Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Yeah, I hadn't really known much about the film before seeing it. It was racist (as are most war films, if not all) but the thing is American Sniper takes it to a whole new level. Lots of films are offensive to racial/ethnic minorities but when people watch a film and then say they want to go out and kill some 'ragheads' it's just gross. And the main problem I had with American Sniper was that it was full of lies. Again, I don't know as much about Unbroken as I do about American Sniper.

agree with mark f. i haven't written about American Sniper on here despite seeing it, it is one of the 'loudest' movies i've ever seen, or maybe that was just the iMax theater i was in. Movie damm near, hell, it basically gave me a panic attack and i had to watch the last 30+ minutes from the exit hallway pacing back and forth just to keep myself moving around

Anyways, i think it is a movie that may tend to force some viewers to project whatever world view they bring onto the movie. Saw it with my dad, and i think he wanted to see the -Chris Kyle as the hero- side of it. I think that angle is definitely there, but i saw more than that. I saw a man so driven by the need to be in action that he didn't really exist outside of 'his zone.' When he was in his perch sniping Iraqis. Outside of that, he didn't really have anything. That was my take. Didn't find it racist in any way. Pretty stressful movie, really

i give Sniper a Rating: 7.0 /10, both positive and negative points for being stressful enough to make an impact

“I hate the damn savages.....I couldn’t give a flying **** about the Iraqis.” - Chris Kyle. Not a racist.

I don't get it racist ? The movie show the life of a real American Sniper (real event) and want to demonstrate the mental of a soldier during war and when they come home... Those man are incredibly though physically and mentally and they got my respect (I'm Canadian btw).

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When a group of people are receiving death threats over a movie, yeah it's racist.

Okay, the issue I have with American Sniper is that in the film they show this part where a news segment about 9/11 is on TV and then suddenly this guy is off to fight terrorists in Iraq. That is a blatant lie. Iraq was invaded because America suspected they had weapons which turned out to be false. Did they mention in the film that over 133,000 innocent Iraqis were killed? Probably not.

Right. I'm sorry if I've offended you.

Selma, 2014
Dir: Ava DuVernay



Suspenseful at the right moments, intimate when necessary and inspiring throughout, Selma is a perfectly competent film that uses most of its aspects with efficiency. But to me it was neither heartbreaking nor groundbreaking. I honestly didn’t feel like it lived up to the expectations of a film with the amount of critical acclaim surrounding it.

I do think, however, that the direction was masterful and brought the best out of the story. As it centers on Martin Luther King Jr., a man who possessed the oratory skills of eloquence, rhythm and the transcendental ability to stir the humanity in people, many scenes (especially the ones involving violence) are stylized similarly. Hate crimes and crowd beatings are not gory, but passionate and moving.

My main problem was with the screenplay, especially the dialogue. I found it inconsistent. While there were true moments of beauty, some of it fit within these categories: dull, unbelievable and unbelievably cheesy. It was too difficult to ignore, especially considering that we hear amazing lines in between the iffy dialogues.

In general, I thought it was good. There were some key moments that did ascend into what I guess was a peek of some real greatness it had the potential to become into, but I was neither deeply moved nor wholly impressed by this film (especially for the kind of buzz it’s getting).

7/10

To my recollection, that dialogue was not in the movie. The only thing that could be considered racist dialogue, IMO, was when some of the men talked about going back out and getting some h*jis (if that's how you spell it). Never heard another line about what they were called. It seems to me, kais, that you're quoting either Kyle's book or what people in the media or the internet have said about Kyle and his comments.

I've seen other comments on other threads that have said that the entire movie was racist and that the "Republican" Clint Eastwood was racist. If directing a movie that features a depiction of a man who may or may not have been racist makes you think Eastwood is racist, then I call foul. He directed the movie and showed us the character, who, if I recall (and I saw it two days ago) said that he wished that he killed more bad guys in order to save the men who were being killed by said bad guys. Also, to the person on the other thread, Eastwood is not a Republican (despite his appearance at the Republican Convention to speak for Mitt Romney, resulting in the strange/comedic "chair" talk to Obama). He is a Libertarian. Supposedly, "Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as its principal objective. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgement". And yes, I had to look that up. I don't know if it's left-of-center, or right-of-center, or dead-center. Frankly I don't care about his politics if it doesn't interfere with his directing. And I don't think it did in this movie.

When you say "When a group of people are receiving death threats over a movie, yeah it's racist" I say, no, the people making the threats are racist or just plain stupid. The movie itself is not racist. It portrays, or tries to portray the man who was good mainly at one thing and that was killing who he, and the military, and the President, perceive/perceived as the enemy and a threat to freedom, not only to Iraq, but to our country. There are far more movies that are considered classics or excellent that called the enemy by racist names, yet received little to no complaints about their dialogue. I would put the excellent Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket as movies that had racist dialogue, but are still portraits of people at war and racist dialogue unfortunately happens to be a part of it. Even if they are not racist, fighting men sometimes steel themselves for battle by calling the enemy by racist names. You, kais, have seemed to latch onto either, again, Kyle's book, or complaints in the media.

Also, when you say you "didn't finish it because it made you nauseous," then your opinion of the movie doesn't count to me, because you haven't watched the movie as a whole. I do that to anyone who says they walked out on a movie or didn't finish it. I won't count their review. I'd rather comment on their opinion or give thumbs up props to them when they give a review or comment on a movie that makes me want to see that movie. When somebody comes onto a forum and trashes a movie they didn't watch in its entirety, calling it racist and getting all political about it, well, I have to answer back and unfortunately get political back, which is something I don't like to do when discussing movies. That's because people seem to get more and more political about movies and also want to get political about the person's life outside of the movie. I don't care for that approach.

And finally, when somebody goes ballistic about a movie and their stars (Bradley Pooper), I look at how long they've been on the forum and usually, without fail, they've only been on here a few months/weeks/days. They seem to have not found their way around the forum and learned the groove of the way to do things, or are just on here to cause trouble and try to be controversial instead of being a vital contributor to the proceedings.
Anyway, to the mods, sorry about going on about this, but this is something that goes all over me. I left IMDB because of the seemingly endless amount of immature teens not even trying to have an intelligent conversation about a movie. I came here and found an oasis in the internet desert of movie lovers. No personal offense to you, kais, but I call into question your thoughts of American Sniper when you go on and on about about racism in a movie that didn't even, IMO, portray racism as a vital part of its entirety.

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I agree, nostromo. It really reminded me of The Hurt Locker (2008). The character of William James (Jeremy Renner) didn't seem to feel he was anything unless he was defusing IEDs or mines. Like Chris Kyle's character in American Sniper, James was shown returning home, albeit only once, and he and his wife seemed to be unhappy, as apposed to Kyle returning several times in AS. Anyway, those movies might make good companion pieces.

Well, that wasn't my intention at all and I'm sorry if that's what it seemed like. Unfortunately, I let my personal frustrations get the best of me.

dadgumblah, U ROCK

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I don't get how this means that he's not a racist. Just because he's real and suffers issues, doesn't mean he's not a racist (just saying) ... but I thought the movie was good too.

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Blue Car (2002)



Thoughts posted in the Hall of Fame thread.

No problem, kais. No personal hard feelings toward you.

The Guest

Great, stylish fun; Dan Stevens was awesome. I went in expecting something down to earth but the cartoonish fights and excess (blood, killings) seemed to work to its advantage and overall, the unconventional approach (for a psycho-thriller) made for a good time.

Dancer in the Dark (2000)



My first Lars Von Trier. Been in my watch list for a long time, finally saw it last night and I am so glad that I did. Fascinating work. Particularly liked the way the film controlled and rationalized melodrama and finally used it to full effect and also the amazingly fitting camera work and editing. How masterfully Von Trier developed and established the characters, and so quickly, in few random sketches here and there...and Bjork...what can you say! Haven't seen such an acting performance in a long long time...9 pointer for me.

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Is that Leonardo DiCaprio with a wig on?

Peppermint Candy

Powerful and chilling story told in reverse chronological order about a man turned suicidal due to a series of events in his country, Korea.

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The Breakfast Club

It was on the tele and I hadn't watched it so figured I'd check it out. I've seen Pretty In Pink and really liked it, I remember seeing Sixteen Candles but my memory is foggy, so I don't have a set opinion on that one. As for Breakfast Club, I enjoyed it very much. I liked the interactions between the characters; came off as very natural and honest. I always thought the story spanned over a few, days, weeks or months; not a single day but it did and I found that surprising. Bender to me was very unlikable, even after his supposed empathy, I continued to hate with a passion. The detention teacher should've kicked his rude a**, who btw was a great authority figure (played by Paul Gleason). I prefer Pretty in Pink but The Breakfast Club (whilst a little overrated) is still an extremely enjoyable school flick.