Reprehensible Movies

[Edi]

LotR & Racism tangent split here.

[FSTargetDrone]

One movie I could mention is a Christmas movie: while most such movies center around jaded men having their heart grow three sizes, the rediscovery of the value of family and friends, this one particular movie centered around one thing: you have to believe.

I can't recall the title, but I specifically recall that it was an 3D animated film and it heavily involved trains: with kids going on a train ride (I think there was a scene where there were other kids and hot cocoa). There were a lot of whacy train rides with some rather weirdly laid out tracks and one awesome freefall scene where the train was moving so fast that there were a few moments of freefall.

Sounds like The Polar Express.

[Zixinus]

Sounds like The Polar Express.

Yes, that should be it.

Bare in mind that I saw the film a long time ago.

[RRoan]

The book it was based on was an awesome children's book that I have very fond memories of, so I'm going to have to disagree with you on the story itself being reprehensible. That being said, I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how it was presented.

[Big Orange]

The Polar Express (from what I've seen of it) is not reprehensible the way other movies are (by expressing racist views or promoting criminal activities, or revising history for negative propagandist reasons) but it used CGI animation to depict the characters, with unintentionally eerie results (CGI or puppet characters who are very human but not human enough are disconcerting; this is called the "Uncanny Valley" effect).

[Kanastrous]

I was struck by a weird (and doubtless totally unintentional) parallel between The Polar Express and Larry Niven's Convergent Series. In the latter there's a character who more-or-less mistakenly summons a demon, and when he tries to find a church to seek aid he finds only empty lots where the buildings should be - having summoned a demon, for him houses of God no longer exist. I was reminded of that during the scene near the end where the kid is in the huge crowd swirling around Santa, and at first, try as he might, the kid can't see Santa...because since he doesn't believe, for him Santa doesn't exist...

My sister, who alas is some flavor of undiagnosed detached-from-reality not-right-in-the-head, *really* seized upon Polar Express as the metaphor for, well, everything and anything about all and sundry, and was actually walking around for a while presenting people with little brass jingle bells and solemnly telling them that 'they had to believe'. I know that the film itself is mostly innocuous but it was distressing to see the effect it could have, on an unbalanced mind.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

The book it was based on was an awesome children's book that I have very fond memories of, so I'm going to have to disagree with you on the story itself being reprehensible. That being said, I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how it was presented.

No, the book is reprehensible, too. I've had to read it recently, and I find the message to be offensive and even counter-productive considering this reading was for school children. "Remember kids, it doesn't matter what's real or what you can prove to exist. Just believe! Believe in what we tell you to believe!"

[DudeGuyMan]

Asian guys get to date in Hollywood movies? If an Asian character is portrayed as sexy, chances are the character is an "exotic" female for the white hero. Asian males are either pussy nerds or loser clowns. If he's not a pussy, he's a sexless Martial Artist who can kick ass but won't get to kiss the girl, even if he's supposed to kiss the girl (e.g. Romeo Must Die).

There was... uh... um...

Quick Kick from the old eighties GI Joe cartoon? They showed him dating a white woman. Which is pretty unusual considering that the show was otherwise basically built on silly stereotypes.

But yeah, interracial relationships are pretty scarce. Hancock with Will Smith maybe, even though he and what's her name didn't get to be together in the end. Which sort of negates it, I guess.

[Darth Wong]

Onscreen interracial relationships are a lot more common now than they were just 20 years ago. Remember the Cosby show? We've come a long way. Of course, some areas have come farther than others. The more liberal cities are full of interracial couples, while there are parts of the Deep South that are still informally segregated.

If you see a movie where relationships are strictly segregated, check the date. It's probably more than 10 years old.

[Stravo]

Reprehensible is a great word to describe those movies that as you watch them you just get deeply offended. Not "Boy that sucked" but more like "Jesus Christ, I am personally offended by this movie. It had a message or scene in it that just disgusted me to the core"

For me the ones that stand out are:

"Signs" Yes, this ode to blind faith just made me ill after watching it. So, let me get this straight. God killed Mel Gibson's wife to send him some really obscure and arcane message that he interprets at the last minute so he can save his family from space aliens that are themselves an abomination against all science and reason? Riiggghht. And Mel instead of being angry at this shitty god regains his faith. How awful.

"Soul Plane" I'm not black and this offended the hell out of me. It is essentially an ode to all things racial and stereotypical. Anyone who starred, wrote or participated in this film are forever banned from being offended by anything racially insensitive directed at African Americans.

"John Carpenter's Vampires" this one I remember because the treatment of the sole female character was so over the top offensive that I was shocked and usually that's the one group I usually pass over on these kind of things because it's hard to be offended by the naked female form. But when your sole female character is literally a whore, spends half the movie tied up and naked and slapped around by every man in the cast you have to take note.

I know this is not a movie but I was recently exposed to a show "The Jersey Shore" and I now understand what all the hubub was about among Italian Americans. If you had a show that brought together every walking hispanic stereotype and put them all in a house to make asses of themselves I would be just as outraged. Really? These are the only young italian kids (or wannabe Italian in the case of the mess known as Snookie) you could find on the Jersey shore??

I know there are more but these were the ones I could come up with off the top of my head.

[Isolder74]

For me being a big Titanic History buff it was Titanic. For someone who's taken the time to study the stories that happened on the real ship the movie was just a constant tease. We'd get to several points where they lead up to the point of maybe showing us something cool about the real history of the ship then tapdance away from it.

Another for myself is Pearl Harbor. As a lover of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora; the movie just made me mad. what's worse I've ready the stories about the two pilots that the movie's main characters replace and that just made me even madder. Not only don't we get the real story of Pearl Harbor we get a stupid '90's love triangle to boot! Then they stomp all over 30 Seconds Over Tokyo while they are at it at the end! You might say that they couldn't use the two real pilots for narrative reason that;'s fine but they could at least be true to the real story? The Great Escape makes liberal use of renaming and combining the real people and didn't stomp on their real life awesome why couldn't the writers of Pearl Harbor?

[Flagg]

For me being a big Titanic History buff it was Titanic. For someone who's taken the time to study the stories that happened on the real ship the movie was just a constant tease. We'd get to several points where they lead up to the point of maybe showing us something cool about the real history of the ship then tapdance away from it.

The real atrocity of Titanic is that James Cameron got such a fucking hardon for it that he spent 12 fucking years deep diving to masturbate on it's steel corpse rather than making awesome action movies.

[Shroom Man 777]

The real atrocity of Titanic is that James Cameron got such a fucking hardon for it that he spent 12 fucking years deep diving to masturbate on it's steel corpse rather than making awesome action movies.

Amen, brother. As awesome as Avatar was, Cameron's preoccupation with Titanic directly led to the inadvertent shitttening of the Terminator and Aliens franchises due to all sorts of hacks chewing into those awesome serieses while Cameron was busy looking at stupid dead underwater boats. Think of all the wonderful things he could've done with Arnold Schwarzenegger after True Lies!

[Isolder74]

Perhaps he was hoping to find his impossible perfectly undamaged drawing of a naked woman.....

[Setzer]

Asian guys get to date in Hollywood movies? If an Asian character is portrayed as sexy, chances are the character is an "exotic" female for the white hero. Asian males are either pussy nerds or loser clowns. If he's not a pussy, he's a sexless Martial Artist who can kick ass but won't get to kiss the girl, even if he's supposed to kiss the girl (e.g. Romeo Must Die).

There was... uh... um...

Quick Kick from the old eighties GI Joe cartoon? They showed him dating a white woman. Which is pretty unusual considering that the show was otherwise basically built on silly stereotypes.

But yeah, interracial relationships are pretty scarce. Hancock with Will Smith maybe, even though he and what's her name didn't get to be together in the end. Which sort of negates it, I guess.

I remember seeing Firefly for the first time, and being surprised that Wash and Zoe were married. I think it was the first interracial marriage in entertainment that i can remember seeing.

[Isil`Zha]

Law Abiding Citizen.

I'm not sure who could even consider a protagonist in this movie. As a movie I thought it was okay - up until the end.
Spoiler

I can't remember any names, but the guy that lost his family went way over the top on the two criminals.

For the rest of the movie it seemed that his lawyer, whom he was angry with, had become the protaganist. That is, until the end. So at the end he just waltzes into the prison with a BOMB, and allows it to go off, killing Butler's character!?

The worst part is, the movie implies that he had absolutely zero consequences for blowing up part of a prison and murdering an inmate.

[Darth Yan]

I think that was sort of the point. At the very start Darby successfully exploits the system to save his ass, and the system can't stop it. Even if Nick had been a moral man he would have had to make the deal because the alternative would have been allowing both monsters to walk free. In addition, they were told point blank that murdering CLyde was the only thing that could stop him was murdering him. It shows that the law system isn't perfect. to quote tvtropes on the subject

Black And Gray Morality: Let's see. He's a Well Intentioned Extremist, willing to kill anyone to make his rather naive political statements. They're the forces of justice, who start out incompetent and unable to put away the bad guys, and wind up violating civil rights at the drop of a hat and staging vigilante executions. Who're we supposed to cheer for?

I don't think there was supposed to be a protaganist; the system is flawed, and sometimes you have to bend it to stop the bad guy.

[Big Orange]

Titanic was perhaps genuinely reprehensible in how it besmudged the name of the second officer of the RMS Titanic (where he was depicted gunning down the Irish and Italian steerage passangers, then committed suicide aftewards).

Bad Boys II puts me off where our heroes (Will Smith and that crazy guy) were ploughing through a shanty town in one of those gross, unlamented yellow Hummers and in another segment they were tormenting a somewhat dorky but harmless youth.

[Patrick Degan]

Titanic was perhaps genuinely reprehensible in how it besmudged the name of the second officer of the RMS Titanic (where he was depicted gunning down the Irish and Italian steerage passangers, then committed suicide aftewards).

Oh yes. James Cameron had to issue a public apology to the family of First Officer William Murdoch for that one.

(btw, Charles Herbert Lightoller was RMS Titanic's Second Officer)

[Isil`Zha]

I think that was sort of the point. At the very start Darby successfully exploits the system to save his ass, and the system can't stop it. Even if Nick had been a moral man he would have had to make the deal because the alternative would have been allowing both monsters to walk free. In addition, they were told point blank that murdering CLyde was the only thing that could stop him was murdering him. It shows that the law system isn't perfect. to quote tvtropes on the subject

Black And Gray Morality: Let's see. He's a Well Intentioned Extremist, willing to kill anyone to make his rather naive political statements. They're the forces of justice, who start out incompetent and unable to put away the bad guys, and wind up violating civil rights at the drop of a hat and staging vigilante executions. Who're we supposed to cheer for?

I don't think there was supposed to be a protaganist; the system is flawed, and sometimes you have to bend it to stop the bad guy.

Bull - he could have him moved to another prison. It took Darby 10 years to setup what he did. The way to stop him, was to simply move him.

What bothers me the most is that Nick suffered absolutely zero consequences for his actions. The movie's message turned into "...the system is flawed, and sometimes you have to bend it to stop the bad guy. You will suffer no consequences if you do this because he 'deserved it.'"

[The Yosemite Bear]

A boy and his dog.

the hero is a rapist, cannibal....

[lance]

A boy and his dog.

the hero is a rapist, cannibal....

Where was he a cannibal? I remember him feeding the girl to his dog, did he eat some too?

[Gaidin]

What bothers me the most is that Nick suffered absolutely zero consequences for his actions. The movie's message turned into "...the system is flawed, and sometimes you have to bend it to stop the bad guy. You will suffer no consequences if you do this because he 'deserved it.'"

You don't know that. The movie ended right after the cell was set on fire.

[Isil`Zha]

Didn't it show Nick some time later, you know, not in prison?

[Marcus Aurelius]

Another for myself is Pearl Harbor. As a lover of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora; the movie just made me mad. what's worse I've ready the stories about the two pilots that the movie's main characters replace and that just made me even madder. Not only don't we get the real story of Pearl Harbor we get a stupid '90's love triangle to boot! Then they stomp all over 30 Seconds Over Tokyo while they are at it at the end! You might say that they couldn't use the two real pilots for narrative reason that;'s fine but they could at least be true to the real story? The Great Escape makes liberal use of renaming and combining the real people and didn't stomp on their real life awesome why couldn't the writers of Pearl Harbor?

I suppose this calls for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pM8PrqY5Rg

I miss you more then Michael Bay missed the mark
When he made Pearl Harbor
I miss you more than that movie missed the point
And that's an awful lot girl
And now, now you've gone away
And all I'm trying to say is
Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you

I need u like Ben Affleck needs acting school
He was terrible in that film
I need u like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part
He's way better than Ben Affleck
And now all I can think about is your smile
and that shitty movie too
Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you

Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?
I guess Pearl Harbor sucked
Just a little bit more than I miss you

It's impossible to say it better, so no need for any further comments

As for Tora! Tora! Tora!: it's a great historical docudrama, but unfortunately not a very good movie. Yes, it's better than Pearl Harbor even as a movie, but then again almost anything done with a big budget is, except perhaps Battlefield Earth...