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[atomicwinter]

Watching the movie as I type and I have to say.. this guy be speakin my lingo

Don't know if you guys have seen it, but it has Michael Douglass as a laid off worker, divorcee. He is your typical white collar, family man who has had it with society and life. He snaps at the stresses of life and goes on a rampage. He basically deals justice to anyone who crosses him. Some call this movie distributing, but this guy is speaking for the people. Makes a lot of funny social remarks. Worth a watch! 

[Neonivek]

I've kinda seen enough movies and games about someone who just snaps and starts killing/harassing everyone.

They are rarely fulfilling especially with my deep seated sense of compassion that often prevents me from enjoying things at the expense of the imaginary characters.

[Footkerchief]

It's a good movie, but I'm curious whether you'll still feel like that at the end.

I've kinda seen enough movies and games about someone who just snaps and starts killing/harassing everyone.

They are rarely fulfilling especially with my deep seated sense of compassion that often prevents me from enjoying things at the expense of the imaginary characters.

This movie is more a deconstruction of those types of movies, from what I remember.  So you might actually like it a lot.

[atomicwinter]

I actually kind of broke down at the end not to sound weird 

I don't know i just feel for the guy

[Neonivek]

I am actually a bit more concerned about his victums

[atomicwinter]

I am actually a bit more concerned about his victums

He never really kills anyone, and the people he hurt deserved it.

Plot Spoiler

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These gangsters try to mug him at the start so he wacks them with a baseball bat. They then attempt a drive by on him, they miss horribly killing people around him. They crash about a block away. He finds them laying all wounded, picks up a gun and shoots one of them in the leg saying "Taking some fucking shooting lessons asshole". That was so deserved!

[Jack_Bread]

I am actually a bit more concerned about his victums

He never really kills anyone, and the people he hurt deserved it.

Plot Spoiler

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Didn't he only kill that nazi/homophobe guy?

We had this movie and I watched it several times. It's awesome.
Poor guy just wants to go home.

[Enzo]

I love this movie. I found it hilarious. Maybe that isn't the proper reaction, but I laughed more than at most comedies. It's like the writer just made a list titled "shit that pisses me off" and wrote a story where a guy solves all the problems on the list using violence. On his way to his daughters birthday party.

Awesome.

[Mr Tk]

I love it how he gets pissed off because he can't get the breakfast meal at McDonald's because it's 10:35 so he pulls out an Uzi (or something similar) and demands that they give him his breakfast meal.

It's been a while since I've seen it, but he accident then lets of a volley of bullets and apologises to all the other customers because he's having a bad day.

[atomicwinter]

I am actually a bit more concerned about his victums

He never really kills anyone, and the people he hurt deserved it.

Plot Spoiler

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Didn't he only kill that nazi/homophobe guy?

We had this movie and I watched it several times. It's awesome.
Poor guy just wants to go home.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yea I forgot about that. The nazi guy is all like "oh god" and hes like "I see your exercising your first amendment, feels good don't it?"

[G-Flex]

I remember liking it, but I think I like it less now.

For one thing, it seems like it's very much a Middle-Class White Man Perspective movie.


By that I mean: Take a look at the people he fights. You've got the Stereotypical Hispanic Gang Kids, for instance, and the Stereotypical Korean Store Clerk. I mean, I guess he gets mad about McDonald's and a neonazi too, but the McDonald's thing wasn't personal (the target was an impersonal corporate entity) and, hell, nazis are always acceptable targets, for anything.

Speaking of which, what was his problem with the store clerk anyway? I remember him bitching a lot that he couldn't say the "v" in "five" very well. I was kind of pissed off at the protagonist for that. I feel like a lot of guys in the audience would sympathize for some reason, whereas all I think is "you know what the guy's saying, he's speaking English, don't act like a jackass and expect a first-generation immigrant to not have an accent".


Then again, I'm not sure the protagonist wasn't entirely meant to be likable. It's obvious he had problems, but sometimes it's not clear what the intent of the filmmakers were there.

[Enzo]

For one thing, it seems like it's very much a Middle-Class White Man Perspective movie.


By that I mean: Take a look at the people he fights. You've got the Stereotypical Hispanic Gang Kids, for instance, and the Stereotypical Korean Store Clerk. I mean, I guess he gets mad about McDonald's and a neonazi too, but the McDonald's thing wasn't personal (the target was an impersonal corporate entity) and, hell, nazis are always acceptable targets, for anything.

Speaking of which, what was his problem with the store clerk anyway? I remember him bitching a lot that he couldn't say the "v" in "five" very well. I was kind of pissed off at the protagonist for that. I feel like a lot of guys in the audience would sympathize for some reason, whereas all I think is "you know what the guy's saying, he's speaking English, don't act like a jackass and expect a first-generation immigrant to not have an accent".

Which is why it's probably better watched from a comedic viewpoint. I too noticed the "stupid immigrants" bent, which is probably quite offensive when taken seriously. Although the tirade started when the clerk refused to give the guy change. And then charged 85 cents for a coke. The bastard.

sometimes it's not clear what the intent of the filmmakers were there.

Yeah, it's hard to tell if it was straight, a deconstruction, or a parody. Which I sort of like.

[Footkerchief]

Take a look at the people he fights. You've got the Stereotypical Hispanic Gang Kids, for instance, and the Stereotypical Korean Store Clerk.

To be fair, this is de rigueur for practically every movie set in LA.

Then again, I'm not sure the protagonist wasn't entirely meant to be likable. It's obvious he had problems, but sometimes it's not clear what the intent of the filmmakers were there.

What I remember taking away from it was that I first sympathized with this heroic everyman who tells it like it is, and then questioned the justifiability of those sympathies as he was shown to be more and more of an asshole.  My best guess is that their intent was to force viewers to confront the unpleasant realization of their fantasies.  But yeah, it's riddled with ambiguity.

[G-Flex]

I think that might create a sort of preaching-to-the-choir effect, though.

The people who are likely to see it as parody/deconstruction (those who question the protagonist) are likely to be those who don't really need to be told to, whereas the people who need to be told that the most are the ones who will most likely cheer him on 'till the end.

Of course, there's a lot of middle ground there, and I can see some people feeling a bit uneasy (in the constructive sense) about their sensibilities after watching it.

[ChairmanPoo]

My psychiatry teacher (whom, for some reason liked to put up movie characters as examples of things), put that movie as an example of a paranoid personality disorder.