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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 2, 2019 16:13:42 GMT
I'm surprised there was no thread on this film yet. I'd be curious to hear what horror-centric audiences felt about this movie.
I liked it quite a bit. I think the cast is great, it's clearly more in the strictly horror mode than than Get Out, and I thought better overall. I liked that this went from a pretty small and intimate story before we saw how expansive it was, but it also didn't appear to cheap-out too much on the larger scenes when we got there. As much as it sounds, from that description, like the original Purge, with the small home invasion story amongst the broader concept, it's way better than that (because the original Purge kinda sucked). Oddly, it reminded me more of The Invitation, which is a movie I like a lot, especially at around the half way mark when we get some outdoor scenes that were reminiscent of the ending of The Invitation.
If there was something in particular that I had an issue with it would be the humor. It felt maybe a bit too reliant on levity in some of the more intense moments. And the Elizabeth Moss/Tim Heidecker relationship and dialogue, and really just their characters' sort of shallow traits of just being obnoxious drunks was a bit too on the nose and begs the question of why this perfectly nice and pleasant central family would even be friends with these people.
But in general, the whole thing worked really well. I really appreciated how Peele was able to take this batshit crazy story and make even general audiences, who would typically disregard an interesting horror concept like this, take it seriously. It's better directed and has more tension than Get Out, and I think I appreciate that the social implications are not as heavy handed as they were in his first film. Obviously there's a ton that you can read into this story here, and it's not completely subtle, but at least it's somewhat more subtext than overt text like Get Out was. This worked better as it's own story without being just a dissertation on its themes in the way his first film kind of fell into from time to time.
And maybe I'm just not perceptive enough, but I didn't see that final twist coming and I quite appreciated it.
Good stuff overall, and I'm still looking forward to what he decides to write and direct next.
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Post by politicidal on Apr 5, 2019 1:34:44 GMT
Cool to hear.
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Apr 6, 2019 7:08:13 GMT
I saw the final twist coming about an hour before it was revealed.
I loved Get Out, but this one didn't do it for me. It started out creepy and atmospheric, but once it got into the action it just got silly and lost any and all tension. The evil doppelgangers were about as competent as Harry and Marv, so that didn't help.
As for Get Out, I've met people on this very board who don't understand the point of it, so I don't think its subtext was that overt. Either way, it was an effective movie with a simple premise. Us is the exact opposite for me. The movie's explanation for everything is so convoluted I haven't even tried to make sense of it.
One thing I'll say, though: "I've Got 5 On It" has been stuck in my head for 2 weeks now. And the ballet fight with it was great.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 8, 2019 15:40:20 GMT
As for Get Out, I've met people on this very board who don't understand the point of it, so I don't think its subtext was that overt. Either way, it was an effective movie with a simple premise. Us is the exact opposite for me. The movie's explanation for everything is so convoluted I haven't even tried to make sense of it. It's hard to imagine anything in Get Out going over anyone's head. It makes the metaphor completely literal. There's really not anything to read into it. Not that that makes it bad, but it just felt so heavy handed to me that it worked less as its own story as much as it worked as just a writer preaching directly to the audience. I also don't see how this story is any more convoluted than Get Out. It was bigger in scale, but both have a pretty outlandish premise that is obviously flirting with fantasy to make their stories work. I liked that this one was broader and farther reaching, but I don't see how it's any less simple. It's more mysterious and leaves you to fill in some information on your own, but both have a premise that ask you to take a leap into the absurd in order to buy into the story you've already been wrapped up in to that point of their revelations.
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Us (2019)
Apr 8, 2019 18:22:48 GMT
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Apr 8, 2019 18:22:48 GMT
As for Get Out, I've met people on this very board who don't understand the point of it, so I don't think its subtext was that overt. Either way, it was an effective movie with a simple premise. Us is the exact opposite for me. The movie's explanation for everything is so convoluted I haven't even tried to make sense of it. It's hard to imagine anything in Get Out going over anyone's head. It makes the metaphor completely literal. There's really not anything to read into it. Not that that makes it bad, but it just felt so heavy handed to me that it worked less as its own story as much as it worked as just a writer preaching directly to the audience. I also don't see how this story is any more convoluted than Get Out. It was bigger in scale, but both have a pretty outlandish premise that is obviously flirting with fantasy to make their stories work. I liked that this one was broader and farther reaching, but I don't see how it's any less simple. It's more mysterious and leaves you to fill in some information on your own, but both have a premise that ask you to take a leap into the absurd in order to buy into the story you've already been wrapped up in to that point of their revelations. And yet people do. I've seen dozens of interpretations of the film, from "it's about slavery" to "it's about whitewashing". As for the simplicity, (spoilers for both movies): In Get Out, people want to switch bodies with black people. Kids bring them in, and Mom and Dad accomplish this through a combination of hypnosis and surgery. Don't know how scientifically sound it is, but easy enough to follow. In Us, we have underground tunnels all over the country holding apparently scientifically engineered clones of everyone (?) above. These clones somehow perfectly mimic whatever their doppelgangers are doing at any given time, and can breed and have their children look exactly the same. One day both young Lupita and her clone each go wandering off in their separate worlds and bump into each other. Clone Lupita swaps herself out and none of the other clones think to do this until a revolution 20 years later. Also, the young boy might be a clone as well because *insert clues* All this raises about two hundred questions, and the insistence on giving everything a scientific explanation just makes it all even crazier.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 10, 2019 15:42:57 GMT
And yet people do. I've seen dozens of interpretations of the film, from "it's about slavery" to "it's about whitewashing". As for the simplicity, (spoilers for both movies): In Get Out, people want to switch bodies with black people. Kids bring them in, and Mom and Dad accomplish this through a combination of hypnosis and surgery. Don't know how scientifically sound it is, but easy enough to follow. In Us, we have underground tunnels all over the country holding apparently scientifically engineered clones of everyone (?) above. These clones somehow perfectly mimic whatever their doppelgangers are doing at any given time, and can breed and have their children look exactly the same. One day both young Lupita and her clone each go wandering off in their separate worlds and bump into each other. Clone Lupita swaps herself out and none of the other clones think to do this until a revolution 20 years later. Also, the young boy might be a clone as well because *insert clues* All this raises about two hundred questions, and the insistence on giving everything a scientific explanation just makes it all even crazier. Well, those interpretations of slavery and whitewashing themes are not entirely off base, but they are just a more specific name for what is more of a general theme in the film itself. I don't think I'd count that entirely as getting it wrong. The plot in Get Out is simple enough, but I think you can imagine that it's not scientifically sound. It's very much in the realm of fantasy and requires your suspension of disbelief. In Us, yes, the plot has a lot of little threads here and there, but I don't think it requires any more of a leap really. It's a lot bigger, and not everything is explained, but it also doesn't really need to be for it to work as a story. We are not privy to all of the information, which reinforces some of what works with it to me. Why do they mimic each other perfectly? Exactly how perfectly do they mimic one another? Does this actually reach across the country or is it just California? We have suggestions as to how this works, but the specifics are not important to the storytelling mechanics. Also, not that this necessarily matters specifically, but you don't know that nobody else swapped with their doppelgangers in those 33 years. We just only have one person as an example out of a hand full. But I think you could easily theorize that it might require others in order to organize this thing. The scientific explanation is hardly scientific, also. It's left to the fantasy-psuedo-science of the movies where where the audience is generally willing to accept a vague and partial explanation. To me that's essentially the same thing we got from Get Out, which also raises tons of questions, and similar questions, but those that don't necessarily need to be explicitly answered for the story to work. I don't deny that it's a more involved plot, but I don't think it's any more confusing, convoluted, or ridiculous. To me both movies made an idea that's ludicrous at its core work in the context of their individual stories. Either way, I understand that most people will likely prefer his first effort, but I thought this was a really good next step for him. It showed some growth and a little less heavy handedness. I think he's been anointed a 'master' a bit too early, and that can turn me off sometimes, but for the most part I really do appreciate what he's doing.
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Us (2019)
Apr 11, 2019 0:44:16 GMT
via mobile
Post by moviebuffbrad on Apr 11, 2019 0:44:16 GMT
And yet people do. I've seen dozens of interpretations of the film, from "it's about slavery" to "it's about whitewashing". As for the simplicity, (spoilers for both movies): In Get Out, people want to switch bodies with black people. Kids bring them in, and Mom and Dad accomplish this through a combination of hypnosis and surgery. Don't know how scientifically sound it is, but easy enough to follow. In Us, we have underground tunnels all over the country holding apparently scientifically engineered clones of everyone (?) above. These clones somehow perfectly mimic whatever their doppelgangers are doing at any given time, and can breed and have their children look exactly the same. One day both young Lupita and her clone each go wandering off in their separate worlds and bump into each other. Clone Lupita swaps herself out and none of the other clones think to do this until a revolution 20 years later. Also, the young boy might be a clone as well because *insert clues* All this raises about two hundred questions, and the insistence on giving everything a scientific explanation just makes it all even crazier. Well, those interpretations of slavery and whitewashing themes are not entirely off base, but they are just a more specific name for what is more of a general theme in the film itself. I don't think I'd count that entirely as getting it wrong. The plot in Get Out is simple enough, but I think you can imagine that it's not scientifically sound. It's very much in the realm of fantasy and requires your suspension of disbelief. In Us, yes, the plot has a lot of little threads here and there, but I don't think it requires any more of a leap really. It's a lot bigger, and not everything is explained, but it also doesn't really need to be for it to work as a story. We are not privy to all of the information, which reinforces some of what works with it to me. Why do they mimic each other perfectly? Exactly how perfectly do they mimic one another? Does this actually reach across the country or is it just California? We have suggestions as to how this works, but the specifics are not important to the storytelling mechanics. Also, not that this necessarily matters specifically, but you don't know that nobody else swapped with their doppelgangers in those 33 years. We just only have one person as an example out of a hand full. But I think you could easily theorize that it might require others in order to organize this thing. The scientific explanation is hardly scientific, also. It's left to the fantasy-psuedo-science of the movies where where the audience is generally willing to accept a vague and partial explanation. To me that's essentially the same thing we got from Get Out, which also raises tons of questions, and similar questions, but those that don't necessarily need to be explicitly answered for the story to work. I don't deny that it's a more involved plot, but I don't think it's any more confusing, convoluted, or ridiculous. To me both movies made an idea that's ludicrous at its core work in the context of their individual stories. Either way, I understand that most people will likely prefer his first effort, but I thought this was a really good next step for him. It showed some growth and a little less heavy handedness. I think he's been anointed a 'master' a bit too early, and that can turn me off sometimes, but for the most part I really do appreciate what he's doing. I'd say the opposite. Slavery is used as a general motif to kind of link to the main theme, but not the main theme or what the body switchings are supposed to symbolize. I think I heard Peele used real experiments with mice as inspiration for the brain transplants. Either way, I'm not saying it's less outlandish than a secret underground world of clones that mimic our every move (although...it kinda is), just that there's a lot less threads as you said. I think Peele could have made things easier by just saying "it's supernatural", but the guy seems pretty committed to giving everything a scientific explanation. Even if it requires Lupita N'Yongo to groan through 10 pages of exposition in the third act.
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Us (2019)
Apr 11, 2019 15:54:34 GMT
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Post by Anonymous Andy on Apr 11, 2019 15:54:34 GMT
I look forward to future generations confusing this movie with This Is Us.
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egon1982
Sophomore
@egon1982
Posts: 994
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Post by egon1982 on Apr 23, 2019 20:34:06 GMT
I loved Get Out and this was one a letdown! i mean nice acting and premise but the ending/twist was silly and all when Get Out had a much more satisfying better ending, just try again Jordan as afterall he is the next Larry Cohen in aspects.
But it is nice to see this movie become a box-office hit and nice to see mainstream audiences support horror films that are completely different like Get Out and Quiet Place as we need something different in the mainstream horror genre rather than another pointless remake like Poltergeist, another readaptation of a book previously filmed or another remake/reboot/sequel/prequel to a dead horse franchise like Saw or Elm Street or Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.
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Post by PreachCaleb on Apr 25, 2019 16:37:33 GMT
Loved it. Great performances all around.
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rogerthat
Sophomore
@rogerthat
Posts: 734
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Post by rogerthat on May 1, 2019 21:41:25 GMT
I still haven't seen it, but it is on my watch list.
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Us (2019)
Jul 7, 2019 17:03:02 GMT
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Post by James on Jul 7, 2019 17:03:02 GMT
It’s pretty solid for the most part and the twist was pretty shocking, but it’s not great. Some of the dialogue and character choices are odd and the humour can fall flat in certain cases.
Get Out was much better as it was more consistent and just felt better executed. It’s enjoyable but could’ve expected better.
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