MovieChat Forums > Road Train (2010) Discussion > Why is it so hard to make a decent film?

Why is it so hard to make a decent film?

posted 14 years ago by hawk-gr
12 replies | jump to latest

You got four nice actors young and beautiful. You got the best scenery. You got this impressive truck. You also got a good director because directing is not bad at all BUT the final result is really bad. Why? Well, maybe it's the story (bad writer?) with so many plot holes and so many unexplained points. If the story was different the result could be much better I think. If there was a crazy truck driver killing people for example or maybe something like in Jeepers Creepers ... I don't know ...something different. But this story is really dumb (truck-possessed people ... blood for fuel!?). So why is it so difficult to make a decent film when you have all the basic "ingredients"? That's my question because I have seen it happen so many times in so many movies.

[–] rafael_andreotti 14 years ago

This movie is so horrible that I honestly feel sorry for the actors who took part in it. Seriously.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lfdr 13 years ago

Agree... except: i guess actors weren't that good (beyond their pretty faces), and possibly neither director was too good (a good director would correct such a poor script and stupid dialog)... in the other hand the story has all the ingredients for a good NOT SERIOUS B or Z movie... was it intended like that but the director ruined it trying to make it 'serious' or simply it was a very bad script?

Good editing, photography, and seems they got a decent budget, What was their fail? I keep asking this to myself with many, many films which doesn't seem to have a reason to exist... Maybe there is too much inept people trying to do movies...

[–] dalldorfw 13 years ago

I just started this movie and it's too early for me to have an opinion, but if you want to see a really good movie with the same basic premise, see 'Duel' (I believe it's Steven Spielberg's first movie). It's got a nice Hitchcockian feel to it.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dalldorfw 13 years ago

I found the basic premises to be more or less the same, except this one has more characters and a supernatural twist to it.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dalldorfw 11 years ago

If you like that one, you may also want to check out 'The Hitchhiker' and 'The Hitcher'. They're not exactly the same as 'Duel' (in that you do see the villains' faces), but they've got that same 'isolated-in-the-middle-of-nowhere' feeling that really make these kinds of movies.

[–] Razzbar 11 years ago

No, the directing IS bad. Like when they FINALLY try the CB radios in the cab, which should have been the first thing they did...

She picks up a mic, says, "Hello-HELLO?-HELLO!!!" and then gives up that fast. It was just a half-assed nod to some guy who told the writer that trucks have radios, and the writer wasn't too inspired, so he hacked out a scene that lasted 20 seconds, only because he had no idea that trucks have CB radios, and that it would have been likely they could have spoken to them, which would have spoiled his whole little plot.

"Hello. Hello? Hello! (click)"

Stupidest thing I ever saw.

[–] Drewy 11 years ago

I'm not going to go to great lengths defending the film - although I believe it is not nearly as bad as most of the reviewers here think. (It's not great, it's just not horrendously bad IMO). 6/10 or so.

I don't know whether you have visited "outback" Australia. If you haven't may I point out what may not be obvious. Firstly temperatures are very extreme! (Temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius or 113 degrees Fahrenheit are "common" according to Wikipedia. One town set a world record of 160 consecutive days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.) Secondly it is not unusual to go many days without seeing another vehicle. The area is thousands of square miles.

Many people have perished while travelling through there and almost all of them have made extraordinarily bad choices under pressure of extreme heat, dehydration, panic. And that's not taking into account psychos, demonic trucks etc trying to kill them :-)

When she did turn to the CB radio one of the boys (I've forgotten which one) dismissed it instantly, telling her that it wouldn't work. I don't remember whether he gave a reason or not. That's why she stopped quickly. Did it take them far too long to consider trying the radio? Yes, of course. But see my point above about bad choices under pressure.

The horror/thriller genre almost since time began is based on people making bad choices - running away upstairs, instead of downstairs and out of the house; going looking for the vampire/monster/psychotic killer, instead of running away; putting down your weapon and leaving it behind, when you stun the monster/killer, rather than killing him.

[–] ethermusic1981 10 years ago

Good post.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]