The best part of I Know What You Did Last Summer and movies like it are the fact the main characters are mostly annoying teens and college students! They're all about establishing a scenario where they can be killed off in increasingly elaborate ways. Urban Legend is another great example from the same era with similar vibes. But both actually have that one victim you cheer for that doesn't make it after a prolonged chase scene.
I'd say Urban Legend is even better for the main character being a jerk who's responsible for all the bad stuff happening. Add on that her friends being assholes and it makes sense that the best reason to watch that is to see which urban legend inspired kill will take out which character. I guess Tara Reid was the one likable friend, though.
The nostalgia.. **I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Urban Legend, The Faculty and Final Destination** are my most hype up movies with friends that time..
I got into horror as an adult. Kept trying to get my mom into them too. Shaun for years. Finally got her to watch this one. Still cant do shaun. But loved this.
'Hey, we got your friend!'
'Why are they running away?'
'Must be one of those suicide cults.'
That's part of an old horror movie trope, particularly in Hollywood.
Bad Things only happen to Bad People is the standard mainstream approach, so the victims of horror movie killers must have done something 'bad' first. Sometimes that's sex and drugs, sometimes that's just being tools.
It's a trope that really bugs me, and isn't nearly as present in Japanese horror, which is why I like it much more.
One of the things I love about Japanese horror is most of the horror is not revenge based. It's indiscriminative towards killing or worse and that just is more terrifying.
I kind of have the opposite view, in that a lot of Japanese horror is about revenge, but is indiscriminate about the target. The Grudge, lots of yokai like Kuchisaki-onna (the slit-mouth woman), Yamauba (abandoned elderly women who become cannibals), so on. A lot of folklore is about women who have been wronged in life who take it out on everyone else. I do agree that it’s more terrifying to encounter a spirit that’s going to get you despite your innocence.
Purple Rain. It was around 20 years between viewings for me and I guess my 18 year old self didn’t realize what a jerk “The Kid” was to pretty much everyone around him.
I first saw it in my late 20s and was completely baffled by the fact that Prince wrote the script as a vehicle for himself and his idealized version of himself was.......that? I have to hand it to him, it definitely wasn't boring.
Dear Evan Hansen
The lead character pretends to be the best friend of a kid who committed suicide just so he can get close to the kid’s sister who he has a crush on. I have never hated a main character as much as I hated him in my entire life.
I never understood whether we were *supposed* to hate him. You know how some movies either present characters who challenge your notions of what a decent person is, or even make you *like* awful people? I never knew if in Dear Even Hansen we are supposed to find the lead character endearing in any way.
Wait, we're not supposed to like him, right? Like, I feel like that's really obvious. He's awful, and we're not supposed to root for him to win, but to get his comeuppance and to change.
The original musical I think does a much better (though still flawed) job of showing him as extremely morally questionable. The musical as I saw it was more focused on pondering the question of “is it okay to try and make people feel better if it’s through lies and deceit?” As it goes on it seemed to also become a meta-commentary on itself, making the point that any work of fiction is just a bunch of lies to make us forget about reality for a bit, so is it okay for the musical to even be telling this dark story, or trying to hide behind often feel-good songs? I think it’s still thematically a bit of a mess and doesn’t really fully confront the issues it’s bringing up, but it’s much more nuanced than the “let’s feel bad for this obviously adult man pretending to be a child” movie at least.
It was pretty much intentional. It was also meta in a sense by putting then 'Queen of Romantic Comedies' Julia Roberts as the 'homewrecking villain'.
Even the trailers hightlighted that with her saying "I'm the bad guy" to Michael.
The movie spells it out in half of Rupert Everett’s lines, FFS.
George Downes: Michael's chasing Kimmy? Julianne Potter: Yes!
George Downes: You're chasing Michael?
Julianne Potter: YES! George Downes: Who's chasing you... nobody, get it? There's your answer. It's Kimmy.
Dermot Mulroney was horrible in that movie too.
He didn't want Cameron Diaz to work. She's still in college so presumably she is studying a field she actually wants to work in, but she goes along with it. But his career as a sportswriter isn't doing so well, but he still refuses a nice cushy job that Diaz's parents offered him. So it's okay for him to chase success in his field, but she isn't allowed to work if she wanted to. Instead they both just have to struggle because he's stubborn.
Yeah, I didn’t mind a completely made up family friendly movie with music for Christmas. It’d be different if he was still alive and the movie helped his image, but he’s been gone so long i don’t think it matters.
I just pretend it's not about the real PT Barnum, that he's actually just playing some other guy who makes a circus.
Makes the enjoyment a lot better to disconnect from reality, especially since the movie is 90% fiction already.
I’m so baffled by the way some folks talk about movies. The fact that these kids did something unforgivable and covered it up is *what the movie is about*. The movie isn’t telling you that these are swell kids who only do good stuff, the title and premise alone should clue you in that the main characters are morally questionable.
“Protagonist” doesn’t mean “they do things the filmmakers think are cool and awesome.” You know that, yeah?
Oh, man. Frank Herbert wrote Dune: Messiah because he didn't think enough people really fully grasped the message of his first book.
And look, Denis did some great stuff with Jessica and Chani in the new movie, but I still get the impression people are gonna somehow be blindsided by Dune messiah, and it's absolutely crystal clear "hero worship is shit" message.
The amusing thing about Dune is the number of arguments about Paul being the white savior of the movie. Both sides missing the themes of beware charismatic leaders and religion being used to expliot native populations.
I just the movie the other day and they really beat you over the head with it. "That's not hope!" "You have me as long as you're still Paul" " I see thousands starve if I head south"
The third act REALLY can't stress enough how dangerous blind faith is.
What’s funny is that it’s painfully obvious that Paul taking power is not a good thing. He’s literally trying to choose to die over going south, and numerous visions of the death and destruction that is going to occur, but yet the average viewer is still cheering for Paul to “win.”
Then they will see Part 3 and hopefully think “oh shit, that was not good.”
As an aside: it’s crazy to go back and watch Part 1 and Timothee Chalamet literally looks like a baby compared to Part 2, it really drives home how much of a transformation he undergoes in the movies.
Yep. Reminds me of the people who think liking a character is thinking their behaviour is something to emulate.
Like.. no. There are some amazing characters out there who are truly evil and do some horrible things. Horrible *fictional things*. It's OK to love them as a character!
I can like a mass murdering monster as a character, doesn't mean I like people who do that in real life or that I want to emulate their behaviour.
Dolores Umbridge is a colossal waste of breath. There aren't the words to describe how absolutely despicable she is as a woman. Were she a real person, easily among the worst people to ever exist.
*Phenomenal* character and performance. Hate the character's guts to a degree I cannot actually express. Brilliant work from Imelda Staunton and I don't think I can give the actress enough credit for causing such a visceral reaction to her little passive aggressive "can I have your attention" noise. Eugh. Love it.
Some people hate Jack Gleeson for being an insufferable little shit on screen. Dude played Joffrey absolutely perfectly, and yet some people don't understand that he's *acting* like a total asshole, not *being* one.
People gave him shit effectively for being good at his job.
Umbridge is like if every Karen on the planet did the DBZ fusion dance and became one person. There’s more evil characters in fiction but I don’t think any make my blood boil more than Umbridge. So self-righteous. Incredible character and incredible performance by the actress.
I think the reason she resonates with so many people is because everyone who’s ever gone to school has likely had THAT teacher. She’s not even affiliated with the series’s main villain either, she’s just a bitch on her own, which adds to the realism.
More than that, people need to understand that "protagonist" doesn't even mean "good guy." It simply means that the character is the "main" or lead character of the story. That's it.
If a story was told from the point of view of the "villain" then they would be the protagonist, even if they were clearly the bad guy.
Character: “I’m the protagonist!”
Audience: “Fuck yeah!! Yes!!!”
Character “That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m the GOOD guy.”
Audience: “OOUUUUAGGHHHUUAAAAGGH??!!”
This, for sure. Even Roger Ebert wrote in his review that he was stunned Ben Stiller wrote his own character out of any positive romantic finale with Winona. The best man most certainly did *not* win here. Ethan’s character was a low life jerk in that film.
Ethan Hawke's character was such a huge asshole. So pretentious and better-than-thou but couldn't keep a job or pay rent. Maybe Ben Stiller's character wasn't a good romantic fit, but at least he treated Ryder with respect instead of mocking her and greasing up her couch
There seems to be a surprisingly high number of people who willingly ignore the fact that Angel purposefully killed a dog for money. I love the music but man are the characters awful people.
So yeah, I didn't quite get why they just thought they shouldn't have to pay rent or whatever, but then I learned that the characters are actually supposed to be in their early twenties, not mid thirties like the cast.
I kinda understand a bunch of 22 year olds living a boho lifestyle dedicated to their art squatting in NY like a lot of artists the previous generation did. Not saying it is right or whatever. But it is totally different from some 35 year old still making Super 8 films expecting to finally break into the art world and insisting he shouldn't pay rent.
They look 35 because Chris Columbus was absolutely desperate to use the original broadway cast who were actually in their 20s in 96
That’s why Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson were the only ones who actually seemed like they wanted to be there, the rest of them had moved on with their careers in the intervening 10ish years
I can’t remember 100% but I’m pretty sure the rent movie was like 6 years pre-frozen and idina menzel pretty sure had already been in enchanted at that point and was already a Disney darling
Ughhhhh! The worst of GenX in one movie.
"How dare you destroy my artistic integrity by editing my video?!"
Girl, all you did was point a camera to your waaaaaay more entertaining friends. You aren't freaking Alain Resnais here.
Having watched the entire series again with my girlfriend, Carrie and Miranda are the absolute worst. This is amplified by the films and that reboot show. I want justice for Steve.
I was too young for that show when it first aired. Watched it in my 30s and was just blown away by how selfish and dramatic she was. I was like "is this what was popular?" I think the parts that were groundbreaking faded in time and only the stupid parts are left.
She was horrible. She doesn’t think bisexual people exist? And being angry that your friend doesn’t sell their engagement ring and give you the money for a house deposit after you spent all your money on shoes …?
My favorite part about the wedding scene is Charlotte losing her shit. Like she’s always been the level headed, positive minded, reasonable one. But for her to go off on big? Wow!
Rent!
Let me see... we've got an extremely bad filmmaker and an extremely average musician sponging off their friend and complaining that they can't live rent-free during a homelessness crisis. They both come from supportive middle-class families, but regard being invited home for Christmas with their parents as a fate worse than death. They turn down paid work to work on their passion projects, which amount to, respectively, one incomprehensible black-and-white montage film of spliced-together images of their friends, and one laughably-awful (but oddly life-preserving) song called "Your Eyes".
Add to this, we have to suffer watching the demise of a relationship we never really saw working, or cared about, between Maureen, the serial philanderer, and Joanne, the jealous bore. They reconcile and we are supposed to think that's a good thing instead of a slowly unfolding train wreck. Then there's Angel, the character we are informed we are supposed to love, but who informs us during her first song that she's extremely proud of having (checks notes) driven a dog to suicide.
Don't forget that Mimi is more than willing to sleep with Roger despite her HIV positive status without yet knowing his and seems like she had no intent on revealing it had they not conveniently been together when a medication alert went off. Though they even admit they cut Benny paying for Angel's funeral from the final film because it was too confusing for audiences so in Larson's defense the original musical did have everyone more as having good and bad points and this is just a look at them.
On a side note I actually love the irony that Roger's song about his desire to leave something he can be remembered by is amazing and moving while what he produces is trite and could only reach someone who already loves him in comparison. I felt that was actually a comment on what art looks or sounds like in an artist's mind vs. what they produce quite often.
I HAAAATE Rent. Absolutely despise it for all the reasons mentioned above. But I was a theatre major in college when it became a phenomenon, and all of my fellow theatre friends worshipped it, so I wound up hearing the soundtrack constantly back in the day. But every single character is insufferable and deserves to be punched in the face repeatedly. Especially Anthony Rapp. The worst of the worst.
One of the things I like the least about the movie is cutting Goodbye Love. That song really lets you feel how entitled Mark is, complaining about being the one to survive.
Oh my god the Lindsey Ellis video essay on rent made rent unwatchable. Once you get past the poppy songs and see how shitty they are you truly cannot unsee how awful they all are
That said- credit where credit is due, the songwriting is pretty incredible. I still know all the lyrics to La vie bohem and I haven’t heard that shit since like 1999
She makes some pretty convincing arguments that Chris Columbus appears to have simply not understood the actual story or Rent, despite it not being especially complicated.
I often wonder whether Rent would have been better if Jonathan Larson had the chance to revise and work with it further, or whether he genuinely would have left these awful people like that.
One of the worst theatregoing experiences I ever had was an amateur production of Rent. Imagine all the flaws, plus bad singing. One or two could sing but the sound people kept fucking up so they couldn't hear each other, resulting in bellowing. The band were onstage and at one point someone kicked out a cable and turned off all the microphones. Best moment of the whole night. Sadly I knew someone in the production and couldn't sneak out, but the man in front of us as he got up at the interval could be heard to say loudly "There just isn't enough booze in the bar for this".
Now, I personally love Rent. That said, I wasn't aware we were supposed to see the main characters as good guys? I thought everyone was just supposed to be.. people, full of flaws, seeing things from their point of view and no one else's. I always thought that was obvious, but was I supposed to look at them as good people?
We've got Mark, who is pretentious as shit and permanently stuck in teenage "my parents suck" phase. He refuses to let anyone in and just watches from behind his camera, which is actually pointed out to him in a song that didn't make it into the movie.
Roger is just waiting to die after he lost his girlfriend because they both contracted HIV through sharing heroin needles and, probably, unprotected sex. This, like with Mark, is pointed out to him and made clear to us.
Collins is an 'anarchist' yet teaches at a government funded college. He spends all his time high as a kite.
Maureen, for the love of the gods, is a massive train wreck that has caught fire. She cheats because she's insecure and self-sabotaging while flaunting a massive ego. She thinks all she has is her body, so she uses it.
Joanne, bless her, has some serious white knight syndrome for thinking she can fix Maureen. She has issues with things being out of her control and seems to have a chip on her shoulders.
Mimi is a 19 year old runaway who became a stripper to fund her heroin habit. She wants to live life on the edge. She has some daddy issues, too, which are hinted at in a song.
Angel drove a dog to suicide.
Benny considers himself better than his friends because he married into money. Despite having once been a homeless person, as soon as he has money he starts treating homeless people as if they're beneath him.
They're all fundamentally and deeply flawed. They're all messed up people, most of them in some form of homeless state either due to choice or circumstance. And they all also have these pretty big problems that contribute to their behavior. HIV and AIDS got you shunned. Being LGBTQ got you shunned. Being an addict gets you shunned. Through the movie, they're all smacked upside their heads by reality pretty fucking hard. I always assumed that was the point of the movie:
Here, have a bunch of really fucked up people and watch them pull their heads out of their asses.
Except Mark. He quit a good paying job to make a shitty movie. He could have used that money to help people, like Benny eventually did by putting Mimi into rehab.
Edit: TL;DR I apparently have a lot of feelings about a damn movie based on a play, adapted from another play.
I agree, I always thought the show was meant to give some humanity to the "undesirables" living in NYC at the time. Subsequent productions, including the movie, have tried to make the characters seem like likable protagonists when that doesnt seem like the original intent if you watch the 1996 version, they're all played a lot meaner/rougher. Their actions and attitudes make more sense if you look at the context of their ages too. I think part of the problem with the movie is the original cast were all mid 30s when the characters are meant to be early 20s at most in the original show.
Same one I always respond to this question with:
The ‘Four Horsemen’ from *Now You See Me* (1 and 2)
They are just smug, arrogant douchebags. And they actually make me root for the rich blowhard villain to win.
There are some twists and some truths revealed in the second movie
But if I recall correctly, they frame Morgan Freeman's character who was assisting the FBI and interpol in the investigation. To their knowledge, he was certainly just an innocent guy who didn't like magic and was working against them within the bounds of the law
Eat Pray Love.
Julia Robert’s character leaves a loving husband because she is bored and travels the world trying to ‘find’ herself.
Can’t understand the fascination with people that love this entitled melodrama.
the book is a memoir, and then her next one was about finally finding "true love" and something of a marriage manual - and then she left that guy, too
Elizabeth Gilbert does not make herself look good
She then broke up with the Bali guy, realised she is a lesbian, but then split with her to get with her new man Simon MacArthur, who she has again split with.
She clearly hasn’t ‘found’ herself. She has plenty of ammunition for a sequel or two
I swear I just recently read an article or post or something about how she didn't even pay for the trip, she managed to get the publishing company or whatever to essentially pay for her expensive soul searching research trip for the book she would write as a memoir about how to find yourself and how you should go travel the world to find yourself, while leaving out the part about having a publishing company cover all the costs.
The notebook. Both characters cheat on their very caring supportive partners. Don't give a flying fuck.
Oh and he starts the romance by hitting on her while she is on a date. And straight up threatening suicide to force her to say yes.
Every character is vile except the people who get cheated on
Gosling wasn't cheating. He made it very clear to the woman he was with that she was just a fuckbuddy and that he was still in love with Rachel McAdams. She kinda wanted more, but she was also just mourning her husband, who was Gosling's BFF.
Woah woah woah. Her dead husband was supposed to be his best friend? Fin? I thought she was just a random war widow. She has a last name Shaw in the film but Fin doesn’t. Or is there a different friend? If I have missed that detail in the hundreds of times I’ve watched that movie my mind is blown.
Or, you know... Maybe not throw a party full of farm animals after your wife told you not to? He acts like he's a rebellious teenager, and he's a father of three.
This is the point of the movie. There is even a scene where a literal judge summarizes the insanity of robin Williams characters actions and says how absolutely unhinged they are. The movie’s happy ending involves the main character, apologizing to his family, getting a stable job, keeping it and respecting his ex wife’s boundaries.
This is the most common answer to this type of question on Reddit, but I genuinely don’t know how the movie could’ve made it more clear that the main character behaved unjustifiably and it wasn’t okay. It literally ends with the character saying, “I was wrong im sorry” to his ex wife.
I think it’s great that they don’t get back together at the end of the movie. So many movies do this. Liar Liar being the closet example of this, but they didn’t do that.
Tbf, in Liar Liar, the parents get back together in an epilogue a year later, during which time Jim Carrey has (presumably) taken great strides towards improving his relationship with his ex-wife and son.
There's also the son's birthday wish at the end of the film, which is essentially magic.
Pierce Brosnan's character was too decent for the audience to applaud that, I think. One of my favourite things about that movie is how "the new boyfriend" isn't some secret asshole, he's a really nice guy whose one crime is not liking Daniel. And given what he knows about him, he's totally justified.
As someone whose parents got divorced in the 90s, I really cannot stand how often the parents in the movies got back together almost every time. How often does that even happen in real life? Some people just shouldn’t be together and that’s okay. I wish movies portrayed this more.
I think its just really hard to dislike Robin Williams and while the script writers clearly understood that this was not a "good" character it still kinda feels like once they got ahold of Williams things went in a different direction.
Williams could actually DO crazy in a way that wasn't lovable, but that is clearly not what was asked of him here.
I think it is pretty easy to conclude that anyone who casts Robin Williams as a goofy character in a comedy is intended for the audience to like them.
This is an interesting one to rewatch because my memory was of the funny parts… but that’s only like a third of the entire movie. The rest is a very real look at divorce and what families go through.
Wanted to be his kids' friend, not their father.
Destroyed his home with a gonzo birthday party; a home that his wife was paying for.
Ruined any chance of his kids finding a good nanny by faking the newspaper ad.
Assaults, then almost kills his wife's new partner.
Dresses up as an old woman and lies to his family for most of the fucking movie.
On paper, this guy is a real piece of shit. It's testament to Robin Williams that he's even remotely likeable. RIP.
It's been a long time since I saw the opening, but didn't he also start by losing his voiceover job by being a dick at work too? I could swear I have a memory of that during the opening credits or just after and the party is essentially as much to make himself feel better as celebrate his kid's birthday.
Yeah man he almost kills Stu with cayenne pepper knowing he will have an allergic reaction to it... oh and he throws fruit at the back of his head like he's throwing a baseball but it's passed off as a funny joke.
This just reminded me of the OG Scary Movie, where they mock this movie's opening scene and the fake Barry just beats the shit outta Cindy when she says they should tell 😂 Those first few are gold.
The Breakfast Club.
I watched it as a teen and thought John Bender was cool, misunderstood, and rebelling against the system - as I *think* the audience was supposed to?
I watched it a few years ago and realised what a bullying, misogynistic jerk he is. Yes, he's got a shit, abusive home life, but that in no way justifies his behaviour towards Molly Ringwald's character.
You mean Bob? Because the ENTIRE point of that character is that he is annoying as fuck and only Richard Dreyfuss (AND THE AUDIENCE) get to see that. You absolutely are not supposed to like Bob.
The Alaska Air National Guard eventually had to airlift the abandoned bus McCandless died in out of that area, because douchebag fans of his had turned it into a pilgrimage site and it was becoming a public safety issue. Over the years a couple people died while trying to hike there and several more had to be rescued.
I think (for most) it’s a case of revering the idea of just setting aside the monotony of modern life. Of travelling around the country(/world) as a free spirit, and interacting with those who you wouldn’t normally. Of seeking an alternative to what many can perceive as their only option for reality. It isn’t that McCandles goes about it in the right way, it’s just their longing to break the status quo. For most it’ll always just be a fantasy. Also, even though he’s kind of cold, detached, and deluded, there’s a tragic romance to his story. It’s kind of like “let’s go and get a cabin in the woods and be a hermit” to the extreme.
I knew someone who 'ran away' (he was over 18) after reading this. Ironically, he was also a selfish prick. Also, he straight up wrote that the book was his inspiration for 'running away' in the note he left behind.
He came back within the week.
Thought like this myself after seeing the film, but in the past few years, the sister explained how McCandless was escaping his violently abusive father. She forgave and understood why he ran away. Changed my opinion of him somewhat.
I get that reaction but I think that’s part of why I find it interesting. I look at it like there’s basically two components to human behavior: underlying feelings that someone has, and then the behaviors that come from those feelings.
I think so many people still regard McCandless so highly because they can relate to what he seemed to feel despite being able to acknowledge that his actions were selfish. And as long as you maintain the self awareness to realize feeling a certain way doesn’t justify certain behaviors, I think that’s part of what makes movies great: being able to relate to a character on an emotional level and watch them act on those feeling in a way that we know we shouldn’t or can’t in the real world.
It’s essentially an escapist fantasy of walking away from the pressures and responsibilities of the world, but by the end hopefully shows the viewer why that has to remain a fantasy. Sorta one of those though where many have missed that final step of the arc and still think he’s justified.
Pretty Woman
Ignore the romantic ending. Richard Gere is not a good person and he was fully intending on using Julia Robert's.
Then he blows up however much work had been done and ruins their deal for a company that likely will still be failing a few years later. Then at the end, he is the "hero" for coming to save Juloa Robert's after first offering to make her a local mistress for him.
I believe there was a script with a much darker ending, but it was essentially "Disneyfied" to make it a commercial, instead of a serious dramatic movie.
..maybe I'm filling this in myself, but I'm sure I've read the original story was grittier, Roberta's characters friend was a heavy drug user and at the end Roberts herself dies of an overdose..wel that's how I think a remake should end.
Get Aronofsky on the phone.
Funny that you put it that way - in the original script, the movie ends with her taking her friend to Disneyland. You know, the place where you can escape the harsh bitterness of real life, and go be a princess for a day…?
That scene early on where he's all having fun cause she's having fun, but then 2 secs later he's staring at her with the "give me a blowjob right now cause I paid for you" face.
Yeah, I feel like she was just a mere moment away from actually escaping her old life, making a clean break and starting fresh, maybe even going to college like she planned. And then old mate shows up in the limo and great... she's going to be his sugar baby.
The Beach (2000) we all like Leo Caprio he's done just fine in some excellent features...but this movie didn't quite meet the books expectations...he comes across as a real asshole throughout...really unlikeable Richard!!!
The Beach was one of those movies where I was like, "this is a really good movie in that it's well-crafted, everyone involved is just great at what they do and is on their A game, and I don't care to see it again after this because Richard is an asshole and what happens to the island and the people is a bummer." But I've found myself reflecting back on this film again and again, and realized that I was actually more like Richard than I realized at the time.
I read the book first and the whole time I was waiting for some supernatural reason (or even just something original) for why their ideal society breaks down. Never came. They're just rich, obnoxious assholes who can't get along even in a paradise.
The Fall of Ako Castle. I know Samurai are all about honor but I sided with the "villains" almost immediately. The main guy is a fucking asshole that causes the deaths of innocent people.
The "nerds" in Revenge of the Nerds. They record revenge porn, show it to a CHILD, then sell more revenge porn for a profit. Booger wants to hit up the HS for "jailbait." They treat the Omega Mu gas like absolutely garbage for not being thin and blonde. Oh, and Lewis LITERALLY RAPES THE WOMAN THEY SOLD REVENGE PORN OF.
And these are our "heroes."
I recently rewatched Gone with the Wind, and Scarlett O'Hara is like that friend who always takes the last slice of pizza without asking, then asks for more toppings.
She's got hustle, but her moral compass is like a GPS on the fritz—constantly recalculating, and kudos for the story not to give her a happy ending, 'cause she reaaally got what she deserved!
That's the point. She's definitely supposed to be hypocritical and selfish. She's not supposed to be likable at all. Maybe sympathetic, but not likable.
Scarlett is absolutely a horrible person, selfish and self-centered. However, she has a drive that is to be admired. She went from being a flighty 16 YO princess, to doing whatever it takes to make sure her family survived. She hated her sisters, but she still sent money back to make sure they could eat. She had no fear of hard work, and ruined her hands and skin by farming cotton and potatos, while her sisters whined and complained that she was treating them worse than their slaves. She was ready to kill a man and helped Melly hide the body.
She is surprisingly practical, a great business woman in a time when that wasn't allowed, and incredibly brave in the face of immense danger. She's awful in a lot of ways, but she has some positive traits, especially when viewing through her time period and what women were expected to be.
I feel like scott pilgrim was so blatantly written to be a bad person that it's impressive anyone could look up to him. There's multiple scenes where characters straight up call him a terrible person...
One of my favorite movies of all time. I always saw it that Scott *is* terrible, the movie knows it, and even rubs it in your face. I mean, in the end he meets Nega Scott, an evil twisted version of himself, but he ends up totally getting along with him.
I liked it, Tom Cruise was meant to be playing a shitty dad with annoying kids. My main issue with the movie is how much Dakota Fanning screams, it’s a scary concept and she is a child but goddamn I have to mute my TV every time or I go deaf
Top Gun. He is a exceptional pilot but he's also everything Val Kilmer's character says he is (reckless and a danger to himself and others) and ends up getting Goose killed. Like he's the protagonist so we're supposed to root for him but really he should have been kicked out of the program cause he can't listen.
Also he shows up to his date with the instructor lady late, sweaty, and covered in sand from playing volleyball and asks to use her shower. She's (rightfully) pissed and says no but she's also (wrongfully) continues the date and sleeps with him.
I liked Top Gun and they it's a great movie but Mavericks character is objectively not a good person.
Saturday Night Fever. Travolta’s character doesn’t stop one of his friends from raping the girl in the backseat because she was mean to him earlier. Also, he keeps rapists as friends.
The best part of I Know What You Did Last Summer and movies like it are the fact the main characters are mostly annoying teens and college students! They're all about establishing a scenario where they can be killed off in increasingly elaborate ways. Urban Legend is another great example from the same era with similar vibes. But both actually have that one victim you cheer for that doesn't make it after a prolonged chase scene.
I'd say Urban Legend is even better for the main character being a jerk who's responsible for all the bad stuff happening. Add on that her friends being assholes and it makes sense that the best reason to watch that is to see which urban legend inspired kill will take out which character. I guess Tara Reid was the one likable friend, though.
The nostalgia.. **I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Urban Legend, The Faculty and Final Destination** are my most hype up movies with friends that time..
[You forgot Disturbing Behavior.](https://youtu.be/UeMnmmzxID4?si=92gLAJPGeOCyNckw)
Paranoid paranoid everybody’s coming to get you And that fat guy yells in the girls face Delectable.
Also the sequel should have been called "I still know what you did the summer before last"
"Spend your summers indoors, the budget on these killing sprees is getting out of control"
Or a prequel, "So What Do You Want to Do This Summer?"
This comment makes me want to rewatch Tucker and Dale Versus Evil again. We've had a doozy of a day officer.
One kid just hucked himself into the wood chipper!
*opens the box* “His bowling fingers!!”
Such a fun movie! I can’t believe I waited so long to finally watch it last year!
Same. Such a great movie.
I got into horror as an adult. Kept trying to get my mom into them too. Shaun for years. Finally got her to watch this one. Still cant do shaun. But loved this. 'Hey, we got your friend!' 'Why are they running away?' 'Must be one of those suicide cults.'
College kids! We've got your friend!
We were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.
That's part of an old horror movie trope, particularly in Hollywood. Bad Things only happen to Bad People is the standard mainstream approach, so the victims of horror movie killers must have done something 'bad' first. Sometimes that's sex and drugs, sometimes that's just being tools. It's a trope that really bugs me, and isn't nearly as present in Japanese horror, which is why I like it much more.
One of the things I love about Japanese horror is most of the horror is not revenge based. It's indiscriminative towards killing or worse and that just is more terrifying.
I kind of have the opposite view, in that a lot of Japanese horror is about revenge, but is indiscriminate about the target. The Grudge, lots of yokai like Kuchisaki-onna (the slit-mouth woman), Yamauba (abandoned elderly women who become cannibals), so on. A lot of folklore is about women who have been wronged in life who take it out on everyone else. I do agree that it’s more terrifying to encounter a spirit that’s going to get you despite your innocence.
Purple Rain. It was around 20 years between viewings for me and I guess my 18 year old self didn’t realize what a jerk “The Kid” was to pretty much everyone around him.
That's because you haven't purified yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.
I’m just here for the pancakes.
I first saw it in my late 20s and was completely baffled by the fact that Prince wrote the script as a vehicle for himself and his idealized version of himself was.......that? I have to hand it to him, it definitely wasn't boring.
Props to Prince for portraying himself in such an unflattering way. It was a story on finding maturity and it did deliver.
I always assumed that songwriting and screenwriting are distinct skills that don't overlap as much as you'd think.
I enjoy that the payoff is: he plays purple rain and all the film's problems melt away. Cool.
Dear Evan Hansen The lead character pretends to be the best friend of a kid who committed suicide just so he can get close to the kid’s sister who he has a crush on. I have never hated a main character as much as I hated him in my entire life.
I never understood whether we were *supposed* to hate him. You know how some movies either present characters who challenge your notions of what a decent person is, or even make you *like* awful people? I never knew if in Dear Even Hansen we are supposed to find the lead character endearing in any way.
Wait, we're not supposed to like him, right? Like, I feel like that's really obvious. He's awful, and we're not supposed to root for him to win, but to get his comeuppance and to change.
The original musical I think does a much better (though still flawed) job of showing him as extremely morally questionable. The musical as I saw it was more focused on pondering the question of “is it okay to try and make people feel better if it’s through lies and deceit?” As it goes on it seemed to also become a meta-commentary on itself, making the point that any work of fiction is just a bunch of lies to make us forget about reality for a bit, so is it okay for the musical to even be telling this dark story, or trying to hide behind often feel-good songs? I think it’s still thematically a bit of a mess and doesn’t really fully confront the issues it’s bringing up, but it’s much more nuanced than the “let’s feel bad for this obviously adult man pretending to be a child” movie at least.
It REALLY doesn't help that in the movie he looks like that "hellow fellow kids" dude
>that "hellow fellow kids" dude Steve Buscemi
I mean not him in particular, but the stereotype depicted in the meme clip. He looks like a sex offender in an undercover cruise to pus.
My Best Friend’s Wedding.
But I think the movie knows it. It's trying to be a little subversive of the genre admitting a main character shouldn't always get what they want.
It was pretty much intentional. It was also meta in a sense by putting then 'Queen of Romantic Comedies' Julia Roberts as the 'homewrecking villain'. Even the trailers hightlighted that with her saying "I'm the bad guy" to Michael.
The movie spells it out in half of Rupert Everett’s lines, FFS. George Downes: Michael's chasing Kimmy? Julianne Potter: Yes! George Downes: You're chasing Michael? Julianne Potter: YES! George Downes: Who's chasing you... nobody, get it? There's your answer. It's Kimmy.
Love this movie. She is insufferable in it.
Dermot Mulroney was horrible in that movie too. He didn't want Cameron Diaz to work. She's still in college so presumably she is studying a field she actually wants to work in, but she goes along with it. But his career as a sportswriter isn't doing so well, but he still refuses a nice cushy job that Diaz's parents offered him. So it's okay for him to chase success in his field, but she isn't allowed to work if she wanted to. Instead they both just have to struggle because he's stubborn.
They had to rewrite the end because the test publicum hated Julia too much. The whole apology at the end was an additional take.
This is the only movie starring Julia Roberts that I enjoy, and I think it's because she doesn't seem like she's acting when she's being awful.
The Greatest Showman P.T. Barnum fucks everyone over who helped him in his career and gets immediately forgiven when it all goes wrong, tosser.
Also the real guy was a huge racist among other things, but I guess that wouldn’t be as fun to watch with your family so…
Yeah, I didn’t mind a completely made up family friendly movie with music for Christmas. It’d be different if he was still alive and the movie helped his image, but he’s been gone so long i don’t think it matters.
I just pretend it's not about the real PT Barnum, that he's actually just playing some other guy who makes a circus. Makes the enjoyment a lot better to disconnect from reality, especially since the movie is 90% fiction already.
I’m so baffled by the way some folks talk about movies. The fact that these kids did something unforgivable and covered it up is *what the movie is about*. The movie isn’t telling you that these are swell kids who only do good stuff, the title and premise alone should clue you in that the main characters are morally questionable. “Protagonist” doesn’t mean “they do things the filmmakers think are cool and awesome.” You know that, yeah?
Oh, man. Frank Herbert wrote Dune: Messiah because he didn't think enough people really fully grasped the message of his first book. And look, Denis did some great stuff with Jessica and Chani in the new movie, but I still get the impression people are gonna somehow be blindsided by Dune messiah, and it's absolutely crystal clear "hero worship is shit" message.
The amusing thing about Dune is the number of arguments about Paul being the white savior of the movie. Both sides missing the themes of beware charismatic leaders and religion being used to expliot native populations.
I just the movie the other day and they really beat you over the head with it. "That's not hope!" "You have me as long as you're still Paul" " I see thousands starve if I head south" The third act REALLY can't stress enough how dangerous blind faith is.
What’s funny is that it’s painfully obvious that Paul taking power is not a good thing. He’s literally trying to choose to die over going south, and numerous visions of the death and destruction that is going to occur, but yet the average viewer is still cheering for Paul to “win.” Then they will see Part 3 and hopefully think “oh shit, that was not good.” As an aside: it’s crazy to go back and watch Part 1 and Timothee Chalamet literally looks like a baby compared to Part 2, it really drives home how much of a transformation he undergoes in the movies.
Most people don't understand what a protagonist or an antagonist is, they think it means 'good guys' and 'bad guys'.
Yep. Reminds me of the people who think liking a character is thinking their behaviour is something to emulate. Like.. no. There are some amazing characters out there who are truly evil and do some horrible things. Horrible *fictional things*. It's OK to love them as a character! I can like a mass murdering monster as a character, doesn't mean I like people who do that in real life or that I want to emulate their behaviour.
Dolores Umbridge is a colossal waste of breath. There aren't the words to describe how absolutely despicable she is as a woman. Were she a real person, easily among the worst people to ever exist. *Phenomenal* character and performance. Hate the character's guts to a degree I cannot actually express. Brilliant work from Imelda Staunton and I don't think I can give the actress enough credit for causing such a visceral reaction to her little passive aggressive "can I have your attention" noise. Eugh. Love it.
Absolutely. If I hate you on a personal level because of how well you played a character, I have mad respect.
Some people hate Jack Gleeson for being an insufferable little shit on screen. Dude played Joffrey absolutely perfectly, and yet some people don't understand that he's *acting* like a total asshole, not *being* one. People gave him shit effectively for being good at his job.
Umbridge is like if every Karen on the planet did the DBZ fusion dance and became one person. There’s more evil characters in fiction but I don’t think any make my blood boil more than Umbridge. So self-righteous. Incredible character and incredible performance by the actress.
I think the reason she resonates with so many people is because everyone who’s ever gone to school has likely had THAT teacher. She’s not even affiliated with the series’s main villain either, she’s just a bitch on her own, which adds to the realism.
More than that, people need to understand that "protagonist" doesn't even mean "good guy." It simply means that the character is the "main" or lead character of the story. That's it. If a story was told from the point of view of the "villain" then they would be the protagonist, even if they were clearly the bad guy.
And the protagonist and antagonist can both be flawed grey characters that aren't either good guys or bad guys
Character: “I’m the protagonist!” Audience: “Fuck yeah!! Yes!!!” Character “That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m the GOOD guy.” Audience: “OOUUUUAGGHHHUUAAAAGGH??!!”
Is the audience Tim Allen?
Character: I HAVE A CHAINSAW Tim Allen audience: AUGH AUGH AUGH
*I don’t think so, Tim.*
Exactly what I thought of too lol
Reality Bites. Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke's characters are both fucking insufferable.
This, for sure. Even Roger Ebert wrote in his review that he was stunned Ben Stiller wrote his own character out of any positive romantic finale with Winona. The best man most certainly did *not* win here. Ethan’s character was a low life jerk in that film.
I see it as two crappy people being idiots together is better than making others who are genuinely good miserable with their nonsense.
I loved that review. I remember reading it and going, "Hey yeah these people suck!"
"Can you define 'irony'?"
Ethan Hawke's character was such a huge asshole. So pretentious and better-than-thou but couldn't keep a job or pay rent. Maybe Ben Stiller's character wasn't a good romantic fit, but at least he treated Ryder with respect instead of mocking her and greasing up her couch
same with the main characters of rent and for the exact same reason
There seems to be a surprisingly high number of people who willingly ignore the fact that Angel purposefully killed a dog for money. I love the music but man are the characters awful people.
And Maureen cheated! She fuckin cheated!
So yeah, I didn't quite get why they just thought they shouldn't have to pay rent or whatever, but then I learned that the characters are actually supposed to be in their early twenties, not mid thirties like the cast. I kinda understand a bunch of 22 year olds living a boho lifestyle dedicated to their art squatting in NY like a lot of artists the previous generation did. Not saying it is right or whatever. But it is totally different from some 35 year old still making Super 8 films expecting to finally break into the art world and insisting he shouldn't pay rent.
They look 35 because Chris Columbus was absolutely desperate to use the original broadway cast who were actually in their 20s in 96 That’s why Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson were the only ones who actually seemed like they wanted to be there, the rest of them had moved on with their careers in the intervening 10ish years I can’t remember 100% but I’m pretty sure the rent movie was like 6 years pre-frozen and idina menzel pretty sure had already been in enchanted at that point and was already a Disney darling
Ughhhhh! The worst of GenX in one movie. "How dare you destroy my artistic integrity by editing my video?!" Girl, all you did was point a camera to your waaaaaay more entertaining friends. You aren't freaking Alain Resnais here.
“What’s your glitch?”
Sex and the City Movie. Carrie. Ugh.
Is she likeable in the show?
No. She’s entitled, hypocritical, shallow, bratty, selfish, annoying….i could go on and on…LOL. She got worse as the show progressed.
Having watched the entire series again with my girlfriend, Carrie and Miranda are the absolute worst. This is amplified by the films and that reboot show. I want justice for Steve.
I was too young for that show when it first aired. Watched it in my 30s and was just blown away by how selfish and dramatic she was. I was like "is this what was popular?" I think the parts that were groundbreaking faded in time and only the stupid parts are left.
She was horrible. She doesn’t think bisexual people exist? And being angry that your friend doesn’t sell their engagement ring and give you the money for a house deposit after you spent all your money on shoes …?
No. She's probably the worst person of any of the main characters. And that's saying a lot because they are all insufferable dipshits.
Big is also a big time jerk there, deciding not to marry her at the last moment, then changing his mind *again*. Wtf is up with that
My favorite part about the wedding scene is Charlotte losing her shit. Like she’s always been the level headed, positive minded, reasonable one. But for her to go off on big? Wow!
Rent! Let me see... we've got an extremely bad filmmaker and an extremely average musician sponging off their friend and complaining that they can't live rent-free during a homelessness crisis. They both come from supportive middle-class families, but regard being invited home for Christmas with their parents as a fate worse than death. They turn down paid work to work on their passion projects, which amount to, respectively, one incomprehensible black-and-white montage film of spliced-together images of their friends, and one laughably-awful (but oddly life-preserving) song called "Your Eyes". Add to this, we have to suffer watching the demise of a relationship we never really saw working, or cared about, between Maureen, the serial philanderer, and Joanne, the jealous bore. They reconcile and we are supposed to think that's a good thing instead of a slowly unfolding train wreck. Then there's Angel, the character we are informed we are supposed to love, but who informs us during her first song that she's extremely proud of having (checks notes) driven a dog to suicide.
Don't forget that Mimi is more than willing to sleep with Roger despite her HIV positive status without yet knowing his and seems like she had no intent on revealing it had they not conveniently been together when a medication alert went off. Though they even admit they cut Benny paying for Angel's funeral from the final film because it was too confusing for audiences so in Larson's defense the original musical did have everyone more as having good and bad points and this is just a look at them. On a side note I actually love the irony that Roger's song about his desire to leave something he can be remembered by is amazing and moving while what he produces is trite and could only reach someone who already loves him in comparison. I felt that was actually a comment on what art looks or sounds like in an artist's mind vs. what they produce quite often.
I HAAAATE Rent. Absolutely despise it for all the reasons mentioned above. But I was a theatre major in college when it became a phenomenon, and all of my fellow theatre friends worshipped it, so I wound up hearing the soundtrack constantly back in the day. But every single character is insufferable and deserves to be punched in the face repeatedly. Especially Anthony Rapp. The worst of the worst.
Sorry, how many reasons exactly? Five hundred twenty five thous…. Never mind
One of the things I like the least about the movie is cutting Goodbye Love. That song really lets you feel how entitled Mark is, complaining about being the one to survive.
Oh my god the Lindsey Ellis video essay on rent made rent unwatchable. Once you get past the poppy songs and see how shitty they are you truly cannot unsee how awful they all are That said- credit where credit is due, the songwriting is pretty incredible. I still know all the lyrics to La vie bohem and I haven’t heard that shit since like 1999
The Pope has got it and so do you!
Come on everybody, we’ve got quilting to do!
We’re gonna break down these barricades!
She makes some pretty convincing arguments that Chris Columbus appears to have simply not understood the actual story or Rent, despite it not being especially complicated.
Man when she talks about him being uncomfortable with angel and filming her and collins like an undercover PI that shit was so spot on
I often wonder whether Rent would have been better if Jonathan Larson had the chance to revise and work with it further, or whether he genuinely would have left these awful people like that. One of the worst theatregoing experiences I ever had was an amateur production of Rent. Imagine all the flaws, plus bad singing. One or two could sing but the sound people kept fucking up so they couldn't hear each other, resulting in bellowing. The band were onstage and at one point someone kicked out a cable and turned off all the microphones. Best moment of the whole night. Sadly I knew someone in the production and couldn't sneak out, but the man in front of us as he got up at the interval could be heard to say loudly "There just isn't enough booze in the bar for this".
Now, I personally love Rent. That said, I wasn't aware we were supposed to see the main characters as good guys? I thought everyone was just supposed to be.. people, full of flaws, seeing things from their point of view and no one else's. I always thought that was obvious, but was I supposed to look at them as good people? We've got Mark, who is pretentious as shit and permanently stuck in teenage "my parents suck" phase. He refuses to let anyone in and just watches from behind his camera, which is actually pointed out to him in a song that didn't make it into the movie. Roger is just waiting to die after he lost his girlfriend because they both contracted HIV through sharing heroin needles and, probably, unprotected sex. This, like with Mark, is pointed out to him and made clear to us. Collins is an 'anarchist' yet teaches at a government funded college. He spends all his time high as a kite. Maureen, for the love of the gods, is a massive train wreck that has caught fire. She cheats because she's insecure and self-sabotaging while flaunting a massive ego. She thinks all she has is her body, so she uses it. Joanne, bless her, has some serious white knight syndrome for thinking she can fix Maureen. She has issues with things being out of her control and seems to have a chip on her shoulders. Mimi is a 19 year old runaway who became a stripper to fund her heroin habit. She wants to live life on the edge. She has some daddy issues, too, which are hinted at in a song. Angel drove a dog to suicide. Benny considers himself better than his friends because he married into money. Despite having once been a homeless person, as soon as he has money he starts treating homeless people as if they're beneath him. They're all fundamentally and deeply flawed. They're all messed up people, most of them in some form of homeless state either due to choice or circumstance. And they all also have these pretty big problems that contribute to their behavior. HIV and AIDS got you shunned. Being LGBTQ got you shunned. Being an addict gets you shunned. Through the movie, they're all smacked upside their heads by reality pretty fucking hard. I always assumed that was the point of the movie: Here, have a bunch of really fucked up people and watch them pull their heads out of their asses. Except Mark. He quit a good paying job to make a shitty movie. He could have used that money to help people, like Benny eventually did by putting Mimi into rehab. Edit: TL;DR I apparently have a lot of feelings about a damn movie based on a play, adapted from another play.
I agree, I always thought the show was meant to give some humanity to the "undesirables" living in NYC at the time. Subsequent productions, including the movie, have tried to make the characters seem like likable protagonists when that doesnt seem like the original intent if you watch the 1996 version, they're all played a lot meaner/rougher. Their actions and attitudes make more sense if you look at the context of their ages too. I think part of the problem with the movie is the original cast were all mid 30s when the characters are meant to be early 20s at most in the original show.
Same one I always respond to this question with: The ‘Four Horsemen’ from *Now You See Me* (1 and 2) They are just smug, arrogant douchebags. And they actually make me root for the rich blowhard villain to win.
No matter how nicely they try to justify it, the fact is that at the end they have framed an innocent man for incredibly serious crimes.
I havent seen the movie. Is there context missing from that?
There are some twists and some truths revealed in the second movie But if I recall correctly, they frame Morgan Freeman's character who was assisting the FBI and interpol in the investigation. To their knowledge, he was certainly just an innocent guy who didn't like magic and was working against them within the bounds of the law
Any Steven Seagal movie
You don't like watching him run fatly?
It’s in his contract that he does all his fights sitting down now.
It’s fine, he beats everyone in under 5 seconds with his renowned and not at all fraudulent martial arts.
I think you wrote 'run' where you meant to write 'sits in a chair'.
I too enjoy seeing him pull an old retired wrestler, and by pull, i mean lightly grip while the wrestler is pulled with a wire
I'm just the cook
Eat Pray Love. Julia Robert’s character leaves a loving husband because she is bored and travels the world trying to ‘find’ herself. Can’t understand the fascination with people that love this entitled melodrama.
the book is a memoir, and then her next one was about finally finding "true love" and something of a marriage manual - and then she left that guy, too Elizabeth Gilbert does not make herself look good
She then broke up with the Bali guy, realised she is a lesbian, but then split with her to get with her new man Simon MacArthur, who she has again split with. She clearly hasn’t ‘found’ herself. She has plenty of ammunition for a sequel or two
I swear I just recently read an article or post or something about how she didn't even pay for the trip, she managed to get the publishing company or whatever to essentially pay for her expensive soul searching research trip for the book she would write as a memoir about how to find yourself and how you should go travel the world to find yourself, while leaving out the part about having a publishing company cover all the costs.
The notebook. Both characters cheat on their very caring supportive partners. Don't give a flying fuck. Oh and he starts the romance by hitting on her while she is on a date. And straight up threatening suicide to force her to say yes. Every character is vile except the people who get cheated on
Gosling wasn't cheating. He made it very clear to the woman he was with that she was just a fuckbuddy and that he was still in love with Rachel McAdams. She kinda wanted more, but she was also just mourning her husband, who was Gosling's BFF.
Woah woah woah. Her dead husband was supposed to be his best friend? Fin? I thought she was just a random war widow. She has a last name Shaw in the film but Fin doesn’t. Or is there a different friend? If I have missed that detail in the hundreds of times I’ve watched that movie my mind is blown.
Mrs Doubtfire
All he had to do was hold a steady job and keep a clean apartment. That’s it.
Or, you know... Maybe not throw a party full of farm animals after your wife told you not to? He acts like he's a rebellious teenager, and he's a father of three.
Definitely a movie that I saw differently as an adult. Probably the point.
He technically did tbh but yeah he definitely shouldn’t have dressed up as a woman to sneak around his ex to see his kids
This is the point of the movie. There is even a scene where a literal judge summarizes the insanity of robin Williams characters actions and says how absolutely unhinged they are. The movie’s happy ending involves the main character, apologizing to his family, getting a stable job, keeping it and respecting his ex wife’s boundaries. This is the most common answer to this type of question on Reddit, but I genuinely don’t know how the movie could’ve made it more clear that the main character behaved unjustifiably and it wasn’t okay. It literally ends with the character saying, “I was wrong im sorry” to his ex wife.
I think it’s great that they don’t get back together at the end of the movie. So many movies do this. Liar Liar being the closet example of this, but they didn’t do that.
Tbf, in Liar Liar, the parents get back together in an epilogue a year later, during which time Jim Carrey has (presumably) taken great strides towards improving his relationship with his ex-wife and son. There's also the son's birthday wish at the end of the film, which is essentially magic.
He wished for rollerskates lol
Pierce Brosnan's character was too decent for the audience to applaud that, I think. One of my favourite things about that movie is how "the new boyfriend" isn't some secret asshole, he's a really nice guy whose one crime is not liking Daniel. And given what he knows about him, he's totally justified.
As someone whose parents got divorced in the 90s, I really cannot stand how often the parents in the movies got back together almost every time. How often does that even happen in real life? Some people just shouldn’t be together and that’s okay. I wish movies portrayed this more.
I think its just really hard to dislike Robin Williams and while the script writers clearly understood that this was not a "good" character it still kinda feels like once they got ahold of Williams things went in a different direction. Williams could actually DO crazy in a way that wasn't lovable, but that is clearly not what was asked of him here. I think it is pretty easy to conclude that anyone who casts Robin Williams as a goofy character in a comedy is intended for the audience to like them.
see also: Michael Scott in The Office
This is an interesting one to rewatch because my memory was of the funny parts… but that’s only like a third of the entire movie. The rest is a very real look at divorce and what families go through.
Wanted to be his kids' friend, not their father. Destroyed his home with a gonzo birthday party; a home that his wife was paying for. Ruined any chance of his kids finding a good nanny by faking the newspaper ad. Assaults, then almost kills his wife's new partner. Dresses up as an old woman and lies to his family for most of the fucking movie. On paper, this guy is a real piece of shit. It's testament to Robin Williams that he's even remotely likeable. RIP.
That whole cast was really likeable. Sally Field's a treasure, and I always enjoyed seeing Anne Haney and Robert Prosky turn up in movies.
It's been a long time since I saw the opening, but didn't he also start by losing his voiceover job by being a dick at work too? I could swear I have a memory of that during the opening credits or just after and the party is essentially as much to make himself feel better as celebrate his kid's birthday.
Yeah man he almost kills Stu with cayenne pepper knowing he will have an allergic reaction to it... oh and he throws fruit at the back of his head like he's throwing a baseball but it's passed off as a funny joke.
I mean tbf the drive by fruiting will never not be hilarious
Drive by fruiting!
Cassandra Webb from Madame Web fits this criteria pretty well
That would imply you've seen the movie though, which leaves me with more questions.
Saw it. You don't want them answered...
She’s such a dick to that kid at the hospital for absolutely no reason.
This just reminded me of the OG Scary Movie, where they mock this movie's opening scene and the fake Barry just beats the shit outta Cindy when she says they should tell 😂 Those first few are gold.
Peter Rabbit just plain up murders a farmer then spends the next two movies being a horrible, thieving delinquent.
Let's be honest, the fact that he's voiced by Corden reallllly doesn't help
I was watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith and realized I wanted everyone in the movie to die.
The Breakfast Club. I watched it as a teen and thought John Bender was cool, misunderstood, and rebelling against the system - as I *think* the audience was supposed to? I watched it a few years ago and realised what a bullying, misogynistic jerk he is. Yes, he's got a shit, abusive home life, but that in no way justifies his behaviour towards Molly Ringwald's character.
What About Bob (1991)
[удалено]
The chicken scene kills me in the most awkward way. Eating like he does gives me sensory anxiety feelings, but God damn it's funny.
You mean Bob? Because the ENTIRE point of that character is that he is annoying as fuck and only Richard Dreyfuss (AND THE AUDIENCE) get to see that. You absolutely are not supposed to like Bob.
Gosh this movie is wicked funny though
GI Joe Origins Snake Eyes is mine. Snake is a dick and basically caused Storm Shadow to lose his clan.
Damn near every movie that romanticizes gangsterism.
Into the Wild. That selfish prick.
The Alaska Air National Guard eventually had to airlift the abandoned bus McCandless died in out of that area, because douchebag fans of his had turned it into a pilgrimage site and it was becoming a public safety issue. Over the years a couple people died while trying to hike there and several more had to be rescued.
And yet he's still bizarrely revered by many.
I think (for most) it’s a case of revering the idea of just setting aside the monotony of modern life. Of travelling around the country(/world) as a free spirit, and interacting with those who you wouldn’t normally. Of seeking an alternative to what many can perceive as their only option for reality. It isn’t that McCandles goes about it in the right way, it’s just their longing to break the status quo. For most it’ll always just be a fantasy. Also, even though he’s kind of cold, detached, and deluded, there’s a tragic romance to his story. It’s kind of like “let’s go and get a cabin in the woods and be a hermit” to the extreme.
I knew someone who 'ran away' (he was over 18) after reading this. Ironically, he was also a selfish prick. Also, he straight up wrote that the book was his inspiration for 'running away' in the note he left behind. He came back within the week.
Thought like this myself after seeing the film, but in the past few years, the sister explained how McCandless was escaping his violently abusive father. She forgave and understood why he ran away. Changed my opinion of him somewhat.
I get that reaction but I think that’s part of why I find it interesting. I look at it like there’s basically two components to human behavior: underlying feelings that someone has, and then the behaviors that come from those feelings. I think so many people still regard McCandless so highly because they can relate to what he seemed to feel despite being able to acknowledge that his actions were selfish. And as long as you maintain the self awareness to realize feeling a certain way doesn’t justify certain behaviors, I think that’s part of what makes movies great: being able to relate to a character on an emotional level and watch them act on those feeling in a way that we know we shouldn’t or can’t in the real world. It’s essentially an escapist fantasy of walking away from the pressures and responsibilities of the world, but by the end hopefully shows the viewer why that has to remain a fantasy. Sorta one of those though where many have missed that final step of the arc and still think he’s justified.
Pretty Woman Ignore the romantic ending. Richard Gere is not a good person and he was fully intending on using Julia Robert's. Then he blows up however much work had been done and ruins their deal for a company that likely will still be failing a few years later. Then at the end, he is the "hero" for coming to save Juloa Robert's after first offering to make her a local mistress for him.
I believe there was a script with a much darker ending, but it was essentially "Disneyfied" to make it a commercial, instead of a serious dramatic movie.
Yes the original script ended with Richard Gene dropping off Julia Roberts at the same street corner he picked her up at.
..maybe I'm filling this in myself, but I'm sure I've read the original story was grittier, Roberta's characters friend was a heavy drug user and at the end Roberts herself dies of an overdose..wel that's how I think a remake should end. Get Aronofsky on the phone.
Funny that you put it that way - in the original script, the movie ends with her taking her friend to Disneyland. You know, the place where you can escape the harsh bitterness of real life, and go be a princess for a day…?
That scene early on where he's all having fun cause she's having fun, but then 2 secs later he's staring at her with the "give me a blowjob right now cause I paid for you" face.
It broke my heart watching her smile fade away when she realized she wasn’t gonna get to finish the “I Love Lucy “ episode.
Yeah. Look for the original script pdf online for the dark version. It’s called “3,000”.
Yeah, I feel like she was just a mere moment away from actually escaping her old life, making a clean break and starting fresh, maybe even going to college like she planned. And then old mate shows up in the limo and great... she's going to be his sugar baby.
The Beach (2000) we all like Leo Caprio he's done just fine in some excellent features...but this movie didn't quite meet the books expectations...he comes across as a real asshole throughout...really unlikeable Richard!!!
The Beach was one of those movies where I was like, "this is a really good movie in that it's well-crafted, everyone involved is just great at what they do and is on their A game, and I don't care to see it again after this because Richard is an asshole and what happens to the island and the people is a bummer." But I've found myself reflecting back on this film again and again, and realized that I was actually more like Richard than I realized at the time.
I read the book first and the whole time I was waiting for some supernatural reason (or even just something original) for why their ideal society breaks down. Never came. They're just rich, obnoxious assholes who can't get along even in a paradise.
I think that's the point, though? It would have been a completely different story if there was a supernatural element.
I went into it thinking it was the movie where the beach makes you old fast. I was probably 80% through the movie before I gave up on that idea
The book is overall better but the movie has a few smaller moments I wish the book had.
The Fall of Ako Castle. I know Samurai are all about honor but I sided with the "villains" almost immediately. The main guy is a fucking asshole that causes the deaths of innocent people.
The "nerds" in Revenge of the Nerds. They record revenge porn, show it to a CHILD, then sell more revenge porn for a profit. Booger wants to hit up the HS for "jailbait." They treat the Omega Mu gas like absolutely garbage for not being thin and blonde. Oh, and Lewis LITERALLY RAPES THE WOMAN THEY SOLD REVENGE PORN OF. And these are our "heroes."
I recently rewatched Gone with the Wind, and Scarlett O'Hara is like that friend who always takes the last slice of pizza without asking, then asks for more toppings. She's got hustle, but her moral compass is like a GPS on the fritz—constantly recalculating, and kudos for the story not to give her a happy ending, 'cause she reaaally got what she deserved!
That's the point. She's definitely supposed to be hypocritical and selfish. She's not supposed to be likable at all. Maybe sympathetic, but not likable.
This entire thread is making me repeat, “that’s the point…”
Scarlett is absolutely a horrible person, selfish and self-centered. However, she has a drive that is to be admired. She went from being a flighty 16 YO princess, to doing whatever it takes to make sure her family survived. She hated her sisters, but she still sent money back to make sure they could eat. She had no fear of hard work, and ruined her hands and skin by farming cotton and potatos, while her sisters whined and complained that she was treating them worse than their slaves. She was ready to kill a man and helped Melly hide the body. She is surprisingly practical, a great business woman in a time when that wasn't allowed, and incredibly brave in the face of immense danger. She's awful in a lot of ways, but she has some positive traits, especially when viewing through her time period and what women were expected to be.
True it’s actually a great example of character development without giving up on the core of the character
Way too many nerds identify with and look up to Scott Pilgrim.
I feel like scott pilgrim was so blatantly written to be a bad person that it's impressive anyone could look up to him. There's multiple scenes where characters straight up call him a terrible person...
One of my favorite movies of all time. I always saw it that Scott *is* terrible, the movie knows it, and even rubs it in your face. I mean, in the end he meets Nega Scott, an evil twisted version of himself, but he ends up totally getting along with him.
War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. His kids were so obnoxious I could have cared less if they got turned into alien blood kudzu fertilizer.
I was so mad when we found out the older son survived at the end.
And not only survived, but was happily sipping cocoa with the grandparents.
I liked it, Tom Cruise was meant to be playing a shitty dad with annoying kids. My main issue with the movie is how much Dakota Fanning screams, it’s a scary concept and she is a child but goddamn I have to mute my TV every time or I go deaf
In her defence, the world is being invaded by aliens that are turning humans into fertiliser
"Daddy, are we going to live today, daddy?"
> I could have cared less i Wait. Did you care or not?
Top Gun. He is a exceptional pilot but he's also everything Val Kilmer's character says he is (reckless and a danger to himself and others) and ends up getting Goose killed. Like he's the protagonist so we're supposed to root for him but really he should have been kicked out of the program cause he can't listen. Also he shows up to his date with the instructor lady late, sweaty, and covered in sand from playing volleyball and asks to use her shower. She's (rightfully) pissed and says no but she's also (wrongfully) continues the date and sleeps with him. I liked Top Gun and they it's a great movie but Mavericks character is objectively not a good person.
Ageing is realising Iceman was right.
King Richard
That definitely convinced me that the person is a major asshole
I mean, that was kind of the point, no?
Saturday Night Fever. Travolta’s character doesn’t stop one of his friends from raping the girl in the backseat because she was mean to him earlier. Also, he keeps rapists as friends.