***Massive spoilers
Ryan Gosling is first billed, put on all the posters and trailers, and then killed less than halfway through. If that's not enough Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta and two random kids carry it through. The film is marketed as Gosling starring and then completely eliminates him. And it works. Unbelievably good film that is made of 3 barely connected stories. Amazing and totally unexpected. Total risk that actually pays off. Universally underrated.
100% agree
shareVery ballsy indeed, great film. Can't think of any other films aside from this and Psycho that actually do something like this, you're led to believe right from the get-go that a specific actor/actress will be the star throughout and then bam. Great stuff.
(Halloween Resurrection pulls the same sh.t, but that movie is ass.)
"Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
Also agree completely. But I feel like the proper word for this film in particular is Ambitious. That opening tracking shot is f-cking awesome and then we see the 3 motorcyclists fly around in that cage dome. So sick.
A lot of people complain about the change in pace and story but I loved it. It is epic.
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
I completely agree. I love this film
[img]http://www.icheckmovies.com/signature/152901/schneider+1001+movies.png[/img]
Usually I am good at guessing which characters get killed during a movie, but this one had me fooled every time. Also, I didn't know it was 2h 20 minutes long, so when I saw "15 years later" I thought it was the end! Despite the length I never got bored. Love slower movies like that.
shareI agree with all that you said, except for the comment about the "3 barely connected stories." The stories and the characters are completely connected, to the point where you can't have one without the other. This is a movie about fate, and how the actions of a couple people can deeply affect so many others, even years later. But yes, this movie is brilliant.
#hands up don't loot
Yep.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.
Yeah, as a previous poster said, it has been done quite a few times before, but it's still pretty surprising when you don't expect it.
"Psycho" threw everyone for a loop when it was new. It's the most famous case of that.
I remember being messed up by "15 Minutes", another underrated one, where you had Robert De Niro as the top marketed and billed star. He even is in nearly every scene for the first 45 minutes or so, then BAM, and the rest of the film is about the two killers he was after, and a young fire marshal who takes up the cause after the surprise twist. It was VERY "Psycho"-like.
And Tarantino just did it again on his latest film, "The Hateful Eight", as well.