I thought their acting was decent as well. I wouldn't go as far as 'superb', since I had trouble immersing myself in the characters. Several times I felt like it was just an actor, rather than a person, which is of course what they're supposed to pretend to be.
I'm not sure the problem with Chloe Moretz was (only) casting. I found she had very little to work with in that role. The character seemed almost unimportant. It would be better if she was better at showing a believable personality (body language, phrasing etc.), but I still think the writing could've been better, to make McCall's connection to Alina more believable.
As for the goof of the car, I'm not sure if you can smash a window. But unless the car was modified, he could just hit the brake, change gear (he only had one hand tied) etc., depending on the car. I suppose you could write it off as if he was panicking and just didn't know. But he was hardly moving (besides his coughing), and it's his own car, and he's a cop, so it would surprise me if he didn't know very well how to operate his own car, or how to keep focus in threatening situations for that matter.
Honestly though, I felt he was just portrayed entirely as a cop who was tempted to be corrupt, but was a good cop on the inside (given that he showed fear and didn't behave like a zombie, or what is called a 'psychopath' in Hollywood-terminology). I found that he was just a tool to show that McCall really was a just man, giving all bad guys a 'fair chance' before he continued his divine purpose of killing anyone who didn't agree with his terms.
It interests me that you thought McCall might die in the end. I didn't feel any room for plot twists through the entire movie. I felt that McCall was almost a demigod, with no flaws and with a moral compass that the writers needed to preach very badly:
"The old man's gotta be the old man. Fish gotta be the fish. Gotta be who you are in this world, right?" No matter what."
"You're supposed to stand for something, punk. Protect and serve. Uphold the law. Justice".
As for most of the second half your reply, I don't know how to respond. It seems to me that you are trying to defend yourself and your own intelligence, so I must apologize - I must have said something to provoke that. I assure you that I'm not here in hope to make anyone feel inferior. I don't believe anything constructive comes from personal attacks.
I am although interested in the last bit of your reply. It seems to me that you are somewhat getting to the core of what you like about this movie, although masked as rhetorical questions and critique of critics.
I must admit I have difficulty telling exactly what you are trying to say about the movie - besides that you enjoyed it. And I am glad that you did by the way. I am not trying to take that away from you. But if you feel comfortable about it, I'd like to hear you describe it without the insults.
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TimRohn
10 years ago
Yeah I guess I got a bit unfair towards the second half of what I was saying. My issue isn't with you, it's just you come across as an intelligent guy, so I found it odd you would assume this could possibly be a joke... Asking if it was a joke came across slightly passive-aggressive to me, almost an attempt to question the intellect of people who would enjoy this film. My issue is that so many people reviewing movies these days seem to question things that IMO, shouldn't matter - and that goes towards people's varying abilities to suspend disbelief in my honest opinion.
I guess I just feel that the movie truly delivered in what it was suppose to be. I can't describe exactly why I liked it, and I think that to be a rather unfair question to ask. It's just something I saw and thoroughly enjoyed. It was good. I like drinking Coke because it tastes good (to me), I don't exactly know why.. it just.. "is".
As for why I thought he'd die, I guess a lot of the movies I've seen lately have the protagonist dying at the end, for no other reason than to turn a good movie into a movie everyone says "wrecked it with the ending".
Okay, a lot of people actually seem to like that ending where the protagonist dies, not sure why. But I certainly don't.
Gone Girl, don't know if you've seen it but the ending thoroughly disappointed me as (low level spoiler) someone didn't go to jail... (or die) either would have been nice.
Out of 20 movies I thoroughly enjoy the first two thirds of, probably 10-15 wreck it in the ending for me.
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askebisgaard
10 years ago
I understand. As I mentioned, it's never fun to be called inferior, even just when implied.
The reason I asked if it was a joke, was perhaps not in a literal sense. It was an emotional outburst, to express how surprised I was. The way I thought about it was that there was a part of me that saw a small possibility of this actually being a joke. And I've never felt that for a movie this well-received. I knew that the possibility was still very slim though. The rest of my articulation was just my first thoughts of how to make the post humble, because I found it very plausible that I'd receive a lot of hatred for disagreeing with the majority.
It's okay that you feel it is an unfair question. Thank you for telling me.
As for Gone Girl, I liked it. It was a terrifying ending. I can certainly understand why you wouldn't like that movie, if you liked this. Gone Girl was kinda the opposite. It ended with despair and injustice.
Sorry if this is weird to you, but I don't recall having ever met someone who have expressed that it's very important to them whether the protagonist dies. New viewpoints interests me very much. So if you don't find it unfair, I'd like to hear why you think the fate of the protagonist is so important to you.
I can start by telling how I feel. For Gone Girl, I liked that it was slightly unpredictable for me. I enjoy movies that challenge my thinking. A perhaps better example of this is Shutter Island or Fight Club. And in the ending of Gone Girl, I felt a desire for resolution, but didn't get it. This triggered my emotional defense and got me thinking about the movie, and about what the writers may have thought when they made it. And about what I would do in such a situation, even if it was just fiction. As for her, I have no idea what I'd do. She was so crazy and manipulative that I would feel very challenged and fearful of her. In a fictional sense, this excites me, because I like to feel challenged. In reality it(/she) would probably destroy me.
Since I care greatly for humanity, and where we are heading, I also enjoy thinking about how the movie affects people. Which emotions they could go through and if it would make a slight push towards certain thinking patterns etc. Sometimes I'm afraid of sharing that fact, since some people are really aggressive towards people that try to understand people they don't know. I understand how you can be intimidated by that, given that many people have some degree of xenophobia, but I know that I have purely sincere intentions, so I just try my best to be as diplomatic as possible about it.
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