Unrelentingly boring... - Joe (2014) Discussion

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

It was good at making my girlfriend get up and go shopping.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] BrunoAntony 11 years ago

I guess if your girlfriend disliked it, it must be a bad movie. I hope she didn't slap you around too badly :(

Due to the lack of moderators, trolls can ruin the IMDB message boards. Don't feed them.

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

@Jake
It's interesting that your signature bemoans the very thing that you are. I made no personal attack on you, or anybody that liked this movie. However, you swoop in to defend it as if not liking it is some kind of affont to your family honor or something. I just fed my first internet troll. Is there a shirt with that?

Internet courage is such a yawn.

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[–] grey_outlaw 10 years ago

"Internet courage is such a yawn"

Didn't know it was possible to describe something like that. I'll give it a try but the fact you spelled 'honor' wrong means you are on the other side of the pond so talking to you is such a sleep over in winter.

-'Human intelligence' is an oxymoron-

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Ozimandius314 10 years ago

Your last line regarding the critics is so true. I'm going to use it as my signature moving forward. Thanks.

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[–] johnkeen_79 10 years ago

Does she mind you wearing her underwear though? That has to be the question here....

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[–] Kent_Kainer 10 years ago

It was good at making my girlfriend get up and go shopping.

Works very well with any cartoon/anime I start. Doesn't even matter whether it's a good or bad one :D It empties the house.

---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

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[–] leanne-kershaw1 11 years ago

I agree I really enjoyed it

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[–] rpressley 11 years ago

I like it

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[–] timdgd 11 years ago

I completely disagree. This is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I think part of the problem is that you went in assuming this would be a "coming of age story"

There are far better good deeds for the day that you could be doing than spewing your arbitrary opinion of what most consider a very good film.

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

@Tim.

I stand by my statement that the movie bored me. You liked it. I'm glad you did. We can agree to disagree there.

I would be interested in why you think it is a good film.

Was it the close up look at those desperate people just getting by?

Did you enjoy spending time with these characters?

Was it the acting by Nicolas Cage?

Did the story captivate you?

Was the third act suspenseful with an ending that surprised you?

I would enjoy hearing you spew your arbitrary opinion on the matter.

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[–] timdgd 11 years ago

Yes to all of that. Gary Poulters performance was very realistic and gritty. I mean, I can see why you would say it's boring. Just like I can see why people said Drive or Only God Forgives were boring as well. I love films like this. They have a certain ambiance that the viewer has to tolerate which I think inevitably adds to the movie (if you let it)

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

Fair enough Tim.

I would have forgiven Joe for boring me had the director done a better job of expanding the characters and building the relationships between them a little better. Had I found them more interesting and cohesive, I probably would have just found the movie to be slow paced and not boring. Someone on another thread pointed out the girl living with Joe. She was there and then she wasn't.

This movie was adapted from a book, so maybe the writer and director were being loyal to the source material.

The relationship between the brother and sister could have been expanded, so that I was more horrified and on the edge of my seat when G-Daawg pimped her out in the third act. I didn't know her, and things like that are always worse when they happen to people that you know. It's not manipulating your audience, it is involving them more. Instead, I was a bit removed from it all thinking, that's what lowlife addicts do. You hear about it on the news all the time. This doesn't surprise me one bit. I was thinking, I hope Joe saves the day instead of Oh my God, hurry up Joe!

I agree that Gary Poulter's performance was very good. I suppose that was because he wasn't acting. That was who he was. It's a shame he couldn't get his life together

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[–] slazev 11 years ago

The girl living with him left him a note.
It's pretty easy to understand why she left him. He was passive with her.

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[–] yan-trussart 10 years ago

Just because Poulter was a homeless man doesn't mean that he wasn't acting his part.
Unless you believe all homeless to be abusive murdering sociopaths...

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[–] parkerone 10 years ago

anything with cage is always worth watching even if its rubbish
how do you top singing iguanas?-cage is the man

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[–] swann2427 11 years ago

I am very surprised to see this kind of reaction. I can understand not digging the story, but by that much? I was at the edge of my seat eyes glued to the screen. Every one who was at the screening ( i did see it for free so maybe that helped with loving it), but everyone I saw around me was the same as me, edge of their seat never blinking once (well probably a few times. I found that during slow moments the acting was top of the line and had very interesting dialogue. Not sure how any of this could have been found boring.

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[–] glendem0 11 years ago

Some *beep* always comes on here to tell us all how boring a particular film is.It's not "Alien",but it's not boring.Jerk.

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

And someone always defends a movie that someone else didn't like as if they wrote it, directed it, produced or acted in it.

All those things may be true, and someone else might still think it sucks.

I invested in a small movie a decade ago and never once got butt hurt if someone didn't like it. At the time, I hoped they did, because everyone involved worked very hard on it and the goal was for it to be profitable.

This isn't the I Love Joe fan page. If it was, I wouldn't have posted what I did. That would be trolling. This is the IMDB and opinions vary.

I can understand a film moving someone, and them becoming a fan thus justifying their need to explain its significance to the unimpressed.

The name calling I don't get.

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[–] akirastronaut 10 years ago

Almost a year ago, but hey...

Just wanted to say I agree with you re: imdb / trolls / name calling / and differing opinions.

However, as someone else pointed out, it did surprise me to read that you found it boring. My initial reaction, I won't lie, was: "Here's another Michael Bay fan who can't go through 5 minutes without CGI/explosions", but seeing that your posts are reasonable, I'm guessing that's not the case.

These are the main reasons I really enjoyed it (in case you're still interested and haven't deleted this film from your memory!):

The 3 lead performances were amazing.

Strong, non-cheesy yet somehow uplifting ending. Redemption is possible, change is possible, there's humanity in all of us (sometimes well-hidden).

The setting. I've only visited the US a couple of times, but for some reason I hold some kind of fascination with the South, as I know other non-Americans do to.

"Chinese girls do not come with green eyes"

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[–] midnight_cinephile 10 years ago

yup
almost every film on the imdb has a person who starts a thread like this.....too boring,not enough action etc
it's what I have referred to as "midnight_cinephile's law
most people in this day and age cannot appreciate subtly,nuance or anything slightly subversive or "outside" the box.
hollywood has dumbed down the general population to the extent that most people are happy with CGI comic book features /remakes and adam sandler films.

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[–] midnight_cinephile 10 years ago

yup
almost every film on the imdb has a person who starts a thread like this.....too boring,not enough action etc
it's what I have referred to as "midnight_cinephile's law
most people in this day and age cannot appreciate subtly,nuance or anything slightly subversive or "outside" the box.
hollywood has dumbed down the general population to the extent that most people are happy with CGI comic book features /remakes and adam sandler films.

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[–] fatpie42 10 years ago

I think "Alien" is actually pretty boring. It involves a lot of running up and down corridors.

I thought "Joe" was very engaging though...

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[–] sbowesuk 11 years ago

Joe isn't another Mud. The fact that even crossed your mind tells me you went into Joe with completely false preconceptions. Little wonder then that it didn't meet your expectations.

If you go into Joe with a level head and your brain turned on, it's a great movie. If you can't see the quality that's clearly present, then that's your failing, not the movie's.

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[–] airborne3502 11 years ago

I actually wish that I had seen Joe first instead of Mud. Then I would have appreciated Mud even more when I did see it.

My problem with Joe was not that it wasn't Mud. I mentioned Mud because that film did play a part in my selection process the night I watched Joe.

If I wanted the exact same story as Mud, I would have just watched Mud again.

I liked Mud better because the characters were woven into the story better, and had a reason for being there. You could have lifted entire characters and scenes from Joe without it affecting the narrative or mood of the film. It was as if the director of Joe had never directed a movie before. Any first year film student with a sense of craftsmanship could have done a better job of editing it together. So many scenes were dragged out for no reason, and it was all over the place. It felt really amateurish.

As I pointed out earlier in the thread, some characters needed to be expanded. If the audience doesn't get enough significant information about a character, their emotional investment in that character is going to be less. A perfect example is the sister that didn't talk. My concern for her in the third act would have been far greater had I known a little bit more about her, and less about how to dress a deer.

While watching Joe I was fully alert. I wasn't texting or distracted. I didn't see a great movie there. I saw a missed opportunity for one.

Internet courage is such a yawn.

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[–] dawnmasuoka 11 years ago

I have just finished watching Joe and returning it, it's late, I'm tired... as I mentioned previously, I just finished watching it thus my tired/bored mentally. I wanted to say thank you. I was perplexed at all of the good reviews. I came online to see if ANYONE out there felt the same way my fiance and I felt after viewing this film.

What you wrote was flawless and lined up exactly to what I had wanted to say about this movie, especially in your expansion of your explanation for reasons. As I read each reply to what you wrote, I was reading it out loud to my fiance and I told him the same exact thing you had written as a reply further down the line.

The other annoyance, considering this wasn't an amateur director... one day it was late summer, the very next day it was late autumn, and then back again throughout the entire film. I know that's not very important (I guess), but it was almost as distracting as Nicolas Cage's lips not moving when he speaks. Nearly as annoying as the stories in the film that were started but never completed. Almost as annoying as the lack of character development.

And by the way, you mentioned the film could have been a full twenty minutes, my fiance while watching it gave it a slimmer fifteen minutes. Maybe you saw more to the film than we did? ;)

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[–] airborne3502 10 years ago

@dawnmasuoka.

Your welcome. I noticed that you haven't posted a lot on the IMDB. Thank you for taking the time to comment on my thread.

So your fiancé thinks Joe could have been 15 minutes long instead of twenty? I must have seen the extended director's cut. :0

Congratulations on your engagement!

Internet courage is such a yawn.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Xtremegt2 10 years ago

Normally, I think it's really pushy when someone goes into a decent movie's forum to dump on it, but...I kinda agree.

The whole time with Joe, I kept waiting for it to take the next step. To get deeper into the characters. To use this world they'd built so well to it's full potential, but time and again, they'd just repeat scenes or go the obvious route or have people speak cryptically or threateningly for the hell of it. Only nothing would ever really come from it.

If you watched the first and last 20 minutes of this movie, you'd think you missed an amazing film that doesn't really exist.

The problem is that Joe basically starts the film where he's supposed to end the film. And I kinda have a theory about it. Nic Cage is a crazy person. He's notoriously crazy. And he plays wild out of control characters often. He goes full Pacino. I think he purposefully toned down this role, or at least took the part with the thoughts of a toned down performance.

The issue that brings up is, Joe is supposed to be this wild swaggering man, who's always getting into trouble and whoring and leading a life that's gonna end up nowhere good. And this kid unknowingly stabilizes and brings out the better person he could be.

But the guy we get isn't wild or swaggering. His biggest problems are that he's noncommittal and he doesn't like when people mess with him. I mean, when his girl walks out on him and leaves a note, I'm feeeling like...damn, but he was a good guy. When I probably should've been feeling like...I guess she grew up and decided she wanted herself a good guy.

We never got to go on a journey with his character, because he was a somewhat reluctant hero the whole time, who supposedly had a rough past. (Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence before the goons show up) As opposed to the Sons of Anarchy character we should've gotten, that would've given the film a vitality it was missing.

He needed to be more like Matt McConaughey's character in Mud. Not the nicest, calmest, most upright character Nic Cage has played in years. It was an alright movie, but for once, we needed a wild Nic Cage.

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[–] rgl-6 11 years ago

This movie had "soul" and was well acted. With that said, 95% of the earth's movie watching population would wish they had not spent the time watching it.

Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection. Send my credentials to the house of detention.

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[–] cryconscry 10 years ago

And you know this how?
Get back on the meds...

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[–] Taxpanda66 11 years ago

I completely and totally agree. Well said.

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[–] marktko 10 years ago

I agree it was very well acted. Cage the best he’s been for a while.

But I also agree it was a bit overly long and boring. I was glad it finished that’s for sure. And I’d guessed how it would end pretty much spot on.

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