Worst movie off all time


It's so boring. 0/10

reply

[deleted]

lol.. i purshased it today, basicaly cuz it was only 3.7 bucks and it was a great actor's movie i'd never seen.. my comment on this is: the movie is a lil bit too artistic for me if you know what i mean. i'll probably study it more, but only if im in a good mood, not because i really really extremely loved it and became my #1 possesion.. hehe the actin's great tho..

"... I'm a dirty little beast, freak, hair lip, and no one will ever love me!"

reply

You clearly do not have the intellectual capacity to process Mamet. Go watch the Teletubbies or something.

reply

His "critique" isn't very profound but not necessarily due to lacking brainpower. Many (professional) critics evaluated Mamet's play as an anti-drama since nothing is happening on stage. Therefor one could say that it was boring. But, of course, this is very superficial because on a linguistic level there's very much happening.
American Bufallo is a fringe-movie (just like Mamet's characters) and can't be evaluated like a ordinary movie. No.1 poster should overthink what he just said or at least bring forward some arguments. But he definitely shouldn't watch Teletubbies - this would add insult to injury.

"Are you a truck driver?"
"No, I'm a beautician...of course I'm a truck driver!"

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

I understand intellectual theater and film and what not, and I loved Glengarry Glen Ross but this film did get pretty boring toward then end. I liked the first 40 min. but ultimately it seemed to get repetitive and I didn't find myself really attached to, or pulling for, any of the characters. Not Mamet's best work, but certainly not the worst movie of all time. And no matter how you slice it I don't really see how anyone could not find at least part of this movie boring.

Evolution is a fact, not a theory. - Carl Sagan

reply

hopefully the remake will have more explosions and titties, yeah?
jackass

reply

Your Subject Heading alone disqualifies you from making any so-called criticisms.

"Worst movie off all time."

Not sure what langauge you're trying to replicate here, but it isn't English.

reply

If Mamet re-wrote the script now it would play better. He's learned how to write a screenplay for the screen. Spartan was great.

This is much more enjoyable and works better on the stage.
Still, it's pretty good.

reply

Wow--here it is 3 years & 2 weeks after your post, and I'm only now seeing this film. (I bought it for $3 on the Clearance rack at "Big Lots.") I know how you feel. The whole time I'm watching, I'm wondering: is this all that's gonna' happen? There were many MANY times when I felt the musical score should've swelled or punctuated the dialogue. Also the character of Bobby could've been more developed. I wasn't sure whether he was mentally challenged, or what. Also, I'm going to be bold and say that even if Dustin Hoffman is a great actor, he wasn't suited for this role. I doubt I'll ever resell this movie: probably I'll hand it down to someone I meet who hasn't seen it yet.

reply

MAMET: "American Buffalo is a classical tragedy, the protagonist of which is the junk store owner who is trying to teach a lesson in how to behave like the excellent man to his young ward. And he is tempted by the devil into betraying all his principles. Once he does that, he is incapable of even differentiating between simple lessons of fact and betrays himself into allowing Teach to beat up this young fellow whom he loves. He then undergoes, as I have said, recognition in reversal - realizing that all this comes out of his vanity, that because he abdicated a moral position for one moment in favor of some momentary gain, he has let anarchy into his life and has come close to killing the thing he loves. And he realizes at the end of the play that he has made a huge mistake, that, rather than his young ward needing lessons in being an excellent man, it is he himself who needs those lessons. That is what American Buffalo is about."

Oh...and Bobby's a drug addict. Not retarded.

reply

wow! great analysis! now i can watch teletubbies!

What the $%*& is a Chinese Downhill?!?

reply

alphadog01^

Nice! Thanks for posting that :)

Mamet is an urban Shakespeare.

But, then again, not everyone understood or enjoyed Shakespeare in his day, either.

:)



"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

reply

I have directed the play, and this was exactly what I came up with as the through-line -- but, on purpose, I did not read anything Mamet himself would have said about it since playwrights are often not the most trustworthy interpreters of their own work. Teach is the flashiest role, yes, but it's Donny who learns something, it's Donny who undergoes a transformation. Mamet's comment is right on the money.

For those who complain "nothing happens" -- no, quite a lot happens, but it's happening inside the characters' heads. In a play it takes some work on the audience's part, in collaboration with the actors, to figure out what that is. It's not all laid out for you like an action movie where you can turn off the sound and still figure out what's going on. A play is about mental, interior action; a movie is about physical, external action -- the essence of that idea is contained in a T-shirt I've seen stuntmen wear: "To hell with the dialogue; let's blow up something."

When we did the show (at a small, liberal-arts college founded by the Methodist Church, I might add) we made it clear in the advertising that the show contained a lot of profanity. A _lot_. That kept us in the clear with the administration. Even so, one night one of our most senior faculty, a woman who'd been with the college for something like forty years, came to see the show. She was about seventy years old, and her Southern accent made her sound like she's straight out of the cast of GONE WITH THE WIND. Seemed like the sweetest old Southern lady you'd ever want to meet. I was thinking to myself, "Oh, crap, the language, she's going to _hate_ it; she's going to go straight to the Dean and have me fired" (except that the Dean had told me he didn't care what we did as long as the audience knew what to expect). Anyway, when she came up to me after it was over, she smiled and said, "It's all about redemption, isn't it?"

That was the most perceptive comment I'd ever had from an audience member in forty years of doing theatre.

reply

You're right, it's much worse than The Hottie and the Nottie.

I'm happiest...in the saddle.

reply