Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives

[Eddie Dean]

This movie rules. Chang is maybe the coolest character of the past decade.

 

[thejon93]

As much as I enjoyed this film, I kind of found myself hating it as well. It's one of those rare films where I walked away from it not knowing whether I hated it or liked it. If this movie wasn't so darn slow, I would have easily given it an 8 out of 10. But, with the way it is, I have to say that it's a 6 out of 10 at best. I don't think I'll ever watch this film again because once you've seen it, there's nothing else to gather from it. It's just a slow, meandering mess of a film that just happens to look visually spectacular at all instances (the cinematography, lighting, everything done technically on this film was smooth) and the music was great (especially when the fight between Julian and Chang arrives, but it's disappointing that the great track is used mostly as filler for an extended shot of Gosling doing circles around Chang). The only interesting characters are Chang and the mother, besides that, no other character stood out, nothing else stood out to me in fact, and while Ryan Gosling was good, he didn't have much to do or say (and it didn't help that we're forced to look at his emotionless face for what felt like 50% of the film's runtime). I love Drive, it's a 10 out of 10 masterpiece in my opinion, but Only God Forgives is far too pretentious, slow and boring for me to ever consider watching it again (it has a massive Albert Brooks/Ron Perlman-sized hole missing from it, the film could have used a charismatic villain or two).

 

[hopefuldreamer]

6/10
I was really looking forward to this and felt confused after viewing it. I loved how beautifully the film was shot, the acting and cinematography was great. There were scenes I liked but overall the film was so drab and dark without one tad bit of any positive vibe that it made it overall a disturbing dark place to go, with no light to shine through or anyone to root for.

I love dark films, I also love crazy violent films, but something about this one just didn't work for me.

Yeah, sums up my feelings too.

 

[The Endless]

I liked this film. It was like an acid fuelled twisted fairy tale. It had a dreamy atmosphere about it. Kinda like a David Lynch film, but a bit more accessible.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The movie was just too strange, I am going to watch it again just to get a better handle of my rating, which I do with all movies, but I wouldnt say I am looking forward to watching it again.

The silent scenes worked in Drive because Gosling's character always had someone else in the room reacting to him, here he was often on his own and it just came across as weird and pointless.

 

[thejon93]

The movie was just too strange, I am going to watch it again just to get a better handle of my rating, which I do with all movies, but I wouldnt say I am looking forward to watching it again.

The silent scenes worked in Drive because Gosling's character always had someone else in the room reacting to him, here he was often on his own and it just came across as weird and pointless.

Completely agreed. The silent scenes in this are more brutal than the violence in the film itself. There's a shot at the dinner table with Julian's mother that must have been a solid half a minute before she started talking (I thought the film was frozen at that point, everyone I was watching it with laughed when it started up again), the whole 30 seconds you're just sitting there and looking at her face, it's pointless and amateurish filmmaking. I hate how every character, besides the mother, is monotone as well, there was never much energy displayed in the performances.

 

[The Endless]

I wouldn't call it amateurish. It's a stylistic choice, it's like a painting showing that the matriarch is the powerful one in this scene. Before a word is spoken we see who holds the power here.

I can understand why people dislike certain things in Refn's films, but it's all intentional symbolism. He's basically painting a picture but in film. That's his style.

 

[The Endless]

Another good example is when the cops tell Julian about the murder of the guy who killed his brother. It just freezes on his face for a few moments and we can see in his face what he's thinking. The cogs are turning in his head "Dammit mother!" haha

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Completely agreed. The silent scenes in this are more brutal than the violence in the film itself. There's a shot at the dinner table with Julian's mother that must have been a solid half a minute before she started talking (I thought the film was frozen at that point, everyone I was watching it with laughed when it started up again), the whole 30 seconds you're just sitting there and looking at her face, it's pointless and amateurish filmmaking. I hate how every character, besides the mother, is monotone as well, there was never much energy displayed in the performances.

While I wouldnt say its amateurish it isnt particularly good either. Its incredibly frustrating to watch and often I had thought the movie had frozen as well.

Again it worked in Drive because we always got the reactions of the other people in the room as well, here it just didnt work and made the movie seem much longer than it was.

 

[Octoberist]

I think Refn's trying to duplicate italian horror; giving the entire film a fever dream vibe.

So the characters are often in a 'trance' like state until they speak. I don't know if non-Americans will get this, but the acting is almost watching a Chuck E. Cheese show with their animatronic characters. When the spotlight hits a character, he talks and emotes. When the spotlight turns off, it shuts off just blinking. Just like the movie, they become props till they have dialog.

 

[Naked Shia]

I saw it yesterday. this is probably the best comedy of 2013. I laughed A LOT.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I saw it yesterday. this is probably the best comedy of 2013. I laughed A LOT.

Haha, yeah... I watched this with a couple of my friends and we pretty much MST3K'd the whole thing. I hated this movie but it was good for a laugh. WARNING: Do not watch the Chang karaoke scenes while drinking something or else it will be coming out of your nose.

 

[redhawk23]

Haha, yeah... I watched this with a couple of my friends and we pretty much MST3K'd the whole thing. I hated this movie but it was good for a laugh. WARNING: Do not watch the Chang karaoke scenes while drinking something or else it will be coming out of your nose.

No one is good at movie riffing. Not a single person. Its the worst.

 

[Nemi]

Another good example is when the cops tell Julian about the murder of the guy who killed his brother. It just freezes on his face for a few moments and we can see in his face what he's thinking. The cogs are turning in his head "Dammit mother!" haha

Where is your avatar from?

 

[Deserana]

Where is your avatar from?

Guardians of the Galaxy

 

[Rowsdower!]

No one is good at movie riffing. Not a single person. Its the worst.

And yet MST3K ran for like 11 years and Rifftrax has been going strong ever since.

I'm not going to pretend I'm even 1/10 as good as they are, but you're assertion that "not a single person" is good at it is a pile of crap.

 

[Naked Shia]

Haha, yeah... I watched this with a couple of my friends and we pretty much MST3K'd the whole thing. I hated this movie but it was good for a laugh. WARNING: Do not watch the Chang karaoke scenes while drinking something or else it will be coming out of your nose.

I should definitely do that t:

 

[redhawk23]

And yet MST3K ran for like 11 years and Rifftrax has been going strong ever since.

I'm not going to pretend I'm even 1/10 as good as they are, but you're assertion that "not a single person" is good at it is a pile of crap.

And Transformers 3 made a billion dollars and "Cinemasins" videos get millions of views a piece despite being completely insane and un-insightful.

Popularity doesn't make something good.

Even the most famous movie riffers are pretty much completely scattershot, 1 joke out of 50 landing. Joking about a movie when something comes to mind in the moment can be funny and memorable, but going into a film with that as the primary intent is just garbage that begets garbage.

 

[Drz]

Riffing seems to be an American thing, which has caused people in theaters talking during movies, which is terrible.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

People have been talking back to the screens for a long time. And since film has been around in other countries also for a long time I refuse to seriously take the notion that people in other countries never have done the same. MST3K and Rifftrax both did nothing your local creature feature guys weren't doing in one way or another from the 1960's to the early 1980's. They both just do it better.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah. And most of the movies that got MST3K'd are actually BETTER when you watch them that way. Have you ever tried to sit through Manos: The Hands of Fate WITHOUT Joel and the bots? Good grief.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Hey, I believe it's okay to talk during the movie once everyone has given it a chance and realized it sucks ass, i.e. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Haha yeah. I remember when I was in college they used to show movies that had been out in theaters for a month or so for $1 in the student union building. We went to see that god-awful present-day adaptation of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke. There were only about 15 of us at the showing, and everyone took part it riffing on it. It was a f***ing blast, because that movie was terrible. I should write to Rifftrax and see if they'd ever consider ripping on it. They did a German version of Hamlet once on MST3K once, but I think the Ethan Hawke version even makes THAT piece of crap look good.

 

[Tequilla]

If you talk in a movie theater , you get slapped in the face. That's the rule.

 

[weezerspider]

Agreed. Anyone who talks in a theater is a criminal against Cinema.