A lot of people are complaining - apparently the movie didn't live up to the expectations the title creates.
This is a movie about what life is actually like. In real life, Heat-like shoot-outs just don't happen.
This movie didn't live up to the expectations its marketing campaign created. The trailer still looks amazing to me and I still get a "I want to see that" feeling after watching it. The actual film did not deliver. When the film ends, I think, "is that it?"
share"This movie didn't live up to the expectations its marketing campaign created."
So you believed a pack of lies? Too bad for you.
Uh...OK. So how do you choose which movie you want to watch? I also read the one paragraph synopsis of the film on Wikipedia before it came out
Set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, the film centers on the life of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.
Lesson: never trust on marketing.
The marketing campaign tries to appeal to an audience as broad as possible, not the right audience.
I'd say learn to listen to critics.
These defenses of the film are so shallow. They all amount to "you don't get it."
Which films should this film be compared to? People like you apparently think that whoever didn't like this was expecting an action film with tons of on-screen deaths. Maybe some people were, but that wasn't the impression I got from the marketing campaign that I criticized and that you said I should have ignored completely.
No, I was expecting a film in the style of The Godfather: a film that's nearly 3 hours in length that's filled with character development brought to life by amazing acting and writing. Does it have on-screen deaths? Yes. Are they important to the film? Yes. Are the only reason to watch the film? Hell no. For every one time I watch Sonny's death, I'd prefer to watch the meeting among the Five Families ten times.
Are you telling me that I shouldn't have expected a film like The Godfather? If so, what should I have expected?
Which films should this film be compared to?I don't know. I haven't really seen something exactly like this. So I'm quite happy with it.
I was expecting a film in the style of The GodfatherWell that's your mistake.
what should I have expected?Maybe you should try not to expect anything. If it's everything you expected it's rather boring but if it's nothing like it you're going to be disappointed as well. share
I don't know. I haven't really seen something exactly like this. So I'm quite happy with it.
Well that's your mistake.
Maybe you should try not to expect anything. If it's everything you expected it's rather boring but if it's nothing like it you're going to be disappointed as well.
I have not seen this exact movie where the protagonist actually really stays on the right path. I thought it was a very good looking, very well acted movie.
The reason I went to see it was because of a good review by a critic who I understand and trust. I knew it was mostly built on its performances and I knew the premise of the story.
I just generally don't trust anything considering what the media says about something as it's trying to sell something to an audience and not accurately represent what it really is.
My problem with you here is that you judge the movie on mismarketing an "not being like other movies" too much rather than the movie itself. I actually find it utterly ridiculous that "action" is even listed as one of the genres here, but blame that on IMDb, not the movie.
I have not seen this exact movie where the protagonist actually really stays on the right path.
My problem with you here is that you judge the movie on mismarketing an "not being like other movies" too much rather than the movie itself.
Serpico? The Departed (or the original, Infernal Affairs)?
To be fair, though, the movie doesn't even live up to the DVD cover art - a gangster and his girlfriend, or so it seems.
ON THE OTHER HAND...if you're a relatively decent businessman in the heating oil business, a year in which you're family is threatened, your trucks are hijacked, one of your salesmen is attacked, and another commits suicide then that, for you, was certainly a most violent year. For the Corleone's? A most peaceful weekend. So, in that sense, the title isn't misleading. It's all relative.
ON THE OTHER HAND...if you're a relatively decent businessman in the heating oil business, a year in which you're family is threatened, your trucks are hijacked, one of your salesmen is attacked, and another commits suicide then that, for you, was certainly a most violent year. For the Corleone's? A most peaceful weekend. So, in that sense, the title isn't misleading. It's all relative.This.
i knew nothing about it, had never seen a trailer or anything, and i enjoyed it the whole way. it was pretty riveting to me. i concede i did assume it was building to some kind of violent showdown which never happened, and when the credits rolled i felt a bit let down, but overall i did not find it boring at all. even with the largely quiet film with slow pacing, i found it engaging.
but seeing all the angry threads here i guess it's good i didn't see the trailer, or i may have p1ssed too lol
i totally agree that expectations can ruin a film for a viewer. i empathise with the angry posters here.
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Life is not a problem to be solved, it's a mystery to be lived... so live it!
Since I don't see films on the basis of trailers, I have a hard time understanding how people can be so misled by them. But I do get the general point that the title arguably implies it is a kind of film that it really isn't.
Ten years ago there was something of a similar brouhaha with David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, there meaning the protagonist's personal history. It was not (did people really think it would be? could be?) a history of Violence, in some historical and comprehensive sense. But it did seem some complained about it.
Now of course here we are talking about A... Year. So I guess some people expected this to be about how violent 1983 was? Really? Based on the trailer? No reviews, no other descriptions?
I don't think that kind of approach to viewing movies is a good one. More to the point it would seem one who has it is inviting the marketers to mislead such person.
i am glad i had never heard of it at all
in fact i prefer, always, to NOT see the trailer. though sometimes i can't avoid it
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Life is not a problem to be solved, it's a mystery to be lived.
I think you're dead on. And yet the constant menace that's in this film makes it feel more violent to me. Just because their isn't a blaze of bullets doesn't make it a peaceful movie.
shareYah I was kinda expecting a crime drama/thriller, sometimes wondering when the much talked about criminal brother and father to turn up and tune up the competition, maybe whack some people, but surprisingly they never did lol.
Anyway I still enjoyed it very much, deserves a slightly higher IMDB rating, but good enough I suppose.
8/10
I would say the marketers did a bait and switch on this one to get people in the door, and that rightly caused a lot of resentment. Seeing this had very little to do with New York City as a whole and however violent 1981 was historically, the period setting and highlighting of this is totally misleading. This isn't even inspired by true events for Pete's sake. 1981 in NYC is next to irrelevant as it's not the protagonist nor the subject. Abel is.
If one did not have expectations they might see that this was a very interesting movie about honor, integrity, and nobility to a certain extent. I'm glad Abel kept his cool and didn't start beating on his wife or competitors as it demonstrates his character's determination.
Not a flawless film but I enjoyed it.
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Behold, bastard son
I am the evil one
i had the wrong expectations with this movie. i was expecting more to happen. it didn't.
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