on. Star Wars is good for that kind of thing.

[starri]

I live in mortal fear that there will be a Star Wars Story movie about Boba Fett.

[festivus]

Reading in another thread reminds me of a really UO I have. I am normally a lover of most fantasy type movies and shows. I can't stand LotR or The Hobbit movies. I watched 1 and half movies of the LotR trilogy and I was in the room on my computer when hubby and sons watched The Hobbit. Sooo boring. I normally love Peter Jackson, The Frighteners was the shit and Heavenly Creatures was a beautiful movie. Hell, I even liked King Kong. I guess I'm just not a Middle-earth fan.

[Joe]

1 hour ago, starri said:

I live in mortal fear that there will be a Star Wars Story movie about Boba Fett.

Rumour says that that's what Josh Trank's SW movie would have been. However, he ran his mouth off and lost the project.

I actually have a Boba Fett pitch. Nothing epic. Just a story of him hunting a bounty. Maybe someone with a familiar look, like the emperor's red guard or one of Jabba's henchmen. And in the end, he disintegrates his target.

[dusang]

3 hours ago, Joe said:

Rumour says that that's what Josh Trank's SW movie would have been. However, he ran his mouth off and lost the project.

Did he run his mouth off or did he just suck as a director? A one hit wonder, if you will.

[methodwriter85]

On 12/20/2017 at 4:01 PM, cpcathy said:

I used to love American Beauty, but now that I think about it, it was mainly for the Thomas Newman soundtrack.

 I loved it because Wes Bentley is freaking gorgeous.

[Joe]

25 minutes ago, dusang said:

Did he run his mouth off or did he just suck as a director? A one hit wonder, if you will.

IIRC Trank talked shit about his own Fantastic Four movie right before release. Said it got meddled with by the editor and/or higher-ups.

[dusang]

7 hours ago, Joe said:

IIRC Trank talked shit about his own Fantastic Four movie right before release. Said it got meddled with by the editor and/or higher-ups.

True but there were also reports from the set of disorganization and erratic behaviour.

[Joe]

35 minutes ago, dusang said:

True but there were also reports from the set of disorganization and erratic behaviour.

Yep. As much as Kathleen Kennedy is prepared to take risks on the plots of Star Wars movies, she won't accept any nonsense from the directors.

[caracas1914]

Marilyn Monroe, I don’t get why she is that icon.  The baby girl voice, the hesitant acting of her lines, the amateurish almost embarrassed persona, i just don’t get it.

[Wiendish Fitch]

8 hours ago, caracas1914 said:

Marilyn Monroe, I don’t get why she is that icon.  The baby girl voice, the hesitant acting of her lines, the amateurish almost embarrassed persona, i just don’t get it.

Oh, God bless you, I thought I was the only one. The film of hers I love is All About Eve, because she's on for fewer than 10 minutes. Am I the only one who thinks there's something gross about the way Monroe moved her mouth when she talked?

If I had my way, actresses would be prohibited -by law!- to play any character like Marilyn Monroe... unless they're actually playing Marilyn Monroe. 

[Crs97]

I love you both!!  I find nothing about her iconic or even noteworthy, and I tend to avoid anything she is in.  I remember as a child watching a scene in “There’s No Business Like Show Business”  and asking my mother why she was considered the star when everyone else sang, danced, and acted better than she did (and I thought Mitzi Gaynor was prettier than she was).  I think my mom’s response was that it was a mystery for the ages.  Still befuddles me.

[Blergh]

Sorry, I am NOT joining the cult that seems to wholeheartedly buy the spin of I, Tonya . In addition to what others have pointed out re her   changing claims in recent days re what she supposedly knew and when she may have known about it, she changed her POV re a good number of times from the time it happened to the sentencing (even going so far as piously claiming to believe that now-reviled ex was too good to have had anything to do with the Kerrigan attack). Oh, and I think it was telling that she reacted to the attack itself as though she was put out not being able to compete with Kerrigan rather than being upset over the latter being injured and/or being alarmed that an athlete was attacked and wondering about the venues' security and her own safety!  I understand that the movie isn't a documentary but a dramatization yet I very much dislike that this movie supposedly considers her account of that time in her life to be credible and I refuse to watch it regardless of how many tickets get sold or trophies get given.

[ChelseaNH]

My understanding is that the movie highlights the differences in the stories told by the various parties, rather than taken any one version as The Truth.  Anybody seen it?

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, ChelseaNH said:

My understanding is that the movie highlights the differences in the stories told by the various parties, rather than taken any one version as The Truth.  Anybody seen it?

Yes, I have.  It's done in an interview style where they will show the answers to different questions given by the 4 main characters:  Tanya, her mother, her ex-husband and his friend/her body guard, plus one of the entertainment reporters (I think the guy from Hard Copy).  Then, they will show the events surrounding the question.  I didn't watch much of the coverage back when it happened and had forgotten what little I did see.  I left the theater still not sure if I believed her (or any of them) or not*.  Only three things made me feel a little bit sorry for her:  1.  The abuse she suffered, 2. The fact that they couldn't deal with someone that didn't fit the perfect, sweet, American girl mold and 3. When she realized that she'd fucked up badly enough that they took skating away from her.  However, like I said in the in the Celebrity News thread, there are many people who suffer the same issues and don't become rude and obnoxious and, if she did know what was happening and didn't stop it, then there's no excuse and she deserved the punishment she got from the courts. 

*Funny, the one I came away more willing to believe based on the movie (while still understanding that this was a dramatization and a lot was probably left out) was her ex's story about wanting to only mess with her psyche by sending threatening letters and then being pissed off and freaked out when Shawn moved it up to assault.  

[Browncoat]

I remember feeling a little sorry for Tonya in real life until the Kerrigan incident.  She really was an underdog, and was also a very good skater.  But I lost all sympathy for her after that.  I'd like to see "I, Tonya" though to see if my post-knee-clubbing attitude towards her changes.

[Spartan Girl]

I don't think The Shape of Water is that great. I couldn't really

ship those two after it eats her neighbor's poor cat

[Zola]

 i hate the term "girl" when talking about a woman in films and TV shows. 

I don't know whether its supposed to come off as a term of endearment, or something slightly more sexist, but it bugs me. 

[HunterHunted]

Mark Ruffalo's character in Now You See Me is a profoundly nasty psycho.

For those unfamiliar with the film, Ruffalo plays an FBI agent who is tracking 4 magicians who seem to be doing impossible things and stealing a ton of money via their magic acts. The 4 magicians have been hired by an unknown party to come up with 3 amazing tricks and steal a bunch of money. After the 4 magicians steal $100 million from a millionaire played by Michael Caine, Caine hires Morgan Freeman who plays a former magician who now debunks magic acts to help recover his money.

In the end, it's revealed that Mark Ruffalo is the unknown party who hired the magicians because he wanted revenge on Caine's and Freeman's characters. Ruffalo is the son of a dead magician who died performing an underwater escape from a safe. He believes Freeman is at fault because Freeman revealed the secrets of his father's other tricks, which caused his dad to do more dangerous stunts. And Caine is at fault because his company made the safe used in the escape; it turned out to be defective.

All of this ignores any agency his adult father had. Nothing that either Freeman or Caine did forced his father to get into a safe and drop it in the river to try to escape. Dad had tons more choices about what to do with his life before he decided to climb into a safe and drop it into a river. That shit is on him. And because Ruffalo's character is a nasty piece of work who cannot accept that his father is dead because of dad's own terrible choices, Ruffalo's character bankrupts Caine and frames Freeman for all of the thefts. Also talk about a long con, Ruffalo spends 20 years in the FBI all so he can exact a needlessly complicated bit of revenge.

Edited January 20, 2018 by HunterHunted

[Ohwell]

I think that Frances McDormand is greatly overrated as an actor.  I just saw her in that Three Billboards movie and I just didn't get all the hype.  She basically has the same dead-eyed facial expressions in all of her movies. 

Edited January 27, 2018 by Ohwell

[wallflower75]

5 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I think that Frances McDormand is greatly overrated as an actor.  I just saw her in that Three Billboards movie and I just didn't get all the hype.  She basically has the same dead-eyed facial expressions in all of her movies. 

May I join you at your table?  I'll buy the first round of drinks.  I think the only thing I ever saw her in that I enjoyed was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

[Ohwell]

22 minutes ago, wallflower75 said:

May I join you at your table?  I'll buy the first round of drinks.  I think the only thing I ever saw her in that I enjoyed was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

Thank you.  I'll take a jack daniels and coke. ; ) 

[Crs97]

I’ll be the designated driver.  While I love Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, it’s much more for Amy Adams, who is a delight, and  Ciaran Hinds, who always brings gravitas to his characters, than for Frances.

[wallflower75]

21 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I’ll be the designated driver.  While I love Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, it’s much more for Amy Adams, who is a delight, and  Ciaran Hinds, who always brings gravitas to his characters, than for Frances.

Agreed.  I've loved Ciaran Hinds since Persuasion, and I think Amy Adams is awesome in just about everything.

[raezen]

I remembered this one while reading the Future of Stars thread;  my UO is that I don't think that the green dress from Atonement is all that. It didn't help that when it was coming out entertainment shows were putting it on list of best movie dress along with Scarlett's dress in Gone With the Wind. 

[starri]

UO:  I really don't give a rat's ass if the Disney-Fox buyout results in a re-release of the non-Special Edition Star Wars.  The matter of when Han shoots relative to Greedo does not have much bearing on my enjoyment of the rest of the movie.

[GreekGeek]

Did anyone else not care for The Florida Project? I didn't hate, hate, hate it. I thought Brooklyn Prince deserves all the accolades she is getting. And I enjoyed seeing the setting. I used to take students on a trip to that area just outside Disney World, and I well remember the tacky souvenir stands and eateries and motels. But I'm not a big fan of movies that just sort of ramble from scene to scene with no real buildup toward anything. It drives me crazy when kids' bad behavior is presented as cute and funny; the movie put me off right at the beginning with the spitting contest and the fact that the car owner was made to look like an uptight bitch for wanting it cleaned up. I hated the foul-mouthed, manipulative, sleazy mother, and 

Spoiler

I was rooting for the law to take the daughter away, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to. I also totally missed that the final scenes of the two kids running off to Disney World was supposed to be a fantasy.

[Browncoat]

10 hours ago, starri said:

UO:  I really don't give a rat's ass if the Disney-Fox buyout results in a re-release of the non-Special Edition Star Wars.  The matter of when Han shoots relative to Greedo does not have much bearing on my enjoyment of the rest of the movie.

I'd love it if they re-released the real originals, and it has little to do with Greedo and Han.  All the extraneous CGI (including that atrocious scene with Han and Jabba) are what ruins the "Special" editions for me.  My UO about the originals is that I love the Ewoks and the Yub Nub song.

[wallflower75]

9 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I'd love it if they re-released the real originals, and it has little to do with Greedo and Han.  All the extraneous CGI (including that atrocious scene with Han and Jabba) are what ruins the "Special" editions for me.  My UO about the originals is that I love the Ewoks and the Yub Nub song.

I feel the same about the Ewoks' song.  That's why I'd be glad to have the originals re-released--well, that and getting rid of Hayden Christiansen's Force ghost at the end.  Blech.

[Zola]

9 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I'd love it if they re-released the real originals, and it has little to do with Greedo and Han.  All the extraneous CGI (including that atrocious scene with Han and Jabba) are what ruins the "Special" editions for me.  My UO about the originals is that I love the Ewoks and the Yub Nub song.

The so-called special editions were complete pants in my book. The originals were perfect, but typical of Lucas he just had to throw some totally unnecessary CGi into the mix without enhancing the narrative one jot.