MovieChat Forums > The Man from Earth (2007) Discussion > I have never been more disappointed by a...

I have never been more disappointed by a film in my entire life.

posted 10 years ago by ManOfPiePants908
15 replies | jump to latest

The premise for this movie is great, and that's the only reason it got a three. It's a wonderful idea, but there has never been a more poorly executed movie I've ever seen. For those of you who are not familiar with this film, it's about a professor who is moving away and his colleagues come over for a goodbye party and he begins to tell them that he is 14,000 years old. It's all set in one place, all told in storytelling form, just dialogue. The acting was terrible. Beyond terrible, really. Nothing made sense, it was wayyyy to easy to convince these intellectual people of this ridiculous notion, no one asked him any questions to make him prove it, even though it would be very easy to prove or disprove. Just unbelievable how flawed this movie was, on such a cool premise. I'll be interested if it ever gets remade.

[–] otjutrjumov 10 years ago

It wasn't perfect but I didn't think it was entirely unbelievable.

They didn't entirely believe him. At first they simply 'humoured' him.

But you have to understand that the professors were all very close friends. That is shown the whole time by the way they plead him to tell them more about himself and whether they could do more to help him etc etc. They've known him for a very long time, 10 years, as a brilliant professor who has never shown any signs of mental illness. And because of their strong bonds of friendship they re more inclined to believe what he says. Simple psychology, even if taken a little bit too far. But aren't most movies about suspension of disbelief anyway?

[–] orbitaga 10 years ago

The movie cost 200.000, and became known by file sharing communities.
I am sorry that it didnt released in IMAX 3D starring fassbender for you to acknowledge it.

The "seed", the idea behind all of this is so simple but brilliant, either believing him or not.
In techincal terms (as much as we can talk about technical stuff) was mediocre to say the least. The same goes for acting(except main actor), so i can agree with you in that aspect. But , at least not for me, it doesnt discourage me to see beyond that.

[–] flammy-200 10 years ago

It's funny you say that, because personally, I have never been more disappointed by a film in my entire life. The premise for this movie is great, and that's the only reason it got a three. It's a wonderful idea, but there has never been a more poorly executed movie I've ever seen. For those of you who are not familiar with this film, it's about a professor who is moving away and his colleagues come over for a goodbye party and he begins to tell them that he is 14,000 years old. It's all set in one place, all told in storytelling form, just dialogue. The acting was terrible. Beyond terrible, really. Nothing made sense, it was wayyyy to easy to convince these intellectual people of this ridiculous notion, no one asked him any questions to make him prove it, even though it would be very easy to prove or disprove. Just unbelievable how flawed this movie was, on such a cool premise. I'll be interested if it ever gets remade.

[–] WhoToTrust 10 years ago

"I have never been more disappointed by a film in my entire life."

by flammy-200 » ...because personally, I have never been more disappointed by a film in my entire life. The premise for this movie is great, and that's the only reason it got a three. It's a wonderful idea, but there has never been a more poorly executed movie I've ever seen...

You're EXTREMELY lucky then, because I have seen movies that were INFINITELY worse than this one in VIRTUALLY EVERY aspect that has to do with EVERYTHING from the initial conception to the actual making of those movies.

How was that?

I mean, it seems that the main premise of this thread is to express the highest degree of hyperbole that we can.

In my opinion, it's simply sad that a movie with a premise that includes following a simple message of peace and getting rid of personal preconceptions and dogmas that promote division among the people of Earth would get thrown under the bus basically because it wasn't high-budget enough.

If only more money had been spent to hire better actors and rent better equipment...an example of how the indirect influence of money can have corrupting effects on opinions.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] flammy-200 10 years ago

I don't understand what's happening right now.

[–] WhoToTrust 10 years ago

by flammy-200 » I don't understand what's happening right now.

In this case, that's a GOOD thing.

You don't WANT to understand the mentality behind what Stanley is trying to do here.

[–] ManOfPiePants908 10 years ago

I'll tell you what's happening: We have never been more disappointed by a film in our entire lives. The premise for this movie is great, and that's the only reason it got a three. It's a wonderful idea, but there has never been a more poorly executed movie we've ever seen. For those of you who are not familiar with this film, it's about a professor who is moving away and his colleagues come over for a goodbye party and he begins to tell them that he is 14,000 years old. It's all set in one place, all told in storytelling form, just dialogue. The acting was terrible. Beyond terrible, really. Nothing made sense, it was wayyyy to easy to convince these intellectual people of this ridiculous notion, no one asked him any questions to make him prove it, even though it would be very easy to prove or disprove. Just unbelievable how flawed this movie was, on such a cool premise. We'll be interested if it ever gets remade.

[–] WhoToTrust 10 years ago

by ManOfPiePants-ManOfFaith » I'll tell you what's happening: We have never been more disappointed by a film in our entire lives. The premise for this movie is great, and that's the only reason it got a three. It's a wonderful idea, but there has never been a more poorly executed movie we've ever seen. For those of you who are not familiar with this film, it's about a professor who is moving away and his colleagues come over for a goodbye party and he begins to tell them that he is 14,000 years old. It's all set in one place, all told in storytelling form, just dialogue. The acting was terrible. Beyond terrible, really. Nothing made sense, it was wayyyy to easy to convince these intellectual people of this ridiculous notion, no one asked him any questions to make him prove it[/b], even though it would be very easy to prove or disprove. [b]Just unbelievable how flawed this movie was, on such a cool premise. We'll be interested if it ever gets remade.

It seems you've added outright falsehood to your hyperbole. Questions based on proof WERE asked, but those questions obviously weren't thought through to their logical conclusions/impasses before they were asked, so the people asking THOSE questions proved not so intellectual after all. It sounds like that was what you personally couldn't make sense of.

[–] abandoned-401-205884 10 years ago

You clearly have never seen an M. Night movie.

[–] sage2112 9 years ago

They were asking him all kinds of questions. What would prove it that we would let them do to him? Nothing. That's even discussed in the dialogue. Now just go back to your simpsons watching - it'll all be ok.

[–] sbowesuk 9 years ago

It's a fantastic and thought provoking movie. Sounds to me like the movie just offended you, i.e. you're religious, and this movie dissects religion pretty hard.

[–] vialof_flowers 9 years ago

I agree, this film left me completely uninspired. It failed miserable to provoke questionable doubt about history as we know it and underwhelmed with the anticlimax finale.

[–] hexrecords 9 years ago

I couldn't agree with you more! It was porn level acting. And yes, it was way too easy to convince the people, who all reacted like children, not intellectuals. And then when he says, "Just kidding!" they all go, "okay, bye!" What a horrible movie. Great concept, yes. I'd love to see it done well, or even half well.