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Official thread about the movie you just saw

I'm not hating on Kyle. I just thought the movie was shit.

Oh no, I didn't think you were at all!

Propaganda? Maybe some, but I think if this guy was killing Germans or Japanese there wouldn't be that feel. Its a movie about a guy who did incredible things in an incredibly unpopular war. If this opens up doors to more help for PTSD I'm all for it.

But I can definitely see how all of the EVIL talk makes people uncomfortable.
 
Like, I can't decide whether it had nothing to say, or if it just didn't know how to say what it wanted to. Like Moonz said, it was a borderline shameless propaganda movie. Two hours of 'MURCA FUCK YEAH, a powerful scene or two bookending what was basically Call of Duty footage. Which is fine. Other movies have done all of that admirably, and American Sniper probably does those things better than those other movies. Except, this movie seems to think it's the fucking Hurt Locker, and it spends way too much time trying to establish some DEEPER POINT, which ends up being that, hey, Chris Kyle was a goddamn patriot! Hooray!

It's not The Hurt Locker. Hell, it's not even Brothers or The Messenger. It's a mediocre movie dressed up in shameless tearjerking patriotism.

I saw this opening night. When the credits rolled, you could hear audible crying in the crowd. I realized pretty quickly that a good portion of it was coming from several man who were obviously veterans/active duty. I'd be careful to call it "shameless tearjerking patriotism" with "nothing to say" and no "deeper point." To them there was and I'd argue that they are in a much better position to determine that than you or I are.
 
I saw Sniper. 2 questions. What happened to the brother? They never showed him.

I don't get either side's reaction to the movie. Why do people gotta hate or love on Kyle, just appreciate the man for the job he did for us and maybe we all need to wake the fuck up and start helping these guys that come home having to go through all that shit. I don't think either political party is helping. Which is a shame.

I commend the posters for not bringing this discussion to the boards (that I've seen anyway.) Nothing good can come from it.
 
I saw this opening night. When the credits rolled, you could hear audible crying in the crowd. I realized pretty quickly that a good portion of it was coming from several man who were obviously veterans/active duty. I'd be careful to call it "shameless tearjerking patriotism" with "nothing to say" and no "deeper point." To them there was and I'd argue that they are in a much better position to determine that than you or I are.

I'd say that your anecdote at least proves the bolded.

But sure, I agree that they're in a better position to determine the film's intended message than I am.
 
I'd say that your anecdote at least proves the bolded.

But sure, I agree that they're in a better position to determine the film's intended message than I am.

If they determined it to be a powerful narrative, who are you to call it shameless? It appears you are trying to take away from that or, at best, take a jab at it. If you aren't, I apologize.
 
I really enjoyed Her. Excellent acting (traditional and voice) complemented the plausible sci-fi theme.
 
If they determined it to be a powerful narrative, who are you to call it shameless? It appears you are trying to take away from that or, at best, take a jab at it. If you aren't, I apologize.

Shameless on the part of the filmmakers. Let me put it this way: the more sympathetic they make Kyle and his story, the more money they make. The more veterans they get to cry in a cinema, the more money they make.

Meh, maybe I'm being too cynical here, but it all felt very shallow and transparent to me in ways that The Hurt Locker or The Messenger weren't.
 
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Shameless on the part of the filmmakers. Let me put it this way: the more sympathetic they make Kyle and his story, the more money they make. The more veterans they get to cry in a cinema, the more money they make.

Meh, maybe I'm being too cynical here, but it all felt very shallow and transparent to me in ways that The Hurt Locker or The Messenger weren't.

I see what you're saying here. Good point.
 
Sienna Miller's pretty hot though.

She's too skinny, she does a pretty good job. Bradley Cooper disappears into Kyle, plus he beefed up big time. The action scenes are scary as hell, I cannot imagine what it was like in real life. Some of it reminded me of that tracking shot in True Detective, just on the edge of your seat the whole time.
 
I haven't seen American Sniper and I don't plan to.

If it's anything like Gran Torino, the basic storytelling problem is that it tells you what to think, how to feel, etc., instead of letting you watch and decide/feel for yourself. It's overwrought hand-holding of an audience.

This is basically the bigger problem with Sniper.
 
What about a scene where he talks to an empty chair?
 
Finally saw The Hobbit Part 3 yesterday. It gets a resounding meh from me. Liked it the least of all of the Hobbit films. For a movie titled The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins probably gets about 30 minutes of screen time. After the first twenty minutes of the movie wrapping up the Smaug story, the movie is essentially an hour of prelude to a battle, and then an hour of battling. Then it just ends. I know it's basically what Tolkien wrote, but the freaking eagles as deus ex machina AGAIN was just too much. Plus apparently a one-on-one battle between two combatants is sufficient to decide an entire battle between thousands of soldiers.

I finally got around to seeing it this weekend and I agree it was the least enjoyable of the 3.

It was weird how, once the eagles showed up, the story didn't deal with the big battle anymore at all - I guess it was just assumed it was won? It actually wasn't just the eagles - it was also Radagast and some other forces of nature coming to aid the side of 'good' - along with Beorn as a huge bear, but you only see him for a second - barely long enough to figure out it was him.

I did not like the addition of Azog the great Orc leader to the whole story and did not agree with that great one-on-one fight carrying such importance.

I don't know, I just left the film feeling a little let down. The effects and scenery are amazing, of course.
 
Saw The Guest. Not a great movie but entertaining. Fairly corny, but it almost fits as a horror movie, so I guess that comes with the territory. Worth $5 on iTunes.
The parts where he does super mean face and then laughs and says just kidding killed me.
 
Saw three movies this weekend:

Gone Girl: entertaining, thrilling and a big mindfuck (I haven't read the book).
Grand Budapest Hotel: really enjoyed it, maybe my 2nd favorite Wes Anderson after Tenenbaums
Wolf of Wall Street: really entertaining and didn't feel at all like a 3 hour movie. Loved Jonah Hill. Wife absolutely hated it, but she hates antiheroes like Jordan Belfort, Walter White, and Frank Underwood.
 
Going to rent Lucy tonight to see what all the WakeFanatic hype is about, I expect it to be similar to Transcendence (bad)
 
My biggest gripe about the Hobbit trilogy (lol) is fucking Tauriel. STOP MAKING UP LOVE STORYLINES, PETER JACKSON.

that was actually one of the less annoying things about the trilogy, IMO. Radagast and the whole White Council/Dol Guldur thing was way worse
 
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