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Reviews for Adam McKay's "Vice" have arrived

Deleted member 9197

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Oct 26, 2017
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Sounds to me like it's ultimately similar to Oliver Stone's "W.", which was an opportunity to take a closer look at a monstrous politician but ultimately just makes them look good or, at the very least in W.'s case, pleasant but a little doofy and cartoonish at worst.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

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Oct 25, 2017
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Tralfamadore64 said:
Sounds to me like it's ultimately similar to Oliver Stone's "W.", which was an opportunity to take a closer look at a monstrous politician but ultimately just makes them look good or, at the very least in W.'s case, pleasant but a little doofy and cartoonish at worst.
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A large part of the film is dedicated to how his obsession with power and doing whatever he wants leads to the Iraq snafu after 9/11.

Where it gets dicey is the attempt to tie all that into ISIS' formation and the state of the US today. (The mid-credit scene is especially silly.)
 
lazybones18

lazybones18

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Oct 25, 2017
17,339
Saw it tonight. It was decent. The credits fake out was hilarious, but I thought the Shakespearean scene was so cringey in the worst way possible. Bale was fine, but I want Cooper to win Best Actor now.
 
Vincent Alexander

Vincent Alexander

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Oct 26, 2017
19,807
Saw tonight. Great movie that didn't seem to know how or when to end. I would've preferred if the movie got to Cheney as VP sooner, and spent longer focused on this time of his life fucking this country up.

This movie did a fantastic job at putting decisions side-by-side with their consequences. Bush giving his speech about the invasion of Iraq, tapping his foot, then cutting to the family on Iraq hiding under their table as bombs go off, is powerful. They had a few moments like this, but they needed more. You quickly go from, "oh, Bush is human and nervous!" to "fuck that piece of shit" real fast when you see the family.
 
Vincent Alexander

Vincent Alexander

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Oct 26, 2017
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Carell really knocked it out of the park as Donald Rumsfeld. His portrayal of him younger was ok, but when Rumsfeld got older, Carell just nailed it.
 

Deleted member 24907

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Oct 29, 2017
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Hilarious thing about the trailer was the whole "OMG Bale gained so much weight for this role" so they have a shot of Cheney in his underwear.

Like, dude, who wants to see that. Yes, it's Bale, yes it's Oscar bait, no we still don't want Underwear Cheney.
 

MeaningOfKarma

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Oct 30, 2017
707
The trailers made it seem oddly reverential of an actual living war criminal that has ruined millions of people's lives in genuine and horrifying ways.
 
TheAbsolution

TheAbsolution

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Oct 25, 2017
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Just got out of seeing it. eh, it was alright. If it had focused more on his entire VP, and been a little less all over the place and less on the nose about its points, I think it would've been very good. Also, that ending is not great. The performances of all of the actors, especially Cheney, Lynne, and Bush were amazing, have to say.
 
Metallix87

Metallix87

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MeaningOfKarma said:
The trailers made it seem oddly reverential of an actual living war criminal that has ruined millions of people's lives in genuine and horrifying ways.
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The movie literally shits on Cheney for like over 90% of the run time. I honestly thought the movie was pretty fantastic until McKay just shits the bed with random imagery for the last five or ten minutes.
 
Sanjuro

Sanjuro

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Oct 25, 2017
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I didn't hate the film, but it was one of the most disjointed and unfocused films I've ever seen. The early criticism of making Bush or Cheney look good is invalid. The film just doesn't know how they would like to properly attack them.
 
Vincent Alexander

Vincent Alexander

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Oct 26, 2017
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Sanjuro said:
I didn't hate the film, but it was one of the most disjointed and unfocused films I've ever seen. The early criticism of making Bush or Cheney look good is invalid. The film just doesn't know how they would like to properly attack them.
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Agreed. Also, was I only one who hated the narrator? After it was over, I realized how pointless he was. I love VO, so I would have kept it. I just didn't like who they choice as narrator.

TheAbsolution said:
Just got out of seeing it. eh, it was alright. If it had focused more on his entire VP, and been a little less all over the place and less on the nose about its points, I think it would've been very good. Also, that ending is not great.
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Yeah. There are parts of it I love, and parts that were meh. I had the exact same comment that it needed to spend more time of Cheney as VP. And the last 15 minutes dragged ass. I did like the bits of the movie that showed the impact that decisions made by powerful men had on human lives, like them black bagging that "terrorist" off the streets, or the invasion of Iraq itself with the family under the table. When the decisions are made, they seem so banal. Then it cuts to what these decisions actually caused, and you go, "damn...." I wanted more of that.
 
TheAbsolution

TheAbsolution

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Oct 25, 2017
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Vincent Alexander said:
Agreed. Also, was I only one who hated the narrator? After it was over, I realized how pointless he was. I love VO, so I would have kept it. I just didn't like who they choice as narrator.


Yeah. There are parts of it I love, and parts that were meh. I had the exact same comment that it needed to spend more time of Cheney as VP. And the last 15 minutes dragged ass. I did like the bits of the movie that showed the impact that decisions made by powerful men had on human lives, like them black bagging that "terrorist" off the streets, or the invasion of Iraq itself with the family under the table. When the decisions are made, they seem so banal. Then it cuts to what these decisions actually caused, and you go, "damn...." I wanted more of that.
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Yeah, I have to say that the reveal of the movie of who he was was super lame. Also, he wasn't great as narrator at all. And I really like Plemons in most everything, just not here.

Absolutely agreed on your second point. Those were the strongest points of the film. Wish he had went into that more and explained a bit more how Halliburton benefited from the war.
 

Mr.Beep

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
832
I just saw it. As an Aussie, I enjoyed some of the build up to the VP stuff. Overall enjoyed it and thought it was certainly worth a watch.


Also, he meets with the energy CEOs and discusses about oil? So pushing the 9/11 inside job narrative as that was the next scene from memory?
 
hateradio

hateradio

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Oct 28, 2017
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welcome, nowhere
I saw it last night. It basically delineates how much of a monster Chaney is, which we all knew.

Makes me feel uncomfortable wondering who's running the show at the white house.
 
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