Million dollar baby.... urgh..

[on:]

p.s. This is NOT a movie review.


Maybe it’s just me, but just because a movie has 5-stars and Oscar nominations coming out  the wazou (sp?), it doesn’t mean that I’m going to enjoy it.

Take Million Dollar Baby for instance... one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen.

Sure, the acting and direction were decent, but so what? I’m not watching movies to pick-up lighting and editing techniques. We were in the mood to watch a serious drama... not a depressing, dark and emotionally manipulative tragedy.

I wish instead of giving 8.4 / 10, IMDB or some other website would give something like this:


Story / Originality (was the story interesting, clever? Was it suspenseful?)
6 / 10
Plot / Logic (did the plot make sense? Where there any plot-holes?)
7 / 10
Acting / Character development
8 / 10
Direction / Cinematography / Visual Effects
8 / 10
Entertainment value (was the movie enjoyable to watch? Was it funny? Boring?)
2 / 10

Emotional Tone:
Sad, touching, depressing, dark


The LEAST they could do is something like this:

[Reply #1 on:]

Teral:

This is what I consider “emotionaly manipulative:”

You know how Clint Eastwood’s character (Frankie) wouldn’t tell Hillary Swank’s character (Maggie) what “Mo chuisle” meant every time she asked? I kept saying to myself, I bet he’s going to tell her right before she dies. A part of me was really hopping that he wouldn’t because it would be such a cliche and this was supposed to be a “good” movie... anyway, THAT’s manipulative. There were other times when he could have told her, but he told her at the time to maximize the EMOTIONAL IMPACT on the audience. I don’t think it made the movie better though (it also made me wonder why Maggie hadn’t tried to find out its meaning earlier).

Here’s another example... you know the way he kept telling her “always protect yourself?” They repeated it so often that I figured at some point it was going to come back to haunt her at the worse time. Again, I saw this as another trick to get some emotional response from the audience.

Another example was how one-dimensional Maggie’s mother was (callous, ignorant and mean), she didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities (none of her family members did). The mother is basically there to make us feel sorry for Maggie... and to make us see what good daughter she is.

There were a lot of other “tricks” used... for example, did you notice how evil and mean Blue Bear looks (before and after the fight)? None of the other fighters looked so “evil.”
There was the scene where the mentally handicapped boy gets beat-up... again, to me this a clear example.

Filmmakers can use various methods to get the audience emotionally involved. When they’re used effectively (for example, through excellent character development), it adds depth to a film. It makes it emotionally compelling.

When I see a number of“tricks” (like a scene involving drowning puppies), then I feel manipulated.

Another point I’d like to add is that “emotionally compelling” usually involves taking the audience on an emotional journey (a good example is ‘As Good As It Gets’). Through the last hour of Million Dollar Baby I just felt depressed and sad... no ups and downs. Just sad, sadder and sadder still. That’s not very compelling... or hard to do in a film.

[Reply #2 on:]

 

Originally posted by alter_ego:
p.s. This is NOT a movie review.

It might not technically be a movie review, but you're still commenting on a movie, so it belongs in the Movie Review Thread. We can't have an individual thread for every movie, it'd just get ridiculous.

Also, don't double-post, don't post the same thread twice, and if your thread gets closed, don't create the same thread again, even if it is in another forum. Teral gave you the Movie Review Thread link for a reason, you know.

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by Beamer:
We can't have an individual thread for every movie, it'd just get ridiculous.

But we can have individual threads for TV shows? Hello Lazytown thread.

[Reply #4 on:]

Ok, let me make this as clear as possible, although I'm using Million Dollar Baby as an example, my point is this:
just because a movie has 5-stars and lots of Oscar nominations, it doesn't necesarily make it is an enjoyable film (and vice versa).

I'd like to see a rating system that seperates these 2 dimensions.

Million dollar baby was just a painfully good example.

Let's take Revenge of the Sith as another example (again, this is not a review).

I know a few people who loved the movie, and a lot of people who hated it.

What I noticed is that both sides could agree that it wasn't a particuarly well-made movie. Still,  there were a lot of 10s and 9s as well as 1s and 2s at IMDB.

It's hard to sum-up a movie in just one number... but how about this:

Revenge of the Sith

Story / Originality (was the story interesting, clever? Was it suspenseful?)
6 / 10

Plot / Logic (did the plot make sense? Where there any plot-holes?)
3 / 10

Acting / Character development
2 / 10

Direction / Cinematography / Visual Effects
9 / 10

Entertainment value (was the movie enjoyable to watch? Was it funny? Boring?)
7 / 10

Emotional Tone:
Exciting, touching, sad,


I think it's a decent idea, I'm just not sure why nobody has implemented something like it before.

[Reply #5 on:]

Maybe your taste in movies is shit because Evolution was one of the worst films I've ever seen. Million dollar baby is a classic though.

[Reply #6 on:]

 

Originally posted by Spacedal11:
 But we can have individual threads for TV shows? Hello Lazytown thread.

Yes, we can. At least for the good ones.   

But I still don't get the purpose of this thread...it seems pointless to argue about whether a movie deserved an award although you didn't like it.   

[Reply #7 on:]

So your taste in movies is different from other people's.  What a concept.