I am going to second, or third, (Fourth?) that Freedomland was a P O S. I sat through that, and I was like “where is the movie?”.
Along the same lines:
Taking Lives.
The Preview told me to expect Kiefer Sutherland.
He was on screen for all of 5 minutes. The movie went no where.
Edit: I’m Going to Add Napoleon Dynamite to my list.
Yes.
I finally saw that on DVD, and I totally didnt get it at all. I get that it was a movie that made fun of something and or didnt take itself seriously, but the entire concept wooshed me. Perhaps I’m to smart for it. :eek:
Can I go on record by including Full Metal Jacket here?
This was a double bait and switch. From the trailer, I remember thinking it was a high-stress Vietnam war movie staring Matthew Modine. Great, it’s worth a peak. For the first 42 minutes, I’m fully into the whole R. Lee. Ermey character. He plays a drill instructor perfectly (I guess he WAS one, go figure). This was the first switch. I had no idea that half the movie would be dedicated to an intense, true-to-life basic training experience. The second switch was that following the completion of basic training, the movie turned into a very lame low-stress war flick with Modine as combat journalist.
Check out the box for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, which reads across the top in a font as large as the title of the film, “THE MOST ACCLAIMED COMEDY OF THE YEAR”.
I dare you to find one funny thing about this movie.
Really.
The title delivers exactly what it promises: Mr. Lazarescu is shuttled around between different hospitals and doctors who treat him poorly or refuse to treat him at all until he finally dies. Perhaps I lost something in translation, but all I took away from the subtitles was that Romania is a VERY bad place to have a life-threatening illness, and no doctor there gives a damn about you.
Comedy? Comedy?! Even IMDB, with their over-the-top multiple categorization of film genres puts this one squarely into the “Drama” category - nothing more.
They’re right to do so; it’s depressing as hell.
ETA: reviews on the cover call it a black comedy, but there is NOTHING funny about it. You’d have to hate the world even more than I do to think so.
That’s the movie I was going to mention - I thought it was a great, intelligent, and somewhat dark satire, but because it was an Ahnold movie, it had to get marketed as an action flick.
The Royal Tanenbaums - Thought it was a comedy, but it just was not funny. Its not a bad movie…just not funny. Except for the party where Danny Glover falls into the ditch.
How’s bout Stranger Than Fiction? Looked like a wacky, hyperactive Jim Carrey kind of vehicle from the previews. Instead we get a quiet, sad look at a guy who mopes his way through life.
For some odd reason, my memory is already replacing Will Ferrell in that role with Nic Cage.
Alive. This movie actually ran two extremely different ad campaigns. First, it was marketed as the horrific true story of a group of a group of stranded people resorting to cannibalism. Then, when that didn’t get people into theaters, TV ads pitched it as an inspiring courageous story of group of stranded people managing to stay alive in the face of adversity.
So, is this movie a horrific story about cannibalism, or an inspiring story of human triumph over adversity? You be the judge!
Peter Jackson’s King Kong. From the marketing and the title, I somehow expected it to be about a giant ape. Turns out, it’s about a young woman’s struggles in the harsh world of theater. And, mostly as an afterthought, Jackson threw in a couple of scenes with the giant ape, apparently so that he couldn’t be totally accused of outright deceit.
My mom just saw “Fight Club” a couple of months ago, and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t just “a bunch of machismo with no story.”
A friend reminded me of another one: “The Iron Giant.” The ad campaign showed explosions and featured the Scorpions screeching out “Rock You Like A Hurricane.” What looked like a robot action cartoon was actually a fantastic story about friends and family and fanaticism and was warm and funny and original. And if you haven’t seen it YOU SHOULD.
Fortunately, Brad Bird is now insanely rich.
Count me in on “Little Miss Sunshine” = funny and “The Last Action Hero” = awesome tongue-in-cheek comedy.
Walk the Line was a decent movie, but I really wanted to see more about Johnny Cash’s music and later life, it was basically about him chasing after June and doing drugs. And it ended around 1970.
Lord of War spends the first 97% of its length pretending to be an action-drama, then reveals itself in the end to be a preachy political statement. That’s okay…it sucked anyway.
You musta been watching a different Peter Jackson’s King Kong. It was all about the Kongster. The battle with the T-rexes ALONE was worth the price of admission. It far outshone the original.
