There aren't that many Halloweenish movies coming out. Only two that I can think of: Saw III and The Grudge 2. The Grudge commercials don't really scare me. The first was creepy, sure, in that new Japanese horror-flick kind of way. They used some of those eerie, disjointed body movements and stop-action filming. But it wasn't scary. Just gross.
It takes a lot to scare me.
Maybe my problem is that I can't believe horror movies. I can't put myself inside of the movie. And gore and special effects, rather than sucking me in, usually push me back to reality. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Final Destination? Popcorn movies.
But I won't watch Saw. Any of them. Saw falls into a genre of movie I'll call "claustrophobic movies": a movie where a character is trapped or powerless. In slasher movies the hero or heroine is given a chance at survival. They can run, they can fight back. But in the Saw movies the person doesn't have that chance. And it's not just horror. I get the same feeling in other movies. Like What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I think it was his mom.
There are 3 types of movies I won't watch:
1) Claustraphobic Movies 
'Nuff said.
2) Satanic Movies
Why take the chance?
3) Morally Ambiguous Movies
Movies where there isn't a good guy. Like Pulp Fiction or Fargo. Plus HBO series like Deadwood and The Sopranos. Call me weird but I feel that serious movies should have a moral. Something deep in me requires it. When I see a movie where there is no one you can pull for I feel depressed and empty.
Maybe I need to watch less movies.
7 years ago
10 comments:
I know I watch too many movies!
I am a movie buff, so that makes seeing less of them hard. I still recognize that I "overdose" often.
I will watch morally ambiguous movies, but I also feel the "void" they leave when you are finished watching. I don't love the void, but from a sociological perspective I find some of the content to be a "more accurate" portrayal of life where lines of hero/villain aren't drawn so distinctly.
Adding to the above statement, I also like the exaggerated characters on screen. Like I said I am a movie buff and I enjoy throw-away movies as well as "thinking" movies.
Movies that I won't see:
1) Horror, because they DO scare me. I don't like delving into the darkness that surrounds them unless the story is clever or compelling outside of the fright and gore (e.g. Scream 1).
2) Satanic movies, for the same reason.
3) Stupid movies, this one can be harder to pick out. I do not like coming away from a movie thinking it was a complete waste of time. A stupid movie will cause this feeling in me because I was so distracted by the lack of quality that I wasn't even entertained. Entertainment is a valid use of time.
4) "Chick" movies, now my wife will say I have seen and will watch these. It is true to a point; however I prefer not to watch them for similar reasons to the stupid movie category. Some few are okay for the same reason I may find a “horror” flick compelling.
How about Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I remember you being scared last year when we watched it. Maybe it was just because you were in Texas, and now that you are in Ohio, it just isn't as scary?
Dan, Zane, and I recently watched a fairly "morally ambiguous" movie:
The Prestige
Very well made (I thought). Some gorgeous scenery, nice acting, great "mood"...but it was sad, grey, dark. It was most disturbing in that you didn't really have much of a protagonist.
I'd agree with you on the necessity of a "good guy."
As per "stupid movies" (Rob's comment), Heather and I were just discussing The Lake House. Ouch. We each had a similar reaction...mostly which consisted of, "what a horrible mistake of a movie". But, many people loved it, so what do we know, right?
I laughed most of the way through. Definitely considered it a waste of my time. Where's more love stories like While you were Sleeping or Terminator?
The biggest problem I have with crappy movies--which seems to be the norm, not the exception--is my inability to either walk out or turn them off. It's pure inertia, which is a lame excuse: during the first part of a movie, it's "maybe it'll get better"; later on "it's probably almost over."
(Yes, in case you were wondering, I watched just such a movie last night: 11:14, an overly clever movie with one of those plots featuring several disparate mini-plots which dovetail together at the end. The characters were at best unlikable/pitiable and at worst despicable.)
I'm surprised at your dislike for morally ambiguous movies, Phee, but I think it's cool. I'm finally to figure out that most of the morally ambiguous movies out there are largely pretentious philosophical screeds, vacuous bloodbaths, or both. I too prefer movies with characters you can root for; I think it's largely why I preferred The Illusionist to The Prestige. Both were good, but the former had a couple of major characters to pull for, while the latter only had one minor character I genuinely liked.
I hope everyone understands that I don't mean every movie I watch has to have a moral...or be important. I have plenty of (like Rob said) "throw-away" movies. Like Dumb & Dumber, for instance.
But there are certain movies where you feel like the director is trying to tell you: "There is no goodness." You feel that in the characters and the filming. And I suppose they DO tend to be philosophical (Mystic River), a bloodbath (Reservoir Dogs) or both (Seven--almost). I'd never really thought about it.
A cynic might say that morally ambiguous movies are more true to life: that it's good to see a movie where the bad guy isn't entirely bad or a good guy isn't entirely good. But I would argue that most modern movies aren't all that black and white: Protagonists have their flaws and bad guys are often likeable or respectable (Speaking of which, Philip Seymour Hoffman was incredible in MI:3!) I don't think we create morality plays and we have enough artsy movies these days--with anti-fairy tale endings--to keep things interesting.
I suppose, though, I watch movies differently than I do other things. I appreciate artistic ambiguity in other things, like art and books, but it usually doesn't play itself out as a battle between good and evil (like movies do). It's often internal conflict. In ambiguous movies the conflict is between bad guys and bad guys--which creates internal conflict in ME because I don't really want either side to win.
Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction was the closest thing to a good guy and he really wasn't all that good: he killed a man in the boxing ring right at the start and didn't even care. In a movie like that they don't fight for love or devotion...just survival or revenge.
Chad: I don't think I was scared but I might be remembering wrong. Movies can definitely make me JUMP (like The Sixth Sense the first time I watched it: I was sitting on the guy's lap to my left)...but I don't walk away scared or thinking about chainsaw hackers or anything...
You're right, Dumb & Dumber is a heartfelt, social commentary on the plight of the thirty-something single male, trying to eke it out in a cold, harsh world...That's why it won so many Oscars.
:)
But don't lie: your favorite movie is My Little Pony: The Movie.
What about movies like Memento? If you haven't seen it I don't want to ruin it for you, though I'm pretty sure it would fall in your 'morally ambiguous' category. Despite that, it is remarkable because of its plot structure and the way that it throws our reality (via our memories) into question, not to mention the fact that the way in which it is truly morally ambiguous is not at all apparent until the end. If I were going to tell you to see one morally ambiguous movie, then I think it would be this one.
I would have to debate your placement of Fargo into this category though. Morning sickness aside, Frances McDormand plays an actual good character. Thanks to her, evil is punished. Sure, alot of the other characters may be shady to the extreme, but I think that she is enough to rescue the movie from moral abiguity.
As far as horror movies go, I must just be a total wuss. I mean, I couldn't sleep for a week after seeing Shaun of the Dead. Maybe my imagination is too active, but I am going to stay the heck away from monster movies, especially if there is even a mention of zombies.
You're right. Memento is a morally ambiguous movie that I did enjoy. I liked it quite a bit, in fact (if only they had dropped 1,000 of the 'f' words they used).
I can't think of a proper response to that. Maybe the fact that you don't KNOW it's morally ambiguous. Or the fact that, to you, Leonard is a good guy. When he kicks in the wrong hotel room he says, "Sorry." And when he's being chased by Jimmy he gets confused and thinks he's chasing Jimmy. His insomnia makes him feel innocent to the audience. He's being used by Teddy and Natalie and even the hotel desk guy but his intentions are pure (you feel): to avenge his wife. And then the ending is so ingenious and so unexpected that it finishes before you can really understand what you just saw. And the credits roll before you have to make a moral judgment on it.
Was Leonard bad? Was he good? He's impaired...and dangerous..and not as guiless as you might think.
Touché, Stacey.
As to Frances McDormand in Fargo -- I disagree. She is just as callous to the evil surrounding her as the bad guys are. The first time we see her she's drinking coffee over a dead woman in the snow, talking to a cop about last night's football game or something. Same thing when she goes to dinner with her former high school classmate: he's crying and trying to throw himself at her and she doesn't really care (if I remember correctly). Yes, she may get the bad guy at the end but is she happy about it? Is she edified? Not really.
There was no MEANING to the fact that she caught Peter Stormare's character. It just ended all the killing. Justice wasn't really served. That's what I think Fargo was trying to say: there is no sense to the killing. It just happened.
Finally, as to Shaun of the Dead -- you're right. I can't watch a zombie movie either. They usually involve axes or lawn mowers or hatchets and buckets of blood...
Post a Comment