movies where you disagree w/ the screenwriters on who the 'good guys' are

It's definitely bullying in the scrooged version of acc

Carol Kane kicking him in the balls would count, I agree.

This took a bit of thinking bc main characters (excluding minor/side/supporting characters here) tend to be more complex than purely good or bad

But maybe conrad from ordinary people. We’re to assume he is the good guy and mary tyler moore’s character is purely evil, which she is, but conrad comes off as very self centred? Still sounds a bit off though

Not a movie but maybe timothy treadwell in grizzly bear only bc herzog seems dumb enough to think he is actually a good guy?

I guess I’m not ready to assume the screenwriters’ and/or directors’ intention of creating one-sided main characters

Sixth sense is about a cursed kid whose house is invaded by a dumb white man needing redemption.

How did we get this far without anyone bringing up Reality Bites?

never seent it, though I remember the soundtrack well

The lead in the Trolls movie is a major asshole

was it Momus

CHRISTMAS CAROL WAS A BOOK.

I mean, I know most movies were books first, but some movies are STILL BOOKS FIRST.

Reminds me that one of my terrible thread ideas was a poll of tv shows adapting A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life for their own purposes.

I feel like the Simon & Simon episode where one Simon imagines what would have happened if he'd never been born and the other Simon drowns in a river because he wasn't there to save him is still peak pre-golden era TV, vv dramatic.

Always liked the Married...With Children where Al learns that his family would have been much happier if he'd never been born, so he comes back out of spite

in the disney continuity, scrooge mcduck is still a stingy guy -- i thought he was supposed to be reformed?

HIGH FIDELITY

Ah cmon he's totally an asshole

Pretty much after this year, most past movies have terrible good guy protagonists. Every 80s movie ever.

xxp

file under americans dabble in british humour

not sure Nick Hornby is intentionally humorous

Indiana Jones is basically everything the bad guys describe him as, and a cantankerous git to boot

Not a movie but maybe timothy treadwell in grizzly bear only bc herzog seems dumb enough to think he is actually a good guy?

High Fidelity the movie is very aware that the protagonist is a cock. The book far less so.

The movie takes its time during moments where he's brushing women off or treating them callously to linger on their reaction for an extra beat. Key shot is probably when he says goodbye to Lili Taylor and merrily monologues away while she stands by the door clearly breaking down a bit but he completely ignores it.

Mrs. Robinson is the hero of The Graduate

^^Reminds me of this bit from Barcelona:

Fred: You think wedding vows are going to change everything? God, your naivete is astounding! Didn't you see "The Graduate"?

Ted: You can remember "The Graduate"?

Fred: Yeah, I can remember a few things. Apparently you don't. The end? Katharine Ross has just married this really cool guy - tall, blond, incredibly popular, the make-out king of his fraternity in Berkeley - when this obnoxious Dustin Hoffman character shows up at the back of the church, acting like a total asshole. "Elaine! Elaine!" Does Katharine Ross tell Dustin Hoffman, "Get lost, creep. I'm a married woman"? No. She runs off with him - on a bus. That is the reality.

I think it's a rite of passage when you're rescreening Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and you go from identifying with one of the kids to identifying with Mr. Hand.

Lots of 80s movies want you to root for someone who totally doesn't deserve rooting for, obv. Ferris only one of a thousand.

I've always felt this way about Reality Bites - not so much that it needed to be told from a different (Stillerian) perspective, just that it worked hard to lionize bad people.

True challops is: I felt the exact same way about Frances Ha.

Also about Harold and Maude. Gah.

Some terrible movie people are not terrible in the ostensibly-cute-terrible-people way like Rushmore or N. Dynamite or whatever.

Colossus is the hero of The Forbin Project

OK, Paddington Bear's turn...

Revenge of the Nerds, Zapped!, Farmer Ted in 16 Candles, Blaine in Pretty in Pink, Can't Buy Me Love...

High Fidelity the movie is very aware that the protagonist is a cock. The book far less so.

The whole point of the book seemed to be his realization of his dickishness, I thought? How else could you read the meeting with Penny?

Revenge of the Nerds

Yeah rape and spycams are HILARE

Are horror and especially giant monster movies too obvious for this?

Cliff Curtis' character from Live Free Or Die Hard needs his own franchise.

in the disney continuity, scrooge mcduck is still a stingy guy -- i thought he was supposed to be reformed?

― Philip Nunez, Sunday, December 31, 2017 6:39 PM (yesterday)

scrooge mcduck isn't supposed to be the same character as ebenezer scrooge, he's got a whole epic backstory about earning his money from striking gold in the klondike, etc etc, plus he seems to know the origin story of every coin in his money bin so that's why he's so attached to it all

also the junior woodchuck patrol v frequently show him the bounds of his narcissism and venality, he just resets every time

(nb I have no idea about "Disney continuity," only stories by his creator)

The whole point of the book seemed to be his realization of his dickishness, I thought? How else could you read the meeting with Penny?

I said less so, not "not at all"! It's been decades but Hornby seemed to find his protagonist far more adorable than Cusack, Pink and DeVincentis (though it could be argued that theirs was more charming)

Reminds me that one of my terrible thread ideas was a poll of tv shows adapting A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life for their own purposes.

Omar, you gotta start that thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaBDE_8DLag

Chasing Amy

What's a Nubian?

Surprised that Simon Pegg’s within the first few replies but that no-one has mentioned How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.

If it ended with the TY based SP scrote-agonist getting slowly eaten by a Komodo dragon I'd have watched that!

The Incredilbes is a parable about a revolutionary who wants to redistribute from the powerful to the powerless, and the arrogant aristocrats fighting to keep their elevated status. I hate that film.

any movie where someone has to lower themselves briefly into the horror of normal working life before they realise they are superspecial above it and succeed

I've seen people say Daniel is the bad guy in Karate Kid but I don't see it

― fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal)

Try watching Cobra Kai.

any movie where someone has to lower themselves briefly into the horror of normal working life before they realise they are superspecial above it and succeed

incredibles prompted it but like this is every movie tbh

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Y%2BT2wdGWL._SL1126_.jpg

Jack Black deserves severe sanctions and probably some jail time at the conclusion of School of Rock. The more interesting character arc belongs to Joan Cusack’s principal although she definitely should lose her job.

Haha yes otm

Lol

as a teacher I agree 100 pct

Yeah agree on School of Rock. I was part of a live read of the script last year and we all were like “...let’s change some lines”