Moderator
USER IS OFFLINE
Years Old
Male
8,857 POSTS & 8,626 LIKES
|
Post by Big Pete on Jul 30, 2018 14:46:23 GMT
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2. Truman Show 3. Man on the Moon 4. Dumb & Dumber 5. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective 6. The Mask 7. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 8. Liar Liar 9. Me, Myself & Irene 10. Simon Birch
Supposedly the book Simon Birch is based on is far better than the movie, but I really enjoyed watching it back in the day. It has that nostalgic Wonder Years quality to it and I enjoyed the film's sense of humour. Jim only has a small role, but I thought I'd give the movie a shout out while I had the chance.
Eternal Sunshine was one of my favourite high school movies, if not my favourite. The scenes where Clementine confides in Joel about her insecurities is one of the sweetest most intimate moments I've seen on film and that last sequence about their first meeting captures that pang of regret you feel as you're going through a break-up. While the 'revised farewell' is sweet, the sequence where Joel is being driven home and he relives these flashes of memory is a real highlight. As much as I enjoy the film, upon re-watching it, I do agree that it isn't a great Jim Carrey film. Jim is a fantastic comedic actor and while he gives a strong dramatic performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it pales in comparison to other elements of the film. For instance, Kate Winslet as Clementine gives a fantastic performance and really finds the honesty of her character. It would have been so easy to be this idealistic free-spirit, but if anything she's a deeply flawed character that most people wouldn't date in their regular lives.
Combined with the creative brilliance of Gondrey & Kaufman, Carrey's performance merely comes off as adequate. It certainly wasn't as essential as it was to his comedic roles like Liar Liar, Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura, The Mask etc. where Jim was perfect for the role. I'd bump those up higher, and would probably agree that Truman Show was the best Carrey movie since it took his best qualities and made a great movie around them.
Emperor- The Lacuna sub-plot was vital to the story. As important as Joel and Clementine are to the movie, the Lacuna Corporation is central to the movie since they provide the procedure that's only possible in this movie. Their scenes give us some insight into how the procedure is conducted, the challenges they face and what a typical surgery looks like. Not only is that interesting, we also see how intrusive it is as the Lacuna people have no problem rummaging through their client's personal belongings or using their clients information for their own personal gain. While we blatantly see this with Elijah Wood's character, we also see how readily the doctor applies the procedure to cleanse himself of an affair. Not only does it paint the doctor in a bad light, we see how flawed the procedure is as it can't erase the core elements that attract the character's to one another. It also gives the audience cause to root for Joel/Clem's relationship since Lacuna come off as charlatans who simply look to profiteer from the desperate and the heart-broken. Joel's victory wouldn't have felt as sweet if he was merely up against a computer or an illicit substance.
|
|
Legend
USER IS OFFLINE
Years Old
Male
Fan Fic Legend
27,680 POSTS & 20,150 LIKES
|
Post by UT on Aug 8, 2018 15:18:43 GMT
|
|
Strong Style Mod
USER IS OFFLINE
Years Old
Male
11,312 POSTS & 11,457 LIKES
|
Post by Emperor on Aug 8, 2018 16:14:07 GMT
Is that your argument as to why 500 Days of Summer is a bad film? I mean, that's the story. She's really not interested in him and he doesn't see that. It's not a real relationship yet it's still a charming story detailing the (not 100% romantic) connection between two people. Is your problem that people interpreted it to be that Summer's awful and misled him because she married another man at the end? That's not the movie's fault.
|
|
Legend
USER IS OFFLINE
Years Old
Male
Fan Fic Legend
27,680 POSTS & 20,150 LIKES
|
Post by UT on Aug 8, 2018 17:14:18 GMT
He's the main focus of the movie and is a completely insufferable twit - I don't see how that doesn't hurt the movie. He's generally a dick and deserves to be thrown aside by Summer and all the pain that comes with it but I don't think for a second that the movie doesn't try and get you to sympathize with him , and there is a large demo out there that did because there was certainly Summer backlash.
Everything surrounding him and that relationship is terrible to watch. It's not charming , the best word would be insufferable.
|
|
Legend
23,184 POSTS & 12,594 LIKES
|
Post by 🤯 on Aug 8, 2018 21:52:00 GMT
Supposedly the book Simon Birch is based on is far better than the movie, but I really enjoyed watching it back in the day. It has that nostalgic Wonder Years quality to it and I enjoyed the film's sense of humour. Jim only has a small role, but I thought I'd give the movie a shout out while I had the chance. Wife can vouch for this. She's read it and apparently LOVES it.
|
|
Moderator
USER IS OFFLINE
Years Old
Male
8,857 POSTS & 8,626 LIKES
|
Post by Big Pete on Aug 9, 2018 7:49:34 GMT
(500) Days of Summer doesn't expect you to sympathise with Tom (JGL), it expects you to study Tom and why he isn't cut out to be a romantic-comedy protaganist. For decades, movies have taught us that Tom is making all the right moves and he & Summer are destined to be together, and the movie is there to dispel that notion. It isn't because Tom isn't Channing Tatum, it's because he doesn't have ambition or the esteem to understand what he wants out of a relationship. The film makes it abundantly clear through out that Tom's in the wrong. His little sister, the red-headed date he's set up with, the documentary-style interview with his best friend, Tom's breakdown at the meeting and many more flesh out the mistakes he's making and how these mistakes aren't covered in a lot of media. Before I went to go see 500 Days of Summer in theatres, I went and watched a lot of similar movies like Garden State & High Fidelity and even those are guilty of depicting 'hollywood' relationships. It maybe more common these days and Tom may come off as an incel, but that wasn't the lens in 2009. Tom wasn't right for Summer, but I don't know about him being a dick. Tom's character was a directionless naive character looking for somebody to make him whole. He was flawed, but he could be creative and personable when he was motivated. From an industry stand-point, the film was a good launching pad for Gordon-Levitt who showed he could make the transition from child-actor to actor and Zooey Deschenel really turned heads with her more realistic portrayal of the manic pixie lady trope. Their chemistry on-screen may have actually hurt the film, because they were so good together it made Summer's aloofness seem selfish. As an aside, when I originally watched the movie nearly 10 years ago (time flies), the only sequence that had me questioning Summer's intentions was the wedding sequence. It did seem selfish of her to lead Tom on without telling him that she was engaged to another guy. Upon reflection, they only got engaged afterwards and I'm sure it was a lose/lose situation either way. If she tells Tom, it ruins the evening for Tom and potentially harms Millie's wedding. The alternative she ends up going with hurts Tom, but it's more manageable and can be handled on their terms. I still think it holds up nicely as a movie. The (500) Days gimmick is a fun way to compare and contrast their relationship, the editing is sharp and does a good job of analysing the character's relationships, the sound-track is on-point and JGL & Zooey are well casted.
It's a 7/10 on the imbd scale.
|
|
Legend
23,184 POSTS & 12,594 LIKES
|
Post by 🤯 on Sept 9, 2018 1:31:06 GMT
Whoa.
Just rewatched Eternal Sunshine to see if it still lived up to the hype.
It does. And then some.
As much as I do truly love Truman Show, my recency bias and rekindled love of Charlie Kaufman's brilliance has me thinking I should've had Eternal Sunshine as #1.
Whoa... Good.
|
|
Senior Member
3,552 POSTS & 2,570 LIKES
|
Post by KJ on Sept 9, 2018 2:00:22 GMT
Whoa. Just rewatched Eternal Sunshine to see if it still lived up to the hype. It does. And then some. As much as I do truly love Truman Show, my recency bias and rekindled love of Charlie Kaufman's brilliance has me thinking I should've had Eternal Sunshine as #1. Whoa... Good. This guy gets it.
|
|