About Schmidt.....

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Isn't this the slowest dullest movie ever made. Only in America could they produce such tosh.

― peter dee (peter dee), Monday, 25 August 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

go cry to Bruckheimer

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked it. but then again i'm a tosh fan.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"He did a total about-schmidt on that one ..."

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolutely pointless.

― Andrew (enneff), Monday, 25 August 2003 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

absolutely crap, all right. very long, tedious sentimental passages. although the bit where he makes a pass at the married woman in the trailer is darkly hilarious.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 25 August 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked it a lot!

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 25 August 2003 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

ending = total toss

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 25 August 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Just abt the best new American movie I've seen this year. I liked the slow pacing, the crackle of energy Kathy Bates brought to the film, the way that Alexander Payne shot buildings and landscapes, and I'm afraid I found the ending v. moving. It reminded me of another fave movie, The Accidental Tourist.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 25 August 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

liked it ok. i dont think i was prepared to really understand what it is about. (im too young?) my mother and father laughed and laughed at it. they loved it.

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 25 August 2003 23:47 (twenty-two years ago)

You should all be ashamed. One of the best mainstream American movies I've seen in ages... watch it again.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Monday, 25 August 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

best movie of last year.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 25 August 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i will give payne some points for actually seeming to LIKE his characters this time

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 25 August 2003 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

The movie portrays white-bread Denver pretty well.

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I LOVED this movie to pieces!! I LOVED LOVED LOVED it SO much. Jack Nicholson's character had this vulnerability and human weakness to it that he so rarely brings to his characters and that was so totally unique and a breath of fresh air (sorry I'm speaking in cliches here) and I loved his interactions with the complex daughter and the dopey future son-in-law and OMG Kathy "always fabulous" Bates! I shed a couple of tears at the end of the movie because I thought it was so bittersweet, and it's neat that the ending isn't your typical Hollywoodian "everyone lives happily ever after" ending. OMG, I want to watch this movie again SO badly.

― Just Deanna (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw this on an aeroplane. I don't like KB. I wish they'd showed me 'spider-man' again instead.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

The main thing wrong with this movie is Jack Nicholson. He's not even remotely believable as a meek, mild-mannered old man numbed by life's banality. (The only famous actor I can think of who would have been perfect is Jack Lemmon, but he's all deaded-up.) And some of the sequences, especially some of the idiotic things he says in his letters to the Third-World kid, make him seem almost cartoonishly silly instead of believably naive.

― jewelly (jewelly), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I didn't like it. Jewelly OTM about Nicholson. So many people appreciated that he dropped the smug Jack act. But to me, he seemed just as smug -- and worse, smug that he had dropped his smugness. "Look at me, I'm stretching!"

Also, the tone was wildly uneven; I know some of that comes with the territory of a mixed-genre picture, but I felt absolutely no connection to the pathos of the character (esp. at the end), since it was interrupted by gags galore.

And Bates has her moments, I guess, but both Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney are drawn much too broadly. He has a mullet? Haha, he must be a dumb ol' hick!!!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Especially weak: the moment on the top of the trailer with the figurines. A great opportunity to express something about both hope and loss that was screwed by being falsely esoteric.

― Elle (elle), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought this was going to be a great film, but sadly it was not. A load about nothing in my opinion!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure we did this on another thread where I explained why it was actually ten tonnes of great, but I can't find it now and am too busy to write it out again.

Something about realising the aching pointlessness of existence sums it up.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

"There's that story of Henry Miller's of when his wife left and he skated round the house for days."

― David. (Cozen), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was pretty great too. I actually liked the unevenness of the tone, the way it would shift from darkly funny to sad but still kind of vaguely funny. It was disconcerting, but in a good way. Sure, Nicholson's playing "out of character" was overrated and overhyped, but I think if you can look through/past the hype, it was a good performance. For the most part, it's a movie about normal people with normal problems and normal experiences, and a movie like that coming out of Hollywood and not being condescending (ok, except for the son-in-law) is kind of a miracle.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Dear Ndugu, I highly recommend masturbating.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Dermot Mulroney are drawn much too broadly. He has a mullet? Haha, he must be a dumb ol' hick!!!

I've heard a lot of the Todd Solonz argument about this character in particular, and the family in general. The portrayal is condescending, hateful, etc. Trouble is, I know people like that. World's full of 'em, really.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:59 (twenty-two years ago)

reminds me of reactions to The Straight Story, except then it was all about how cute midwesterners are.

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm with Pete, Andrew and others - I think it's a magnificent film, and I think it's Nicholson's best performance in a very long time. After this and Election I am mystified as to why Payne seems not to be bracketed with, say, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze - I would not bet against him being the best of the bunch, as the years go by.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

who cares?

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry, that was obscure.

i mean, why this incessant (see: ILF) rating of contemporary big-name young directors and this desire to place bets on who will be [x] in so many years, etc.? why not just discuss the movies they've made and their respective virtues?

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I think what Martin is getting at is: if you like those directors then you might just like this guy.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I suppose I'm just tired of those names being bandied around, even as I like their work well enough.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

It reminds me of the fellow my freshman year in college who discovered someone down the hall whose favorite bands were U2 and REM and he gushed, "Wow! Isn't it amazing that we have exactly the same tastes?"

I think I've just exposed (again?) my snobbery.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah. you do that all the time.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

classy.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Trouble is, I know people like that. World's full of 'em, really.

Yeah, surely, they exist. I guess my distaste has more to the do with the attitude that Payne invites toward them. I mean, I'm sure there are women like Kathy Bates' character, but when you put a scene like the hot-tub scene in a movie, it quickly becomes an opportunity for the audience to laugh at her appearance. There are ways for us to understand Bates' boldness, and Mulroney's dimwittedness, without resorting to these cheap shots.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

What I was trying to say was that I'm surprised that Payne doesn't get listed among the best young talents, and that this strikes me as particularly surprising since I rate his work so very highly. I don't know what there is to invite such a snotty response from you, Amateurist. Have I not earned the right to think my taste is worth expressing?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

My response was snotty, and I apologize. What I was reacting to was that the same names are seemingly always cited as "the best young talents," but that was precisely your point too! So again, apologies.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Were we talking about Jen Tosh upthread?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

hey amt just had an email over these posts: 'interesting' stuff. anyway, sent a reply.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

((it's hard to know what to say here. i sent julio an email criticizing his comment above, in which he follows my self-criticism about being snotty with what i took to be an opportunistic slag. my message didn't include any foul language or extreme insults, as the 'interesting' might be taken to imply (not sure if that's what it is *meant* to imply). i probably should have shrugged it off. the important thing is that i didn't want to discuss it on the board and derail the thread. i had always thought that emails sent off-board were just that--off-board. i've always presumed that the distinction between public and private communication was a hallmark of "netiquette." certainly, it's strange to have to defend something i wrote and sent to julio privately on a public board.))

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

((in any case, i've learned my lesson. if i am bothered by someone's post again, i'll simply let it drop rather that addressing it via email.))

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry everyone

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

no need to apologize. its cute tho' ;)

just before some other poster goes: ''oh julio how could you be such a bastard to OUR amateurist'' or something over the ''netiquette'' issue can I just say...well actually I'll copy and paste part of my reply to amt's email:

''sorry its a habit I developed when i communicate with
ILXORS off board. Somtimes I have to remind them they have email on the board.''

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

all is forgotten and forgiven and i hope it's likewise. i'm not much for hugs but i'm extending my e-hand for a shake.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

*e-handshake*

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 20:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i was expecting a milkshake, but that'll do.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, enough of all that. More people who share my opinion should share why they think Nicholson sucks ass in this movie (though I don't think he sucks ass generally, of course.)

I started not buying him as Schmidt in an early scene where he and his wife walks through the door and someone calls and his wife hands him the phone -- I think it's a co-worker talking about his retirement or something. It's a bland, banal, meaningless conversation. The kind of conversation you imagine Schmidt has been having all his life and is accustomed to, maybe even reassured by. I hear my parents have conversations like this all the time and they seem to take comfort in the familiar, even if they are tired and unhappy people (which they surely are). But Nicholson can't resist showing us how much he's suffering through this banality, with his plastered-on smile showing us his tightly gritted teeth ... It's like he can't wait for his wife to drop dead so he can cruise across the country in a motor home -- which is the perfectly wrong attitude for that character and for the set-up of the movie.

― jewelly (jewelly), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

For me this movie seems so ambiguous. Nicholsons character seems very smug at sometimes and not so smug at other times, and both at once too. The movie is both exciting and boring at once, and for it to be able to accomplish that is impressive.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I was bored.

movies by the other three young directors whatever that skiddy mentioned have not bored me much at all.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 26 August 2003 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

about Schmidt (Mike Schmidt, that is, a childhood hero) ...

http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/1d/images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10089000/10089591

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

yaw!

http://www.allsports.com/store/images/items/011/011_1008-9591A.jpg

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

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