Sounds like it has some of the same problem that Funny People did, in desperately trying to get you to sympathize with rich assholes (who just happen to be really similar to Apatow and his friends and family)
― Nhex, Thursday, 16 July 2015 15:50 (nine years ago) link
I used to like him, too,
Embrace your fate; you're all going to catch up to my POV eventually.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 July 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
as referred to above:
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/trainwreck
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 July 2015 15:55 (nine years ago) link
I can understand people having a problem with the "rich people have problems too!" element of This Is 40 but there was a frankness and honesty to the marraige/raising kids scenes that I liked.
― tayto fan (Michael B), Thursday, 16 July 2015 15:59 (nine years ago) link
This Is 40 was great
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:00 (nine years ago) link
Albert Brooks and Melissa McCarthy were great. Could've done without the rest of it.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
you're all going to catch up to my POV eventually.
nah, Freaks & Geeks is all-time, and Knocked Up/40yo Virgin def hold up (I would throw Forgetting Sarah Marshall in there too altho he was only tangentially involved)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
the trailers I've seen for this make it look like a LeBron James film with some other people in it. Is that accurate?
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:10 (nine years ago) link
I hope so!
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:10 (nine years ago) link
xp yeah, Apatow (and Feig) will basically get a lifetime pass for me for creating Freaks and Geeks. even anything their collaborators do will merit some interestpretty much agree with your rankings there Οὖτις. I will catch This is 40 at some point when I can remember to...
― Nhex, Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:15 (nine years ago) link
I think Apatow is, qualitatively, very similar to Cameron Crowe (nb: have not seen the last two Cameron Crowe movies). People champion some of his films and trash others but they all seem similarly MOR-ish and not bad to me.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:25 (nine years ago) link
What I saw of This Is 40 seemed pretty decent but I was watching from a hotel hot tub so I was probably just vibing with the onscreen opulence.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:26 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Thursday, July 16, 2015 12:05 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm. I think the ending of 40-Year-Old Virgin is the hardest I've laughed in a movie theater. They're actually ending the movie with this! And they're committing to it! And Rudd's doing the scat-singing part!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:31 (nine years ago) link
i think comedies about rich assholes only work when they're also narcissists and misanthropists, i.e. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Seinfeld (not that he was supposed to be especially rich in the sitcom, but i find his real life rich asshole character amusing).
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 16 July 2015 16:36 (nine years ago) link
(who just happen to be really similar to Apatow and his friends and family)
I think him casting his actual friends and family makes those last two films so much worse.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:30 (nine years ago) link
in Funny People the rich assholes ARE meant to be narcissists and misanthropes though, right? I liked Funny People, I've never seen any other Apatow films
― The Nation's Top 100 Light Bulb Jokes as judged by Lenny Henry (soref), Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:35 (nine years ago) link
Sandler's character in Funny People is clearly meant to be p unsympathetic/narcissistic/mysanthropic but it still doesn't work imo - way too long, with an unnecessary third act, and all sorts of sequences that are kind of gross (playing the Beatles, the shit w Apatow's children, etc.)
Would've preferred a film about the Yo Teach! subplot
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:42 (nine years ago) link
the ending is weird, like the bit in the car where Sandler tells Rogen that he isn't funny and Rogen tells him he's glad if it means he's not like Sandler seems like the natural conclusion- like the message of the movie is basically that comedians are assholes- but then there's this odd tagged on scene where the two of them are reconciled.
― The Nation's Top 100 Light Bulb Jokes as judged by Lenny Henry (soref), Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:49 (nine years ago) link
the bit with Sandler playing the John Lennon song is kind of perfect, even if it probably wasn't intended to make his character look like a jerk
― The Nation's Top 100 Light Bulb Jokes as judged by Lenny Henry (soref), Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:51 (nine years ago) link
i saw it on tv while house-sitting and don't remember much...i assume that the rich assholes have a turn toward sincerity, selflessness, and redemption at some point?
xp
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:51 (nine years ago) link
actually no
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:55 (nine years ago) link
Best part about Sandler playing the Beatles song with session pros is that, for a week, my local theater was showing TWO films that James Gadson was in (the other being Soul Power...even though the Bill Withers segment was drumless).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:58 (nine years ago) link
soref otm about the tacked on ending, which feels v unearned
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 July 2015 17:59 (nine years ago) link
Anthony Lane's review for The New Yorker pretty much confirms everything I feared this would be:
Are there any modern comedies that hold their nerve, and pursue their radical options to a bitter end? More than eighty years ago, the censor Joseph Breen was so appalled by the carnal candor of Barbara Stanwyck, in “Baby Face,” that he strong-armed Warner Bros. into cleaning up the ending and teaching the heroine a lesson, but Breen would not be needed these days. Though a movie like “Trainwreck” sounds filthy enough, it cleans itself up as it goes along—setting off at a rough lick, yet soon displaying signs of moral decency. As in previous Apatow films, the temptations of togetherness eventually drown the siren call of the boudoir. Amy, though informed by Steven, “You’re not nice,” is nice enough to befriend a homeless man outside her apartment; her philandering is not that of a genuine free spirit but of a conscience wrenched out of joint by an equally faithless father (Colin Quinn), who now, as if paying for his sins, suffers from multiple sclerosis and resides in an assisted-living facility. Amy has a sister (Brie Larson), who has a husband and a stepson, and, fiercely though Amy mocks their domestic harmony, they have much to teach her, the end result being a long shot, late in the proceedings, of all four of them gathered for a group hug. And that, as it were, is Amy’s final instruction: “Be happy for me, fuckers.” So much for the promise of the title. “Trainwreck” sticks to the rails.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Friday, 17 July 2015 02:10 (nine years ago) link
i saw it yesterday and liked it a lot!!
― La Lechera, Monday, 20 July 2015 18:57 (nine years ago) link
i only just figured out that despite the title this is not a sequel to pineapple express
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 20 July 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link
Lefsetz, he has Schumer opinions: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2015/07/18/trainwreck/
Just call me a constant warning to avoid the industrial hype complex. With standards so low it cannot be trusted. It’s a bandwagon of low-level taste that cannot be respected, you have to be brain-dead to pay attention to it.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 20 July 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
So this was 35% hilarity and 65% tedium. Schumer has some great physical comedy and there are a bunch of funny asides, but whenever they try to be raunchy (toilet scene) it's just dull.
Worst was the 180 from eulogy to haranguing her sister out of nowhere.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:22 (nine years ago) link
most of the flaws people say are there are there, but i'm glad i came at it from a "hopefully it's better than This Is 40" angle than a "hopefully it's as good as her show" angle
― da croupier, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:26 (nine years ago) link
any word on whether the inclusion of matthew broderick was a failed, intentionally random moment or was it a call-back to a deleted scene?
― da croupier, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:27 (nine years ago) link
apatow was doing so well with the lebron plot and then just blew his meta wad all over the place
― da croupier, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:28 (nine years ago) link
So much for the promise of the title. “Trainwreck” sticks to the rails.― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Thursday, July 16, 2015 9:10 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Well so does Schumer's comedy, ultimately.
― five six and (man alive), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 02:25 (nine years ago) link
She looks like a cross between an angel on a Victorian greeting card and a Campbell's Soup Kid
This description made me laugh.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, July 16, 2015 11:32 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think she looks like these plus cabbage patch kid! Last week my dad asked me why Amy Shumacher was so raunchy and was telling me how he tried to explain to my mom that despite looking like a "corn-fed Midwestern angel" she was really filthy.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 12:32 (nine years ago) link
actually that is just the way corn-fed midwestern angels are
we know that in the midwest, which is why we stay here
― j., Tuesday, 21 July 2015 13:25 (nine years ago) link
amy is raunchy bc instead of being a corn-fed midwestern angel she's a NY-born jew
― Mordy, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 14:48 (nine years ago) link
or like my mom says - she's just the heir to joan rivers' shtick
x-post - *I* know that but he didn't.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 14:51 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/qTGckgq.gif
― pplains, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 14:58 (nine years ago) link
Are there any modern comedies that hold their nerve, and pursue their radical options to a bitter end?
Bad Santa? Observe and Report?
I thought this was pretty harsh but at the same time convinced me to just skip getting a sitter for this movie: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/chastened-amy-trainwreck-ant-man-review/
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:17 (nine years ago) link
Bad Santa doesn't really
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:18 (nine years ago) link
Observe and Report def in a class all its own, no wonder it tanked Jody Hill's movie career
― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:21 (nine years ago) link
Oh, come on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7YU2WI_HQE
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:26 (nine years ago) link
I'd say the "happy" ending is earned by the kid, whose dad is in jail, being gifted a bloody stuffed animal while alcoholic Bad Santa recovers from 8 gun shots, then heading out in his "Shit Happens When You Party Naked" shirt and espousing his life lesson by kicking the bully in the nuts.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
probably some of those Bobcat Goldthwait movies
― Most Scientifically Beautiful Face (President Keyes), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:42 (nine years ago) link
she's just the heir to joan rivers' shtick
she's not even close to Joan's level
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 15:56 (nine years ago) link
oh plz joan doesn't need hagiography she wasn't worlds better than amy
― Mordy, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
by the simplest yardstick, Joan made me laugh and could construct wickedly funny one liners and Amy does neither
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
Election stays with it through the end
― oh, i am a lonlely poster. i live in a box of posts. (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 3 August 2015 07:48 (nine years ago) link
Citizen Ruth ended with the "pro-choice" and "pro-life" sides in deadlock. Ruth makes off with the bag of money, but does anyone imagine her actually buying a house and turning her life around?
As for Trainwreck, beneath the Apatow Raunch(TM) it's a gender-flipped take on the trope of a playboy converted to monogamy for the love of a patient and virtuous woman.
― Charlie Chaplin Challenge (j.lu), Monday, 3 August 2015 13:40 (nine years ago) link
Election is the modern template to which all contemporary satires should aspire. Even the almost great Dear White People, the best example of cinematic satire in the last few years that I've seen, goes soft at the end.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 3 August 2015 14:18 (nine years ago) link