MovieChat Forums > Shoot First and Pray You Live (Because Luck Has Nothing to Do with It) (2010) Discussion > Nice but failed attempt at a Tarantinesq...

Nice but failed attempt at a Tarantinesque Western

posted 14 years ago by Postal_Dude_Paradise_AZ
6 replies | jump to latest

Like most of the many many sons of Tarantino practically since Reservoir Dogs this movie gets it wrong.

I could list sooo many failed attempt of reproducing what Tarantino can achieve. Lately Hell Ride comes to my mind, even thought this movie is in no way as bad as Hell Ride is.

Basically the thing goes like this: BEFORE you start thinking of all the fun and cool gadgets you're gonna decorate your movie with, you have to build a solid as rock movie structure.

This movie's script is clumsily put together , flashbacks and present are thrown together in a confuse way, dialog and voice over is dull, uninspired and boring some of the actors are solid, like John Doman James Russo or even Richard Tyson (beautifully resembling Franco Nero in Keoma) and some other range from inadequate to embarrassingly amateur like Eric Bokemeir and all his "psycho" faces to show that he is guess what , a psycho.

Unfortunately also the lead is weak, Jeff Hepner as the guy with a plan and a vengeance is unconvincing , he is not a horrible actor but he just doesn't have it in him, the drama that was needed for such a character.

With all this weak spots then you trow in all the Tarantino bag of surprises, and it's like decorating a Christmas tree with 5 times the weight of decoration the small log can support.

The worst thing is the cartoon, that worked in Kill Bill because the whole movie was in the canon of an anime or a manga, this movie is not in that code and the cartoon part looks just silly and out of place.

Then the there's the map with the traveling line which i guess it doesn't arm in an any way, but then there are the friggin on screen letters to introduce the characters... dude.. like every single person is introduced with yellow on screen impact letters... you have read more names than you can remember or care, because you don't yet know anything about those guys.

It's just not the way its done, but then again, its such a trademark from one specific guy that i don't even know if you can attempt it without having people automatically think, "oh yeah Kill Bill".

The plot is truly a mess, past and present are edited in a most confused way, several scenes are actually seen twice i mean exactly the same scenes, you never do that never ever. If you check Tarantino's movie whenever he needs to tell again a part of the story, it is always shown in a different angle, from a different perspective, like in Jackie Brown.

Also the main guy, can't have a whole band on his side(they are just to many, some of them practically do nothing in the movie, but hey, they get their on screen name alright)the main guy looking for vengeance ALWAYS has to be outnumbered by the bad guy and never the other way around.
Well i could go on for a long while i'll stop here.

Any way , i love Italian westerns , i've seen dozen of them i love Tarantino of course, the guy is a genius nobody writes like him nowadays and so i understand and appreciate the effort put in this movie.

But i wouldn't rely so much on gadgets that mostly are (whether if someone did it first in the 60/70 or not) of one guy only, i would have watched and learn the source (Leone,Corbucci, Castellari etc.) and see what that would have inspired in me, and then make a personal fresh movie.

5 stars alone for the effort and for the Tyson Keoma look alike!
I'd love an entire western with Tyson looking like that, just forget about Tarantino and see what you have to give!

"Welcome to Burger Shot mofückaaa !!!"

[–] UnaDahmer666 14 years ago

"I could list sooo many failed attempt of reproducing what Tarantino can achieve. Lately Hell Ride comes to my mind, even thought this movie is in no way as bad as Hell Ride is."

hell ride rules, so i have no idea what you're talking about. you seem like a hollywood movie fan, maybe you should stop watching so many low budget movies if you're just planning on trashing them on the internet? nobody made you watch them and the packagings aren't misleading at all, you get what you see in both cases of this movie AND hell ride.

"dude.. like every single person is introduced with yellow on screen impact letters... you have read more names than you can remember or care, because you don't yet know anything about those guys.

It's just not the way its done, but then again, its such a trademark from one specific guy that i don't even know if you can attempt it without having people automatically think, "oh yeah Kill Bill"."

nice argument, for any retard who doesn't realize the good, the bad, and the ugly did the same thing generations before kill bill ever even came out

(the ONE/TWO/THREE scene is a direct homage to that, in fact)

" from inadequate to embarrassingly amateur like Eric Bokemeir and all his "psycho" faces to show that he is guess what , a psycho."

that's an homage to a droog in A Clockwork Orange, but you're obviously too much of a tool to realize that either.

this movie actually borrows very little from tarantino... the flashbacks aren't done in a pulp fiction way whatsoever and the only real similarities are the music, the credits, and one of the blood spurts (none of those actually invented by tarantino, keep in mind) was similar to kill bill.

and it's not like tarantino invented the revenge theme, for christ's sake

[–] death_jamm_productions 14 years ago

hell ride is one of the worst films ever made

No Justice Just Us

[–] UnaDahmer666 13 years ago

oh really?

it has David Carradine, Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, and Vinnie Jones in it...

but according to some retard on the internet it's "one of the worst films ever made" (while giving zero reasons why)

maybe you just don't "get it". for one, it's somewhat a drug movie (as is shoot first) if you aren't into drug or biker culture, it's not gonna be for you

just because you watched some episodes of sons of anarchy doesn't make you an authority on the subject of biker films, bro

[–] slyfox3335 13 years ago

richard tyson is what made this movie

[–] johnf_sf 11 years ago

UnaDahmer666 ...YOU are the tool

[–] Bob_Zerunkel 11 years ago

If I didn't have an original idea, I could attack people like you are doing. It wouldn't really be a homage, but I could call it that -- just like this movie.