6th HOF-A Perfect World

always liked Kevin Costner, so i'll seek out A Perfect World. aside from those already mentioned, got a big soft spot for Tin Cup, which also has Cheech Marin



and the always-entertaining Don Johnson



Does my inner child need a spanking

I recall liking Tin Cup well enough (I think I even have the DVD), but I've only seen it maybe twice and don't remember much.

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Well he's too old and too American to play Robin Hood, and he's acted off the screen by a scenery-chewing Alan Rickman, but I love that film

Yeah, I said something like that. Basically what I meant was that in most of Eastwood's films there are really lazy manipulative scenes that bother me because they break up what is otherwise a great movie. American Sniper, however, is one long lazy manipulative scene An American killing middle eastern robot who has no lines in the whole film is the antagonist? Talking to his pregnant wife on the phone whilst patrolling in Iraq so she can collapse when they get attacked? I can't stand that stuff ...

Having said that, I have rated seven Eastwood films and gave five of them or better so overall I like him but those issues always stop me loving his films.

In A Perfect World it was things like the scene where Costner leaves the kidnapped child alone in a car pointing an unloaded gun at the recently escaped fugitive pedophile ... WTF? It was purely there so Costner could kill him five minutes later and we could think "he's not such a bad guy ...". It's lazy and characters should be developed with good writing and acting rather than scenes like that.

TN also mentioned a couple of things about the end which made me feel the same way - particularly the double dipping on the sentimentality ...

I didn't hate this film but felt it could have been so much better if Eastwood had put a bit more effort into developing the characters rather than taking shortcuts.

And compared to American Sniper it's a masterpiece

Just watched it, was great overall. The copper plot was abit weak compared (especially) to Costner and the kid's story but wasn't enough to pull it down, anyways I've seen more worse off secondary plots. The strength of the film lies in the chemistry between the two main characters, it's moving.

I was iffy to the writing off of a potentially interesting character in the second convict but the strong father-son relationship made me forget. Btw, I think that character (with his nasty behaviour and attitude) would've brought down the connection for me personally and the way they wrote him off, was pretty smart and effective anyways.

A quality nomination, MV.

I just finished watching this movie. I think the criticisms of the movie are valid, and I thought it had a few flaws myself. I don't care for Laura Dern very much; thankfully she didn't have a huge role. I think there were parts there were a tad silly, and I could've used a bit more realism and grit. However, we all watch a lot of movies, and we all watch a large variety of movies. We all rate and critique these movies, but I think sometimes it's better to overlook these flaws and remember why we fell in love with movies in the first place. Eastwood sometimes gets criticized as a director for being manipulative, but sometimes I like to just relax and be told and shown what's going on, and he's a great story teller. I could've used more of Clint the actor in this movie, but his role is indeed secondary so I can't complain. Obviously the focus of the movie is the relationship between the con and the boy, and I think that this is handled brilliantly. Sure, the con is a bad guy, but there's a lot of bad guys who grew up without a father, who are super determined not to make the same mistake as their father did when it comes to being a role model. I think this is shown very well, and it's all the more effective because of the needs of the boy. I've always liked Costner and he's great in this. The movie looks great, it captures the era well, and it's well paced. It could've used a couple alterations for my personal taste, but I think it's a wonderful movie.

Tonight's Movie.

Yeah, sentimentalism is for those inferior people who like mainstream garbage. (sarcasm)

While some movies are "hard" that doesn't mean you should force yourself to hate "easy" movies. Emotional manipulation is the name given by a viewer to explicitly emotional scenes that didn't connect to the viewer.

Eastwood's movies are easy for you partly because they are Hollywood movies which speak the cinematic language which you are the most fluent. I don't find Tarkovsky, for instance, more "difficult" than Spielberg, because I am used to the language. Movies are not difficulty or easy, they are not mathematical problems, they are art.

It is, just like most Clint's movies. Clint is one of the greatest living American filmmakers.

Guap, it really seems like you posted based on conversations on your head rather than what I actually wrote. Also, this is the second time you've decided to target my posts in terms of your perceived ideas of what I think of "mainstream" movies. You are wrong.

I would post more but I'm busy watching a bunch of "easy" films that I need to force myself to hate

Yep, sorry for that.

SPOILER COULD BE IN THIS

Just finished my eleventh Eastwood film here. I wouldn't put it on the level of his top 4 films for me, but it was a really good film. I particularly enjoyed the performance of Costner and the screenplay. It's a different story than we are used to seeing, so I give it a lot of credit for its creativity. And of course, when Eastwood is under center, the camerawork is at a top notch level.

I didn't have much argument as far as Eastwood and Dern's characters not being developed very much. I thought it was fine the way it was, as any extra attention to them would have taken away from the Butch/Phillip relationship.

If there's one thing that I'm particularly unsure if I like it would be the fact that Phillip shot Butch. But in reality, this is something that had to happen given the situation that Butch had put himself in. Overall a really solid film though. I'll definitely need to see this one again.

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Finished this now...

I have some mixed feelings about it... I loved Costner's performance (he is a actor I always liked) and the relationship between him the boy is amazing, which makes the movie a really great watch!
But Eastwood still didn't convince me as a director (except for Million Dollar baby which I kind of like), the writing was a bit artificial and the characters could have been waaay more explored! The whole movie relied solely on Costner's acting and on the inital premise! Again, it's a great watch and I felt entertained during the more than 2 hours this takes but I never felt touched by it...
A good movie, but not a masterpiece, in my opinion.

A Perfect World

I prefer Eastwood as a blonde hero with no name but I guess this nomination is one of his better films. This film could have easily gone the wrong path because of all the crime elements. Luckily the focus is on the relationship between Costner and the young boy. Does that relationship work out very well? Not really, though at the end of movie I was satisfied.

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Sorry it's taken me so long to get round to the last few. Just finished watching A Perfect World. I liked it. It's a solid entertaining film. Seemed to me that the side story of the Chief and his dealings with his staff and the Laura Dern character were a little clunky, but the relationship between Phillip and Butch was touching and more than made up for that. The complexity of Butch was slowly given over the course of the film which gave the film more depth. The kid was good as was Costner - still think his best film is Field of Dreams

I LOVE THIS THREAD! *shouts*

So, ok, I've been a fan of Costner's since Silverado. That's a long time. I've defended him against all manner of hate. I believe the backlash began when he beat Scorcese for the Oscar and it continued with Robin Hood into Waterworld. The fact is, though, so many of my favorite films are Costner films: Silverado, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, The Untouchables, No Way Out, Tin Cup, Upside of Anger, Thirteen Days, Dances With Wolves (all time fav).. to name a few.

I obviously like this film, too, since it is a wonderful performance by Costner. As a film, it has its flaws, and it's not one of my favorites.

As to The Postman -- I like that film. I think people should watch it and ignore what others say. If you don't like it, so be it. One has to remember it was released the very same weekend as Titanic. So there you go. Was it really the flop the media made it to be or was it up against one of the most popular films of all time?

Lovin' all this Costner love. I rarely see it. I also didn't see Yoda on this thread…..

(BTW, Field of Dreams was such a favorite that I wrote a journal article about the book it was based on and it was published in an English journal. Great book!)

Have you seen the movie American Flyers? It's one of Costner's early movies, and I think it's a very underrated movie.

Yep, seen it.