What Movie Reviews Are For
I like to know if a movie is suckola before we go, so I totter along to Google and read what film critics have said about it. Sometimes, despite that, we just end up seeing a dud. This is cause to...grumble about what was dumb in the movie in the car...or so I thought.
Nope. Ben Child writes in The Guardian of a woman who has a different approach:
Most people's gripe about trailers these days is that they blow too much info about a film's plot. But not Sarah Deming. This Michigan resident is suing the distributor of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling thriller Drive - as well as the cinema where she saw it - claiming it was publicised as a Fast and Furious style action piece but turned out to be nothing of the sort.In her suit, which was filed at the sixth judicial circuit court in Oakland, Michigan, Deming says the Nicolas Winding Refn film "bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film ... having very little driving in the motion picture".
The plaintiff goes on to attack Drive for what she perceives as antisemitic leanings. The film "substantially contained extreme, gratuitous, dehumanising racism directed at members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith", her suit reads.
Deming hopes to turn her appeal into a class action suit, which would allow cinemagoers across the US to sue on similar grounds if they found themselves watching films on the basis of a misleading trailer.
While I sympathize on the misleading trailer thing, who with an IQ above freezing trusts Hollywood to tell them the truth?
via Jay J. Hector
Just wow! This is just awesome. To me this represents a new frontier in first world problems. A person just can't make this sort of wacky shit up. The onion has got nothing on this lady.
Abersouth at October 11, 2011 12:56 AM
Robert Heinlein warned of "the crazy years" long ago, but suing because entertainment wasn't what you expected is just...
...time to get ready?
Radwaste at October 11, 2011 2:28 AM
Great Amy, now I have to do 45 MORE minutes in the gym today, just to burn my fury at her-I can't even think of a word to describe it- out of my bloodstream.
momof4 at October 11, 2011 5:52 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/10/what-movie-revi.html#comment-2581861">comment from momof4Your now even-more-toned butt can thank me!
Who clogs the courts even further with this stuff?!
Amy Alkon
at October 11, 2011 6:04 AM
What was stopping her from leaving the theater and requesting her money back when she realized she hated the movie?
I would never do that, but I've heard it's something you can do, so why didn't she? She needed to make sure the whole thing sucked before she left?
Angie at October 11, 2011 7:58 AM
Wait, so your telling me that an R rated movie about organised crime had organised crime chachters using sppech not sutable for a PG movie? Will wonders never cease
lujlp at October 11, 2011 8:20 AM
LOL, the crazy things people sue over, a real poster child for loser pays system.
As to movie reviews, I don't put too much stock in them.
Frankly one of the only ones that worked well for me, had the exact opposite tastes as I did. Everything she liked I hated, and everything she hated I loved. Made it the perfect reviewer, just in reverse.
Joe J at October 11, 2011 10:29 AM
Previews are basically what I rely on. I would never think of suing Hollywood because I saw a preview that didn't fairly represent the movie. It's basically a crap shoot. My sister and I see movies together all the time. We do our best, but sometimes we see a flop. "Burn After Reading" looked promising, but it ended up being the worst movie she and I ever sat through. It's only value is the fact that she and I can commiserate how horrible it was.
Last weekend, I picked the movie. After viewing all the trailers, I decided that (after ruling out all the gratuitously violent flicks, such as Drive, which I never thought would be a car chase action flick; but a drama with a car chase or two in it), I settled on "50/50." I give a "pretty good, touching and nice story" but my sister gave it a "so-so."
I can't really understand why she didn't like it. It was alternately funny and tear-jerkingly sad, and it had a good powerful story and explored a lot of relationship dynamics. Plus our sympathetic hero rightly kicked the lying, cheating bitch off his property when she begged to get back together with him. He's got a best friend that rivals Sancho Panza in terms of loyalty. (It was his friend who exposed the unspeakable tramp for what she was.) I won't give away the ending, but let's just say you'll leave happy.
I think my sister wanted to see Moneyball, but it looked like a straight drama, based on a real story and a sports flick. Zzzzz.... Besides, it was my birthday. I get to pick the movie!
Of course, Moneyball does have Brad Pitt in it, but that's not really a guarantee of anything. After all, he was in "Burn After Reading!"
Patrick at October 11, 2011 10:42 AM
I think you guys are focusing on the wrong thing. Saying it wasn't what she though is the feint to cut to the chase about how she finds it anti-semitic. There prolly wasn't enough nastiness for anti-defamation league to get involved... what she thinks will be accomplished by suing, I don't know.
SwissArmyD at October 11, 2011 12:27 PM
The only movie review site I read anymore is Big Hollywood. Problem is, once you start reading it, you'll lose interest in going to movies.
Cousin Dave at October 11, 2011 6:14 PM
My movie review site is rottentomatoes.com.
I don't do walk-ins. I do the occasional drive-in and just buy the rest. I have a DVD library that has all sorts of things in it. If I'm really interested, I'll buy it at the $20 when it comes out. If not, I'll wait the two months to pick it up for $10 on an eBay resale.
Jim P. at October 11, 2011 7:06 PM
This article lays out exactly why this woman is such an idiot. About the supposed anti-Semitism: It’s certainly not condoned, and *spoiler* when Perlman meets his end at the hands of Ryan Gosling‘s protagonist, it’s not because he’s Jewish, it’s because he’s the bad guy. We can’t actually believe we have to explain this. Apparently, the only racial slur is a Jewish character saying it about himself when complaining about the anti-Semitism aimed toward him. Sort of like Brian Cohen at the beginning Life of Brian.
Favorite quote: Deming, who has somehow managed to go through life without sticking her wet fingers into a plug socket or opening the emergency exit on a moving airplane
NumberSix at October 11, 2011 8:39 PM
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