The Train, Boss, the Train!

[caitri]

We took friend Kristin to Thanksgiving with Scott's family. His ninety-five year old grandfather kept informing relatives over the phone that Scott was visiting with his wife and girlfriend. ("It's hardly fair," said Kristin, "I could be Cait's girlfriend instead of Scott's!") We've been calling Scott a pimp ever since.

This morning we went to go see Unstoppable which was unintentionally hilarious. Scott came because we pretended it was Harry Potter and explained this was all avant-garde and that Voldemort was a train. My favorite part was the raccoon leisurely crossing the tracks in front of the out of control train. I was really really bothered by Chris Pine's character, who has a restraining order on him after hectoring his wife about her texting and then inviting her friend the cop for a drive with a gun, and it's ALL FORGIVEN WHEN HE'S ALL HEROIC FOR FIVE MINUTES. Remember kiddies, domestic abuse is oki if you look like Chris Pine. UM NOT. So pop culture fail there.

Anyhow tonight we're going to cook Kristin dinner, and I will probably lobby to go see Tangled. :D

Comments

[mallorypen.livejournal.com]

Twisted: Also involves some domestic abuse. Less Chris Pine, but such a good movie!

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Good to know!

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

Restraining order on wife, Voldemort as a train (which just gives the image of the Robot Chicken ep with Aslan going "Don't look at me, I'm just a Jesus allegory lion!"), and a sauntering raccoon.

WANTS THIS :D

Also, Tangled looks so damn cool, I can't wait till it's over here :D

[caitri.livejournal.com]

...You are so odd. *hug*

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

It's more interesting ;) *hugs back*

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. The whole domestic abuse thing bothered me a lot. It just... I know they were trying to present a flawed character, but stopping the runaway train doesn't actually make him 'deep and conflicted'. It just means he doesn't think about the dumb shit he's doing.

Which is basically proven throughout the whole movie. Didn't count the cars, doesn't like listening to the more experienced man, lost his shit and threatened a cop, and chased after a runaway train - which wasn't even his idea. He just did it anyway.

Yes, yes, family, Stanton, etc etc, but yeaaaah. I wasn't real fond of him.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

I know! It was like they just throwed that in there randomly, too. And Denzel's character was like, Yeah, women. WTF?!

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I mean, honestly, I could have gone with it if their conversation about it had been different. I mean, yeah, he seemed sorry... but sorry he'd been wrong, not sorry he did it. Sorry because of the consequences. Never once does he really seem to think he reacted incorrectly to the entire situation.

'I mean what would you do if she was cheating. Oops, she wasn't, but if she HAD been, it was totally justified!' That outlook is not ok in my book.

If Denzel's character had been more troubled by it and they actually had a discussion about what happened instead of 'Huh, yeah. That sucks, man.'

I guess if you're going for 'real people', it's pretty spot on. Guys tend to do the whole hands off approach. However, it is a film, which means you have the choice to make people just a little wiser, a little more redeemable, than they really were.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Which makes no sense, since Denzel's got two daughters. I kept waiting for him to say something like, Man tried that on my daughters, I'd fix him. Not "Go call your wife, it's the way they are."

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I mean, sure, 'Oh, I didn't hit her! She was just scared!', Ok, great! ... I'd still throw your ass out because you threatened a family friend and a police officer with a gun. In my book? That means, 'You didn't hit me... this time. Next time, who gets the gun?'

Denzel's responses just made no sense. Like, I got the understanding part. Anyone could see where Pine's character was coming from - Thought she was cheating, freaked out. Following the logic from point A to point B is pretty easy. But just because something's linear doesn't mean it's RIGHT.

I mean, he has no problem correcting the kid on everything else, but domestic abuse? Well, that's just a man's personal business, isn't it? Nevermind he gets snitty about Hooters. I mean, you'd think a dad who was sensitive about that would care about his daughters being grabbed so hard they threw out their husband.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

I know!!! It was just sooooooo disconnected from the rest of the film, particularly since the men's boss was a woman who is clearly shown to be one of the smartest characters in the film.

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I LOVED Connie! Hell, I even loved Denzel's daughters because, really? Working at Hooters is just fine. They're working to make their lives better.

I just... I didn't understand why it had to be such an extreme 'Wtf?'. Even if it happened in reality, the bonding between audience and character would be so much easier if they freaking toned it down. People have absolutely been thrown out for less.

They made it so ridiculous and then didn't do any character exploration on the subject and tied it up all clean and happy at the end.

Heck, I would have even gone with it if, at the end, the wife and kid are happy to see him, happy to know he's ok, so proud of what he did, and they still got a divorce.

Because you can care about someone's well-being, love them, and be proud of accomplishments, and still know they are one scary-assed bastard when they lose their shit and you don't deserve to live like that.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Or if they'd counteracted by any evidence whatsoever that he WAS a good guy and him losing his shit was completely out of character and he genuinely regretted scaring her, etc. But the whole "they're still married with another kid on the way" was just No.

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

*uses giant rubber FAIL stamp*

[joirerson.livejournal.com]

Yanno, somebody else in fandom mentioned the restraining order thing and I was so close to giving in and seeing the movie, but that made me go hell to the no. I've met dudes socially who think that stuff isn't a big deal and it just makes me shake with anger. Just, no. I think that would mess up the entire movie for me.

That said, Denzel is fine!!! I'd be happy if somebody in fandom just clipped that movie for the parts relevant to our interests.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yeah I found it to be a pretty massive fail for the flick. Andhonestly, if you've seen all the pics of Chris without a shirt, you've seen the good stuff. Denzel looked tired and worn, and even his BAMFness was meh.

[joirerson.livejournal.com]

Say no more! I will probably give my money to Harry Potter, or that Burlesque movie. Domestic!violence!fail makes me livid.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wait for the good bits to show up on Youtube. :)

[100wordspermin.livejournal.com]

I'm not your husband's girlfriend, but apparently I was his sister for ~3 minutes on the phone yesterday ;)

Re: movie, I haven't seen it, but it sounds like there was patriarchy fail.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

YES. I heard about that. Magical growing families are the best.

And yeah, the movie was lame, but a good way to hide from Black Friday shoppers for two hours.

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

Okay, admittedly I haven't SEEN it but is it possible they were going less for the "anti-hero, flawed but everyone wants to do the badboy" thing and more for the "look how far he's come as a person" thing? I don't really know, but I kind of have to hope. :/

ETA: VOLDEMORT TRAIN FTMFW.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, his character is not that developed at all--actually it's not really clear why he goes to Save the Day with Denzel. Denzel's character is stuck on Knowledgable Old Bird throughout. The more I thought about since seeing it, the more annoyed I am that they wasted two good actors on these not-even-half-drawn characters.