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Vice - Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell

Bash Riprock

By Bash Riprock
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Turkleton

Turkleton 145

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Parliament said:

I got sucked in the the unique "quirkiness" of The Big Short, and Christian Bale's above reproach talent. But good lord is this movie terrible.

It checks every single box on the list anti-Conservative hatemongering. Every. Single. One. I won't go through that list, as this is not a CR thread. Just take all the cartoonish narratives of one of those crapster cheap Christian movies, add in the recent terrible Atlas Shrugged movies, and flip them to the inverse.

I've never walked out of a movie, and I powered through this one to keep my streak going. Was tough.

Surely this didn't surprise you! Hollywood despises all things on the right no matter if true or not.

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Kyle

Kyle 207

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Parliament said:

I got sucked in the the unique "quirkiness" of The Big Short, and Christian Bale's above reproach talent. But good lord is this movie terrible.

It checks every single box on the list anti-Conservative hatemongering. Every. Single. One. I won't go through that list, as this is not a CR thread. Just take all the cartoonish narratives of one of those crapster cheap Christian movies, add in the recent terrible Atlas Shrugged movies, and flip them to the inverse.

I've never walked out of a movie, and I powered through this one to keep my streak going. Was tough.

It seems like just red meat for the mouth-breathers. I appreciate good satire, but previews look like just stupid and simpleton. But it will win Best Picture - Hollywood loves propaganda.

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ztejas

ztejas 43532

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Why won't someone make a movie more sympathetic to dick cheney

Right? It's almost like he had the lowest approval rating of any elected US official ever. 🙄

I can't believe anyone would have walked into this thinking they weren't going to put him on full-blast. 

It was interesting. Certainly learned some things I didn't know about his past. Not as tight as the Big Short - I thought Carell and Rockwell really made it. 

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wood

wood 11253

Posted
Posted
On 10/4/2018 at 11:22 AM, Turkleton said:

This thing looks pretty good. Sure, this will be Hollywood bias and stupidly inaccurate, but I like the director and could be fun to watch.

Yeah it looks like they have Cheney just straight up shooting Whittington from the car he was sitting in, but with that cast I'm sure it'll be entertaining. 

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Kyle

Kyle 207

Posted
Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Which Hollywood genius thought it was a good idea to burn $60 mil on a highly politicized biopic for wide release?  Did they honestly think people would come out to theaters to see something like this?  This should be at arthouses or HBO.  

In fairness, calling it a biopic is like calling a Michael Moore movie a documentary. But you know what they say about fools and their money.

Edited by Kyle
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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29194

Posted
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pretty much agree with what everyone has been saying.  they tried to use elements that worked in the big short but just weren't meant for this movie.  and while i wouldn't consider this a straight "biopic" either, i will say that it's difficult to make a "biopic-type" of movie without a fascinating and cinematic true story to draw from, or a highly likable and sympathetic main character.  this had neither, even though i would say cheney's life was pretty interesting, obviously.

there just was nothing and no one to root for, and it's really not a satisfying movie for anyone on the political spectrum.  there was a woman next to me who (based on her reactions) was to the far left, and she just seemed aggravated and annoyed during much of the movie.  and obviously those on the right will feel it was heavy handed and obvious, even clumsy. 

i just don't really know who this movie is for.  i felt like the ideal audience and was excited to see it, and it left no impression on me.  the performances were good though.  all four were strong, and i thought adams disappeared into her role as much as bale.

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Patrick Bateman

Patrick Bateman 3926

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Why won't someone make a movie more sympathetic to dick cheney

LOL.  Right?  Dude is up for one of the worst 10 American politicians of the 21st century and he's got the personality of ply wood.

8 hours ago, wood said:

Yeah it looks like they have Cheney just straight up shooting Whittington from the car he was sitting in, but with that cast I'm sure it'll be entertaining. 

Didn't even really address it.  It's a quick little scene part of a larger montage.  It was weird.

50 minutes ago, DanRydell said:

Despite Bale’s phenomenal performance, this movie was not good.

I loved The Big Short but Vice was like if you did The Big Short as a biopic of Lewis Ranieri and James Cayne.

I'm probably here.  I don't think it was a bad movie, but you don't feel like you get any deeper understanding of Cheney.  We understand he was incredibly ambitious, craved and acquired unprecedented levels of power for a VP, and was a shadowy figure because of his lack of charisma.  Also, he is largely considered one of the main orchestrators in misleading the world on Iraq.  He was presented as more of a misguided executive power zealot than soul less war profiteer, although there is an underlying tone.  The actors are all up for the challenge here, but McKay only hit notes of his career and doesn't really dive deeper on the man except for his relationship with his daughter.  It has some good and funny moments, but it's more of a missed opportunity to me.  The Big Short was outstanding but this isn't up to that standard.   Rockwell cracked me up though.  Carrell had moments too...

 

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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10913

Posted
Posted

The filmmakers could have gone much further in their denunciation of Cheney.  This film vaguely and very distantly implies but does not ask the big question.

 

I don't think it wins best picture, but Bale and Carrell win for lead and supporting.

 

For me, personally, it's in the same pantheon as JFK and Citizen 4.

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fellside

fellside 1114

Posted
Posted

I like McCay and pretty much everyone involved in this.  I think Cheney is a terrible person.  I agree with much of this film.

Having said all that, I don't think it was very good.  The McCay-like things (Shakespearean soliloquy, breaking 4th wall narrator, fake news caster Naomi Watts) just didn't really work this time.

Both First Man and Vice fall victim to the fact that they are movies about people who aren't very interesting to watch for more than a few minutes.

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DanRydell

DanRydell 799

Posted
Posted
The filmmakers could have gone much further in their denunciation of Cheney.  This film vaguely and very distantly implies but does not ask the big question.
 
I don't think it wins best picture, but Bale and Carrell win for lead and supporting.
 
For me, personally, it's in the same pantheon as JFK and Citizen 4.


Bale will definitely be nominated and could certainly win (I’d give Cooper slightly better odds, but that’s it).

There is very little chance Carrell is nominated and virtually zero chance he wins. Rockwell is more likely, as is Amy Adams.
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Monster

Monster 219

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I would be very down for a bio doc of Cheney ala McNamara and Fog of War. 

Fog of War was so great because McNamara admitted to making mistakes.  He spoke like a person who had reflected on a lifetime of big decisions, felt sympathy for his enemies, felt sympathy for those who died as a result of his decisions, and revealed a surprising amount of detail about wartime decision making.

 I would guess that Cheney believes everything he's ever said or done was right, continues to view his enemies as non-humans, and would answer most questions with "I'm not going to talk about that."   

 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28797

Posted
Posted (edited)

Apparently it's not an adaptation of the book Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency by Lou Dubose. There have been numerous books written about Cheney. I imagine several of them were used as reference material for this film. I originally assumed it was an adaptation of the book that bears the same title. 

I never read that book but I've read at least one other on Dick and some other books on the Bush/Cheney presidency. I meant to go see Vice the day it was released but I decided to loaf instead. I need to go see it before next week. 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29194

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Apparently it's not an adaptation of the book Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency by Lou Dubose. There have been numerous books written about Cheney. I imagine several of them were used as reference material for this film. I originally assumed it was an adaptation of the book that bears the same title. 

I never read that book but I've read at least one other on Dick and some other books on the Bush/Cheney presidency. I meant to go see Vice the day it was released but I decided to loaf instead. I need to go see it before next week. 

i believe you're right, and it's been stated that even with an autobiography in existence, there just isn't a ton of insight into cheney the man.  the filmmakers read everything they could find, spoke to everyone they could, and as they say at the very beginning of the movie...

we did our fucking best.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

Posted
Posted

Yeah I saw this over the break... 

I'd say that I'm probably predisposed to like this as a card-carrying godless heathen liberal, but yeah...I thought the movie was just good, not great.  (And I was expecting great) 

The performances were all really good too great,  Everyone is rightfully talking about Bale, but I think the best performance might have been Sam Rockwell as W.  That's a performance that could have easily veered off into a Will Ferrell-like parody, but I though Rockwell did a great job getting the essence of W without making it a parody.

Agree with others that the quirky style touches that he used in The Big Short didn't work as well for this particular film. 

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Fozzz

Fozzz 152

Posted
Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, Monster said:

Fog of War was so great because McNamara admitted to making mistakes.  He spoke like a person who had reflected on a lifetime of big decisions, felt sympathy for his enemies, felt sympathy for those who died as a result of his decisions, and revealed a surprising amount of detail about wartime decision making.

 I would guess that Cheney believes everything he's ever said or done was right, continues to view his enemies as non-humans, and would answer most questions with "I'm not going to talk about that."   

 

He didn't admit shit about his role in our invasion of South Vietnam, or what that war was even about.  

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satyanash

satyanash 14617

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Posted

Wasn't that great a movie. Felt disjointed throughout, and the satire didn't have the bite that The Big Short had. A lot of it, like the Shakespeare scene for example, felt long-winded. The narrator wasn't great either, nor was the ending 'twist' involving his identity. End credits scene was hilarious though.

At one point they show Antonin Scalia literally doing a stereotypical evil-guy cackle. So... yeah. Don't expect a balanced portrayal 😂

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wood

wood 11253

Posted
Posted
On 1/3/2019 at 1:00 PM, oSuJeff97 said:

Yeah I saw this over the break... 

I'd say that I'm probably predisposed to like this as a card-carrying godless heathen liberal, but yeah...I thought the movie was just good, not great.  (And I was expecting great) 

The performances were all really good too great,  Everyone is rightfully talking about Bale, but I think the best performance might have been Sam Rockwell as W.  That's a performance that could have easily veered off into a Will Ferrell-like parody, but I though Rockwell did a great job getting the essence of W without making it a parody.

Agree with others that the quirky style touches that he used in The Big Short didn't work as well for this particular film. 

Sam's usually the best actor on the screen, even when he doesn't get recognized for it. The guy's just amazing.

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