MovieChat Forums > Harsh Times (2006) Discussion > Some Problems I Had With This Movie

Some Problems I Had With This Movie

posted 16 years ago by NannyState
10 replies | jump to latest

There were too many coincidences.
1. Mike's interviewer just so happens to be someone he knows
2. The cop that was following him just so happened to be someone that they knew
3. Flaco just so happened to be there at the drug deal at the end

Also, it was kind of stupid how they just easily killed Jim off. The shotgun shells would have separated a lot more. They should have gotten away.

And if Mike was Jim's true friend, he would have taken him to the hospital. Screw Jim if he didn't want to end up like his friend that got his limbs blown off; he would just had some bad scars if he was able to survive. Even if he wouldn't have made it, he could have still tried. After the hospital he could have finally gotten some psychiatric help. I hate how the movie sets it up where "oh, you used to be different, man; you used to be much more mellow" and with his little break down in the car, you start to feel a little sorry for him because how much the war screwed him up. It seems they just got lazy and decided to kill him off... in such a unrealistic way.

Although, I really did enjoy the movie as a whole. The ending just put a bad taste in my mouth.

[–] FactUnderChecK 16 years ago

sorry dude, but this comment is stupid.
your acting like those coincidences are like insanely impossible and not based in reality, well.. those first 2 coincidences have happend to me (not in the same day, but hey)

all those guys grew up together in the same area and now they have grown up they still live and work in the same area. its not crazy to imagine they might run into people they know.

and flaco being at the drug deal is about the most possible of all. if your supplying drugs to your neighbourhood your going to run into your local dealers.

are you a ballistics expert by the way? could have seperated more... but didnt.

jim was shot. u dont get shot in the back of the head with a shotgun by accident. he would have been arrested and gone down for life. he did shoot a hole bunch of people.
you dont know how bad his injuries were but even if he survived and wasnt arrested he would lose his chance at going to columbia. he wouldnt get hired after that. after lying about the weed, suspicious shot gun wound to the back of the head isnt exactly guna look good on his resume.
anyway, i dont think jim really wanted to live anymore. he went pyscho on his pregnant missus and *beep* everything up. so hes not exactly feeling like living at that moment. hes just flipped out and pointed a gun at his best mate so at that point hes realized hes a crazy *beep*. mike realizes jim is *beep* and hes better off dead not flipping out and shooting a hole bunch more people.

not getting too deep, just a few simple theories.
anyway this movie wouldnt even have been half as good without that scene. its the final climax that ties the movie together with the sad but necessary death of jim. (bad taste? were u expecting a happy ending?)

[–] Tylerdurden44 16 years ago

Exactly. The range they were looked realistic for buckshot spread. Remember one load of shot hits him in the back the other nicks the side of his head, hes paralyzed and fugged up bad. Sltcs, your right, those were not too coiencidental. Jim was gone he wanted to die, I would in the same position. Nice pun with the he shot a "hole" lot of people lol.

[–] mobocracy 15 years ago

I think the thread starter has a point. A defensive shotgun will have a short barrel and a Cylinder choke if any at all and will pattern very widely and not even make 1100fps at the muzzle.

His shot is also really unlikely to penetrate the length of the car through the trunk lid. Ordinary buck shot is soft lead and deforms and penetrates poorly. Even giving the old man the benefit of the doubt and assuming he's using copper or nickel plated shot (doubtful in the barrio) the car is too far away for the shot to have the energy to penetrate well.

Safety glass is strong and in many cases is engineered to be a structural element of the car. For years cops have had trouble penetrating car bodies and glass with .38s.

He might have damaged the window at 50-75 yards but he didn't blow out the window and at the 25+ yards he would not have shot through the car's trunk lid, back seat and front seat even if he had a Turkey choke.

A better weapon choice would have been an AK47. Easily capable of penetrating the body and glass and a nice ironic tie in to Jim's military service against AK-wielding terrorists.

[–] Paul_Kersey_Jr 15 years ago

Maybe the street sweeper was loaded with slugs?
I only saw the two bullets/slugs that hit, they didnt show multiple pellets flying like with buckshot.

[–] mobocracy 15 years ago

Slugs are as bad as shot, especially out of barrel designed for shot. Slugs are
primarily used for deer hunting where rifles carry too far. The very best contemporary slugs out of the right gun are deadly up to 100 yards, gang banger slug/gun combos probably half that.

I still think an assault rifle or even a submachine gun would have been a more plausible substitute for this kind of gang shooting.

[–] Monk-ish 15 years ago

There were too many coincidences.
1. Mike's interviewer just so happens to be someone he knows
2. The cop that was following him just so happened to be someone that they knew

They seem to know a lot of people in general. It's not surprising that he knew the crooked cops.

3. Flaco just so happened to be there at the drug deal at the end

That's probably the least surprising.

And if Mike was Jim's true friend, he would have taken him to the hospital. Screw Jim if he didn't want to end up like his friend that got his limbs blown off; he would just had some bad scars if he was able to survive.

Jim got hit in the spinal cord - he couldn't move his legs (i.e. he was paralyzed).

Reality has a well-known liberal bias - Colbert

[–] cheepnis 15 years ago

Because all the ballistics experts have already weighed in (cough, cough), I'll contradict your first three points:

There are about 10 million people in the LA area, so the chances of running into three people you know are about 1 in 3.33 million. Multiply that times 3 (for each random encounter) and you get 10 million -- the same number you started with or a 1 to 1 ratio. That stuff happens all the time, homes!

[–] mastholte 15 years ago

um, I'm no expert in higher mathematics and so had to read twice... 1 out of 3.33 mln makes one chance, not 3.33 mln chances... or am I just being dense? ;)
Statistics is another thing, however.

[–] cheepnis 15 years ago

That "math" was intentionally incorrect -- I was just trying to mock all the weapons experts who seemed to know exactly what should have happened when the old guy shot at the car.

[–] freakytall 15 years ago

I've never been to LA but I've visited NYC plenty of times. Same idea, running into 3 people you know in the entire NYC in one day doesn't seem probable. But running into 3 in just one area seems possible. It's not even like it was stupid, the cop he knew was working, the Mexican drug-dealer was working with his home boyz, and the other guy i dont know who #3 is sorry.

You can't just look at it as simple statistics for an accurate answer. How about this: (number of cops policing this area) to find out what chance the certain cop was working that shift and plus the (pretty high chance of getting pulled over while driving sparatically (SP?))%.

I like the one guy's idea that using an AK might have made a better ending because, more believable damage, and that he was fighting terrorists with AK47s constantly, nice irony too... only thing is.. could they pull off a grandpa not only OWNING an ak47 but using it too?

i wouldn't appreciate a grandpa comin out with a rocket launcher either you know... Hmm maybe a younger Mexican gangster? Using an AK47 of course, and maybe he would get all *beep* in the head in return, to continue the cycle of pain, loss, and madness?

what you guys think?