The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[Zarathustra]

Thank you Lurch for saving me from looking like "the most argumentative participant of this thread!" I was starting to sweat that one, with people laughing and spitting coffee at my expense.

[Cagliostro]

Damn Malik. I'm very fond of you, but you'll debate about anything, won't you?

*spits out coffee trying not to laugh*

Laugh it up. (It was kind of funny.)

Yet, the debater in me must point out that an opinion worth having is an opinion worth defending. Otherwise, who cares what you think? If you don't take your own opinion seriously enough to defend, why even say it? (By "you," I don't mean anyone here! "You" in general.)

With that said, I've probably justified my own caricature. Carry on.

You did precisely that, my friend.

[Kil Tyme]

Saw this last night. Pretty good. I thought that humming bird looked familiar (feather in forest gump). Outstanding FX with the whole aging and size thing. The parts of the lighting man was funny as hell. Beautiful music. Good chick flick.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Umm...

K. My friends call me a film snob, so please understand...

This film is a horror.

The first third feels magical and is visually arresting. Old Benjamin doesn't say much, and that's why it works.

As soon as Benjamin gets a little younger and departs to "live" his life, it all starts to fall apart. There's no plot and no purpose. Ridiculous things happen, just like in Gump, except this time, I had no patience for it.

The last third of the film is a horror to behold: terrible exposition dialogue, almost as if the writer didn't know what to do next, I was literally laughing/crying at how horrible this wonderful film became.

And let's not even go into how much of a blatant copy this is of Gump. I don't care that the guy wrote Gump, why do the same film twice...well, because he couldn't think of anything better.

I would recommend the first half, but please, don't hurt yourself with the second.

My Rating: * 1/2 stars

[kevinswatch]

Just saw it last night. I wouldn't call it a horror. It was interesting, but I definitely saw flaws when I was watching it. (And when I can see flaws in a movie, as a person with no movie making background, that's a problem.) Many of the problems that I had with the film have been brought up by Malik and jacob raver.

My other main gripe is that the characters were so bland... In an epic, character driven film like this...shouldn't the characters be interesting? The main character himself said so little over the course of the movie. I felt no empathy for anyone (except the dude who kept getting hit by lightning).

It's just another of those movies that "could have been better."

Interesting concept, though, and it makes you think a little, so I'm glad to have seen it for those reasons alone.

Spoiler

But yeah, Malik, I completely agree with you over the "hit people over the head with the moral of the story" bit. Waaaay too lame. And I kept noticing (and kept getting annoyed) every time some character said some sort of "big life lession." Beat us over the head a bit, eh?

-jay

[dlbpharmd]

We watched this last night. I just found it to be very sad and depressing. Otherwise, I don't have much to say that hasn't been said above. Our favorite parts:

Spoiler

the guy who was hit by lightning 7 times. We laughed at each scene!

[drew]

I didn't really like this movie.

Yeah it was sad at the end

Spoiler

When he died as a baby is his lovers arms

But even that was predictable.

Early on in the movie; when the daughter was reading to her mother, she had to actually say to her mother that he was writting about her.

No Sh*T eh?

I hate it when they have to beat you over the head with ides that that don't think the movie going public would understand.

The other problem I had with the story-line, and maybe it was because Brad Pitt was the star...was all the girls he had sex with.
In and out of brothels as an old man/teenager

Then when he was a teenager/old-man he was bringing back whatever chick he could find to the old age home.

I did like the clock story though.

[danlo]

I finished it yesterday and thought it was good and the way her Mom dies was just how my Mom died two years ago-so I got extremely emotional. But yeah, after reading y'all's comments it was no where near as good as I thought. There was a shocking bit of editing that seemed to make the movie devolve into a totally different thing about 2/3rds the way through. And, while Brad can't do an Irish accent (Devil's Own) to save his life he does do a very good German (7 Years in Tibet) and a passable Loo'sianan however there was one very short scene where he had no accent at all, that, plus the edit, was some sloppy film making...

Oh, and another thing, Capt. Mike's accent had me constantly wondering if he's the same guy that voices Mr. Crab on Spongebob Squarepants...

[Worm of Despite]

I thought this film was all right, though predictable and quite Forrest Gump-ian. The acting was the best part, as well as Button's transformation, though he looked very eerie as a "teenager" with the mature-looking face and 16 year old body. Seeing Cate Blanchett is always nice, and her energy very much reminded me of her performance in The Aviator.