Predictable
This movie turned out to be pretty good even though every single thing in the movie was predictable.
shareThe ending was NOT at all predictable.
shareMaybe not to you but it was to me. Every part about it. I knew the ending when the duelist told the main character that he was going to get him in the early round.
share*SPOILER*
How if Sebastien kills the duelist?
*Spoiler*
Wathcing movies for me is like playing chess. I don't just see the move in front of me, I see multiple moves ahead of what is going on in the movie. When the duelist says "i'm going to get you", I thought to myself sebatian is probably going to end up going one on one with the duelist and killing him instead. Then I thought, his brother is going to want to get revenge for killing his brother. The phone call back home and the buying of the water were also very good signs that he was going to die. If he wouldn't of bought the water then his bag wouldn't be full and it would be fairly obvious that he didn't have the money on him. You have to understand that everything in the movie has a purpose otherwise it wouldn't be in the movie. Foretelling the end of the movie is a result of analyzing the purpose of the parts of the movie. I am very good at this. I have also predicted such films as The Usual Suspects and The Prestige. After all of this you still probably won't believe me but most people don't.
*SPOILERS*
I didn't find The Usual Suspects to be predictable (the ending did work on me the first time around) but I did see some of the twists for The Prestige a mile away especially with the Borden twins.
I also thought that the brother was going to want revenge, after all who wouldn't. But what I'm arguing here is that I don't believe you could have predicted Sebastien's killing on the train by the brother exactly, that the brother happened to be on that same train the same day and run into Sebastien and kill him. Even though there was some clever foreshadowing to that ending, I don't think Sebastien's death was predictable.
Like I said, I didn't expect you to believe me but it's the truth. I never lie about movies. There are a lot of movies that I don't predict. This just happened to be one of the few. The usual suspects was predictable to me because I never believed that his limp was real. I always expected that he was faking it. And I kept thinking that the twist character is usually the guy you least expect. Then I realized that Kevin Spacey was Keyser.
shareEverybody and his brother saw the twist in Prestige coming. Can't comment on Usual Suspects because it was ruined for me before I saw it. It's getting surprisingly difficult to find movies that manage to shock the viewer. Only Primer, Memento, and Basic come to mind off the top of my head. Actually, I could name one more, but the very act of naming it would render it predictable. Oh well.
shareI only named a few movies that I predicted earlier just to prove my point. I can't even remember how many movies that I have predicted because it's so common to me. I most recently predicted fracture.
share*spoil*
i agree with fc.
the film uses tension, but its emphasis is thoroughly reduced by knowing what is going to happen. i.e., the freak-out contestant dies, the arrogant brother dies, whose brother in turn kills sebastian. or is it -tien? i forget. anyway, reasonably interesting movie, but not worth a second viewing. although, the extra entitled "from a survivor", or something to that effect, is far more thought-provoking and rich than the entirety of 13.
Is this the pretentious board?
"Oh, I'm dead clever, me. I can predict the outcome of any movie, ever."
Try writing scripts instead of just talking c r a p.
"ghod, I hate taglines"
I pretty much knew what was going to happen at each step, but anyone engrossed in it is going to pretty much know. I think you're supposed to. The writer wasn't trying to surprise with a twist ending because he gave too many obvious clues at each step. I think he wanted the viewer to realize the inevitability of what was to happen. When you are there to experience a movie rather than play games at predicting, you often know what's coming and yet are drawn to watch the tragedy unwinding. Hell, Moby Dick is predictable. Hamlet is predictable. You know these characters are weaving the web of their self-destruction, but you can't turn away but have to watch the denouement. And this makes a great film.
Captain Warren 'Rip' Murdock: I'm the brass-knuckles-in-the-teeth-to-dance-time type.
AlanSquier you took the words right out of my mouth. The pleasure of watching this movie, or any other for that matter, is not that there is an unexpected twist. It's much more than that. Every story has been told before, it's all in the telling...
sharelouiselabrooks, I appreciate and thank you for your comment. I feared that maybe I stopped conversation on this thread and I sure as Hell didn't mean to do that. I do consider this a great film on several levels. The main character is a classic tragic as well as film noir character, one who needing money desparately comes across a chance to get some and goes for it without regard for what he may be called on to do in order to get it. Importantly, he was a good person, but he made a bad decision and once that decision was made, you know he's doomed. You don't know exactly what the circumstances of his doom will be, but you know he's doomed and towards the end, you see that he also knows he's doomed and therefore does make what very few good decisions that are possible.
Where am I from, you ask? "Pomona, Glendale, ((Fullerton, La Habra, Anaheim)), whatever."
Film conoisseur said:
"Wathcing movies for me is like playing chess. I don't just see the move in front of me, I see multiple moves ahead of what is going on in the movie."
Is this the most laughably pretentious thing you've heard in a long time?
- Yes
- Yes
- Absolutely
- Yes
- All of the above
The sad thing about it is that he probably never experiences a great film because he's too busy looking at the surface. This is a film to experience as it happens in order to get the most out of it. He seems to have missed the point that the main character himself had a precognition.
Where am I from, you ask? "Pomona, Glendale, ((Fullerton, La Habra, Anaheim)), whatever."
What's also sad is he's so busy patting himself on the back for guessing the ending, he didn't realize that this movie wasn't aiming for some big, unexpected twist. Lots of movie fans these days are so used to M. Shyamalan's bullsh!t and stuff like Usual Suspects and The Prestige that they think every movie is trying to fool them. Well, that's not how it is. In many movies, the end is obvious; it's getting there that's entertaining.
shareMy feelng that this is a great movie comes from knowing where it's going while secretly hoping (on an emotional level) it might end differently than I knew it should end.
Where am I from, you ask? "Pomona, Glendale, ((Fullerton, La Habra, Anaheim)), whatever."
Film conoisseur said
"I can't even remember how many movies that I have predicted because it's so common to me."
What does than mean other than you have a mediocre mind? Screenplays are usually written with several alternate endings and the one that pleases the average joe sixpack like you is chosen.
And you could tell the ending of the usual suspects from the fake limp? LOL. You realize that was not a clue but acting?
You're right, many stories are predictable and often enough that doesn't have anything to do with our enjoyment of the movie, because the enjoyment was not supposed to come from a final revelation anyway. But in some cases it does create problems - like in this movie. I didn't feel tension or disgust or anything during the "game", because we didn't fear for anyone: not for the main character, he was obviously not going to die in the middle of the movie, and not for anyone else, because we hadn't related to any other character whose demise we'd fear or regret. They were just pawns in the story, and seeing them die wasn't for me too different from seeing the death of the dozens of extras in a John Woo movie.
Maybe the very fact that the game was so simple and sober, while dealing with human lives, was supposed to create a numb shock in us, maybe that's what I'm feeling as well, only I'm not yet aware of it and I interpret it as indifference; but I'm still sure that the story would have had a harder impact had we had reason to fear for someone during the game - particularly since the mood of the flick had been thickly unsettling until we found out what the game was going to be about.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder
Ha. Ha ha ha.
"Watching movies for me is like playing chess."
I'm not going to argue that you couldn't have predicted the end of the movies you mentioned. I'm not even going to say you're wrong about the foreshadowing, both intentional and unintentional, in this film. You're absolutely right about the water bottles. Yes indeed.
But honestly, you said all of that with the MOST PRETENTIOUS POSSIBLE TONE EVER.
You even made a reference to CHESS! That's just CLASSIC elitism, right there.
Well done.
I bet you're in Mensa and everything.
Sorry! I'm withdraw the snarkiness. But do please pay attention to your tone; no one appreciates condescension.
I laughed out loud when I read the new responses to my post. Only because all of you are right that I sounded pretentious. I never realized it until now. If any of you knew me you would of laughed too because I am not pretentious normally. Some of you got the wrong impression of me when I made the chess comment. My purpose of watching movies is not to guess the ending even if thats what ends up happening. I actually get really pissed off at myself when I guess the ending of a movie. I really try not to guess the ending but sometimes I can't help it. I really try to enjoy movies the right way. I sort of feel like Mr. Brooks when William Hurt is whispering things into his ear when he doesn't want him to. I'll be watching a movie and then my mind will tell me- {this is going to happen next, and then this is going to happen, and this is the ending}. This post is going to sound like i'm crazy but i'm not. By the way, I don't even play chess. I don't even know how to play chess. I was just making an analogy. I don't even know what mensa is. I'm going to have to look it up. I wrote those original posts when I used to watch a lot of frasier. I'll try not to sound pretentious in the future.
shareHey, good for you!
That was a very graceful response, considering that we indulged in a lot of mockery at your expense. I wouldn't have been that nice about it.
I'd like to remind you though, that these are the IMDb message boards. That means you're supposed to argue and fight and call us names and stuff. Then we do it back and it eventually turns into some argument about Iraq and George W. Bush (as 95% of IMDb arguments seem to). Your entirely reasonable response is out of place here.
So thanks for your message. It's nice to see that some people still avoid being dicks on this website.
Thanks for the comment. I thought I was going to get ripped even more. We'll see. I have never started watching a movie with the intention of predicting the ending and I never will. I actually really like this movie. I rated this movie a 9. I know that this isn't a movie that wanted to shock us with a twist. I never said that. I know exactly what the director was going for and he did a brilliant job. I love the black and white. It's hard to make a movie where you can pull that off. In my earlier posts, I was just trying to prove that I did predict the ending to source because he said it was impossible. I just got a little carried away with it.
shareHe sent home the money not because he was fearing death at the hands of the "brother" but rather he feared being arrested.
shareYou may have a great skill but I pity that - you won't be able to enjoy movies as much as others.
By the way, i understand you making out the ending for Prestige (I haven't watched US) because there was a hint in the movie. But this movie was not a whodunit. There was no hint. "I will get you..." is not a hint as to what will happen in a movie where anyone can kill anyone any moment. #6 could have been killed as well in any of those rounds. "I will get you.." just shows #6's character of overconfidence (often found in the underworld, I assume). It is not a HINT.
did you read my last posts, I never thought it was a whodunit. But we will have to just agree to disagree with the "I will get you" line.
you just got killed by a daewoo lanos, MOTHERFU&ER! HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW!
So, I bet if you do guess the ending when watching a movie, that you're the sort that blurts it out for everyone around you to hear?
shareI like very much your analogy between watching movies and playing chess. I watch every movie the same way as you do, even the dumbest ones which are easy to read since they have to respond to production specifications and viewer standards. I guess the more you watch movies the more you're refining your analytics skills. Good movies are the ones that can surprise the audience or make me forget about myself as a member of the audience.
share