Escape to the Movies: American Sniper - An Empty War Film

MovieBob

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Dec 31, 2008
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American Sniper - An Empty War Film

American Sniper is a matter-of-fact war film to a fault, lacking any central point.

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Burnouts3s3

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Jan 20, 2012
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God, that's so sad hearing how that story ended. I always feel sad whenever I hear about veterans coming back as broken messes and hearing how this particular man died. Very sad.
 

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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It's a shame, but you really have to work hard to cut out parts of a life to make a film interesting when fictional stuff can be more interesting regardless of whether it has a political message or not.

But I suppose there is an audience who loves seeing "accurate" representations of combat so good for that crowd, eh?
 

Xman490

Doctorate in Danger
May 29, 2010
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Not reviewing The Interview, eh? Just going by whatever comes to press screenings? Oh, well.

For the record, I heard that The Interview is funny in parts, but it relies on toilet humor and has a rushed third act.
 

Uriel_Hayabusa

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I haven't seen American Sniper myself yet, but the main thrust of Bob's complaint seems incredibly silly to me. How is it a bad thing that a movie which purports to be based on a true story actually sticks to the true story? I think that should be lauded, not criticized.

Oh, and I hope Bob feels at least a little bit silly to refer to a negative depiction of a Taliban-terrorist as a ''super-villain'' considering all the horrible things the Taliban do and have done. The 2014 Peshawar school massacre is a chilling reminder of that.
 

Daymo

And how much is this Pub Club?
May 18, 2008
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Xman490 said:
Not reviewing The Interview, eh? Just going by whatever comes to press screenings? Oh, well.

For the record, I heard that The Interview is funny in parts, but it relies on toilet humor and has a rushed third act.
It literally got released 2 days ago after all the talk that it would not, that is barely enough time to watch the film, let alone make a whole review on it. It may be next week's review, or even the week after depending on if Bob had plans already. I just saw it at a mate's place, and it was pretty funny, with Franco being great and some of the B-movie special effects being amusing as well.
 

Sanunes

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Mar 18, 2011
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Xman490 said:
Not reviewing The Interview, eh? Just going by whatever comes to press screenings? Oh, well.

For the record, I heard that The Interview is funny in parts, but it relies on toilet humor and has a rushed third act.
Considering during the credits he said that this video was made last week well before The Interview was released he would have to rely on press screenings to see the movie. Even if he did see The Interview as a press screening it still would have been removed from theaters with no point to make a review about it since MovieBob only does one review a week.
 

CelestDaer

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Mar 25, 2013
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Interesting that Escape to the Movies isn't up on the top banner today, I almost thought Bob had taken the week off... or...I dunno, maybe the site thinks he doesn't draw a crowd any longer?
 

Sixcess

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Feb 27, 2010
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I'd say it's long past time for references to 9/11 to carry any defacto weight and/or significance above and beyond what the work in question earns by its own merits.

By my reckoning Hollywood took something under 3 years to 'get over' 9/11. That's how long it took to go from being shy of even showing the World Trade Centre intact - i.e. Spiderman II - to merrily trashing large chunks of NY real estate in lovingly rendered disaster movie porn - i.e. The Day After Tomorrow and many films after it.

There's also the fact that the reality of subsequent events has irrevocably tarnished the idea that a bad thing happened in NY and the US put on its collective white hat and went off to mete out just retaliation on the perpetrators. There's been a lot of blood spilled since then - a lot more than was spilled on that day alone - and the righteousness of the original cause has been buried in the ugly mire of the reality of what has happened in response to that day.

I'm probably coming across as even more callous than I actually may be, but 13 years on seeing commentators get choked up at even the mention of 9/11 feels less like a genuine reaction and more like adopting the expected 'correct' position on what was an extraordinary, but far far far from unique, atrocity.
 

Gordon_4_v1legacy

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It's a shame that the movie seems to have turned out this way; I rather liked the trailer since it projected a tense film about a man who took a difficult job and made hard choices. Maybe I should just buy the book instead.
 

Ashley Blalock

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Sep 25, 2011
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Hum it's kind of interesting that two films are out where you can't be critical of the film without someone making you out to be a horrible person for not finding it a great film.

American Sniper for the reasons Bob stated and Annie. I've seen where some people wanted to make it racist to say that the new remake of Annie isn't good. That somehow because black actors are now in the roles that used to be played by white actors you can't say that it's just a bad remake.
 

DJ_DEnM

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Dec 22, 2010
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Daymo said:
Xman490 said:
Not reviewing The Interview, eh? Just going by whatever comes to press screenings? Oh, well.

For the record, I heard that The Interview is funny in parts, but it relies on toilet humor and has a rushed third act.
It literally got released 2 days ago after all the talk that it would not, that is barely enough time to watch the film, let alone make a whole review on it. It may be next week's review, or even the week after depending on if Bob had plans already. I just saw it at a mate's place, and it was pretty funny, with Franco being great and some of the B-movie special effects being amusing as well.
Wow, it's almost as if it had been screened for critics over a week ago. That'd be crazy, wouldn't it?! A world where movie critics get to see movies before they come out to formulate a review? That'll /never/ happen. /s
 

daxterx2005

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Dec 19, 2009
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Seeing that picture of darkwing duck reminded me how much I hated that series....
What an awful series.
So many plot holes and inconsistencies, just because it's a children's cartoon doesn't mean it can stop trying to be an piece of entertainment.
 

OhNoYouDidnt

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Uriel_Hayabusa said:
Oh, and I hope Bob feels at least a little bit silly to refer to a negative depiction of a Taliban-terrorist as a ''super-villain'' considering all the horrible things the Taliban do and have done. The 2014 Peshawar school massacre is a chilling reminder of that.
Whilst it is true that the Taliban are hardly a band of saints, there is a difference between "a negative depiction" and "the guy tortures children with a power drill, keeps a bakery full of human body parts and in general acts so cartoonishly evil he should've pledged COBRA instead of al-Qaidah."

I hope you realise that.
 

ecoho

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Jun 16, 2010
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Bob going to level with you, I think you should stop reviewing this type of movie (if there is another option of course) you come off a bit strong in your feelings one way or the other. Was really hoping to see a review of unbroken due to there being a less political feeling of it for you and others, but hey what do I know.
 

Gordon_4_v1legacy

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ravenshrike said:
So basically MovieBob whines that Clint Eastwood decided to do one thing. Namely, tell the story of a man's life. He didn't decide to insert meaning where there wasn't any and for MovieBob this is a Big Deal.
I think it's a fair criticism of a movie made to entertain; had Eastwood simply wished to do a Cromwell-esque, warts n' all look at the man then a documentary detailing his life and bolstered with the opinions, observations and anecdotes of those closest to him.

I'd still like to see it because frankly, the trailer is incredibly well made and I like Bradley Cooper.