**** Plenty of possible spoilers ***
This movie can't complain that it's actors were on the sloppy side. RDJ and ZG were at their best and were just about the only thing watchable in this movie.
It looks like the movie was made for teenagers, cue loud rock music after every scene. If you make a movie about a road trip you have to find a way to make up for a lot of downtime, but the way Todd Phillips handles this is just sloppy. They feel more like interruptions (buy the soundtrack !) than transitions. Apart from the one where they drive stoned we don't get to see anything worthwhile or funny.
Funny in this movie is a strange business. It's mean spirited on about every level.
On one hand we have a jerk. I'm sorry but there's hardly another way to describe RDJ's Peter Highman. This character would rather die or find another way to get home than accept Ethan's invitation. There might be something called love but Peter hasn't got a clue about that so his eagerness to be at the bedside of his wife as she's delivering the next Highman seems out of place. Hitting an obnoxious kid can be done funny, but here it isn't. He despises the mother, so he insults the kids and when they react badly he hits one of them in the stomach. There's a difference in pushing a kid in the water because you hate kids or people in general and harassing them because they're all white/black/whatever trash to you.
Ethan's a basket case. He has no clue on how to behave himself and is clearly mentally challenged. Laughing at stupid people doing silly things has been done ever since the first joke was invented. But Ethan's character is just sad. He seemed to have lost the only one that cared for him in this world and has no idea on how to interact with other people or defend himself. If watching someone loosing his dignity and being destroyed by others is funny, they might as well start putting seats in the local psychiatric hospital.
I'm not even going to describe the inconsistencies and the loose ends here, as this movie doesn't care and neither do I. I do hope to see both actors again, in a better movie.
This movie can't complain that it's actors were on the sloppy side. RDJ and ZG were at their best and were just about the only thing watchable in this movie.
It looks like the movie was made for teenagers, cue loud rock music after every scene. If you make a movie about a road trip you have to find a way to make up for a lot of downtime, but the way Todd Phillips handles this is just sloppy. They feel more like interruptions (buy the soundtrack !) than transitions. Apart from the one where they drive stoned we don't get to see anything worthwhile or funny.
Funny in this movie is a strange business. It's mean spirited on about every level.
On one hand we have a jerk. I'm sorry but there's hardly another way to describe RDJ's Peter Highman. This character would rather die or find another way to get home than accept Ethan's invitation. There might be something called love but Peter hasn't got a clue about that so his eagerness to be at the bedside of his wife as she's delivering the next Highman seems out of place. Hitting an obnoxious kid can be done funny, but here it isn't. He despises the mother, so he insults the kids and when they react badly he hits one of them in the stomach. There's a difference in pushing a kid in the water because you hate kids or people in general and harassing them because they're all white/black/whatever trash to you.
Ethan's a basket case. He has no clue on how to behave himself and is clearly mentally challenged. Laughing at stupid people doing silly things has been done ever since the first joke was invented. But Ethan's character is just sad. He seemed to have lost the only one that cared for him in this world and has no idea on how to interact with other people or defend himself. If watching someone loosing his dignity and being destroyed by others is funny, they might as well start putting seats in the local psychiatric hospital.
I'm not even going to describe the inconsistencies and the loose ends here, as this movie doesn't care and neither do I. I do hope to see both actors again, in a better movie.
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