Reprehensible Movies

[General Zod]

Another movie I'd like to nominate as reprehensible is Norbit. Not only was it unfunny, but I've never liked the "fat sassy black woman" stereotype it promotes. I was also bothered by Norbit's "good" love interest being biracial in appearance, because I am really fucking sick of every "black" female love interest in the movies being light-skinned.

This may possibly be because light skinned black girls are fairly common and you'll be hard pressed to find black girls in America that don't have some degree of mixed race in them.

I suspect that is horseshit; even in my limited exposure I've seen women whose skin colour runs from pitch dark to almost tan. Without any real evidence to go on, I'm more inclined to believe that it is simply easier to market black women as attractive to both black and white audiences if they have features which appeal to both.

It could be a combination of things. In any case I think it's a bit of a stretch to assume negative motivates in this instance.

[Crazedwraith]

Lol the police manage to do something effective quickly. Pity they cant be like that in good old England. I agree wth The Fast and the Furious though. Struck me as a film for small boys who wank over fast cars

A film for small boys who wank over fast cars isn't a reprehensible film. This thread is turning into another "I don't like this movie because of X" list of complaints. Seriously, how many movies can there really be that are truly reprehensible? Do we need to repost the definition of reprehensible on every new page?

Yeah, except for the fact that the film didn't just show illegal street racing as a dangerous thing you shouldn't do, it marketed itself as an adrenaline rush and basically encouraged it.

Only in the same sense that action movies glorify mass murder as a legitimate way of solving your problems? Or is that entire genre also reprehensible?

[Phantasee]

Fucking Commando. That film disgusts me. Killing all those guys just to save the girl? Disgusting. I feel like puking every time I see that movie. He should have let the professionals negotiate a peaceful resolution, not walk around with his M60, hosing down every poor bastard who happened to be there at the time.

[Kanastrous]

...but the guys he killed were all bad...

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

Fucking Commando. That film disgusts me. Killing all those guys just to save the girl? Disgusting. I feel like puking every time I see that movie. He should have let the professionals negotiate a peaceful resolution, not walk around with his M60, hosing down every poor bastard who happened to be there at the time.

I got the feeling that movie wasn't supposed to be serious. It's so over-the-top and ridiculous that I have a hard time imagining that a serious person could have written the screenplay.

[Big Orange]

Violent action movies such as Commando, Under Siege, and Crank are harder to be emulated by idiots when the protagonist of these types of movies is essentially indestructable and has the striking power of several Delta and SEAL teams combined, fighting through dozens of heavily armed opponents in one go. But The Fast and the Furious and its ilk are easier to emulate when one has access to a souped up sports car.

[Phantasee]

If you can get yourself killed driving a car that sounds like a lawnmower and is about as powerful, you've earned it. Let's not blame movies for that, or are we going to start listing video games that have caused children to ruthlessly murder their peers for some gold coins and smash every piece of pottery they see for some rupees?

[Flagg]

If you can get yourself killed driving a car that sounds like a lawnmower and is about as powerful, you've earned it. Let's not blame movies for that, or are we going to start listing video games that have caused children to ruthlessly murder their peers for some gold coins and smash every piece of pottery they see for some rupees?

The problem is that it gets other people killed. I'm not saying that F&F should be banned, I'm just saying I have personally witnessed a cause and effect and the movies themselves glorify illegal street racing while being aimed at a crowd that has the ability and is just stupid enough to emulate it.

[PeZook]

Only in the same sense that action movies glorify mass murder as a legitimate way of solving your problems? Or is that entire genre also reprehensible?

Yeah, sure. Let's crticize the entire genre as if action movies can be all thrown into the same bag. Nevermind that in action movies, violence is often a result of extreme circumstances and can be mostly chalked up to self-defence. Not in all cases, sure, but the situations set up for the protagonist are nearly always so extreme that there is no other solution, because the bad guys are trying to destroy the world/kill the protagonist/take over his country, etc.

Furthermore: there's practically no action movie that sets up the extreme situation as desirable for the protagonist! McLane in Die Hard would probably prefer not to have to fight for his life and walk around on broken glass and be shot at, both protagonists in The Rock would rather be anywhere else, Maximus would enjoy chilling with his family far more than dying in the arena after fighting Commodus,etc. That said, there are action movies which are reprehensible, too, but saying that every action movie ever glorifies mass murder is like saying that every war movie glorifies war.

The Fast And The Furious, on the other hand, outright glamorizes the road-racing culture and sets it up as something glorious, desirable and fulfilling for a man to do. And whatever you say about how people should know movies are not reality, they're a part of culture, and can influence and shape it (yes, video games do that, too).

Let's put it this way: If somebody made a movie about a young German boy seeking a place to belong and joining the SS and finding his place in the world and getting the girl while guarding a concentration camp (after beating down the bad guy who thinks what the Reich is doing is bad, perhaps), would you also argue that we shouldn't criticize the movie, since it's just fantasy? What if it was set in a completely fictional country on a completely fictional planet, but with the same basic plot?

[Crazedwraith]

Strangely, I distinctly remember ll the main characters of The Fast And The Furious as being portrayed as a bit fucked in the head. The movie doesn't exactly make it out to be a glorious life, what with the main characters all end up being dead, in jail or on the run.

[Shroom Man 777]

Fucking Commando. That film disgusts me. Killing all those guys just to save the girl? Disgusting. I feel like puking every time I see that movie. He should have let the professionals negotiate a peaceful resolution, not walk around with his M60, hosing down every poor bastard who happened to be there at the time.

I don't know if you're serious, or if you're joking, but if you're serious then them's fighting words!

Or, maybe, you just need to... let off some steam.

Bennett.

[Vendetta]

...but the guys he killed were all bad...

And they were all useless shots, which in an action movie is really the most unforgivable sin imaginable, which is why such people are drawn so often to villainy, the blackness of their heart shows in their terrible aim. They were sinners, worth less than dogs, and their deaths were a good sight unto the Lord.

[The Grim Squeaker]

...but the guys he killed were all bad...

And they were all useless shots, which in an action movie is really the most unforgivable sin imaginable, which is why such people are drawn so often to villainy, the blackness of their heart shows in their terrible aim. They were sinners, worth less than dogs, and their deaths were a good sight unto the Lord.

So, what would that make Quarritch from Avatar?

[Shroom Man 777]

That would make Quarritch a morally ambiguous character, worthy of an Oscar award, in his artistic and in-depth thought provoking duality and defiance of the mitochondriadichotomy of good and evil - piercing blackwhite absolutism and making a more complex and profound realistic or even post-realistic portrayal of the muddled tones of gray that dominate a confusing hyper-real world full of blue hippie space catpeople. Splendid, pretentious, and like wiping your ass in silk!

[Kanastrous]

I dunno - Quaritch managed to make a kill shot with a handgun against a moving human-sized target at very long range, while holding his breath standing out in a poisonous alien atmosphere.

At least in terms of marksmanship I'd have to rank him a few cuts above your average Commando baddie...

mitochondriadichotomy

...a cellular structure that contributes to moral crisis resolution...?

[Kanastrous]

double post - pls delete...

[Shroom Man 777]

I dunno - Quaritch managed to make a kill shot with a handgun against a moving human-sized target at very long range, while holding his breath standing out in a poisonous alien atmosphere.

At least in terms of marksmanship I'd have to rank him a few cuts above your average Commando baddie...

All those troopers in Avatar were able to kill a fuckton of Na'vi effectively, so they weren't shit shots at all. Least of all Quarritch, since that moving human-sized target at very long range also happened to be in an armored chopper.

mitochondriadichotomy

...a cellular structure that contributes to moral crisis resolution...?

[/quote]

It also contributes to one's potential Force sensitivity! The Chosen One!

[Stofsk]

Fucking Commando. That film disgusts me. Killing all those guys just to save the girl? Disgusting. I feel like puking every time I see that movie. He should have let the professionals negotiate a peaceful resolution, not walk around with his M60, hosing down every poor bastard who happened to be there at the time.

I don't know if you're serious, or if you're joking, but if you're serious then them's fighting words!

Or, maybe, you just need to... let off some steam.

Bennett.

I love the homoerotic tone that final fight has between Arnold and Bennett. I don't know if it was intentional or not (I'm pretty sure that it was), but it sure was fucking funny.

[Kanastrous]

Big huge penetrating tubular thingy spouting a big cloud of white steam after a violent protracted sweaty man-fight?

Can't see where you're getting homoerotic from, at all...

[The Yosemite Bear]

the best redeeming quality of commando is keeping counts on it.

ok, count the bodies, count the production fuck ups, (such as the missing door changing which side of the car it's on, and then sometimes not being missing at all) in terms of trashing your tropes it's up there with the blues brothers.

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

Another movie I'd like to nominate is Christmas With The Kranks. It's about this family, the Kranks, who decide not to celebrate Christmas the usual way, and their neighbors give them hell for it. The movie clearly sides with the neighbors and has the Kranks finally give in by the end. Apparently Christmas is something you should shove down people's throats.

[PeZook]

Strangely, I distinctly remember ll the main characters of The Fast And The Furious as being portrayed as a bit fucked in the head. The movie doesn't exactly make it out to be a glorious life, what with the main characters all end up being dead, in jail or on the run.

Huh...I may have remembered the movie wrongly, I certainly forgot about the part where they all get their lives fucked up. So yeah, it may not be as reprehensible as I originally thought.

Another movie I'd like to nominate is Christmas With The Kranks. It's about this family, the Kranks, who decide not to celebrate Christmas the usual way, and their neighbors give them hell for it. The movie clearly sides with the neighbors and has the Kranks finally give in by the end. Apparently Christmas is something you should shove down people's throats.

It also has the added bonus of being an awful movie, not just one with a reprehensible message

Double combo!

[Kanastrous]

Life is Beautiful. I've gone back and forth on this one but in the end I just can't entirely stomach a drama-comedy in which it's forwarded that all that was necessary to survive a Nazi death camp was a sunny disposition and a flippant sense of humor...

[Samuel]

Life is Beautiful. I've gone back and forth on this one but in the end I just can't entirely stomach a drama-comedy in which it's forwarded that all that was necessary to survive a Nazi death camp was a sunny disposition and a flippant sense of humor...

Given that the man with the sense of humor gets executed by the guards towards the end of the movie, I don't think that is the message. I think he focused on humor to distract his son from the fact he was in a Nazi death camp. I think the message is you need a sense of humor to avoid going crazy when you are placed in hell on earth.

[Darth Yan]

That's what I got as well. If he hadn't had that humor, he would have given up, wasted away, and died.