MovieChat Forums > Gambit (2012) Discussion > My theory for the low rating

My theory for the low rating

posted 12 years ago by lunamuna
32 replies | jump to latest

At first I was hesitant to watch this after seeing the low rating on IMDB but I was actually pleasantly surprised! It's a light hearted film with some genuinely funny scenes (the whole hotel sequence when Firth is pants-less) that made me laugh out loud. I was pretty surprised about the low rating because usually I find IMDB to be pretty accurate and I rarely enjoy a film rated below a 6.

So, my theory for all the hate!

1) I did NOT realise this was a Coen Brother's film! If I had known that I probably would have had muuuch higher expectations and subsequently been disappointed! I would hazard a guess that many people specifically went to see this film because they were Coen Brother's fans and man, they must have felt let down because this is not nearly as clever nor entertaining as most of their films.

2) Cameron Diaz's accent. I'm not American so I can't say whether or not her accent was realistic but I have a sneaking suspicion it was a pretty atrocious caricature of a Texan accent. This probably grated on a lot of American viewers' nerves I would say. The same could be said of the overly stereotypical portrayal of the Brits as super posh foppish snobs (the Savoy staff, Rickman etc). I'm neither a Brit nor a Yank so I was pretty much able to ignore these stereotypes and enjoy the film. I checked the voter stats and apparently US voters marked this film at a fair bit lower than non-US voters which would make sense.

What say you? Did anyone else enjoy this film or can they explain why they thought it was a pile of poo? I quite enjoyed it :P

[–] HombreOfAnotherEra 11 years ago

is this a loose remake of the Michael Caine film?

[–] sherrykearns 11 years ago

i thought the movie utterly hilarious! it is a farce and meant to be ridiculous, even absurd. it reminded me, very pleasantly, of the importance of being ernest. i found the casting delightful...everyone realized their parts fully and made the most of their screen time. what wasn't to like? the foreshadowing of the lion by the tiger cat, the verisimilitude of pj the cowgirl being a roper who could manage a security system like that, the fake painting faking out the expert, the hotel personnel misunderstanding harry and pj at the desk and then all of those sexual innuendos seeming to be supported every time harry was spotted in the hotel : all of the little plot twists were grounded in a previous nod to their upcoming resolution. there can be no doubt that the script was a tight one. i simply don't understand the negative responses.

[–] daddysarm 10 years ago

Details in another post.

It amazes me how few people know even simple statistics. imdb gives you statistics. They make it obvious. Relative to other movies, fewer teens & under 29 voted for this & they didn't OVERvote the way they usually do.

5.7 to 6.0 is a pretty fair rating for this. The problem is that almost everything on imdb is OVERrated by dense teens & under 29s. I actually once pointed out to somebody that they had nothing good to say about a movie yet they gave it a "6". The response?

In school, "C" is average, and a "70" gets you a "C". So, on imdb a "7.0" is equivalent to a "70" & so a "6.0" is slightly BELOW average.

It was obviously a teen, and yes, the average voter on imdb IS really THAT stupid.

[–] Korios 10 years ago

The entire film is a rather poor attempt at caricaturing, stereotyping, self-parody, satire, and it does not even lack a fart joke. I mostly laughed at the hotel scenes, when he wandered around hotel rooms trousers free and the hotel guy was thinking that he had a double date or something, but the rest of the film was not too funny.

Fanboy : a person who does not think while watching.

[–] andyd-1 9 years ago

The pants caper was ok, yeah looking back on it that section was well performed and crafted, at the time it was a bit 'seen this before' though.

[–] SforSmile 9 years ago

it's just boring and pointless and not even remotely funny

"Some people are immune to good advice."
-Saul Goodman

"I ignore pathetic trolls"

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6543) 8 years ago

I'd say the biggest problem was that you see the ending coming a mile away. They needed to be a bit more clever about that.