MovieChat Forums > Elizabethtown (2005) Discussion > Words can't express how much I HATED thi...

Words can't express how much I HATED this movie


I saw it for the first time as an inflight movie and caught a few minutes of it this weekend. I can't get over just how bad this movie is. Everything about it from the script to the casting to the ridiculous scenes with Susan Sarandon. I was secretly hoping that the movie would end up in a bloodbath.

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When I rented this film, I was already biased with the negative reviews that I had read about it. I decided to watch it anyway. And perhaps those reviews infiltrated my thoughts to make me dislike the film through the first go-round. I've since caught glimpses of the film on cable a few times and I don't dislike it AS much. Some people don't believe that the words "film" and "realistic" belong anywhere near each other because movies should entertain. I disagree to some extend. It depends on the rules of the universe in a film. In sci-fi flicks, you can expect aliens to pop out from around a corner because in that film's world, that's a possibility. In a movie where its world mirrors our own, it's hard to not expect some sense of realism b/c that's how our world works. Anyway, my problem with the film wasn't even that it wasn't realistic enough -- I can see things like the a mother rolling through hobbies as a distraction from mourning or as a way of telling herself that life will go on as being realistic. I can see a southern town acting that way, let alone the torn decisions between cremation and burial as realistic. ...Okay, so the hard rock fire hazard was a little much, haha.

What I didn't like about the film was that I felt like it was missing sincerity. I'm sure that wasn't CC's intention, but the movie feels artificial. Maybe I would've liked the film with a different cast, a cast of less-known individuals. Orlando Bloom committing suicide? Yes, it wasn't "Orlando Bloom" doing it, but he was distracting within his own role (and I have liked him in other movies). Even the roadtrip with his father's urn, which was meant to be touching in a "it's not too late, Dad" way, did nothing for me. What could've been emotionally wonderful, a son laughing and crying with a father's last journey, looked more like he'd gone off his rocker. The voiceovers tried too hard to be philosophical. And it felt like there were too many characters so that their quality fell short due to their quantity. I guess I think of it as a superficial indie flick as a result of its attempts, but it tries too hard to be poignant and falls flat for me because of that.


~~I'll overlook your horrific grammar, even your stupidity. I can't overlook your ignorance.~~

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the way the women says 'hash brown casorole' in such a matter of fact way (yes i know that's spelt wrong) makes me laugh teehee
The humour is very subtle, but, you know, I got A LOT out of that movie... it really did make me want to do the thing that the movie is all about.

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I know it was terrible and even though I physically did not run out of the theatre screaming, my mind did. I nearly lost it watching this crut!!!!

Whyyyyyyyyyy!!!

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It was a pretty boring movie, I'll admit. I didn't even finish it. I think that Orlando Bloom's acting in it was pretty bad. He was like a dead weight. It had some nice moments but it just didn't quite get there.

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I couldn't agree more! I am not one of those critical people who find fault in everything they watch. I am perfectly happy to just sit back, relax and let a mediocre movie wash over me, but this was something else! My husband bought this in Tesco for £3 and we watched it together last night and we were both absoluteley amazed at how embarrassingly BAD it was. Orlando Bloom was wooden and I couldn't make out if he was supposed to be dark and moody, or distant and disinterested. Kirsten Dunst, who I usually really like, was trying so hard to be 'kooky' 'quirky' and a 'free spirit' that she just ended up being annoying and needing a good slap.As for Susan Sarandon, well lets just say I was very embarrassed for her. The script was just a bunch of random statements strung together. The characters didn't make me like them, or feel for them, or anything. It left me stone cold. The only thing I felt was relief when it ended. We should have turned it off half way through but we wanted to get the £3's worth and kept hoping it would improve. My husband even joked it would be more fun to stick the hot fire poker in his eyes! (he didn't thankfully) I couldn't recommend this to anyone. It will be going to the charity shop at the first opportunity. BAD, BAD, BAD!

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I agree with your entire post, gmarshall-4.



"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

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well you're just making me really angry and i'm trying to ignore it but i guess you didn't pay attention to this movie enough to appreciate it for it's sincerity and pure emotion it provokes. go watch transformers or something.

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I don't like Transformers either, but even THAT would be preferable to this bunkum I'm sure!

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for a writer/director like Crowe, i expected so much more.

the begining and the ending was the best part. the rest was annoying. Shouldn't have so many meaningless laughs, a few more poignant moments would have made a few laughs memorable.

GREAT SOUNDTRACK, totally helped the feel of the movie, but eventually NOT the movie itself!

btw, Dunst's charms does NOT work on me! Bloom was not directed to his potential in this. To say he was 'wooden' is an understatement....i was waiting for the moment when he would jump and say..."I'M A REAL BOY!"


"If the milk turns out to be sour, I ain't the kinda pussy to drink it" - Rory Breaker (Lock'Stock)

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I am so with you.

I just decided to watch this movie because it was coming on on cable and I figured, you know what? How bad could it really be, and at least the soundtrack will be good. And then it started, and was front loaded with quirky cliches, blah blah blah, but you know, I thought it would relax and get better, like Juno did, but it only got worse--just when you thought they couldn't put in any more cliches, they'd slip in one more. And then the road trip. Are you effing kidding me?

So basically, fired in losing a BILLION dollars (??? There is no way that could ever happen in real life, but whatever, it's not even the worst of it), having your dad die, having to go back to his hometown, in the South no less, dealing with his huge crazy but of course lovable family, meeting cute with the iconic quirky and totally unrealistic girl (who any sane person would have run from because she's obviously INSANE), being in a hotel amidst the kookiest wedding party EVAR, having the most moving and funny memorial service EVAR ending with of course, the "last look" in the "rain" of the sprinklers, followed by the iconic road trip, which of course has to play U2 when at MLK's death hotel? I'm lucky I didn't throw up my dinner.

Ok so maybe this might have been better if a real actor played the lead instead of Orlando "acting to me is staring in the mid distance" Bloom, but I don't think that even Christian Bale could have saved this mess of a movie. It's just so lazy, poorly written and edited, overlaid with so much music to make people possibly overlook the crevices in the script and direction. I mean honestly after Jerry Maguire and that train wreck of a film Vanilla Sky I don't have any idea why I would ever give Cameron Crowe another chance, but Elizabethtown just really put the nail in the coffin for me.

Cameron Crowe YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.

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i agree, and this is camerons worst movie, good music but i honestly feel like its a little forced, and theres a little too much of it, especially the farther towards the end, the more music he tries to cram in and you dont get a feel for it, especially during the road trip. orlando bloom is a pretty bad leading man, and this is a damn good showcase of that fact, and during his narration his voice is just bleh. basically just in agreement with all the haters. someone was saying yesterday how much they loved the road trip and the tap dancing scene, and i almost crapped my pants.

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If words can't express how much you hated this movie then why do you attempt it? I hardly think anyone cares what you think.

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I hardly think anyone cares what you think. - Remisser

Obviously someone cares, quite a few someones in fact being that this is the 5th page of this thread. Apparently all those who posted before you cared and you yourself cared, you posted too didn't you. So even if it only took you 30 seconds to express how much you cared about this post those were still 30 seconds of your life spent caring about what the OP thought of this movie. So you are definitely wrong there are 4 and a half pages full of people who care what the OP thinks. 4 and a half is quite a bit of caring considering that most threads only get about a page of responses if they are lucky.

Also I completely agree with the OP this movie was a complete piece of Sh!t, here's hoping Crowe can bounce back.

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

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