I however, cannot. I’ve made a note of all in this thread who said they liked the film Titanic. You all are now on the list. I’m sorry, it’s nothing personal, but I simply cannot associate with your kind.
As creator of this thread, I hope I’m at least at the top.
That you are. Your name’s in all capital letters, underlined, circled, gone over with a yellow highlighter, with little stars on either side of it.
Well, I was mostly in it for the history and the vintage clothing…so sue me!
If you skip the bad acting, and the cast of mostly TV supporting actors shows how most of the money went onto the screen, it was fabulous. I see myself as rivet-counter as well as a film buff AND a CAD dude and it was enjoyable for all three. The image of acres of bobbing bodies in life jackets lost a lot on TV. You have to see it up close on a big screen, with the dead stretching across your field of vision, to get its full impact. The sinking was so beautifully done that I refuse to see the movie again. I saw part on an HDTV at work and was reminded how awful, in a people-panicking-and-dying way, and realistic it was.
Up until it starts to sink it sucks donkey dicks, except for Ms Winslet’s womanly body.
I first had an interest in RMS Titanic when, as a child, I saw A Night to Remember on teevee. I watched that movie every time I knew it would be on. I watched the documentaries. I even watched an incredibly bad teevee movie about people trapped in an air pocket still alive after 60 years in the deep who were discovered by a team who found the hulk. (Obviously this was before she was actually found.) When Titanic was discovered, I was excited. (BTW: Bismark was also found. Cool, what?)
So when Titanic the movie came out, I couldn’t wait to see it. Loved the sf/x. Heck, you can read what I liked in my first post. But I had a much different experience than you had. I went in prepared to love the film. I came away disappointed in the trite love story.
I don’t mean to say I hated the movie. It’s just that I didn’t enjoy the story. The f/x were outstanding though! (I have a friend who says, “Sure, for two-hundred million dollars I could make an 80% scale ship look real too. It’s when you can achieve the effect with a model that it is art!”)
My husband and I both liked Titanic. Not like it was the greatest movie of all time or anything (that would be Manos, Hands of Fate) but it was a good movie. If you want to call it a bad movie, does that mean you’re lumping it into the same group as actual bad movies? Like Revenge of the Nerds III and such?
Also… I’ve never seen L.A. Confidential… dont’ even know what it’s about.
Both my fiance and I refuse to see Titanic. Flat out refuse. We have refused since before it came out, and as far as I can see, we’ll refuse to see it forever.
Leo, bleah. :rolleyes:
I still like Kate Winslet, but only because I saw her in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet long before that other movie came out.
And I have had it up to [sup]here[/sup] with Celine Dion!
No I’m not lumping it in with those horribly bad movies, but Titanic was (to me anyway) at best 2 or 2 and a half star movie, redeemed by the technical accuracy and f/x alone. It was certainly not the worst film ever made, and was not (IHO) a 4-star Best Picture quality film. What grates my nerves is how so many people laud this as such a wonderful film, one of the best ever. Have they never seen a movie before in their lives? Acting was wooden, dialogue was laughably bad, direction wasn’t all that great (except for the disaster scenes) and the plot was cliche and completely unoriginal. That’s my problem with the film, the unworthy praise it receives.
As for LA Confidential, (trying not to spoil it for anyone) it’s a mystery that takes place in the 50’s, and one of the best pieces of film noir I’ve seen in modern times. The plot is complex (3 different cases intertwine) so don’t leave for popcorn without hitting the pause button. It’s brilliantly acted by Guy Pierce, Kevin Spacey, and a pre-Gladiator Russell Crowe (all of whom were sadly neglected when they handed out Oscar nominations, BTW). Kim Bassinger is the weak link (IMO) in the film, and she won an Oscar for it! It also won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (I read the book, talk about complex and confusing! The film doesn’t hold a candle to the book in that regard!) and was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.
For what it’s worth to any of you, LA Confidential is on my list of Top 10 favorite films, which puts it in company with The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia. This also puts it in the same company as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so take that for what it’s worth.
Titanic was an ambitious and well made film. That’s why it won the Academy awards. For what it’s worth, I agree that generally speaking the “best” picture of any given year does not win the “Best Picture” Oscar, rather the “Best Screenplay” award. Witness:
1997:
Best Picture: Titanic
Adapted Screenplay: L.A. Confidential
Original Screenplay: Good Will Hunting
1996:
Best Picture: The English Patient
Adapted Screenplay: Slingblade
Original Screenplay: Fargo
1995:
Best Picture: Braveheart
Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
1994:
Best Picture: Forrest Gump
Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction
Now, I’ll accept Crunchy Frog’s criticism of Titanic. Why? Because he’s actually seen it. Those who say, “I know it sucks because Leonardo DeCaprio is in it,” are being stupid. I don’t particular like him either, but there’s more to a movie than just one actor. Go see it, then come back and tell me it sucks and I’ll be as gracious as hell.
OK, since Jack Batty is being fair to me and my critisisms of this film, I will be fair in return and watch Titanic again. What will this prove? I may have been let down by the hype.
When I saw Pulp Fiction the first time, I wasn’t impressed because of all the hype that surrounded it, but on second viewing, knowing what to expect, I thought it was a much better film that deserved all its accolades.
The same thing happened to Fargo, not impressed on the first viewing due to the surrounding buzz, but the second time I saw it, thought it was a great film.
So I’ll give the same benifit of the doubt to Titanic. It was being heralded as such a great film, that I was not impressed when I saw it (in fact, I may have subconsiously been looking for a reason to not like it). I’ll rent it and see it a second time, and see if I like it any better now. If I do, I will take Jack Batty’s name off my list. I doubt it will take the place of LA Confidential as the best picture of that year in my mind, but I may appreciate it more.
In fact, going to see LA Confidential with no real idea what it was all about, may have been one of the reasons I was so impressed by it. (Plus the performances by the leads were some of the best I’ve seen all gathered in one film before.)
I will rent it sometime this week and return with my new reveiw of this film by Friday.
And for the record, I have nothing against DiCrapio, other than he’s picked some crap films to make. He was good in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Marvin’s Room, and This Boy’s Life. But let us not forget how forgettable he was in The Man in the Iron Mask and The Beach. (That’s right, girls, those films really do suck)
Now that’s one hell of a Fruedian typo if I ever saw one.
Crunch, even if you do eventually enjoy Titanic, you may want to think twice about removing me from your list after I tell you this …
I kind of liked The Beach too.
::sigh::
I see there is no hope for Mr. Batty. He has been taken by the Dark Side. He probably gets mad watching MST3K cuz those damn robots don’t shut up and let him enjoy the film. 
You didn’t do that on purpose? That’s how I’ve always typed his name.
[sub]pssssst! BTW, it’s spelled Freudian![/sub]
Oh sure, if you’re talking about Sigmund Freud. I’m speaking of Lenny Frued, who is always making typos that look like he meant something else.
Yeah, that’s what I meant, sure.
Good ol’ Lenny Frued.
Ok, hold on right there, Frog. I know we’ve been engaging in some light hearted banter and ribbing, but that’s below the belt.
You want me start a list of my own? Huh? Do ya?
<---- This smiley brought to you through a grant from the Rand Corporation.
I didnt even like Kate’s breasts.
The only good part in the movie is the guy falling off the stern, when its upright in the water, and hitting the propeller on the way down… Doooooonnnnnggggg!!!
It looks like he hit it with his knee and then starts to spin around in midair even faster before hitting the water.
That and going into the movie knowing a majority of the characters would be dead in the end.
I thought the movie was technically impressive but emotionally inert and by-the-numbers, with performances that ranged from genuinely fine (Leo & Kate) to completely absurd (Zane), but most being negligible in relation to the $200m production design and f/x.
Everyone’s talking about L.A. Confidential, but I think a better comparison (and possibly even a better film) is Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, also from 1997 and also concerning the icy death of a vehicle full of innocents (don’t worry–didn’t spoil anything), but infinitely more provocative and moving (not to mention literate).
For me, the only moving part of Titanic was when the band plays “Nearer My God to Me”–a very lovely montage that is unhindered by Cameron’s terrible dialogue. I am a huge fan of The Terminator because Cameron shows a true gift for narrative economy–making every second count and thus creating a tight, tense narrative. Each of his movies since then has only gotten longer, more extravagant, but never better (and indeed sometimes much worse).
In the amount of time you could watch Titanic once, you could watch History Is Made at Night twice–still by far the best lovers-on-a-sinking-ship ever made, despite being over 60 years old.
Actually, IIRC, she does show both breasts. However, the reason for the PG-13 was that the nudity was used in a non-sexual context, the standard which the MPAA generally uses. If the nudity had happened in the backseat when Rose is…er…unRosed, then you would’ve been looking at an R.