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Titanic Grill a Movie

#1 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 08:50 AM

Ok - the Titanic's going down!

I expect this will be a very short topic as I don't expect anyone would bother defending this over-rated piece of cinema trash.

Before I begin, I would just like to say that James Cameron is a dickhead.

That said, let's take a look at the movie:

Based on a famous historical event - the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic, this movie could have been good if done right.

You could have a look at the story of some of the people associated with the construction of the Titanic before and after the incident. Maybe you could make a movie about the people who found out what went wrong on that fateful voyage... with some parts of it being devoted to collecting evidence and maybe some bits in a courtroom or something like that.. whatever.

James Cameron instead chose to make the movie pretty much entirely about an unconvincing fictional love story. And in one of the most expensive movies ever made, he cast the eternally adolescent and juvenile Leonardo DiCaprio as the leading man. Great, James... you are really inspiring.

One of the things that irritates me the most about this film is the making of it. They built an enormous replica of the Titanic and went into painstaking little details like making the crockery exactly the same as what it was in real life.

This would be fine if James Cameron and his crew were creating a Titanic museum. But they were making a film.

What a waste of money. Nobody is going to notice the plates... not even someone who was there!

And then when he filmed the ship sinking scene, he trashed this replica. Unbelievable.

But let's look at the film, shall we? Instead of doing something interesting (see ideas above) or making a really, really cool documentary, James Cameron chose to make this sorry excuse of a love story.

There was a big problem with this love story - bigger than the fact that it revolved around a silly mystery about a missing jewel of the sea or some crap like that (and for such an expensive movie, that was a really fake looking jewel).

I couldn't care about the rich girl or the poor boy. They were uninteresting to me.

But that's just a personal bias so I'll continue with the bigger problem.

They had another man involved in this story - a suitor for the rich girl. Now this could have been interesting... having the girl torn between two men.

But no! James Cameron (like Lucas) doesn't like messy love-triangles so what does he do? He just makes the other guy into a bland 2 dimensional villain so we all hate him. Great.

I wish I could do a really thoroughly detailed grilling of this film but to tell you the truth, I cannot remember much.

This is what I can remember:

The movie was three hours long and felt much, much longer. It was a bore.

The characters were uninteresting.

The love story wasn't much of a story - just a long train of boring scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet growing closer.

Millions of people around the world love this movie for no apparent reason and heap lots of praise on it, thinking it's better than anything else.


The last reason is the worst of all.



Okay, that was a pathetic grilling and I apologise if I disappointed anyone. If anyone can remember enough to do a detailed grilling, by all means, please post your comments.

If anyone would like to defend this film, ahhh.... you're welcome to it.

I don't expect this topic to be much of a heated discussion but you never know...
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#2 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 08:53 AM

Oh wait! I forgot one of the most annoying things about this movie:

CELINE DION!


Horrible.... just horrible.
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#3 User is offline   Despondent Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 10:18 AM

Firstly, I am not defending the Cameron. His award speech was unforgivable.

I won't say it was a great movie, but I thought Titanic was a good film.

Documentaries are boring. the Hoth video ought to have proved that. It was based on, what? Our favorite SW film?

Painstaking details are one end of the continuum. The apalling blue screen is the other.

Not a waste of money. I daresay they turned a profit. And had more props to sell.

trashing the replica was wrong? If he made a titanic museum and sunk That, would that not a perfect parallel? Besides, you gotta strike the set at some point.

the love story was ok, if you're into that. But heck, even Empire had romantic scenes.

I liked Billy Zane. (but then I also liked The Phantom. What TOD ought to have been) (So is *HE* the new bad guy on 24?)

I didn't find it terribly boring. the sinking was great. pulled me in.

Of course it's not the best film ever made. But the fact it was released six months late even though popcorn bags the summer prior had Titanic printed on them ought to count for something. And it was probably the biggest gamble ever filmed.

Celine's big song didn't have to annoy you. Obviously you disliked the film, so why did you stay for the credits?
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 11:39 AM

I remember thinking Titanic would be an epic adventure, full of thrills and chills, and instead I got a tedious, boring love story with an actor that I used to have respect for and an actress that I can't name any other work by.
QUOTE
Obviously you disliked the film, so why did you stay for the credits?

You didn't have to stay for the credits to hear her song. I mean, it was EVERYWHERE for like, two years.
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#5 User is offline   Despondent Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 01:01 PM

QUOTE (Heccubus @ May 12 2004, 11:39 AM)
You didn't have to stay for the credits to hear her song.  I mean, it was EVERYWHERE for like, two years.

Well, Yeah. But it's the film itself I thought we were grilling here. As an afterthought, Dion did a vocal track for a DAT tape that they almost didn't play for Cameron. Maybe they shouldn't have. But a standalone song didn't make the *film* worse was my point.

But I'll agree I suppose. I hated the Kenny Loggins Dangerzone song, and would not watch Top Gun for years out of spite. cool.gif
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#6 User is offline   Heccubus Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 01:31 PM

That song rocks.
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#7 User is offline   Jon Gutner Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 03:32 PM

[B][I][U][FONT=Times][COLOR=red]

i tihnk it suc overall.,, i havff nitemare of fall in ice wator and turn in 2 blu?

BLAHMBABAGO!!!!!
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 04:31 PM

QUOTE (Heccubus @ May 12 2004, 01:31 PM)
That song rocks.

Yeah, I love the falsetto/vibrato "haaaa-waay TOO-OOO-OOO-OOO"

the local top 40 station added jet screams and such. sounded like a sporting event on FOX. I was overwhelmed. (sigh) maybe if I'd seen the film first I'd have felt a personal investment/attachment.
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#9 User is offline   Laura Icon

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Posted 12 May 2004 - 04:34 PM

Kate Winslet's breasts make me uncomfortable. (I think I may be alone in this opinion.)

I was around the age and gender demographic most expected to adore this film when it came out, and so I had extra reason to hate it. If you did not hate it with a bilious passion, you were one of THEM. I hated it even though I hadn't seen it.

I mean, what's the point of a movie where you know all the characters (or most) will end up dead? What's the point of investing in a romance when you know one of them will quickly die? I guess you might argue that there's plenty of powerful romantic stories where one character ends up dead, but I hate them all. I like a happy ending, or one where the characters break up but live beyond the relationship (a la "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!")

I've seen most of the movie now, in bits and pieces at various times I've been in rooms when it's on. I'm glad I never had to watch it all the way through.
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 06:24 PM

I have one of those dads that thinks he's really funny, see. And when this movie came out he turned to me at one point after seeing a commercial for it and said "You know how it ends, don't you?" To this, I replied "No, I don't." He then finished by saying, "The boat sinks." Yeah, my dad thinks he's really funny.
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 06:35 PM

If you did see it to the end, then you'd know that it does have a happy ending. I'm in a minority I suppose, considering this a good movie. This was a date movie for me, so the chick flick factor was a moot point. I won't defend it as a great film. But I'll stand by my initial remarks. smile.gif
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 07:24 PM

Fair enough. I mostly dislike it because it so damn over-rated.
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 07:47 PM

I've seen it a couple of times, and I did not enjoy it either time. There's jut not much there worth seeing, in my opinion. Well, I mean aside from the dude who bounces off of the propellor. That's kind of cool.
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Posted 12 May 2004 - 11:36 PM

Oh yeah! I forgot all about him. kind of broke the tension. Immortalized in song as well!

Billy Crystal sang at the oscars 4 months later:

"With Gilligan" (shot of Leo,) "the Skipper too" (Cameron,)
"The propeller guy... (bonk!) and the Ice (shot of the berg...)"

seriously, I liked the underwater shot at the very beginning where the illuminated sub appears from above, faintly at first in the dark water. then descends past the camera, and disappears into the murky depths below.

I've been intriged by the titanic since finding a large, dusty hardback copy of a Titanic book and reading it for 600 miles in the car on a trip from Ohio as a 10-year old. I mean, there was a picture of the ship on the cover. looked like a Solid craft to me. What's the big deal?

For titanic buffs the detailed, definitive film was 3 hours of "The droid's name is... R2D2" moments. (Riveting if you're into that kind of thing. Annoying if you're not.)
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Posted 13 May 2004 - 01:39 AM

QUOTE (laura)
Kate Winslet's breasts make me uncomfortable. (I think I may be alone in this opinion.)


they make me very comfortable...

between her breasts and Leo Decapitated slowly freezing to death, this should have been a good film...

originally Leos part wa to be played by Mathew Mahoganny... who phyisically and charasmatically would have been better suited to face of Billy zane.

Billy Zane...

if you had to choose between the Charming, Rich, Handsom, yet a little bossy Billy Zane and the annyoing, poor, untalented, yet available (despite the fact that you're already engaged you cheating hussy), Leo DeCaprio, who would YOU choose?!?

she would not have talked to him in real life!

I hate films that give guys false hope yell.gif

Brahm Stokers Dracula: girl is torn between guy with steady Real Estate Job and cool evil goth dude... (she chooses the cool guy in the film, but we all know it would have been captain boring AKA Johnathon Harker)

REality Bites: same girl... is torn between cool musician who loves her and Executive guy who wants to exploit her work and suck the "atisticness" out of it... (she chooses the cool guy in the film, but that's not what happened to me)

Titanic: another girl chooses between Rich guy who is abusive to her and poor guy who likes her (agian, another totally way of conclusion)

it's just creuwel!!!! sad.gif yell.gif
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