I know that most folks loved this film, but I did not. I thought it was a dull, plodding movie. And please let me add that I am not being a troll, like I was accused of on IMDb, I honestly didn't care for it.
I'm willing to talk about it with those who did like it though.
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Reply by tmdb57932021
on February 28, 2017 at 10:37 AM
I disliked it intensely, and that despite my love for Tim Robbins.
Reply by GaryO
on February 28, 2017 at 10:43 AM
If you don't mind my asking, why didn't you like it?
Reply by Howard Burns
on February 28, 2017 at 10:48 AM
I thought it was pretty good, though I can understand peoples' gripes with it. It has its share of flaws & WTF moments but felt the build-up was quite good and Bridges gave a solid performance. Went into it thinking it was just a Blown Away knock-off but I liked that it focused more on the paranoia of the protagonist.
Reply by tmdb57932021
on February 28, 2017 at 11:02 AM
I don't mind at all, it's just it has been some years since I last saw it, and I wrote about it on the old boards, but it's gone....
I'd have to watch it again, at least partially, to reply and there's no way I'd do it. I clearly remember being very irritated by that movie, especially since it is so widely respected, i felt cheated inot watching it and into continuing to watch it, because this has to get better! why is this rated so highly EVERYWHERE!!?? I remember losing respect for Jeff Bridges after watching it, he seemed like deranged amateur in it. But there was loads more.
Reply by GaryO
on February 28, 2017 at 1:47 PM
I suppose that one thing I didn't really care about the film was the (in my view) grossly over-used plot device of the vast right -wing conspiracy. This was just four years after Oklahoma City, and I think that Hollywood had to cash in on that.
But why do the villains always have to be members of the VRWC? I mean couldn't they ever be original? Another thing was that they were just EVERYWHERE!! They even had plants as students in Bridges' class. My ! How unutterably clever. You couldn't put anything over on this VRWC. Nosirree.
How many RW nuts are there anyway? The KKK, and similar groups? Excuse me but they are not smart enough to pour piss out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel. No; this is a very much over-used plot device, as the KKK is just about irrelevant, especially these days.
Reply by tmdb65271336
on February 28, 2017 at 8:45 PM
I wouldn't get too wrapped up in it. Hollywood is notoriously liberal, as is Robbins, so it's not terribly surprising that they see right-wingers as the bogeymen. I tend to just ignore it because I know that a person's political ideology, just like their religion, sex, or any other reason you can think of, can be a catalyst for extreme behavior. What is uniformly true is that people that act out violently are abnormal, period. Folks that try to politicize the actions of madmen are just making themselves look foolish.
I remember enjoying the film, myself. I thought the ending was deliciously twisted and shocking, in a similar vein to how I felt at the end of Se7en. I have found practically every Jeff Bridges role enjoyable, save for the movie The Vanishing where his accent was so godawful annoying that it pulled me clean out of the film. I can separate the political motives of the actors, for the most part, from their roles in film. Only when an actor is as smug in the movies as they are in real life do I ignore them altogether. (See: George Clooney, James Franco, and Shia Lebouf.)
Reply by Heisenberg12
on March 1, 2017 at 12:09 AM
It's one of the most perplexing movies to me ever in that it is hardly ever talked about to the point that I've totally forgotten about it, but that seeing it mentioned here reminds me how good of a movie I thought it was seeing it back when it came out. Even on a site with every popular movie for one reason or another like imdb, I never heard this mentioned and forgot all about it. The ending- phew! Nerve-shattering and one of the most shocking endings ever. Also, these are my two favorite performances for both Robbins and Bridges, which is hard to believe, but they nailed their unique roles here. I'd give it at least a 7, probably 8/10.
Reply by GaryO
on March 3, 2017 at 6:19 PM
Normally I like Bridges, especially in "Blown Away" and "True Grit". But even he couldn't save this film. However, I have never been overly fond of Robbins. I don't know why, but he has never really appealed to me as an actor. I suppose, being honest, that that could be part of the reason for my negative feelings towards this film.