MovieChat Forums > Death Defying Acts (2008) Discussion > Only film I've ever seen where I'd have ...

Only film I've ever seen where I'd have wanted censorship

posted 12 years ago by greightdane
3 replies | jump to latest

What in the world were they thinking?

Houdini used a huge part of his life fighting a lonely and noble war against the phony psychics.

Why would someone make a movie where he is depicted as being beat by a psychic, fully in front of all incl. the press, thus proving, doing the opposite of what he did in real life (disproving), the psychics?

To cook up a good love story? Give me break...

At the time of Houdini's mother's dead, he was a famous man. He was in Europe when it happened so it must have been reported in newspapers around the world when he broke off a tour to rush back to his dead mother.

In the movie the psychic is shown going to the library in order to crack the question (His mother's last words). Well there would have been 1,000's of psychics winning the challenge if it was real as it was well known that he was away from his mother when she died.

I'm not saying that the movie can not take this liberty for whatever reason. I'm saying that once they plotted it like this they forgot to think. Had they turned on their brains for just a fraction of a second, they would have figured that the question (his mother's last words) would be known by one and all as, again, it would have been reported in newspapers everywhere that he was not there when his mother died. If this did not insult your intelligence like there's no tomorrow, then I don't know what would.

In short, this movie is that same as if someone made a movie (non-comedy like this) about Mandela showing him to support apartheid in public because he fell in love with a woman openly supporting apartheid. Clever,huh?

Why is it so hard to take Houdini's real life story and turning it into a great movie? Unbelievable that we're still waiting for such a movie.

[–] Stoshie 11 years ago

"I'm not saying that the movie can not take this liberty for whatever reason"

Yes, you are. You didn't like the movie, fine. But your objections are ridiculous. Foremost, the movie made it clear that Houdini was not "taken in" by the Zeta-Jones character's psychic scam. He acknowledges at the end, after he was punched, that he knew that his assistant had told her that he wasn't present when his mother died, so there were no final words said to him. His relationship with the Zeta-Jones character in the final scene with her also made that clear. So that part of your objection isn't even accurate. And the final credits say that the characters and events in the film were fictional. The only "insult to intelligence" here is your faulty reasoning for panning the film. Look up the term "MacGuffin" and maybe you will understand films better.

There are documentaries available on the life of Houdini. Perhaps you would be better off watching them, instead of a movie, which has no obligation to be completely objective and accurate about the life of any character.

[–] greightdane 11 years ago

Dude, I didn't like the movie as it sucked. I guess you like it. I prefer my movies that don't insult my intelligence so we differ here. You like a movie based on a true hero where they make it fictional, we disagree again. Especially I think it's a joke when they take the great reality and substitute it with utter garbage. Throw away the gold and substitute it with crap. Enjoy my friend.

[–] yusef-ghanima 10 years ago

but according to the movie itself, Houdini himself was nothing but a crook who hide the key to his chains in his mouth.