Escape to the Movies: Branded

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

It sure would have.

 

[Phlakes]

Protip: if you want a trippy Russian film criticizing modern advertising, and don't mind subtitles, watch Generation P.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I'm disappointed.
I was hoping this would be a metaphorical movie about how corporations control everyone's lives, supported by a few facts here and there like a "dramatic documentary" if that makes any sense.
I'm pretty bummed to hear that all it's saying is "fat people suck."

 

[TheRussian]

The movie's poster wants to be Inception so hard it's unintentionally funny.

 

[Overusedname]

But Bob... it's as they say "Idle lard is the Devil's plaything".

The way Bob described the movie: Instantly I know how to make this movie 3x better without even having heard of it until just 10 minutes ago. Branded's premise, a man seeing advertisement as parasites and monsters that control people, is played straight; when really, seeing demons of anything that no-one else can see marks you as a crazy person.

And the film should've been played as that: the twist being really that the movie has been about a fat-hating crazy person the whole time and the billboards are the same as ever. Driven insane by whatever had driven him insane in the first place... as a nice reversal of a twist.

Edit: Then they could point out, guilt-free, how ugly they think fat people are because that's not how THEY think... but rather the protagonist... and that TOTALLY would've worked.

You should make satire. For real, that's a clever idea.

 

[Frost27]

Pretentious with pointless overwrought CGI imagery and popular ironically? Too bad it doesn't have scantily clad chicks fighting giant robot samurai.
-_-

ZING!

Haha, I was waiting for someone to say that.

OT: Fatpocolypse does sound like an incredible premise for a film.... Just putting that out there.

Sounds like the title of a Michael Moore peice.

Pretentious with pointless overwrought CGI imagery and popular ironically? Too bad it doesn't have scantily clad chicks fighting giant robot samurai.
-_-

Well played and spot on.

 

[Farther than stars]

Yeah... this actually did sound kind of interesting when MovieBob first described it. Then he started talking about monologues and all interest I had in the movie plummeted in a second. I had to deal with way too much of that already in the "Dark Knight Rises".

 

[Don Reba]

Never even heard of this movie until now, but the videos Bob played throughout reminded me of another Russian movie, Nightwatch which sounded like a neat premise, but the execution was just a cavalcade of "how much acid do I need to take for this to start being good?" I definitely dislike it when people mishandle easy concepts like this, but considering how my town sucks so much we don't even get The Master, I doubt we'll be getting this any time soon.

Yeah, Nightwatch sucked pretty bad. The book series it's based on is awesome, though, although I don't know how well it's translated (or if at all).

What. Nightwatch was neat. I liked it.

 

[The_Echo]

That's a damn shame.

When I saw the trailers, I thought it was going to be something completely different. Something more akin to The Matrix.

This was the first movie I'd actually been interested in all year.

 

[ewhac]

Holy shit! You know Bob is pissed when his Brooklyn accent breaks out.

Boston. It's a Bostonian accent.

And yes, it emerges when he gets annoyed, as he said pretty much outright in this [em]very[/em] early appearance in The Escapist Presents. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-escapist-presents/561-MovieBob-Oscar-Show]

 

[lacktheknack]

dat CGI

I must watch this. I must gather all my terrible-movie-connoisseur friends and we must all watch this.

 

[Kargathia]

This is the first time I even hear about this movie, so I can't help but notice: doesn't that protagonist really look like keanu reeves from the back? Same build, same sickly complexion.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Some conspiracy. Like you need a fat acceptance plan to get people to buy junk food en masse. Reality is better where fat is shamed alongside the fast food commercial so we buy a big mac, then buy the exercise machine to burn off the calories.

So either Resident evil wasn't screened, or there's nothing to add to his video for the last one.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

the way you describe the deal with the stupid slam against brands, corporations, and advertising makes me think of Ninja Theory's REALLY ham-handed "social commentary" in their attempted DMC reboot

 

[acosn]

But fat people are something we need to be shaming in the same way that smoking tobacco has become a general taboo. In it's absolute worst form they'd have you believe that the laws of thermodynamics don't apply to them and that genetics is the be-all end-all of how fit you are. It's the height of hypocrisy that they can claim that while drinking soda like it's water and being set to whole grains and lean meats what water and sunlight are to witches and vampires, that their weight isn't a product of what they're shoving down their gullets while half the world starves. They'd have you believe that the 250+ pound human is perfectly normal.

To say nothing of the health risks and costs you throw on everyone else's laps as you eat yourself into obesity. We've become a society that can't tell itself no, and then refuses to accept responsibility for what happens.

Unfortunately I don't think that's really what this movie's trying to broach at all though.

 

[Xanthious]

You can always tell when a movie really pisses ol' Bob off because that's when "Townie Bob" (I <3 Townie Bob!) makes a cameo appearance. Dammit Bob, don't be ashamed of your Bwastan roots bust that accent out more often!

Holy shit! You know Bob is pissed when his Brooklyn accent breaks out.

Dammit man! That's not a Brooklyn accent! That accent is straight out of Charlestown my friend. I know some people from Boston that get "Wicked Mad" when they hear someone mistake their accent as being from New York.

 

[Xanthious]

Double Post. Nothing to see here. Move along people. Move along . . . . I said move along dammit!

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

But fat people are something we need to be shaming in the same way that smoking tobacco has become a general taboo. In it's absolute worst form they'd have you believe that the laws of thermodynamics don't apply to them and that genetics is the be-all end-all of how fit you are. It's the height of hypocrisy that they can claim that while drinking soda like it's water and being set to whole grains and lean meats what water and sunlight are to witches and vampires, that their weight isn't a product of what they're shoving down their gullets while half the world starves. They'd have you believe that the 250+ pound human is perfectly normal.

To say nothing of the health risks and costs you throw on everyone else's laps as you eat yourself into obesity. We've become a society that can't tell itself no, and then refuses to accept responsibility for what happens.

Unfortunately I don't think that's really what this movie's trying to broach at all though.

While it isn't necessarily a good thing, getting people to hate themselves for it is not the way to go and solves absolutely nothing.

 

[axlryder]

Making fat people feel bad about being fat........WTF?

Fat storage is an important mechanism for survival and served our ancestors well throughout much of life's history. The simple fact that our post industrial world has made it possible for 2% of the population to make 100% of the food has had the unfortunate side effect of allowing people with a highly evolved fat storage system to become too fat is not their fault. It is not the companies fault for providing a service that people want. Does this mean everyone is absolved of guilt? NO! but it also means that the obese need compassion not shame.

I could also bring up how the government forced health regulations on fast food chains that required them to use hydrogenated fat for cooking, as well as there obsession with teaching everyone that tons of carbs are good for you. Carbohydrates metabolizes into sugar so unless your training for the Olympics or have a rigorous work out schedule there is no reason to load up on them all the time.

Yes, being fat is your fault. It's not only your fault, but living in a post-indsutrial society does not absolve you from the fact that you're using your body the wrong way. Not only is it evident that your physical activity is pitiful, it's also showing that you have little criteria in what you ingest. You don't need to eat out everytime. Cook at home and take lunch to work it there's no healthy place near you. Oh, it takes time and effort? Well, it's better that time and effort than the persitent damage your organs and bones are suffering from being forced through overweight.

or just eat at Subway or Panera or even get a salad at McDonalds. I'll admit that I eat fast food almost every day, and I'm not proud of it. Despite this, there is still some nutritional value to be found if you eat the right things and have reasonable portions. I'm actually thin and feel pretty healthy, despite where I tend to eat (though I do jog). This was not the case when I actually worked at Mcdonalds and had Big Macs everyday.

 

[acosn]

But fat people are something we need to be shaming in the same way that smoking tobacco has become a general taboo. In it's absolute worst form they'd have you believe that the laws of thermodynamics don't apply to them and that genetics is the be-all end-all of how fit you are. It's the height of hypocrisy that they can claim that while drinking soda like it's water and being set to whole grains and lean meats what water and sunlight are to witches and vampires, that their weight isn't a product of what they're shoving down their gullets while half the world starves. They'd have you believe that the 250+ pound human is perfectly normal.

To say nothing of the health risks and costs you throw on everyone else's laps as you eat yourself into obesity. We've become a society that can't tell itself no, and then refuses to accept responsibility for what happens.

Unfortunately I don't think that's really what this movie's trying to broach at all though.

While it isn't necessarily a good thing, getting people to hate themselves for it is not the way to go and solves absolutely nothing.

Yes it is. Unless you mean to tell me that fat people lack the basic human reflexes like, "Oh, that makes me fat. I don't like being fat, ergo I shouldn't eat that" then it's absolutely a good idea.

The bigger issues are the lack of real health and diet education and the misunderstanding of what a workout does.