MovieChat Forums > Love, Honour and Obey (2001) Discussion > You're either going to love this film or...

You're either going to love this film or hate it.

posted 16 years ago by gonog998
9 replies | jump to latest

This is the kind of film which polarises audiences as I just found out looking at the messages.
Fraid I'm in the latter category. Oh boy! how I hated this one!
I know its very "uncool" to say this but its violence is nasty.
Its the kind of movie that whenever anyone gets hurt (which is often!) all the other characters standing round burst out laughing as if its the funniest thing they'r ever seen.
One character - fat Alan - gets beaten up or stabbed - in just about every scene he's in. And before somebody jumps in and tries to enlighen me.........yes I know that in itself is supposed to be the joke. Ha! ha! bloody ha! Pathetic!
And what about that small but disturbing scene where two guys are getting beaten up in the flat (one of course being fat Alan) while one of the gangsters is cheerfully watching his little daughter playing on the video. Theres a sick little moment where one of thugs pokes fat Alan in the belly button - the director intercuts this briefly with the little girl playing on the video. Backwards and forwards - belly button to girl and back again. My question is - why? It leers longingly towards the obscene and I think its this nasty little moment which reveals just how mean, small-minded and sadistic this movie actually is.
Theres not a human character in this film - everybody including the women are shown as callous and heartless.
But its supposed to be a comedy....is it?
The saddest thing is that the film has so many good actors roped in.
Fortunately Winstone redeemed himself for me with Sexy Beast (now thats a real class British gangster movie - violent but full of characters you learn to care for). And Jude Law redeemed himself with the Talented Mr Ripley.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Chunk_loves_Sloth 14 years ago

chiefs

[–] StonedRose 14 years ago

chimps

[–] sadako1998 14 years ago

I watched this a while ago and found it one of the most self-indulgent pieces of crap I've ever seen. Basically a load of friends let loose with a film crew. It is annoying that there is British talent out there that never get funding or distribution but because this film had a few names it was given undeserved attention.

[–] moseley74 14 years ago

enchiladas

calling us gay is one thing but calling us dykes is totally unacceptable

[–] dark_frances 13 years ago

I strongly suspect that its casualty (which you seem to have perceived as heartlessness) was caused by the contrast to the drama and the action that Johnny was expecting to find in the world of the gangsters.

The things that happen to the little fat guy were mostly mock-fatalism, he just happens to be the one always hurt, which they notice when they call him the most unlucky man alive, or so. And the knife stab in the beginning was, honestly, a tremendous proof of stupidity on his behalf. His character is very cartoonish, thus the damage he takes is very cartoonish too, never really setting his life in danger.

As to the torture scene - the movie did have surreal tendencies, as proved by the ending with the death of the two trouble makers. In this light, the torture scene was intentionally close to an uncanny nightmare.

Over all this was not a movie in which the viewer is invited to empathise with the characters; it was rather something in the vein of a parody - my feeling is that we were meant to look at the characters, not to be them. As such, I didn't find the movie cruel or sadistic. But I guess that, if one empathizes with, say, Alan, one would end up hating the movie...

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder

[–] robatmuskoka 11 years ago

I didn't hate it but I didn't like it

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gtbarker 8 years ago

What's to hate? It's comedy cartoon violence

'Well I've got two words for you - STFU'