Escape to the Movies: The Giver - Don't Bother Giving This Movie Your Time

[Jennacide]

Question: What Dragon Quest game was that at the end?

Nthing the Community (Dun! Dun. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!) joke getting old fast as well.

That'd be Dragon Quest Heroes, the next game to join the Dynasty Warriors-like bandwagon. Not that I'm entirely complaining, Hyrule Warriors could be interesting enough, and being able to run arond flogging guys as the Monbarbra sisters would be pretty awesome.

Hopefully Jessica makes it in, always loved her despite the goofy accent in DQ8 and some of her absurd costumes.

 

[zacharyk88]

damn this sucks, this was one of the better books that I was forced to read in grade school. He's right though, it was more symbolic of these themes though, it really should not have been made into a movie if they were gonna play it this straight

 

[Mr. Omega]

Even with all the "Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUUN!" bits and the little joke at the start, this review still was less than 5 minutes. Really goes to show just how little there was to this movie. Then again, everyone knew this was going to suck. I was just hoping it'd be that special kind of bad that made it worth seeing. Sadly, that isn't the case.

 

[altdoom]

Pure garbage dribble poop.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Okay, Bob, rule of gags: the less times used, the better they are. The "dun dun duuuuuun" thing probably should have been used only once or twice. Three times can be used, but after that you're just annoying people.

Anyway, it does seem to me that the film was basically a case of too late and that the filmmakers clearly didn't know what to do. I don't think we're going to see the current YA exploitation going away, but I also wish the people who wrote said books would get better.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Your running gag of "COMMUNITY" stopped being funny after the 3rd or 4th time, Bob.

 

[Kuth]

Boy, that "COMMUNITY" gag got old real quick.

Oh man, was it old. I was about to turn the review off, god I thought he was making a point with how annoying the movie is. Nope.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Bob, please stop padding your reviews with either lengthy clips or overdone jokes. Do some classic reviews if the latest movies coming out aren't up to snuff. I'd rather you review something of substance rather than you reviewing something boring and end up being boring yourself.

 

[Suhi89]

I was dyslexic growing up so I didn't read many books, reading mostly manga and comics instead, BUT there was one series I read and indeed still read.

Why the hell have these books not been made into films Hollywood or at least a t.v. series BBC?

These books are soooooo gawdamn good, they have interesting characters, incredible settings, serious themes, it's just... I don't get it. Why are all these bloody films with vague dystopian/utopian settings about a sexy young chosen one so popular? What happened to a main character just being part of the world they inhabited instead of the only sane one in an asylum of twats.

I just, I-GAH!

I could imagine the sky pirate scenes being epic. Used to love those as a teen. And it taught me one of the most important lessons of my young teen life. Never trust a quartermaster.

 

[Saltyk]

Wait this came out recently? I remember looking at movie times and seeing it and the theater only had like two showings so I figured it was on the last few weeks of it's run. I literally had to look up the trailer to this movie to remember it at all.

Yeah, it doesn't seem all that interesting, though. I couldn't even feign interest when I watched the trailer.

 

[Muspelheim]

I imagine it was never really about the books or source material, it was about the possible name recognition. It must be quite the awkward time at that particular production office if it was this much of a failure.

What is the DUNDUNDUN! gag anyway?

Moviebob is either a borderline socialist and doesn't like when films are referring to his -what I presume- is his perfect vision of a socialist state and its many underlying flaws. Or he is a big Community/Alison Brie fan. I am hoping that the latter would be the reason why he makes this unbearable joke. Which coincidentally made me stop watching the review.

Borderline socialist? How appaling! Surely, there is medication for that condition?

(I kid, I kid, it's just amusing how "borderline socialist" sounds more like some sort of psychiatric term.)

 

[PunkRex]

Snip

I could imagine the sky pirate scenes being epic. Used to love those as a teen. And it taught me one of the most important lessons of my young teen life. Never trust a quartermaster.

Taught me just how cruel nature/life is, so many sad times in these books yet it always remembered to show the pretty ones too.

I'd watch it just for the different monsters and races, such cool designs, those Shrykes were crazy.

 

[Drake Barrow]

I'm wondering if Bob is coming down harder on this one that it deserves. His review made the film sound more like it's boring rather than truly bad. Does seem like wasted potential, though...

Also, I was really hoping that the "Community" gag would take a Freakazoid turn, where he gets so annoyed at the incessant interruption that he has to turn on the joke and forcibly stop it. Joke repetition works best with variation, otherwise it overstays its welcome.

 

[freaper]

Every page has at least 5 mentions of how obnoxious that gag was? Don't mind me for contributing to that! (It was really obnoxious)

 

[RJ 17]

Technically I did know of this movie's existence...and the trailer for it nearly made me want to stuff a spoon down my throat and try to gouge out my uvula.

As someone who read - and enjoyed - the book back in the school, I was disgusted when the trailer presented it as "SCI-FI! ACTION! THINGS! EXPLOSIONS!!!!" Seriously, I want to find whoever came up with this bastardized version of a great story and slap them in the mouth.

 

[Furbyz]

I have never heard of The Giver. Is it American high school material or something? The idea sound alright so I might give the book a look (unless it's too long).

Community gag was good but done one too many times. Just to throw my 2 cents into the ring...

The Giver might be freshman high school material I suppose, though I personally read it in middle school. Several times actually (only once in class...errr...for class) and for probably the 12-16 age range I highly recommend it. I've never read it as an adult though, so I can't really say how it holds up. Nostalgia goggles won't allow me to revisit it on the off chance I won't like it anymore. It's rather short, you could polish it off in a day or so.

 

[Fireaxe]

Honestly bob, was that community joke just there to pad out an otherwise dull and short as f*** review?

I know you didn't have a lot to work with, but really?

 

[i4njw]

I remember not liking the book. Needless to say, I'm not going anywhere near this film.

 

[Pebkio]

I'm sorry, skip what? I wasn't listening...

*gets hit in the head with a filled coffee mug and falls backwards out of his chair*

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Truth be told, it was heavily implied in the book that the people in that world couldn't see color. I probably would've been more upset to learn if they didn't shoot a good portion of the film in black and white.

But then I guess I'm off topic here talking about the plot and film so I'll go ahead and talk about what the review was really about. Obviously the only part of this video that has any real discussion value here is, of course, the intentional over-use of the community gag. Here's how I pictured this going down: "Hmm, I've been getting a lot of hate lately, let's try to have fun with it at least. I've just got to do something annoying that will get people riled in the comments so I can sit back and laugh at the ones who are quick to damn me as a hack over something so trivial..." Truly worthy of MacFarlane himself.