MovieChat Forums > Nobel Son (2008) Discussion > This movie sucked (Spoilers)

This movie sucked (Spoilers)

posted 14 years ago by mjlangenbru
12 replies | jump to latest

I gave it a 4, which is probably much too generous. For starters the soundtrack and sound editing were just pathetic. The music right away put a bitter taste in my mouth. The movie became slightly interesting as the two "brothers" planned out the idea, but then in crept about 40 holes in the plot. Some being as simple as 'Why wouldnt the police check the Mini Cooper that was in the mall, or better yet disable the car out of precaution?' to others pointing out much larger flaws such as, 'Hey this mall is full of police but no one notices the very suspicious guy in the over-the-top bad disguise holding a huge remote control while an unmanned car drives about the mall?' And no one is ever checked entering or leaving the mall? Of course all of these and the many other simplistic minded plot holes wouldnt be that big of a deal if the movie continued on in a similar fashion, but of course there has to be about a dozen unusual and far-fetched plot twists. Never mind things as trivial as 'Barkley falls in love with the crazed/psycho girlfriend of his unknown also crazed/psycho half-brother Thaddeus who is plotting to blackmail his father before eventually trying to get to know his father better?' Thats just a minor problem. How did Thaddeus know that Barkley would fall in love with his psycho GF? Who cares, there are far worse problems. How about the fact that by the movies end 3 people had been kidnapped, 2 people were killed, 1 person was put in an insane asylum, 1 person's credibility and career was presumably ruined, and 3 people who are the suppossedly rational, moral, and righteous individuals of the group steal & blackmail their husband/father/friend and kill their stepson/brother and imprison a former love and all for $2 million between the 3 of them. By the movies end, I just cant comprehend who I am rooting for, if anything good occurred, if Thaddeus deserved to be killed, if the mother and son are the most depraved and evil of the whole lot, if the detective is a complete douche, if Rickman is somehow happy because he can still bang students, or if I can ever get back the 2 hours I spent watching the film or the hours I may spend in the future commenting on this movie because of the sadness and depravity that exists within it. And those thoughts and problems were just ones that happened to be on the tip of my tongue. Please illuminate me with reasons why this movie is good? I keep hoping that movie goers arent as foolish as they often seem on these message boards but I am almost always disappointed by a few people with a few rather unchoice words. Make me a believer in movie fans again. I just want good writing, good directing, and good acting. Thats all I ask. This film had very little of any of that. And my rant is through.

[–] thashiznet69-1 14 years ago

Exactly, you've pretty much nailed it. I HATED this movie, and was going to write a rant about it on this message board... but you pretty much took the words straight out of my mouth.

The one other thing is, reading some of the other posts on this board... the one's who actually *liked* this cinematic catastrophe, really don't even explain *why* they liked this film... yet, the people who hated this movie, such as myself, has no problem giving numerous examples, as well as a review, on why this is a horrible film... maybe it's because we actually have a point...

...makes you think.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

The only point you have is yer head!

Sacred cows make delicious hamburgers.

[–] lysdexia-2 13 years ago

I didn't hear anything wrong with the soundtrack; maybe the cable version was better?

There was no key, and no sake to mess with the car.
The remote control was disguised as a compact, and the wild loos car was the problem. The control's front was hidden by his body.
What is there to check for?
He isn't with anyone already?

Who was the other person killed? All of the bad twists were revenge.

[–] Faye-9 13 years ago

The soundtrack is awesome. Worth buying which I did. The whole movie is under-rated! The acting, the script, all of it is great entertainment. If someone wants to shoot holes in this plot they should give up on that and return to unscripted crimes shows. They don't want to be entertained, they want to be a cop.

Alan Rickman, Mary, Shawn and well, all of them were GREAT! They had a great script and a director with vision of good film making. That is, not all movies are for everyone. Sometimes mature adults want this kind of movie!

Thanks!

[–] lysdexia-2 13 years ago

they -> who

[–] AmyLouise 13 years ago

I have to agree with you. The plot was predicated on so many ridiculous hypotheses that in real life, they just wouldn't have panned out. For this type of plot to work, you have to believe that yes, this scenario is viable and things could easily fall into place the way the plotters hoped it would.

Even Alan Rickman couldn't save this film - his character was totally one-dimensional with no balance whatsoever, and even he couldn't make anything credible of it.

I felt very let down at the end, and quite bored long before the end titles came up.

[–] chort 13 years ago

I agree. I am watching it now and am about 1/2 way through. Very tempted to turn it off and save some of my valuable time.

Gott ist tot.
Nietzsche

[–] decroissance 13 years ago

I am really glad to see that other people hated this movie because I thought it was pretentious crap made by people who think they are extremely clever but are just mediocre and unoriginal.

I realize this is harsh but it is how I feel.

I could go on and on with many points but such a stupid movie doesn't deserve the effort. I'll just be grateful that other people have ranted already.
Maybe later I will.

I thought it started out with promise but degenerated into a ludicrous plot and vapid characterizations. The rapid-fire editing was pointless. Trendy but useless. Annoyed the crap out of me.

I'd also like to point out that the writers, who wrote the summary on this site, have mixed up the words "discreet" and "discrete". This happens to be a pet peeve of mine. The writers seem to want to say that the professor's philandering became more flagrant. In this case the correct word is "discreet", as in "he did not conduct his affairs with discretion."

The word "discrete" refers to something which is its own separate entity. It's possible that this is the meaning the authors intend -- if they mean to say that the professor's affairs stopped being separate incidents and instead blurred together into one big infidelity. I don't think this is their intent, however.

Misusing words in a printed work makes one appear unintelligent. Considering that the director/screenwriters wrote the summary, one would think they'd have taken the trouble to be sure their language was correct.

Unfortunately, given the inanity of the movie, their misuse of language doesn't surprise me.

[–] z_dude_here 13 years ago

I didn't mind the acting. I really liked the part when Thaddeus came back and wanted to get to know his father. I thought it was about to turn into an intense psychological drama. But no, that idea got ditched. It was replaced by Mother & Son revenge. The pacing got awful. And it felt hollow and stupid.

[–] my2cents 11 years ago

We got about half-way through before we DID turn it off; we had other movies lined up to see and didn't want to waste any more time on one that didn't really grab us. Thank God we checked it out from our library and didn't actually pay any money to see it. We picked it because we are HUGE Alan Rickman fans, we love Mary Steenburgen, enjoy watching Eliza Dushku, and generally like dark and quirky comedies. But even Alan Rickman couldn't save the movie for us. We just didn't like most of the characters, especially his (and not in a "love to hate" way either like his Die Hard character). Oh well, I guess it just wasn't our "cup of tea."

[–] Elliot-May 10 years ago

You are correct. This movie was terrible, I gave it a 2 which is probably way too generous.

It was just completely and utterly pointless, very little of it made sense and the things that did make sense were so poorly written and directed that I can't believe the guy ever got funding to make any more films.