Escape to the Movies: The Kings Speech

[darkman80723]

I hope like hell this movie falls flat on its ass at the Oscars; it was boring, the acting was terrible, and really the story sucked...true just my opinion but there it is.

 

[EscapingReality]

Wow Bob, your deep analysis exactly describes the recent winners of
- Hurt Locker
- Slum Dog Millionaire
- No Country for Old Men
- The Departed
- Crash
- Million Dollar Baby
- LotR: Return of the King
- Chicago
- Beautiful Mind
- Gladiator

Oh wait that second last one did have an illness that left the lead still looking handsome. I guess 1 for 10 is a pretty good score for you.

Man, I enjoyed Gladiator, No Country for Old Men and Slumdog. Even though they nail the Oscar formula they do it by entertaining with a kickass story and structure which is not the case of the other ones you mentioned.

I think the fact that Daft Punk's Derezzed for Tron: Legacy wasn't mentioned as a nominee for best original song was a god forsaken devil spawn apocalyptic travesty.

I have to say, that was quite lollarific, and a nice mix-up of the old formula. And yes, I also thought that 'The King's Speech' wasn't great - 'The Social Network' was, as you say, far better.

Second that, I haven't seen the king's speech and it sounds dreary and dumb. I actually kidded myself that Black Swan or Inception would win the Oscar.

 

[Canid117]

One thing to mention... I'm sure to hell Geoffrey Rush is Australian.

You know the rule

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AsLongAsItSoundsForeign

 

[Gunnyboy]

Wow Bob, your deep analysis exactly describes the recent winners of
- Hurt Locker
- Slum Dog Millionaire
- No Country for Old Men
- The Departed
- Crash
- Million Dollar Baby
- LotR: Return of the King
- Chicago
- Beautiful Mind
- Gladiator

Oh wait that second last one did have an illness that left the lead still looking handsome. I guess 1 for 10 is a pretty good score for you.

Man, I enjoyed Gladiator, No Country for Old Men and Slumdog. Even though they nail the Oscar formula they do it by entertaining with a kickass story and structure which is not the case of the other ones you me

How in the world does No Country follow Oscar formula?

 

[Blazeaga]

i kinda felt that u were to hating on the movie but i didn't like it at all so. im on ur side and yea this makes me feel better about not liking world war 2 movies ><

 

[Tom Phoenix]

To be fair. Films like King's Speech are also made to make British people a bit more comfortable with their increasing insignificance in the modern world by escaping back to a time when we ruled the world & stood alone against the evils of Hitler, who we knew all along was a nasty man but had to hold the battlements until the rest of the world caught on.

We also loooove films showing our monarchy as being "just like us," (the Lady Di effect) so combining the two is a no brainer. Doesn't hurt that Americans seem to lap that sh't up too for some reason.

Not to rain on your parade, but I am preety sure Britain was actually one of the last countries to realise how much of a threat Hitler was. At least Britain's policy towards Germany during the interwar period would certainly suggest that, considering the amount of concessions they granted to them (and culminating in the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia's territory). It wasn't until Germany threw the Münich Agreement and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement into a dustbin did the British goverment realise that perhaps it would be a good idea to do something about Germany. Unfortunately, by then, it was way too late to prevent a major war from erupting.

Of course, that doesn't undermine Britain's great contributions to the war, but still...

As for why Americans love that kind of movies...to be honest, I think countries that don't have royalty (or in the case of the US, never had royalty) have a great fascination with monarchs. I remember when Queen Elizabeth II visited my country (Slovenia) for the first time and everyone was talking about it and there was a lot of coverage about it on the local news, whereas my opinion was: "A foreign figurehead had come to visit us....so?"

 

[jigilojoe]

I tend to really enjoy your reviews, but I must say this kind of annoyed me. Ok, so I can understand your general anger at the Oscar 'thing' and I've not even watched the film, but it wasn't made purely for the reason of making Oscars, just the information on King George and how he overcame his stammer with the help of an Australian (not working class (in fact, worse than working class, he was an Australian back in the day when Aussies really were criminals)) is all recent news, this whole story was found out about 15 months ago, so when these facts came about a film seemed like the greatest medium to get our great nation's history out into the world.

Also, a film set at the beginning of the war with the threat of Nazism looming HAS TO HAVE NAZIS IN IT, they were a pretty fucking big deal back then Bob. If there were a film about Abraham Lincoln being assassinated during the Vietnam I'm sure all you fellas in yankee-ville would be a little miffed.

 

[DoW Lowen]

Firstly watch this =P


While I really appreciate it when you review films I now understand why I don't always like MovieBob. Don't get me wrong, he's a clever guy, but the thinly veiled personal contempt for the things he likes not getting the recognition he feels they deserve is getting worse every week. He truly is an INTERNET critic, I love it when he reviews since he genuinely gives a fresh perspective on things, but it's tiresome to hear him rant - and sometimes he thinks that the two are inseparable.

 

[Swifteye]

this is why I don't care about oscars, 99% of the time the winner is a movie I never saw or even HEARD of, and if I DID see it I thought it sucked. This is an award show that would benefit from feedback from the movie going public, but then movies like transformers might win and we'd have the opposite problem.

Maybe we shouldn't have awards at all then. Just enjoy movies.

 

[knight56]

It's official. I'm never watching a film ever again.

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

Bob, I usually disagree with your reviews. I strongly dislike a number of them to be honest.

But I loved this review. And I feel the same about The King's Speech. It was average at best.

 

[clockout]

As explained by the movie industry's favourite comedian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAweiV944qI

It's great when things work out like that.

 

[DangNabbit]

Really disagreed with this video. Really enjoyable film, well acted, well written, and with a great score.

It seems like MovieBob made up his mind about this flick when he saw the trailer.

 

[octafish]

...and yes Geoffrey Rush is Australian, as his character in The King's Speech. Bob is not helping correct the stereotype of the ignorant American. Europe? We beat them in the war.

 

[pigmypython]

Love it Movie Bob, my opinion exactly!

 

[Zing]

Geoffrey Rush is Australian!

edit: what is that song in the advertisement at the end? I MUST HAVE IT

 

[pigmypython]

Huh... so that's all it takes?

One question: Forrest Gump was set in America, with a Southern accent, and mostly during the 60's. Does the Viet Nam War override the need for WWII?

Vietnam became more sympathetic later on then it originally was. People started to feel sorry for all the poor bastards sent there. So it is a sympathy vote.

 

[Sovvolf]

That's not what I'm doing at all. Maybe you should look up Ad Hominems yourself.

If you have looked it up, re-read it... Your doing it wrong. Specially if you think I'm committing one. Though please enlighten me on why that is. I'll point out yours for you "This was an amazing film, Bob doesn't like it because he's annoyed its not Sci-fi/fantasy".

To further elaborate, your arguement was pretty much "I like this film, he just hates it because he's annoyed that its not his genre".

He states pretty clearly in the review that he's annoyed that Sci-fi/fantasy films often get overlooked in the Oscars,

So because he's shown frustration at the sci-fi and fantasy genre being snubbed, that makes his opinions invalid?.

while convieniantly ignoring the fact that the vast majority of Sci-fi/fantasy films appeal to a very specific target audience while character dramas and such appeal to a much larger base.

And what does this have anything to do with their quality? This isn't the MTV movie awards that deal out their awards based on how wide the audience is. This is the Oscars that are supposed to have qualitative judgement. The reason many are frustrated mainly is due to the fact that the Oscars are more about giving awards to what fit a list or to people who it may be "Their time".

Also, please look up the word Ad Hominem to find out what was wrong with your last sentence.

Cool patronisation bro.

Sorry but I needed to point it out to you... Its a logically fallacy, which can cripple an arguement.

Except this is literally how it happened.

George Vl DID have a stutter.
He DID totally fuck up speeches.
He DID reluctantly go to an unconventional speech therapist.
He WAS reluctant to become King.
He DID become a national hero during World War ll.
Lionel Logue and George Vl DID become great friends.

Of course bits were dramatised or bits added but otherwise the pace of the film would be all out. As historical dramas go, this is pretty darn accurate.

Bob also seems to miss out the fact that a lot of the 'generic plot patterns' in the film happen in just about every other film in existance. You can find the 'fall-out get back together' plot device in everything from Star Trek to every Romantic Comedy ever.

Never said it wasn't... You just asked why it could be seen as a bad thing and I told you why. Which is pretty true... Check this on T.V tropes for more examples http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

I...I liked it........*sob*.