ModdedCentipede
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Post by ModdedCentipede on May 23, 2021 10:34:58 GMT
This week, we gonna get high like it's the 80's.  Chosen by: stratogustavYear: 2001 Starring: Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Franka Potente Written by: David McKenna, Bruce Porter Directed by: Ted Demme |
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on May 25, 2021 0:16:49 GMT
My score for this movie is 8.6, a very solid movie that isn't groundbreaking, but shines in an authentic representation of the life of a criminal trying to make his way through life, and dealing with one situation after another as they present.
The audience can easily feel empathy with the character because it's easy to relate to circumstances that feel came out of nowhere and were basically imposed on you by pretty much some level of determinism, giving a sense to people how many criminals feel they basically didn't have a choice because life kept on knocking the same door to bring them to the same mistakes over and over again.
My favorite aspect of the movie is how well it represents the cause and effect nature of bringing positive energy versus bringing negative energy to the world.
When you have a strong level of energy input in your life, whether negative or positive it is still a high amount of energy, and it will make a big impact, which will bring big effects back to you, a cause and effect principle that can only be represented well through a scrip based on real life because it seems that real life keeps trying to hammer on this concept.
This is a very common characteristic in movies based on real life, where you see that putting high amounts of negative energy into the world can still bring you stratospheric levels of success, but since they are based on negative energy they eventually dry out into chaos.
Movies like Goodfellas, and The Irishman are other examples of this. Ultimately it is human nature to perish because none of us are perfect, but some effects are more pronounced depending of how high you fall from.
It is not the same to be king of the world like Hussein, Pablo Escobar, Gaddafi, or El Chapo, and fall, than to be relatively low key and fall.
One of my favorite esoteric books of all time is called Power Vs. Force by Dr. David R. Hawkins, where he covers many of these concepts with astonishing mastery. I feel he can always explain it better in his book than I can ever explain it here, but this movie is a perfect example of that dynamic.
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Balder
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Trying to cut down the amount of movies I watch
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Post by Balder on Jun 11, 2021 22:36:42 GMT
The movie's up on Tubi if anyone wants to watch it, but you should rather spend you time watching Goodfellas or Casino instead. Anyways here's a review:
"Eh... this obviously a Scorsese gangster biopic bargain bin rip-off. It tries so hard to emulate Scorsese's style in every aspect. While it is an alright movie by all means, the intent behind the movie sort of sours it for me. It is so late into the gangster biopic game, even Casino had been out for more than half a decade when this movie finally hit the screen. It is inferior in every possible way. Johnny Depp is a good actor, but this is not his kind of movie if you ask me. I could never really get behind him being a believable gangster. The film has the typical rise and fall structure like every gangster movie ever made. Depp starts out meager, becomes big, loses it but gets off relatively scot-free tries to do a come-back that backfires. We have seen this done a hundred times before and a hundred times better. The soundtrack is good, but even that is trying to emulate Scorsese. Mediocre, but what is the point?" 2.5/5
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Bogard
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Post by Bogard on Jun 12, 2021 0:40:22 GMT
I agree with Balder on this one. Blow was an alright movie but nothing special. The great thing about gangster movies is that they are based on real events and portray the characters and events in a realistic manner which gives us a good understanding of what it was really like to be in the shoes of the characters.
But with Blow they try soo hard to portray johny Depps character as this likeable guy who was miss understood and victimise him to where I call bullshit. I mean this guy was one of Pablo Escobar's main connection, so how misunderstood and innocent could he really be?.
But my main gripe wht the movie is that it just wasn't very fun. Great for a one time watch but I'd doubt you would put it on the re-watch pile like you would with Goodfellas or Donie Brasco. I'd say this is the worst johny Depp Ganster movie but still a good movie. 6.5/10
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Jun 12, 2021 0:57:14 GMT
Yeah, like I said before, I don't think the movie is groundbreaking by any means, neither should be compared to other movies of that category because that's not the intention of the movie, it doesn't seem that the movie wants to compete with the bigger movies in any way.
It just wants to tell a specific story, and that's all there really is to it. The idea that real life situations share similar circumstances and consequences isn't the movie's fault.
The movie does hammer on those concepts that are unique to real life scenarios for those involved in criminal organizations, that yes, other movies touch already, but that's just like anything else, just because there is already a war movie, it doesn't mean other movies telling a different war story shouldn't exist.
It is definitely a good watch, the only main issue the movie has is that it isn't forgettable, meaning that once you see it, it is unlikely you want to go through that experience again because it will still feel fresh in your mind, and I don't think there is nothing wrong with that.
Further exploring the consequences of certain decisions we can't escape from, does add to the repertory of references we can all relate to at some level, even if they are portrayed repeatedly on real life scenarios like the one the movie covers.
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