The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

For posts related to a specific film -- beware of spoilers o ye who dareth enter!
MacSwell
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by MacSwell »

Stewball wrote:
Maaxwell wrote:
Stewball wrote:
What, low brow slapstick? I take it that you agree that he's FOS? BTW, cheap shots are never funny except to those in the cheap seats.

I thought slapstick was physical comedy? I can only assume FOS means "full of shit", and yes, a great many of the points he awards "sins" for are meant completely as a joke. His videos aren't meant to be taken as serious commentary.

And I'm not even sure who or what you're trying to disparage with that last sentence.


Slapstick because actual humor needs to have at least a kernel of truth. Snatching stuff out of thin air is unfunny and cheap since almost all of what he points out as being wrong, is wrong itself, yet it's out there in the Internet wind. If he wants to poke fun, pick on Titanic or An Inconvenient Truth or Avatar....you know, something down on his level. I'd like to see him do one on this years Oscar winner--but I'm sure he's afraid his PC lib buddies would have him wearing that Moonlight where the Sun never shines.

A quick search would show you that he's already done ones for the likes of Titanic and Avatar.

I'm not exactly sure how any of this "lib lib lib" rubbish is relevant to what we're talking about.

90sCoffee
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by 90sCoffee »

I really hate those 'Everything wrong with....' videos that nit-pick some random small portion. I think a lot of the unexplained stuff in that film is because it's a bit rushed, probably could've been 10-20 minutes longer.

Pretty good movie until the last 30ish minutes for me. After the mystery aspect goes away then it turns into a pretty standard action film. I'd probably rank it as a B+/A- for the first three quarters and then a C for the ending.

Stewball
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by Stewball »

Maaxwell wrote:I thought slapstick was physical comedy?


It is, but I was trying to convey a not-even-up-to-that-level insult. I mean, what is slapstick, Vaudeville slip on a banana peel which was never funny. But this is poke fun comedy, but for that to work you gotta have a genuine weakness to pick on. Titanic and Avatar have plenty of such material, but he goes on for 16 minutes making fun of what's not there, it's a cheap shot that has less to offer than slapstick. I'll ask again, in a slightly different way, what did you find funny--or did you realize later that he was FOS and it wasn't.

I can only assume FOS means "full of shit"


:roll:
, and yes, a great many of the points he awards "sins" for are meant completely as a joke. His videos aren't meant to be taken as serious commentary.


I get he's pushing the comedy button, but (^ see above ^)

And I'm not even sure who or what you're trying to disparage with that last sentence.


It's a slam at anybody who thinks undeserved cheap shots are funny.

90sCoffee wrote:I really hate those 'Everything wrong with....' videos that nit-pick some random small portion. I think a lot of the unexplained stuff in that film is because it's a bit rushed, probably could've been 10-20 minutes longer.


You'd loose audiences though, especially since it's already over 2 hrs. Take it from one who's watched over a dozen times, it's all there, but you need to see it 2-3 times minimum unless you have a photographic memory and are an art expert.

Pretty good movie until the last 30ish minutes for me. After the mystery aspect goes away then it turns into a pretty standard action film. I'd probably rank it as a B+/A- for the first three quarters and then a C for the ending.


Do you like puzzles, 90sCoffee? The movie lives up to it's tagline.

I get misty eyed every time that song starts playing at the end. But I know the missing verse they didn't play. And when I figured out what was going on with the song, the altered Pollock, and the autism theme, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place--and I bumped it up from my previous rating of a 9, to 10+. The ending is absolutely perfect, but I didn't realize it at first either.

MacSwell
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by MacSwell »

Stewball wrote:
Maaxwell wrote:I thought slapstick was physical comedy?


I mean, what is slapstick, Vaudeville slip on a banana peel which was never funny.

So Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mr Bean... none of them are funny?

Try this out for size. Only 45 minutes.


Stewball
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by Stewball »

Maaxwell wrote:So Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mr Bean... none of them are funny?


Bean no, but Chaplin and Keaton yeah. That film is definitely funny, and I think I see the problem. I differentiate (erroneously or not) between simple slapstick (man slips on banana peel. HA HA HA HA), and sight gags, which I think is some of the best humor. Like where Keaton slips on the banana peel he forgot he put there to trip up someone else. It involves context, suspense (the pool table), exaggeration, incongruity, prescient timing (jumping out the window into a pre-planted set of old lady's clothes), misdirection, the absurdly unexpected (going into the movie screen and what happens there), and even play on words ("There's something in your drink!", & "shadowing" a suspect).

There is a good deal of sight gag humor in The Accountant like him waving and smiling at the old couple after he'd just killed the guy with the beard; neck breaking emotional shift (kills killer, then with understated calm announces "We should go"). And the funniest bit, a combination of sight gag, jolting change of pace and word play, and which I never heard anyone laugh at: the scene on the couch where she's coming on to him, and he suddenly solves the mystery; but instead of shouting Eureka!, he says "Crazy Eddie and the Panama Pump", to which I added a mental emphasis on the "PUMP"...but he, being an obsessively focused autistic, doesn't.

I remember Milton Berle, "Mr. TV", who was famous for falling down, and it always got a laugh even though there was nothing else to it except maybe the drummer emphasized it, and the sound effects guy operated the slapstick. Even as a kid, I never understood why people thought it was funny. I came to learn that most of those who laughed did so because it was happening to someone else instead of them. For me, that's slapstick in a nutshell.

Chamonix
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Re: The Accountant - Questions with spoilers

Post by Chamonix »

Stewball wrote: But only an art expert on Pollock would recognize it, or someone like myself who just happened to notice the small out of place anomaly (which enhances the autism theme of the movie), and then did a little Google research.


What do you think about size of the painting? I was trying to find out the original size and according to MoMA, where Free Form 1946 is on display, the dimensions are 19 1/4 x 14" (48.9 x 35.5 cm). In the movie, the painting looks much bigger.

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