Not many movies in my life have I set out to watch specifically and not finished watching it.
I mean you catch the odd movie on TV and turn over but to specifically put this on and to get far enough in to it to think its just not worth watching this to the end is not me.
Normally if I've invested enough time in it i.e beyond 30minutes I'm gonna finish it no matter how bad it is. But I couldn't....
1 Star
[deleted]
Maybe watch the entire movie and then rate it you hack fraud.
shareOP is right. This was unwatchable. I managed to see about 45 minutes of it but then had to stop.
After 20 minutes it became clear this was poorly directed and poorly acted. The fighting scene in the Korean restaurant was atrocious. The romance stuff was predictable before it happened and just started out of nowhere. The 'acting' by the Asian girl was horrible. Some scenes were pointless (such as the drawn out walk towards the motel room, or the taxi drive. They were obviously intended to set the mood, and be artful or cinematic but this hopelessly misfired.
Watching this, I thought this was some first-time director making all kinds of beginners errors, and only later found out it actually was Michael Mann. What happened to him?
Worst movie I have seen since Only God Forgives.
3/10
I don't care what you think you dumb *beep* Next time reply to the OP.
shareI was replying to you. And you do care. In fact, you care so much that used foul language. Classy. You presented zero arguments. Instead, you used foul language to attack the persons you disagree with. Learn some debating skills.
shareI don't care what you think.
I was responding to what the OP said about finishing the entire movie. Not talking to you guy.
The movie had some great Mann shoot outs, excellent digital camera work, and a nice ending.
Mann should direct the next Bond movie.
[deleted]
[deleted]
I thought the fighting scene in the restaurant was good. It was realistic. All the actions scenes for me were pretty well done because they had a realistic tone to it.
shareAt least fast forward to the shootout in the containor harbor. Very Heat like although nothing can beat the Heat shootout.
share[deleted]
same here, started out ok but then just deflated on itself....
shareWHAT EXPLAINS the black lines you sometimes see on this message board?
It's as if some Moderator at IMBD took a black sharpie across redacted language - why a marker and not simply 'Delete'? It's very strange for a Website.
Does anyone know?
[deleted]
Does anyone know?Posters are using the spoiler option (see above) to black out important plot points of the film being discussed.
And this movie does take intelligence to appreciate ...Well being a fan of Mann films, I wish I could agree. But really?
Most all who disliked the movie - ... are NOT an intelligent group.Hang on a moment weren't you the one criticizing the use of hyperbole in commentary? Perhaps by your definition, I'm semi-intelligent, as rather than disliking the film, I was disappointed overall, in that, if this indeed is his
... commentary on 2015 ...I'm convinced he is capable of far better work than this uneven offering.🐭 share
"I wanted more back story and less special effects inside computer circuit boards."
But why more back story...it's often the flaw of many movies (and among others american mainstream movies) the directors and screenwriters have to explain EVERYTHING about the story and characters for the audiences, like if they didn't trust the audiences's intelligence.
Mann's storytelling in his recent movies is often more effective in telling gestures, looks, body language than in look speeches delivered by his actors...
About the special effects inside computer: well that was 5 minutes in a 133 minutes movie..
"Tang Wei was wooden ... embarrassingly so."
I thought she was fine and not especially wooden...the plane scene and subway scene for example, the brief bit when she avoids to look at the dead body in the hotel room, or when she is looking at Hemsworth and his tools before the parade finale.
Having more character back story does not equate with "explaining everything". The characters in such a long film are barely fleshed out. Why is the computer nerd for instance blessed with the skills of a special forces operative? The early relationships are barely touched upon and the love affair (though welcome), just appears to occur with inordinate haste.
About the special effects inside computer: well that was 5 minutes in a 133 minutes movie.Yes, you said it yourself. For many, I would suggest that would be 4 minutes too long.
Tang Wei was ... not especially wooden ...but wooden nevertheless. I said earlier I'm a fan of Michael Mann's and have seen all his films, but this one disappoints and I can certainly understand why it was such a huge commercial and critical flop. These suggestions that it was too "intelligent" for the masses are frankly laughable.🐭 share
"Why is the computer nerd for instance blessed with the skills of a special forces operative?"
Because he used to build his mind and body in prison?
"the love affair (though welcome), just appears to occur with inordinate haste."
Haste because of the violence surrounding them maybe...he was in prison for years, he looks good, she looks good, she liked the pictures of him shown by her brother, she felt he was a good guy (the restaurant scene), they both escapded death in this scene...so the build of their relationship wasn't so unbelievable in my opinion and was even one of the good things in this film.
http://www.myspace.com/guillaumep
http://darioargentofr.blogspot.com/
Because he used to build his mind and body in prison?
Was he really a martial artist??
SPOILERS
He just breaks the blackhat's arm in the finale and that's all.
If i remember well he says to Lien's character that he was used to fight before jail, when he was still a student.
http://darioargentofr.blogspot.com/
Huh? Has NO ONE ever heard of "Prison"?
You know, where it is rumored to be a tough environment and strongly rumored to be where actual Fighting does take place in Reality?
All of this silly sarcasm about how a hacker should never be able to fight like this sure ignores any notion that anyone who has been in Prison for that long would of course know how to fight - never mind someone 6'18" who can bench press a house like Helsmworth. He didn't show any special Martial Arts fighting skills - just maybe the kind of fighting skills that "Gladiator Academy" (yes, way-overused cliche') would teach; including having to fight multiple bad guys - probably guys a lot worse than the 3 in the restaurant.
Just saying, of all the implausible flaws, fighting skills was not one of them or at best it was the least implausible...
Because he used to build his mind and body in prison?Of course and we see him do one push-up. LOL! Jail assists Clark Kent to metamorphose into Superman.
Haste ...Yes, I'm sure that's what Mann wanted us to think. To me these 2 examples highlight one of the film's main problems, despite its length ... all outline, with little depth.🐭 share
spookyrat1,
You are correct about my own hypocritical hyperbole, etc. No excuses. As well, my obvious taunt of 'I must be smarter' is more to get a rise out of those posting 'absolutely hated it!' types of comments, but without being able to explain in any intelligent way "I just hated it - it was like a bad version of 'Fast Times' or 'Fast & Furious'!"
That's again about just the lack of intelligence in so many of the negative reviews. Like it or not and disappointed or not, some of those posting these rabid comments clearly don't have the intelligence to even know what they don't know or what they missed - or at least that Mann (as he always does) was at least attempting to comment on 2015 and digital / analog; physical / virtual, etc. - been done before, but he did have some fresh as well as 'updated' expressions or exploration of those issues, many which affect us daily as we interact as much with the Internet, with Information and with our 'Personal' Computers as we do interact with each other - and obviously, because we interact with them at the same time and utilizing one element to interact with another - and on and on.
That kind of 'mirror of a mirror' or 'circular-referencing' or any of 100 names for it and it's implications, etc. is very interesting and a pretty ambitious undertaking, even if it resulted in partial failure. It was't a total failure because we can all see it (those smart enough to in the first place) and because I don't consider this kind of effort to be a failure merely because I did not enjoy it - it's obviously possible to truly appreciate a Mann (or any other) movie even so.
IMBD seems to have a lot of commentators sure they could do better or who think making any movie is easy and simple - some of the ways in which they 'criticize' various flaws is just over the top because of the lack of specificity, reliance on lazy, broad and general language that all sounds written by the same type - who talk about some of this stuff as if they could do better, have life-experience
BTW, spooky, thanks for being civil. It's kind of a secret that civility is far more 'disarming' than snarky sarcasm, which is mostly what I get in response to my own condescending and pompous tone - half the time not even taking myself seriously enough to get all worked up and angry...
I too could not finish it. I found it boring. And I really wanted to like it.
I'm a self-employed software developer, working contracts for big companies in the US and Canada. On a (computers) technical level, I found the film hand-wavy at best. Sure, it threw some buzz words around, and the short-range wireless access point as a messaging drop-off was kind of neat. But overall, people "in the business" would poke a ton of holes in this movie.
And I gave the film 50 minutes. I got to the shoot-out at the container terminal (which was alright, agreed), but really didn't care about anyone in the movie. And if I don't care about the characters, find the story boring and the technical references ill-thought-out, I give up and find something else to spend my time on.
Personal gripe: I have yet to see a chip in a computer where a little light goes on over one of the contacts when that contact is "in use".