(Language seriously NSFW – also, spoilers)
Via the comments at i09, for your enjoyment. (Unless, of course, you are one of those very special souls who enjoys the recent cinematic stylings of Adam Sandler.)
Haven’t run across MovieBob before, but he’s not one of those cheap cynics who hates every movie — he really liked Mad Max: Fury Road….
redshirt
Mad Max: Fury Road is the best action movie of the last 20 years. For me, it’s the best movie of the last 20 years.
I feel sorry for those who did not get to see it in theaters. But if you missed it, watch it at home when it comes out. Incredible.
mtiffany
Movie Bob is awesome. “Bad enough to make you hate the things you love.”
Benw
Happy Gilmore is a good movie.
Jordan Rules
LOL
Sandler has had so many damn bad movies.
Tom Q
Adam Sandler has always been one of those people who made me feel old. The idea that people younger than me EVER considered him funny has scared me about their taste. There are comics from that generation I love (like Chris Rock), others about which I’m just indifferent. But Sandler, to me, is pretty much anti-funny — I’ve always found him painful to watch,
MattF
Stiglitz on Greece. Remember Greece? That little country, hanging into the Mediterranean, just to the side of Italy? Stiglitz (whose name, for some reason, autocorrect wants to spell ‘Stieglitz’) goes back to his experience with the IMF and notes that it’s deja vu all over again.
redshirt
@Tom Q: Same. There’s some bits from his earlier films that are funny (fighting Bob Barker on the golf course), but he turned anti-funny somewhere along the line.
I met him as contestant on collegiate Remote Control back in 1990 or so. Remember that show? Fun show.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jordan Rules: Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter because every one of his cinematic turds has made a shitload of money. He knows exactly what his audience wants.
redshirt
Seriously though, who here has seen Mad Max? I’ve become utterly obsessed with it for reasons I can’t quite but almost can explain.
Aimai
Great review.
Amir Khalid
I’m impressed. Ebert was never this disappointed, upset or angry with any of the movies he panned in his collection Your Movie Sucks.
I gather that Sandler’s openly cynical about the bad movies he makes, that he freely admits they are excuses to go on vacations paid for by some gullible studio. I guess it’s one way to scam the movie studio system for money. There’s something going on right now, if I’m not mistaken, with a movie about Native Americans that he’s making for Netflix or somebody — a row over racism?
gf120581
The worst thing about Sandler these days is the complete lack of effort on his part. He is a talented guy and he can do funny movies and even dramatic roles (“Punch Drunk Love” a prime example), but these days he seems to see his movies as an excuse for elaborate paid vacations where he can hang out with his buddies. I mean, the “Grownups” movies as just, “Watch Sandler and his buddies enjoy a vacation” for two hours.
The problem is, people are catching on and his box office is suffering because of it. He may have no choice but to start caring again.
Betty Cracker
@redshirt: I saw it and thought it sucked. But everyone else seems to love it.
Mike J
@redshirt: William Gibson loved it, and he was absolutely right about how great Chappie was.
I’ll catch on bluray. I despise the movie going experience, so like many people, I stopped going. Theater profits fell, and they made the movie going experience even worse to make up for it.
cmorenc
@Jordan Rules:
Sandler probably takes Liberace’s advice to “cry all the way to the bank” about the mean things critics say of his work. I don’t care for Sandler at all either, but the hard fact about the culture you live in is that for all the many of us who are astounded he can continue to find work in movies after all his difficult-to-watch bad performances, there are enough others out there buying tickets and DVDs of his movies who eat his stuff up, to keep his career going rather handsomely. According to Forbes — he made $41 million last year.
bemused
@Tom Q:
The few times I’ve watched anything Sandler has been in and never all the way through, I never once felt like laughing. Wincing is more like it. Painful to watch is a perfect way to describe it.
Tommy
I read i09 daily and guess I have missed their movie reviews. I’ve seen so many bad movies the last few years I can get behind this review.
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: Can you give me a few reasons you thought it sucked?
redshirt
@Mike J: I dislike the theater experience as well, but can you replicate the sound and sight of a modern big screen? Mad Max is a movie to be seen BIG.
Gene108
Fury Road was good. It is interesting that the bigger the Mad Max budgets get the more horrible post-apocalypse Australia gets.
Saw Antman yesterday. Very enjoyable. I was wondering why Hank Pym was not the Antman in the trailers but the film does a good job in blending the comics timelines with the movie franchise timeline.
redshirt
@Gene108: I really liked Ant Man as well. As a Marvel movie, mind you. It’s cliche and by the numbers, but as a Marvel movie it’s a lot of fun with real laughs and I thought the emotional core of the movie – Father/Daughter relationships – was really solid. On par with Guardians of the Galaxy in that regard, which is the dynamic which makes that movie so great.
Jordan Rules
@The Thin Black Duke: Yup! And everyone I know feels the same way about him. Maybe some of them sneak to go see his movies though.
It seems like he can get anything greenlit. Nice coat tails from Happy Gilmore too.
Yatsuno
@MattF: Tsipras really should have told Germany to go fuck itself, spin out of the Euro, and start the printing press on the drachma yesterday. No control of monetary policy is now about to be extended into no government control pretty much anywhere. Yes it would have sucked for awhile but at least the drachma could have been devalued as enough as printed to pay everything off. Greece would have a better chance in that scenario than the one they’re currently in.
shell
A man after my own heart. The only movie where he is tolerable is “Spanglish”, itself a terrible movie. The only good scene is where he makes that incredible sandwich.
Tommy
@redshirt: No you can’t. The last time I saw a movie in a theater was The Last Of The Mohicans. I think around 1994. I might have 350+ DVDs. Come see movie night in my house!
Mike in NC
Why did Peter Dinklage sign on to be in this dog turd with Adam Sandler? Oh, that’s right. The paycheck.
Jordan Rules
@cmorenc: I’m sure he does take that view which is likely to make the movies worse.
Hollywood has certainly been good to and for him. Sheesh!
Benw
@Mike in NC: I’ve got no problem with Dinklage gettin’ paid. Give the man his money!
redshirt
@Tommy: Please describe your man cave home theater. And the cost too, if you would.
elmo
@Mike in NC: @Benw:
See, that’s my problem. I adore Peter Dinklage beyond all reason. I will re-watch old episodes of 30 Rock to get my fix. But I loathe Adam Sandler, and would not accept money to watch his movies.
What to do?
mtiffany
@elmo:
Wait until it’s shown on TNT or FX or Starz or something…? After Phantom Menace I decided to wait til Clones and RotS were free on the teevee. And the money grab with the Hobbit? Shmeh..
elmo
@mtiffany: Not unless they edit out the parts with Adam Sandler…
mai naem mobile
I think Sandler is talentless. Horrible. Brady Bunch horrible.
Benw
@elmo: mo’ money (for Peter Dinklage), mo’ problems
redshirt
@mai naem mobile: The Brady’s were talented and the show is a classic.
forked tongue
How does Armond White feel about it?
mtiffany
@elmo:
Couldn’t make a good drinking game out of a
PandererSandler movie if you took out the star… Every time Sandler makes a gay joke, drink. Every time Sandler makes a fart joke, drink. Every time Sandler makes a fat joke, drink. Every time Sandler makes dick joke, drink. Etc.Trentrunner
@Betty Cracker: Same here. Tom Hardy was a boring cipher (Mel Gibson is a huge dick, but he’s an amazing movie actor with tons of presence and charisma), Charlize Theron was miscast and her Primal Desert Scream moment was laughable, and the movie was too pretty for the post-apocalypse. The Reddit fanboys got on board years before release and drove the critical consensus on this.
But I think we’re in the minority.
mtiffany
You know MovieBob makes good points when the fine, upstanding people at Encyclopedia Dramatica have taken time out of their busy, busy days to make a page for him.
Esme's Mom
I want to hear MovieBob live blog the Republican Primary.
Tommy T
The only thing that could possibly be worse than the movie is MovieBob’s psuedo-methhead ranting.
Dude.
Breathe once in a while.
Pogonip
@Benw: My son has seen Haopy Gilmore 3,779 times and still likes it.
If you like Adam Sandler movies, see a neurologist immediately; you may have brain damage!
I’ve never seen any of Sandler’s movies except Happy, which I’ve seen…and seen…and seen…but it’s the only movie my son ever honestly laughed at, because he takes everything literally and so usually doesn’t get jokes.
Thanks, Adam.
Kolohe
Movie Bob was great at The Escapist with both reviews and a weekly historical pop culture potpourri segment. I hadn’t seen where he landed.
Pogonip
Contrariwise, I found Happy Gilmore painful. I don’t think I laughed once.
ChrisH
@Tommy T:
Moviebob hails from The Escapist, a website dedicated to discussing video games and movies. This website is best known for hosting the reviews of a guy whose series is called Zero Punctuation. Trust me, Moviebob is moving at a leisurely pace compared to his peers.
ChrisH
@Kolohe: As far as I know he’s doing the full independent through patreon thing that another Escapist alum Jim Sterling is doing with great success.
karen marie
@Yatsuno: Isn’t that why England declined to go Euro?
gogol's wife
@Aimai:
I. F. Stone is in the NYTimes acrostic puzzle today.
gogol's wife
@Betty Cracker:
Oh-oh, the bat signal just went out.
redshirt
@Trentrunner: That’s amusingly disparaging to call 98% of movie critics “reddit fanboys”.
gogol's wife
@Pogonip:
Is that the one that has a scene near the end where they ask him a question on an oral exam and then say, “And may God have mercy on your soul”? I thought that was funny. It’s the only scene I’ve ever seen in a Sandler movie. We tried to watch Waterboy because it was shot at Florida Southern (Frank Lloyd Wright campus, not in evidence in the movie, though), but we gave up after 20 minutes.
JimV
Sandler made me quit watching “Saturday Night Live”. His humor is targeted at the 2-7 year-old demographic, as I see it. I haven’t seen any of his movies, but have seen the trailers, and my rule-of-thumb is that if there is nothing good in the trailer, I don’t pay to see the movie.
Mind you, I think almost any movie can be (mildly) enjoyed if it catches you in the right mood, and disliked if it catches you on a bad day and resonates with the badness. The movie-makers are just humans who are trying to make something good, but often fail (because let’s face it, humans aren’t that great) (present company excepted, not including me).
“Mad Max Fury Road” probably isn’t as good as I thought it was – I still say Charlize Theron deserves an Oscar for it – but my current theory is that it caught the esteemed Madam Cracker on a bad day. And it lacked dialogue and character development.
VFX Lurker
@elmo:
I can’t solve the Peter Dinklage problem, but I strongly recommend watching the original “Pixels” short film by Patrick Jean. It delivers a charming dream in two-and-a-half minutes, without Adam Sandler:
https://vimeo.com/10829255
Joel
Plinkett is funnier, but it wasn’t bad.
redshirt
@JimV:
The lack of dialogue is a feature, not a bug. I felt it worked beautifully to develop the characters via body language and editorial decisions.
Theron totally deserves the Oscar for Best Actor for this role. When do the nominations come out?
Brachiator
@redshirt:
I loved the chrome out of Mad Max: Fury Road. I thought that George Miller did amazing things using a deliberately stripped down situation. The story is told in stages as the war rig goes rolling across the landscape. I’ve also noted that the film has already made the lists of a number of critics as one of the best films of the first half of 2015.
And I agree that the movie deserves to be seen on the big screen. I especially enjoyed how there is some engine noise right before the movie properly begins, while they are still showing the production logos.
I think that this film has not only pleased many movie goers, but it has also inspired movie makers. On the other hand, I note that Jurassic World, which is lumbering and mechanical and entirely predictable has made over $1.5 billion. The movie is enjoyable on a basic level, and has already insured a sequel, but it doesn’t hold up well at all compared to Fury Road.
All that said, I still think that the earlier Miller Mad Max film, The Road Warrior, is not only a superior film to Fury Road, but a pop culture masterpiece. Also, while I don’t think that you needed to see the earlier Mad Max films in order to enjoy Fury Road, I think that the film resonates more if you are familiar with the series.
BTW, with respect to Adam Sandler. He has a four movie deal with Netflix, so he will be around inflicting cinematic pain for some time to come.
Semi movie related. I highly recommend the recent podcast interviews with Sir Ian McKellan on the Nerdist and Marc Maron’s WTF program. Also, I recommend the fun conversation about Singing in the Rain on the podcast An Hour With Your Ex. I am not a huge movie musical fan, but I really appreciate Gene Kelly and the gang in this film. Fun movie. And the recent podcast reminds me of some people who simply don’t like musicals, no matter how well made they might be, and some people who immediately dismiss action films because they are not serious drama. This reminds us that there are all kinds of tastes and all kinds of reasons a film may attract or repel a viewer.
And so, Marc Maron notes that he just doesn’t get Shakespeare before his interview with McKellan, and even brings this up during his interview. But if you listen to the entire podcast, especially the end, McKellan delivers a speech that is just outrageously soul stirring, and a bit, perhaps, resonate of the contemporary political climate.
MattF
@VFX Lurker: I hope he got royalties, since the movie’s plot was apparently his idea.
Marc
@elmo: Check out “Knights of Badassdom” for more Dinklage – a movie which has no pretenses about how good it is, and revels in it. If you know what LARPing is, then this is your movie…
Brachiator
@Trentrunner:
Nonsense. Absolute and reductive nonsense.
However, given that the movie is about vehicular madness, I like the near pun in “drove the critical consensus.”
@Amir Khalid
Sandler’s films have made a profit. They don’t require much marketing since Sandler knows how to appeal to his core audience. The studios know exactly what they are doing.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@MattF: Thanks for the pointer.
He’s right, of course.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tommy
@redshirt: I don’t even know where to start with the cost. I can justify most of it is I work out of it. I have a PS2, PS3, N64, and a Sega Genesis running. A TV that spans the room. Surround sound that will raise the roof. Oh and my favorite thing, I painted the room a warm yellow.
Yatsuno
@karen marie: England was economically more advanced than the rest of Europe was at the time of the Euro’s founding, so they decided to hold on to the pound sterling thank you very much. Since then England has continued to be ahead of the Eurozone so doesn’t see any economic benefit in joining the common currency. I’m pretty sure the mess with the PIIGS isn’t exactly persuading them to join right up either.
Tommy
@Brachiator:
Not seen the movie. Gut is I would not like it. But it made a billion dollars. I mean it made a billion dollars. What do I know? If I was running a movie studio I’d make more of those films.
Betty Cracker
@redshirt: My expectations were probably too high because of all the hype. It was a two hour car chase with two dimensional characters, IMO. Theron made the best of it, and the cinematography was excellent. The visuals carried it, but I was bored for the last half hour and didn’t really give a crap about any of the characters. I liked the original MM a lot — thought it was much more humorous and original.
ThresherK (GPad)
Michael Caine has famously said of a lesser movie he co-starred in, “I haven’t seen it, by all accounts it is awful. But I have seen the house being in that film bought me, abnd I can assure you that it is wonderful.”
But he is Michael Caine. He’s been poor and never, seemingly, turned down a role. He’s been a big part in some wonderful movies. He doesn’t, far as I know, have a crapper of a production company. Comare to Sandler, who is a, if not the sole, reason some of these abominations get made.
PS There is a sequel to Joe Dirt.
Gimlet
Open thread – News
No mention of cracking down, prosecution of rogue officers. WTF? Bad as Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no”.
In the interview, which will air on Monday, Lynch also said that Bland’s case highlights the frustration and fear that people of color face when dealing with police but hoped that reforming policing tactics would mitigate those concerns.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice launched a pilot program that funds trainings for local police forces to build better relationships with the communities they serve. Lynch said that these strategies, if implemented more widely, could help minority communities feel more secure when dealing with police.
“We see situations where officers will reach out to young people and work with them. They’ll go into the classrooms with them. And so we’re hoping that these examples can be models for other police departments. But we’re also hoping that community leaders can work with police departments to build these connections so that we can all tell our children how to respect authority, but not to be afraid of police.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Gimlet: Link?
Tommy T
@ChrisH: Thanks for the warning – I’ll steer clear of The Escapist for sure.
I had to stop MovieBob after about two minutes.
Speed kills, and all that.
Gimlet
@Omnes Omnibus:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/loretta-lynch-sandra-bland_55b530d4e4b0074ba5a4dfe3
Interview to be with Andrea Mitchell tomorrow on MSNBC.
cthulhu
@redshirt: I saw it about a week ago – still playing a few places in LA. It was in my opinion, certainly quite good but also very unusual. Literally 95% action and maybe 20% dialog (which apparently was purposeful to expand the interest in the international market). I can certainly see someone not liking it because they are not fans of action. I don’t see why fans of the previous movies wouldn’t be enthralled (other than gamer-gate-style idiocy). There are a lot of impressive things about it – it is different in a great way, IMO. This is in contrast to the other weird movie I’ve seen this year: “It Follows” – still can’t figure out if I like or don’t like that movie.
Saw Ant-Man last night and that was quite good – mixed votes in the family as to whether it was GotG level or not.
Anne Laurie
@Esme’s Mom:
Oh, my… wonder if he’d agree to a Kickstarter for that?
Merlin' Olson
@redshirt:
I will be the one who remembers Remote Control; Sandler always stole his scenes there and was def. going places, and I found him a gifted absurdist through his SNL stint and the first few movies. Got a soft spot for Little Nicky even. Cynical garbage-monger since then, from what I gather, couldn’t pay me to watch the millionaire buddy bro-downs of the last decade. ‘High-concept’ vehicles that get none of the details right, easiest way to tell when a comic mind (such as it is) has checked the f out.
Doug R
@Trentrunner: It was Charlize’s movie, Max was just along for the awesome ride.
ruemara
@Gimlet: How does the DOJ crack down rogue officers?
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: I respect your opinion of course, but when you say 2d characters I say every character is an archetype fulfilling a mythic role.
Pretentious, I know.
redshirt
@Doug R: Damn right. Theron was a revelation in this movie for me. Every actress that played a wife as well. And Hardy’s near feral Max was perfection IMO.
Bruce Baugh
Movie Bob’s website includes a series called Really That Good, which is just what it sounds like – he takes up movies that were, he thinks, really as good as some kinds of hype would have it. Like Ebert, he appreciates that different kinds of movies warrant different standards, so he explains in what ways he thinks a particular movie is really that good. It’s heavy on the appreciation of clever fun, which is very welcome.
Mason
I generally hate Adam Sandler movies… but this was a really, really good time. My kids and I absolutely loved it.
JustRuss
@gogol’s wife: The …”and may god have mercy on your soul” speech, which I love, is from Billy Madison, which has it’s moments, but is pretty bad, which sums up most Sandler movies for me. I do like The Wedding Singer, it’s sappy, but it works.
JenJen
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter also not loving Adam Sandler. It’s pretty delicious.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/critics-notebook-pixels-puts-final-811037