Is this a joke?


For all the years I've used this site, I've always thought IMDB ratings were a pretty good pinpointer of deeming whether a movie was worth a watch. Anything above 7 has always been pretty good.

But with this movie.. I'm wondering if the movie was a cold parody of the ignorant's man world view of violence.

Or if the majority here are really making some sort of big practical joke, pretending to praise this movie.

I know it's silly of me to come here and say these things. I'm well aware that I probably get nothing constructive out of saying this, but it's been a long time since I've been so surprised, so I felt like sharing it.

If you read this far, and you seriously like this movie.. then tell me, what did you enjoy about this movie? I know I'm probably in for a troll roll, but I'd gladly give it a try.

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Came here to say exactly this. Haven't commented in years...

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Haven't commented in decades... But, yeah!

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I haven't commented in centuries. I'm a vampire and I had to express my displeasure with this offensive film.

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That's the first time ever I'm writing something in this galaxy. I'm an alien from a gazzilion light years away, and had to say that I just didn't like this movie.

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Lol this thread.

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I never comment. ever. since AOL.

even then I didn't. well I guess this is a comment. but it's not, really.

I watched the equalizer 2 first then the first 2'nd. I'm confused and lost now. I have to sit upside down and on the roof.

such is life.

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askebisgaard, when you ask and declare stupid questions and comments you deserve to get "nothing constructive" back at you. if you can't understand the very VERY simple fact that we all like different things then you need to get more life experience under your belt. you missed some important experiences growing up that wouldn't require explanations like the one you've asked here. it's simple. you don't like the movie? no problem. many of us did.

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I'm not an expert on behavioral economics, psychology, neuroscience or human behavioral biology - but I know that opinions don't manifest out of thin air. They manifest partly through lifetime experiences (including peer influence) and genetic propensities. So when you have the opinion of tens of thousands of people, that probably regularly use this site, it often turns out to hold very similar criteria, within genres etc. (that's why there's film theory). And I've experienced I tend to largely agree with the majority. At least I've never seen an enjoyable (for me) movie have much worse than 6 on IMDB.

Why are you angry with me for sharing this view?

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Just guessing but I'd wager he sounds angry because your post can most easily be read at best as an insult or at worst as an attack on anyone with temerity to enjoy this type of movie.

I suppose it could be taken at face value as an earnest attempt at gathering information, but there is just way too much passive aggressive phrasing to to really take that into consideration.

---
"Were you in Virginia?"
"That's beside the point."

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People are so touchy now, it's ridiculous. "I'm so offended.". So what?
I didn't get any passive aggressiveness from his post at all.

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How about from mine? That was the style I was aiming for.

---
"Were you in Virginia?"
"That's beside the point."

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You sounded very self-righteous and full of yourself with your original post: "Is this a joke" as the title, and particularly using the word "ignorant."

Honestly, no one really cares about how rate movies. That is something subjective for everyone.

Just accept the fact that not everyone has the same taste and worry about other, more important things.

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Oh *beep* off. Did you see the context of the word ignorant? Stop being a sook and piss off if you can't chat at the grown up's table.






'Then' and 'than' are different words - stop confusing them.

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I'm guessing that you are championing the use of "ignorant" in the OP. By extension, then, you can't understand why someone could interpret that as "if you have this 'world view', you are ignorant," and thus be offended? Really?

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I wanted to study behavioral economics, but didn't have the mental bus fare. :(

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Thank you, jjett123. You may have stated the obvious, but I guess, to some people, it isn't that obvious after all :)

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It wasn't a stupid question. Your answer was extremely stupid and rude when you consider the following:

IMDb is so popular for viewing film ratings because if a film is genuinely good it will (typically) receive a high IMDb rating. IMDb state that they calculate a film's rating based on a weighted voting system, amongst other reasons I'm sure, to weed out the trolls and industry workers trying to increase or decrease a film's rating.

It's not a coincidence that great films get high ratings and bad films get low ones; people around the world have all been exposed to the same films for decades and we all have a fairly generic concept of what is good and what isn't when it comes to films. We should be able to rely on IMDb ratings to tell us if a film will be good or not and for the most part, we ARE able to.

Now, this is an answer I believe the OP was looking for and might appreciate:

'Generally' speaking, if a film has a rating of 7 or higher on IMDb then the film should be excellent. But let's face it, The Equalizer is NOT an excellent film. There are many things wrong with it: it's clichéd, has over-the-top soppy music and dramatic music, Denzel plays the same person in every film, Chloë Moretz was badly miscast and the bad guy in this was incredibly cheesy. It was predictable and so on...

And yet: I submitted a review and rated the film an 8. Why? Because I rated it based on my expectations for action films. I don't expect them to be well written or unique so my rating took that into account.

Basically, this film has such a high score because the audience it was intended for (action/gore lovers like myself) set a lower bar for this genre and apply their ratings accordingly.

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[deleted]

Why forgive a movie just because of the genre it belongs to?
That sounds so wrong to me.

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Mostly for the reasons I listed above...

But to expand a little; we all do it subconsciously it's just that some of us are aware we're doing it. The amount of times I've seen people give a film 1 star simply because "it wasn't funny" even though the film likely had other qualities is fairly shocking. People rate films lower because they didn't like the genre (why were they watching?!) or because the trailer was misleading or they thought it would be better because of the reviews etc. and it all adds up to expectations.

You will enjoy a film more if you have lower expectations and vice versa which typically reflects in your ratings.

So for me, I watched The Equalizer expecting the story to be crap but expecting to see some great kill scenes, and that's what I got. The film therefore lived up to my expectations and did what it was supposed to do which is entertain. So in my eyes, it deserved an 8.

Then you have people who rate a film based on the quality of the script. Why? What about the acting? Les Misérables was rubbish, it had a bad script, a jumbled storyline and a lot of weak songs but terrific acting. Why does it have a high IMDb score? Perhaps because of existing fans of the play or book?

Everyone rates from a biased perspective because it's unavoidable based on how our brains work. Typically we should therefore be able to rely on IMDb ratings as long as we're looking at films in genres we like. If the OP didn't like this film, it's probably because they wanted more than a simple kill film.

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If anything, action films should be rated more stringently because there are so many of them. We need to start weeding out the mediocre and get back to some standard of quality.

Perhaps an even better way to rate action films would be a simple pass/fail. Whether or not the script is fresh and polished, a movie of this type should be engaging and have at least something new to offer. The Equalizer did neither and just seems like a glaring fail in the end. (if not a joke)




Is this to be an empathy test?

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Totally my feeling. Good action movies are rare and it becomes so hard to find one that is even halfway decent. I did used to go to IMDB and trust the judgment that if an action movie had a comparatively high rating it would be safe to watch. Now there's no use.

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Amen.




Is this to be an empathy test?

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I think this film is a member of a new sub-genre - along with the Bourne and Taken franchises. A large part of my interest in these is the back story of the main characters - largely the same in some narrow areas, identical in the broad view. The performance of the central character is absolutely crucial, of course, and one of the things that can make any given movie worth watching for me. Each of these franchises has hung its flag on superior actors; each and every one of them has left their mark so indelibly that it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. So there's that.

I can't find a way to 'rank' these few on "cinematic\artistic value," one to the other. None of them will ever be confused with Citizen Kane, are they? But my take is that the fans have some vicarious satisfaction about 'their guy' meting out some well-deserved violence on some very deserving, nasty people. And how many males (and maybe even some females) that watch these movies would like to be as capable as any of these anti-heroes? I admit to both of those foibles.

So, perhaps I've made at least a bit of a case for adjusting one's appreciation of a movie because of its genre. Sometimes, you might want 'art.' Sometimes, a sideshow or midway ride that doesn't force the viewer to think is what you're after.

YMMV. And that's fine - Subjectivity R Us.


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Exactly! Well said. When genres like action and horror continue to get so dismal movies, it doesn't take much for a film to come along and shine.

Whether critics should let films slide because of that is another matter (I'm a critic and try not to get won over by films simply because the rest are terrible), but for people who just enjoy watching films, and those are the people who films are made for and who rightly populate IMDb, praising a movie just because recent ones disappoint is very natural.

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I think your point here is valid but I would like to say your intentions in implementing your rating scheme is slightly different from my view.

I fully agree and rate films myself based on expectations and type of genre but IMO an action film can never really be a 10. The very best action films of all time should get a maximum of 8 because of the way they are made and the reasons you gave etc. I gave this a 7 which is massive and pretty close to perfect for an action film but it shouldn't get an 8 because it's not one of the best action films of all time but it's very good. I enjoyed it and it entertained me even though it was particularly clichéd and we've seen it all before.

Like it's the same with comedy. My max rating for a comedy is 8, those ones are the best of all time comedies like Dumb & Dumber etc.

Do you see where I'm coming from?

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I do know what you mean and I agree to an extent but I've noticed Hollywood running out of ideas and so I think it's important to remember "why" we use IMDb. It's not used to score films simply to let Hollywood know if they've dropped the ball or done a good job, it's (primarily) to let others know if the film is worth their bandwidth/money/time and therefore we have to rate not only based on genre but on a 'curve' against other films being released that year/decade otherwise if every action flick got the 6 it deserved, people who want 'excellence' (7 or higher) would have no films to watch. It's a bit like how exams are graded at most universities. Your performance matters but so does everyone else's. Is it fair? No. Is it useful? When grading films yes but exams are another debate.

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It was ok as an action film, until the scene in the shoop - it was a classic Steven Seagal scene which I've enjoyed only until I've seen 5 of them... There were quite a few "seriously?" moments while watching it and having in mind it's Denzel in the main role :/

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jjett123, only an ignorant twat with serious issues would come up with such an unprovoked anger for a reply

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Nice one! 😘

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Well Put jjett123 couldn't have said it better myself

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Wait a minute jjett the OP is saying that usually when a movie has garnered an IMDb rating above 7, he has frequently found those movies to be good. He's just incredulous with disappointment at this specific example. What's the problem with that comment?

We don't need you pointing out the fact that different people like different things. If there wasn't any benefit to mass opinion or the tastes of others I'm guessing that IMDb wouldn't have a scoring system, wouldn't gather reviews and generally it would be completely pointless voicing an opinion here.

IMO this film started with potential but by the final act was a really formulaic turkey. Have to say I was very disappointed.

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People like you are what's wrong with this site.

The OP is obviously frustrated (hence the wording of his post), and came looking for an answer. Anyone can see that. If you tried any OTHER tac than to get your panties in a bunch and try to dialogue with him, then we might get somewhere.


Me, I liked this film and like films LIKE this. It's not going to hurt me to take a few moments to talk to someone who doesn't have the same tastes and try to explain why.



'Then' and 'than' are different words - stop confusing them.

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Good question. I always enjoy these kinds of flicks. Quiet, nice guy who takes out a gang with bad a$$ moves (like taken). I wouldn't watch it again but the action scenes were pretty cool. In my opinion though, it was sort of a ripoff of taken and Leon the professional. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the action sequences even though the storyline was just a rehash of other action flicks. But seriously, you can't expect a GOOD action movie since they're all the same.

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Yeah, I'm probably a bit biased, since I've just recently been researching causal criminology and been in some pretty hefty ignorant debates about warfare, justification of CIA torture from Fox News etc.

This movie is probably nothing to be offended by. But then again, I still wonder. I liked Taken and Leon way more than this.

All characters in this movie are extremely unrealistic and unrelatable - yet I feel like it tried so hard to portray realism.
But e.g. in Steven Seagal movies, that are obviously also unrealistic, I found Seagal was at least sincerely displaying as a bad actor, just trying to make a good-guy-bad-guy film with some fun explosions and cool stunts.

But this film. It had so much preaching about justice in such an absurd way. And many of the kills were longer scenes where it seemed to me we had to sincerely feel "yeah! that guy totally deserved it!" - as if we would feel that way if it happened in reality - and I felt like it was just completely pretentious in many of the "everyday hero" situations presented. I don't know. I'm not even sure these are the reasons I thought the movie was bad.

As I said first, maybe I'm biased to take this spin too seriously, but I feel normal action flicks (or splatters) don't usually preach like this movie did. They usually don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe it's Denzel that made the movie seem so serious - I don't know. Maybe it's because there was no jokes (that I recall) in this movie. Or maybe I'm just clouded by something. I've liked other Denzel flicks before.

Did you feel like you were prompted to take the movie seriously?

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In discussions of war, torture, and violence, it is all too easy to moralize because violence is indeed a frightening and in moral terms, a revolting act. But it is a natural act. An act animals and humans alike use to acquire food and territory, establish social hierarchy, and to preserve one’s life.

To call someone’s opinion on the use of violence “ignorant” implies that one possesses the truth about violence and the application of it. In reality there is no ordained-by-God truth about violence, but opinions based on ethical and moral principles. The entire debate is subjective.

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Maybe you're right. But the way I see it, as long as your subjective end-goal is a thriving society, and/or a pacifistic society, then there are ways of preventing violence that produce less and more violence. These are measured using science.
My, perhaps unfair, use of "ignorant" was, admittedly, partly because of the recent growth in shallow injustice politics, through parties that promise safety, comfort and justice, appealing to emotions, rather than evidence. I see this trend as a reaction to the current economic crisis mixed with the historical levels of economic inequality, as particularly examined by Thomas Piketty's book, The Capital. Not to mention the increased stress from the ever-increasing efficiency demanded on an ever-increasing range of monetized occupations.

I do not think I know the truth on the matter (in fact I think I am ignorant in many subjects, comparing to experts), but I thought this film was extremely heavily biased toward that political attitude.

While violence and warfare are as natural as anything that occurs in the natural world, it is different for humans, because it is possible for us to use rationalization and science to proactively influence the environment we largely call society, and this in turn has direct implications on things like violence. While some believe otherwise, doesn't change the science.
I am of course open to find studies that says otherwise, since I actively seek to scrutinize my views and avoid cherry-picking.

It is true that if you don't wish to maximize well-being of humans, and rather seek to maximize 'opportunity' of individuals, then it changes, since violence becomes a matter of 'personal choice'. But if you've studied human behavioral biology, then I don't know how you can have this view. I have yet to encounter anyone that did, anyway.

I'd be happy if you could point out the flaws in my thinking, or share how you've experienced it differently.

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"But seriously, you can't expect a GOOD action movie since they're all the same."

I disagree entirely; I'd consider action films like Die Hard--or if you want something more recent--The Raid 2: Berandal to be vastly superior films to The Equalizer. They know exactly the type of the film they want to be, and deliver in a stylish and creative way.

I too am baffled by The Equalizer's relatively high score. It was just another bland action film from a director who has only made bland action films for some time now. It even managed to make Denzel Washington boring, which I feel takes considerable effort to do so.

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Each to their own, I though Raid 1 and 2 are super over rated, I guess it's aimed at people with ADHD. Nothing about them were original in the slightest.

Now don't get me wrong, this was hardly original either but it did have decent acting.

it was very much in the style of Tony Scott who Denzil had some of his biggest films with.

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I'm sorry, but the cinematography in The Raid films alone overdoes anything in The Equalizer. The pacing of the first movie was claustrophobic, suffocating, and I loved it, it was so tense. The pacing of The Equalizer was thirty minutes of boring witless banter, and then a quick and decent action scene.

The choreography in The Equalizer is very weak. There's a scene where Denzel disarms a guy by holding his gun - the thug LETS GO and steps away while Denzel turns it around, but he literally does nothing to tear it from the guy's grip. It's so blatantly fake that it seems like no one even bothered to care about the filming.

The choreography in The Raid is brutal, physical, and in some cases those guys really got their asses kicked. I doubt Denzel even broke a nail in The Equalizer.

I'm sorry for pissing all over this movie, but even the acting was awful. Denzel had no character motivation or progress, he was honestly a psychopath. The scene where he hung and guy and watched him suffocate to death, what!? How is that heroic? Our hero in The Raid didn't torture his victims for personal pleasure, he fought in self defense and ended the threat as fast as he could. Plus, he always showed some amount of shock and fear, no matter HOW many times he killed. He was presented as human, not a revenge robot.

I could keep going, but honestly, to each their own opinion. You can like The Equalizer, there's nothing wrong with that, but if you want to get into technicalities, The Raid took much more thought and effort to create.

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I was looking for something to watch and was lured in by the rating, some good actors, and a director that can. What a disappointment! People said that if I liked Training Day then I will like this. I LOVED Training Day, but this is nothing like it. Not clever, not witty. Just bland, and then tastelessly bloody. Don't get me wrong, I like my ketchup, but I like it with style.

Here's something to watch instead (saw it last week):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068638

This one ain't over 'til the
Fat lady dies

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Yeah I agree. I'm going on vacation tomorrow, but I might give your recommendation a try when I get back.

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Haha, I just looked this up to see if it was worth watching.

Perhaps I can share some of what I have learned from IMDB browsing. The ratings settle. New movies are always inflated, at times to a significant degree of 2 or even 3 points. I think it has to do with the theater experience. Even a crappy movie is sometimes mitigated by the whole theater experience. People take into account the entire experience and ambiance and that usually swells the votes for a short while until more rational folks come in to even things out. It has probably happened to you. I remember coming home and giving Avatar a 10 and watching it again a year later and wishing I could go 6.5 but settled on a 7.

Just a dumb theory of mine but I think about 4 months after DVD release date is about when you can see the votes settle to where most folks can agree they should be. IMDb has always been a very reliable indicator of what movies to watch for me, it's just this initial inflation, and the very low vote count total inflations that can sometimes trick you into a view . I use the ratings quite a bit but will usually still watch genre favorites of mine or sub-genre, such as post-apocalyptic for me, so I will give things like "The Rover" a try for example which has a 6.5 rating expecting to have a decent time since its a genre favorite.

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Yeah, I've noticed this as well. Although I wouldn't even judge this 2 or 3 points ahead personally. I thought it was really bad. It's weird because it wasn't B-movie bad (which is sometimes funny). It was great cinematography, but it acted like a very serious portrayal of realism, but with dead and bland characters in a very unrealistic and cliché world. And usually cliché movies don't take themselves too seriously - but this really did. It had so much bad moral preaching as well. And it was never funny or clever.

Ah well, it's just one movie. I hope it's not a new trend that I just don't understand.

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The theater experience will have some sway inflated ratings early on, but I don't think its the main reason for it, although in a way the theater does have everything to do with it because of the cost of going to the theater. People are generally good at assessing what movies that will like and if someone is going to spend the time and money to go to a theater to see a movie, the likelihood they will like the movie enough to give it a higher than average score is pretty great.

Then as cheaper viewing options like dollar theater releases and then rental become available people who were not willing to risk as much will start watching it and there scores are not going to be as high.

Then you are going to get to the releases with even less barriers, like Netflix and other no cost options where the only thing to give up is the time it takes to watch and these people are going to give it the lowest scores on average.

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Well it's worn out plot all right. you can deduce that off just by looking at the poster or more likely trailer. But Denzil wash cannot be missed.

Gotta say that.
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I expected it to be better than it was based on the rating. A poor movie overall.

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You have to wait for a few months (or even more than a year) for the ratings to become a decent indicator of a movie quality.

The first month after the movie is out, the ratings are absurdly inflated. And I've noticed this inflation is lasting more and more.

The movie is somewhat entertaining, and it starts quite well, with an old style feel to it. But then the plot gets sloppy and even ridiculous.

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"a cold parody of the ignorant's man world view of violence" sums it up I feel. Regardless of it's origins, 30 years on it just feels both bland and banal now. Then again if people enjoyed it then so be it, I won't be recommending it to anyone though.

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I found this movie a strange experience, was it one long add for Home Renovation stores? So Denzel is some highly trained agent of some badass military/government organization that don't include guns or rifles amongst their specialist training?

It was not enough that he's Black-guyver but he's got to be like some neighborhood Tony Robins for even casual acquaintances?

Was this set in some surreal world where the owner of the local Diner has only two customers and is aware when the prostitute is put in hospital?

Does righteous anger and keeping time with a stopwatch lend an individual high speed martial arts skills against armed opponents. Why did corkscrew gangster have a gun at the car but later at the office/bar he has none? Do the Russian gangsters share the one gun? Did he put in the gun safe?

I am glad he went to Russia to kill the head honcho, but did it matter if it looked like an accident? This movie confused and angered me :-)

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I thought the point of electrocuting him wasn't to make it look like an accident, but to give him a false hope, that he was going to survive to then die a nasty death.

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Your post sums up everything I think about this movie. I liked its looks... but anything outside of that it's pretty ridiculous. Even then... it's somehow fun to watch.

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There ya go.

Not artsy, not realistic, not educational at all. But, man, it was fun to watch.

I just wish Denzel had gotten into better shape before he shot this though.

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