I know what you mean by saying it's "kind of" "dumb." But you're wrong. The point is the car chase!

One scene is the "point" of the whole film?

The plot is full-on r.etarded.

@MongoLloyd said:

One scene is the "point" of the whole film?

The plot is full-on r.etarded.

Obviously, I'm kidding you. To each their own - if you don't dig the car chase, that's fine, but to this day it comes off as probably the centerpiece of this film. As you pointed out, the story is a little shoddy - I remember having problems with it, too. But wow, that car chase!

I saw on TV that Steve McQueen tried to buy back the film's iconic Ford Mustang from the family that owned it for decades, but was unsuccessful.

It's engrossing up to the point when you realize it's all nonsense (at least for me).

I have to wonder how many Chargers they went through shooting those chase scenes. It was interesting watching the Charger landing on it's front end constantly, while the Mustang always landed evenly.

@MongoLloyd said:

It's engrossing up to the point when you realize it's all nonsense (at least for me).

Nyah, but I had a difficult time following the film myself. You just happened to be the first person I’ve encountered who was bold enough to call attention to this trait of the film.

I'm seeing it better now for some reason. Probably because I watch so many movies. They're either based on a flimsy premise, or based on a solid premise with weak execution. With this film, I could see cops protecting a witness, sure, but then they add all the weird sh!t with a brother, and a different man posing as the guy, and the guy is someone else, etc. And why agree to be a witness if you're going to let the guys in who were sent to kill you? It's very strange.

I imagine when it was released, people went to see it because it was Steve McQueen and I am sure the trailer featured the car chase, so those were the selling points. But I think this begs the question: did movies get worse or were they always mostly crap?

I don't watch a ton of movies, but I watch enough that if something is amiss about a film I'm watching, it throws me off. It might be because hardly any movies get my 100% undivided attention nowadays. But yeah, I felt like a space alien after seeing Bullitt because its story was so weak that it let my attention waver badly - yet no one ever said anything about the film's fault to me, either online or off. I feel that movies got worse over time. They weren't always "mostly crap," as you put it.

I suppose since the inception of the movie mills, movies definitely got worse. At this point, maybe 1 out of 20 actually aren't crap by my guesstimation. I'd say before Sh!tflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc., maybe 1 out of 10 weren't crap.

I have to wonder how much just a willingness to conform plays a part in the popularity of sh!tty movies. If platforms like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes hype a sh!tty movie, do people just assume they're watching a good movie? Are movie reviews even unbiased anymore? Are audiences more willing to accept crap because they're just dumber?

@MongoLloyd said:

I suppose since the inception of the movie mills, movies definitely got worse. At this point, maybe 1 out of 20 actually aren't crap by my guesstimation. I'd say before Sh!tflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc., maybe 1 out of 10 weren't crap.

I figure your standard for this is gonna be more rigorous than mine is, simply due to our differences.

I have to wonder how much just a willingness to conform plays a part in the popularity of sh!tty movies. If platforms like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes hype a sh!tty movie, do people just assume they're watching a good movie? Are movie reviews even unbiased anymore? Are audiences more willing to accept crap because they're just dumber?

The desire to fit in, to conform probably plays some part in how this works, sure. As for whether movie reviews are unbiased anymore, consider: The very act of giving a star rating to a film is a subjective act. I know because I reviewed movies for a respectable newsweekly for a small period of time. I don't think movie reviews have ever been completely devoid of bias. For about 10 years or so, on the internet I've read stories about movie companies buying film critics' approvals in their ratings. That's some different ish right there that I never participated in.

I fully expect that's the case and especially with RT and lMDb. Consumers get fooled by deceptive movie trailers, biased (and I mean deliberately financially motivated bias) reviews and ratings, and even bot authored comments for trailers and teasers. It's obvious that user reviews on lMDb are very often written by people being paid to do so, and I have a hunch that lMDb offers moderation of user reviews as part of the ad spend their clients make.

Knives Out is crap. Yeah, and nail in the coffin is forcing the woke agenda, ugh. I'm going to start watching only movies from the 90's for a while.

It's true. Nobody watches this for the plot. They watch it for the car chase couple with the knowledge that McQueen didn't use a stunt driver.

It's probably also why I bought two mustangs in a row.