Movies I find offensive

[devilchicken]

Feel free to rant about any movies you hate with a passion ;)

I just saw (for a laugh) Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Collateral Damage" - the terrorist-action movie that was pushed back after 9/11.

One scene shows arnie 'researching' on the internet - reading a website with the headline "Anti Democratic Forces" while fawning over a picture of his murdered wife and son - and drinking coffee out of a stars and stripes mug..

[DeeCrowSeer]

Hurrah! Ranty fun!!

I know I've said this before, but the one movie (other than the gawd-awful Crow sequel) I've wanted to walk out of was Strange Days... but I couldn't, because I was reviewing it for a student magazine. My reasons are as follows:

1) The deeply unnecessary rape scene (the "horrific" nature of the memory-clip could have been implied through the main character's reactions to the clip, as well as some suggestive glimpses of the clip it self, without having to get all exploitative).
2) Juliette Lewis slaughtering PJ Harvey songs in cold blood.
3) The suggestion that there is no institutional racism in the police force, just two bad apples spoiling it for everyone, and once those two meanies are stopped then everything will be lovely.

Gah!

But my sister owns the DVD, so I know some people enjoyed it. Fair enough.

[devilchicken]

Underworld Evolution I thought blew massive chunks of smelly crap - but I've ranted about that on another thread.

Passion of the Christ I had a few problems with - before Mel Gibson put it into context with his recent racist outbursts.

The movie was unrelentingly sadistic in its over-the-top porno-trip depiction of christ's physical suffering while totally missing the significance of Christ's death.

All the christian fundamentalists were camped outside the theatre singing its praises - unfortunately noone told them that the movie only had value for them because of what they took with them into the theatre, not because the movie stood up on its own. They also handed out bizarre christian 'quick start' guides which I found immensely hilarious. One I read had one of those add up the points questionaires in it about how to get into heaven. What I found interesting is that even if you gave the best possible answers to the questions, if you didn't answer "yes" and "a lot" to the "do I read the bible questions" you were always rated as "struggling" or "needing help". I love propaganda.

[voilodian ghagnasdiak]

I can tell you of one movie that wont have a chance to offend me...
World Trade Center.
I have no interest whatsoever in this profiteering exploitation of a genocidal catastrophe that cost so many innocent people their lives. I consider it a travesty for the film industry to make millions of dollars profit from other people's losses. I think that there should be an unwritten public boycott on this film so's as not to support similar future endeavors.
I refuse to watch WTC !!

[Anarchist]

Kung Pow was an offence to my intelligence and sence of humour. I have actually found people that loved it and found its humour clever. Even new tennage comedies are better than this piece of retardness.

[voilodian ghagnasdiak]

Voilodian Wrote

I can tell you of one movie that wont have a chance to offend me...
World Trade Center.
I have no interest whatsoever in this profiteering exploitation of a genocidal catastrophe that cost so many innocent people their lives. I consider it a travesty for the film industry to make millions of dollars profit from other people's losses. I think that there should be an unwritten public boycott imposed upon this film so's as not to support similar future endeavors.
I refuse to watch WTC !!

[Pietro_Mercurios]

I can tell you of one movie that wont have a chance to offend me...
World Trade Center.
I have no interest whatsoever in this profiteering exploitation of a genocidal catastrophe that cost so many innocent people their lives. I consider it a travesty for the film industry to make millions of dollars profit from other people's losses. I think that there should be an unwritten public boycott on this film so's as not to support similar future endeavors.
I refuse to watch WTC !!

I don't think the word "genocidal" fits with regard to the attack on the WTC, horrendous though it was. Those 3000 people murdered in the WTC did not constitute an entire race, or even a fraction of one. In fact they were very diverse, different nationalities, races and creeds, people from all over the World.

Like the words "Nazi" and "anti-semitic", perhaps "genocide" should be saved for when it's really applicable? Just in case it becomes devalued by overuse.

[devilchicken]

Kung Pow was an offence to my intelligence and sence of humour. I have actually found people that loved it and found its humour clever. Even new tennage comedies are better than this piece of retardness.

I would be one of those

[voilodian ghagnasdiak]

PM Wrote

I don't think the word "genocidal" fits with regard to the attack on the WTC, horrendous though it was.

I considered it an attack on the whole of Western civilization rather than 3000 people. The intent to inflict fear and uncertainty in people in general has had an effect on the general populace of the US. Mohammed Atta would have been an even more prolific king of martrydom if it had been 300,000 or even 3,000,000 people killed. And dont think that he wouldnt have if the resources were there. This is not racial profiling. These men were criminals, regardless of ethnic origin that committed crimes against humanity.
I will not watch World Trade Center.

[devilchicken]

I can tell you of one movie that wont have a chance to offend me...
World Trade Center.
I have no interest whatsoever in this profiteering exploitation of a genocidal catastrophe that cost so many innocent people their lives. I consider it a travesty for the film industry to make millions of dollars profit from other people's losses. I think that there should be an unwritten public boycott on this film so's as not to support similar future endeavors.
I refuse to watch WTC !!

Hmmmm... I don't know about you but it doesn't seem reasonable to me to condemn the movie without even seeing it.

I reserved judgement on Passion of the Christ, for instance, only until I had actually seen it. Otherwise all you're doing is jumping on a mob bandwagon.

WTC has no interest for me, not for any political reason - just because I don't like Oliver Stone. I don't feel any strong compulsion to watch it or not, I'm indifferent to it.

In any case, you're a little late bringing this argument really, considering that much the same could be said for say, Schindler's List, not to mention decades worth of Hollywood Westerns and WW2 movies.

[devilchicken]

Silent Hill is another one for me - another example of how many horror directors totally miss the point by thinking that 'nasty' equals scary.

It doesn't, and instead of slow burning tension you're treated instead to a graphic burning at the stake, as well as a scene in which religious fanatics roast a living child above hot coals.

[David Mosley]

I think it's fair to say that there are films that I won't watch because I don't think I'll enjoy them - Saw and Hostel are just two of the most recent - but I'm hard pressed to think of a film that actually offended me. I don't as a matter of principle like walking out of a movie, although I came close to that with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom of all things. I believe that if you've decided to watch (and pay to see) a film you ought to watch it all the way through so at least you can speak about it with authority.

With regards to WTC I don't see it's any different from Titanic, Hillsborough or even The Great Escape where a significant number of people die or are killed. I understand that there are some people who think the events of 9/11 are too significant to be trivialised by something as crass a celluloid movie, but I'm not one of them. The fact it's an Oliver Stone film is a plus in my estimation rather than a negative. I realise that there are some people who think Stone is anti-American but he's gone on record as saying that WTC isn't a political film. One review describes it as "a film about honouring a value system [Stone] believes in - love, courage, humanism - and his conviction that it is the indomitable heart of the working man that defines America".

That doesn't mean I'm going to be at the front of the queue to see WTC or that I'll be buying the DVD when it comes out, but I probably won't be switching channels when it arrives on TV in a couple of years.

[lemec]

I guess, I am offended by a movie once in while. I used to be able to watch any movie, now there are some that I have to turn off.

-mainly because they are so bad, not for any political or gross out reasons.

-propoganda films I will not watch. (I mean if it's preaching something nasty.)

(saving whales,for istance,is ok.)


I also don't like the ones that "insult the intelligence of the audience."


David, what part of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom did you not like?


Indy Spoiler:

was it the beating heart? or the bad portrayal of India? -or the bad food?

[devilchicken]

I'm with you on movies such as Saw and Hostel, as I mentioned previously with Silent Hill - which seem to be little more than thinly disguised bloodletting for the purposes entertainment, which I find to cheapen a genre which if anything should (and it used to - just see any Alfred Hitchcock movie) rely on well crafted suspense. Not to mention the voyeuristic/pornographic aspect of seeing someone have their face torn off by some inbred, redneck pyschopath - which perhaps explains the appeal of the middle-east beheading videos which seem to attract many thousands of hits on internet search engines.

As I said, I'm rather indifferent to WTC - which seems to me to be simply another example of Hollywood fictionalisation. There was a whole slew of war movies in the years following WW2, though admittedly few of those, if any, dared to approach the Holocaust for instance. Similarly with westerns - with indians being almost always portrayed as bloodthirsty savages who apparently deserved being shot by John Wayne, Glen Ford or Randolph Scott. Again no attempt to deal with the very real issue of genocide which was swept under the carpet in favour of rose tinted, almost cartoonish creative license.

These days you have the screenwriter of U571, apologising to UK war veterans for stealing their story and presenting it as an American victory, or the likes of Braveheart and The Patriot (especially), which depict the English as little more than red coat wearing fascists. Certainly a movie can be politically offensive to a thinking audience - though many seem content to dismiss any such criticism with "it's just entertainment", which of course opens up a whole can of worms as to "what constitutes entertainment", and should everyone be entertained by the same things.

[devilchicken]

I guess, I am offended by a movie once in while. I used to be able to watch any movie, now there are some that I have to turn off.

-mainly because they are so bad, not for any political or gross out reasons.

-propoganda films I will not watch. (I mean if it's preaching something nasty.)

(saving whales,for istance,is ok.)


I also don't like the ones that "insult the intelligence of the audience."


David, what part of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom did you not like?


Indy Spoiler:

was it the beating heart? or the bad portrayal of India? -or the bad food?

Temple of Doom is a rather controversial movie in a series that should be rather more controversial than it is. It does portray India in a stereotypical way - that apparently lumps very different ethnic groups - Hindu's, Muslims and Sikhs into one convenient mass of "fuzzy-wuzzies". Indiana Jones says in one scene 'Hindu's don't eat meat', but neither do they wear turbans...

One of my best friend's is German and a massive fan of Star Wars. Yet he won't give Indiana Jones (another Lucasfilm production) the time of day, and its not difficult to see why. The stereotypical "ve have veys of making you talk" portrayal of Germans doesn't offend kids not brought up in a country where that period of history is viewed as a national shame, and you have to wonder how uncomfortable it must be to watch something like that and how it can be so popular among people with apparently little investment in that period of history.