Conversation Between Daniel M and JayDee


Showing Comments 9 to 12 of 46
  1. 01-17-15
    Hmmm.....I don't think so. And you know how much attention I pay to rep!

    Yeah I've noticed you've been watching a lot of 2014's big hitters, I've been trying to do the same. May I ask are you going to the cinema for all of these or are you employing some...ahem....more illegal practices?

    The big out of nowhere moment I'm assuming you mean the car crash yeah? I didn't like that either. After an hour out of nowhere the film veered off into melodramatic soap opera territory with the car crash, the mad dash to the auditorium, playing on stage as blood pours from his wounds and then attacking Fletcher.

    And you were right about the film repeating itself. I mean it wasn't boring but it was certainly repetitive; Andrew plays the drums, Fletcher shouts at him, Andrew plays, Fletcher shouts, rinse and repeat. And that's pretty much what the finale is as well. Perhaps my tastes have been too crafted by standard Hollywood storytelling but you feel something should happen at the finale. Either Andrew should realise they are more important things in life, or he should rebel against Fletcher or something. Instead he basically does what he's done the whole film, play the drums. Except this time he doesn't it a little better

    I actually wonder whether my score is a little high. I was a lot more positive on the film right after it ending and was going to go with a straight 3,5 or 3.5+ even but I think I had just got caught up with the adrenaline of the final solo. The longer away from the film I got the more little things about it started to bother me. So I threw in the minus after the 3.5 but I'm not sure even that was enough
  2. 01-16-15
    I read your review afterwards, I'm pretty sure I repped you, I was gonna leave a reply pretty much saying what I messaged to you, but I was thinking about either doing a review or leaving some comments in the Movie Tab so I didn't want to spoil that post for others But I'll write something in there soon for you now that I've had a little longer to digest it too, I've been going through quite a lot of the major 2014 films recently.

    But yeah I think the ending had problems too, after the big out of no where moment half way through, it's like the film didn't know where to go with the plot, it had shocked the audience enough, and reached it's potential, but they knew they needed an ending. Maybe if the film hadn't been about Miles Teller's character being successful and he was actually the secondary character to the much more conflicted and multi dimensional (the moments where he showed human emotion were quite interestting) JK Simmons character, the movie could have been a more interesting character study.
  3. 01-16-15
    Wait, what? We're in agreement again? What the f*ck is going on?!!! We both even agree that Toy Story 2 is the best of the trilogy. Although Aladdin is f*cking awesome so at least there's still a little split between us which is comforting.

    And I'm just glad to have a little back up in regards to Whiplash, I had started to feel rather lonely and like I just wasn't 'getting' it and it was my fault. I mean all I've been seeing and hearing is people raving about it and how it's the best film of the year, of the last 10 years, even of the last 20 years!!! as I heard somewhere. And I'm just left bemused.

    So you've read my review then, before or after watching it? As I said the characters were simplistic, the whole approach just felt unrealistic and tough for me to really buy which is always going to hurt a film, the romantic subplot felt tacked on and the ending felt a touch contrived. I suppose it maybe depends on whether you think Fletcher purposely meant to inspire Andrew or whether that was unplanned for on his part. However given his massive ego the fact that he was willing to sabotage the performance didn't ring particularly true to me.
  4. 01-16-15
    Yup, and I actually agree with you more than the majority. It had some very powerful moments and some intense performances, but I didn't think it was all that great. It felt too one-note (kind of pun intended) and just kept repeating itself over and over again without too much else going on. Also the romantic stuff failed, it had the potential to work when he phoned her back and she had a boyfriend, but then just stopped after that, I get it's trying to tell us that if your work over-hard you'll lose site of what's important, but still...

    So yeah, it knew how to get a reaction out of the audience, some of the scenes are intense and shocking, the performances are great, but I don't really get it, it's like a film that can't be ended. How do you capture a idea that relies on a few basic elements and extend that to a feature film? It's difficult, I think a lot of films suffer from this problem when they try and translate a powerful idea into a structured narrative and it doesn't suit.