MovieChat Forums > Loser (2000) Discussion > Why this movie floped, and is hated so m...

Why this movie floped, and is hated so much

posted 13 years ago by irishfl80
7 replies | jump to latest

I actually like this movie. It reminds me of a modern breakfast at tiffany's, still the movie flopped at the box office, and generally has a negative view from people.

I see 2 main reasons for this.
1. Jason Biggs was bad casting. Don't get me wrong, he surprisingly did well, but this role was outside what people expected from him. When this came out he was Jim from American Pie. The public wasn't ready to watch him as the lead in a light comedy love story.

2. It was marketed badly. Check out one of the trailers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn11SLihQAU Basically the marketing made this out to look like a slapstick comedy about a goofy loser (Paul) & a loser girl (Dora) always doing stupid things (for laughs). They even added a joke I don't remember ever seeing in the movie (the one about the BSB at the very end).

Add in the fact that again Jason Biggs was the lead, I think people were expecting an American Pie type comedy. Going in expecting that, and then seeing a very light hearted comedy / love story it isn't any wonder why the masses were disappointing. I know myself I thought it was a slapstick, and then I heard people say it wasn't funny, so I never bothered seeing it. Years later I saw it on HBO, and been a fan since.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Galagatron 12 years ago

Another reason: this movie came just when there was starting to be a backlash against all the teen/college movies of the time. The renewed trend was about three years old by 2000 and the market was saturated. Only a few would stand out and succeed, like "Bring It On".

[–] DNAboi 11 years ago

Nah it's pretty obvious in the trailer that its not a comedy ur idiot if u think it is from the trailer, weird how they had stuff in the trailer they didnt have in the movie thigh. Anyway I've talked to alot of ppl n its main reason was the song clip teenage dirtbag tricking people to think thus was about highschool not collegage

"Lifes a bitch then you die"

Ben Foster is my Dream husband
Ryan Gosling is my Dream Lover

[–] kellycallie (728) 7 years ago

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[–] legnadibrom (6520) 7 years ago

is this a sequel to saving silverman?

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 7 years ago

https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/2000-2/loser/

Loser was filmed as a R rated movie and according to Heckerling’s agent Ken Stovitz, he said “That movie was ruined in post. Loser was really good until the studio said, ‘No, you’ve got to make it PG-13 rather than R,’ and it ruined the movie. Just ruined the movie.” We’ll take his word for it, because the edit of Loser released to the public is a piece of shit.

[–] daveyh (641) 2 years ago

in reply to point 2, I actually expected the movie to be different because of the video for Teenage Dirtbag, which appears to be set at high school rather than college and Jason Biggs' character flat out bullied rather than just not fitting in.
I had no way of knowing this had all been filmed specifically for the music video. I just thought that, like almost all other videos for songs that are the soundtrack to a movie, they were showing clips of the movie itself.
I didn't actually see the movie until it aired on terrestrial TV in the UK years later, so was confused as to why it was in a different setting and kept waiting for the big jocks in lettermen jackets to turn up.