pointless films or plots

DEFTLEFTHAND · 15-01-2018 11:41PM

The Big Sleep movie adaptation never made sense to me. It starts to break down about mid way through. I've read that were issues with the script at the time of filming, with even Raymond Chandler the author stating it was a mess. The Film still received high praise from the critics of the day.

The Shakesphere play King Lear has numerous plot holes.

Atoms for Peace · 15-01-2018 11:56PM

It the journey, not the destination, that matters.

Greyfox · 16-01-2018 12:20AM

Mulholland drive - let's make a film that has no plot whatsoever, just a load of pointless scenes thrown together but let's make it look artistic so that critics won't realise that we've made a film worse than battlefield earth - garbage

Also independents day 2 - aliens come to earth to chase after a school bus

Rumpy Pumpy · 16-01-2018 12:40AM

Greyfox wrote: »

Mulholland drive - let's make a film that has no plot whatsoever, just a load of pointless scenes thrown together but let's make it look artistic so that critics won't realise that we've made a film worse than battlefield earth - garbage

Also independents day 2 - aliens come to earth to chase after a school bus

David Lynch is one of those directors who legitimately divides opinion, and Mulholland Drive is a great example of why. I think he's a wonderful weirdo. Don't think anyone else would have gotten away with making a TV show like Twin Peaks, and then having it air on prime time TV.

smurgen · 16-01-2018 12:44AM

Napolean Dynamite.but it's pointlessness is it makes it funny like the scene with Pedro describing his crap day.

Gwynplaine · 16-01-2018 12:49AM

Anything with Johnny Depp or Hugh Grant.

conorhal · 16-01-2018 12:57AM

This might be controversial, but 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Jacob's Ladder', both highly rated films that hinge on a twist at the end that effectively says, nothing that happened during the course of the film matters, gottcha!

Pointless.

PrettyBoy · 16-01-2018 01:01AM

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert. The film ended and I was totally dumbfounded as to how it was so well received, still to this day I feel like there was some kind of intellectual/artistic message that I completely missed the point of.

lmimmfn · 16-01-2018 01:05AM

conorhal wrote: »

This might be controversial, but 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Jacob's Ladder', both highly rated films that hinge on a twist at the end that effectively says, nothing that happened during the course of the film matters, gottcha!

Pointless.

I quite like those twist at the end movies like sixth sense, momento, at least when the movie is over you rethink the story to see if it made sense with the new context

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert. The film ended and I was totally dumbfounded as to how it was so well received, still to this day I feel like there was some kind of intellectual/artistic message that I completely missed the point of.

They made a woman's role more important than the male protagonist's for which the movie is titled, so yeah 'nuff said about that Hollywood nonsense.

Oranage2 · 16-01-2018 01:21AM

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert. The film ended and I was totally dumbfounded as to how it was so well received, still to this day I feel like there was some kind of intellectual/artistic message that I completely missed the point of.

It either gets a 1/10 or 10/10 on rating websites, I thought it was a load of ****

Greyfox · 16-01-2018 01:34AM

conorhal wrote: »

This might be controversial, but 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Jacob's Ladder', both highly rated films that hinge on a twist at the end that effectively says, nothing that happened during the course of the film matters

Eh no, with the usual suspects what happened mattered but something A LOT more important has been happening all along and when you see the bigger picture you look at the film differently and realise there's a few clever film techniques in place to throw you off the scent - greatest plot twist ever

Greyfox · 16-01-2018 01:46AM

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert

For me it was in the top 10 films of the last decade. The action scenes are absolutely breathtaking, Charlize Theron's character was one of the most awe inspiring female characters ever to grace a film and the story was just there to facilitate action scenes that are genuinely mindblowing.

MadDog76 · 16-01-2018 02:07AM

the_pen_turner wrote: »

I was watching unstoppable last night. I missed the start so didn't know how the train ended up running away.

early on an old guy puts his train in front and tries to slow it down by breaking.
he gets derailed and killed.
later on the 2 main guys have to risk their lives for nothing to stop it
eventually a guy in a pick up drives along beside it and a guy jumps on board and turns off the train.

the 2 main guys section was a complete waste and pointless. the guy in the pick up could have stopped it several times before that. and the guy in the train that got derailed could have easily walked back onto the train and turned it off
so stupid. half the film served no purpose

anyone got any other films that are pointless

Funny thing is (and this may have already been mentioned?), Unstoppable is based on a true story ........

the_pen_turner · 16-01-2018 02:11AM

MadDog76 wrote: »

Funny thing is (and this may have already been mentioned?), Unstoppable is based on a true story ........

a lot of the film never happened.
guy with helicopter
guy that dies driving front train that derails
guy with pick up driving beside.
no risk to thousands of lives at the large curve in the track

the real train had some of its breaks applied and never got up to those speeds.
the 2 guys in the train behind did slow it enough for one guy to run along side and jump aboard.

Arghus · 16-01-2018 02:29AM

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

Burn After Reading by the Coen Brothers was one pointless movie. It’s like they forgot to put an ending on the thing. Critically loved, but they make some wretched movies.

The fact that there was no lessons learned or a big point made was the point. Even the title of the movie is a joke about that aspect of the film. It was made directly after No Country... which was an unusually dark and somber movie for them, so BAR was a conscious attempt to make a light, funny and ultimately pointless film - just because they could.

I've yet to watch an outright bad Coen Brothers film.

elefant · 16-01-2018 08:25AM

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert. The film ended and I was totally dumbfounded as to how it was so well received, still to this day I feel like there was some kind of intellectual/artistic message that I completely missed the point of.

To be more precise:

It's a one-hour drive through the desert, and then another hour driving back to the start again. Fin.

Plopsu · 16-01-2018 09:46AM

conorhal wrote: »

This might be controversial, but 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Jacob's Ladder', both highly rated films that hinge on a twist at the end that effectively says, nothing that happened during the course of the film matters, gottcha!

Pointless.

Jacob's Ladder doesn't really hinge on a twist (I wouldn't even call it a twist). It's the contents of somebody's mind while they're struggling with their death. Saying that everything that happens before he dies is pointless is a bit like saying everything that happens in a boxing match before a knockout blow is pointless.

bucketybuck · 16-01-2018 09:47AM

Is the thread just films people don't like now?

The characters are all in very different situations at the end of Fury road than they were at the beginning, there were huge changes in their circumstances. It was not pointless.

Surely a pointless film is one in which nothing that happened mattered a damn, that if the film hadn't happened none of characters would be any better or worse off?

Plopsu · 16-01-2018 09:51AM

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Mad Max (2015 remake with Tom Hardy) - at the time of release this was getting 5-star rave reviews so I went to see it but all I can remember is a pointless 2-hour dragged-out drive through the desert. The film ended and I was totally dumbfounded as to how it was so well received, still to this day I feel like there was some kind of intellectual/artistic message that I completely missed the point of.

Lesbian bloggers on the internet gave it a load of talking up cause they thought Charlize Theron was hot AF with a buzz cut. Feminist bloggers on the web did the same because they thought it was a feminist movie (given that it seems to be a satire of feminism, that's kind of ironic). That generated a lot of good press.

Blazer · 16-01-2018 10:12AM

Apocalypse now, decent movie ruined by an absolutely awful ending. The horror of it...watching an overrated film.
Lost in translation- made the mistake of seeming this after a 12 hour shift. Awful awful rubbish.

loyatemu · 16-01-2018 10:24AM

Arghus wrote: »

The fact that there was no lessons learned or a big point made was the point. Even the title of the movie is a joke about that aspect of the film. It was made directly after No Country... which was an unusually dark and somber movie for them, so BAR was a conscious attempt to make a light, funny and ultimately pointless film - just because they could.

I've yet to watch an outright bad Coen Brothers film.

I love the Coens but thought BAR was terrible - bunch of assholes doing pointless stuff, then it just ends. I could have forgiven this if it was funny - not much happens in the Man who wasn't there either, but it's a much better film due to the performances and some great scenes.

conorhal · 16-01-2018 10:24AM

Plopsu wrote: »

Jacob's Ladder doesn't really hinge on a twist (I wouldn't even call it a twist). It's the contents of somebody's mind while they're struggling with their death. Saying that everything that happens before he dies is pointless is a bit like saying everything that happens in a boxing match before a knockout blow is pointless.

Not really, it would be more like saying that there was no boxing match and the entire fight takes place in the mind of a man that tripped, banged his head and is lying concussed on the street.
Personally I hate movies with that hoary old 'it was all a dream..' kind of twist because they are effectively saying that you've wasted your time investing in a narrative that doesn't matter.

Blazer · 16-01-2018 10:41AM

Plopsu wrote: »

Lesbian bloggers on the internet gave it a load of talking up cause they thought Charlize Theron was hot AF with a buzz cut. Feminist bloggers on the web did the same because they thought it was a feminist movie (given that it seems to be a satire of feminism, that's kind of ironic). That generated a lot of good press.

So all we need is a good looking lesbian who’s strong willed and they’ll go for it regardless of the story. It worked for Sex and the city so I’m off to make millions

Mad max was a really really awful and dumb movie.

Plopsu · 16-01-2018 10:43AM

conorhal wrote: »

Not really, it would be more like saying that there was no boxing match and the entire fight takes place in the mind of a man that tripped, banged his head and is lying concussed on the street.

No, in that case what happens in the persons mind is irrelevant to what happens to them. In the case of Jacob's Ladder, what happens in the 'dream' directly affects whether he lives or dies.
Point taken about ;it was all a dream', though.

Plopsu · 16-01-2018 10:44AM

Blazer wrote: »

So all we need is a good looking lesbian who’s strong willed and they’ll go for it regardless of the story. It worked for Sex and the city so I’m off to make millions
Mad max was a really really awful and dumb movie.

Yes, yes it was!

5rtytry56 · 16-01-2018 10:46AM

diomed wrote: »

Top Gun.

Don't forget the ground based counterpart Days Of Thunder

5rtytry56 · 16-01-2018 10:49AM

X Files movies

OneOfThem Stumbled · 16-01-2018 11:24AM

I have two that people will find really hard to top!

Go on, give it a try.

Knowing starring Nic Cage. Man has the ability of precognition and finds out the world is going to get destroyed. It gets destroyed.

A Serious Man - by the Cohen brothers. A bunch of things happen to a Jewish man. He is being cuckolded, but the cuck...older... dies. At the conclusion of the film the protagonist receives the promotion he was looking for, but he might have cancer, and he might also be hit by a random tornado. The end.

Oh er.... spoilers... I guess

Wait, encore!

Melancholia - woman is depressed because the world is going to get destroyed. The end.

RoboRat · 16-01-2018 11:25AM

Armageddon, every one knows that if anybody was going to stop and earth destroying asteroid, its Chuck Norris.

dr.kenneth noisewater · 16-01-2018 12:08PM

Watched the Nice Guys the other night, terrible plot. few funny moments but overall very bad

pointless films or plots

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