muttnik

Agreed, and as Team Fred, fundamentally I get why anyone would dislike this movie. I can absolutely point out things I dislike in it, or that should have been executed better, but for some reason, I cannot see it as a bad movie. The logical side of my brain can't make heads or tails of this. Congo is another movie from my childhood that I love, but I'm well aware of and can agree full-heartedly on how bad it is. The badness is part of what draws me in on adult viewings. I guess I can't really explain it. I'd say I hope someday all the Team Sanity folks find their Drop Dead Fred, but maybe it's for the best if they don't! *also your handle reminded me that the doctor in this movie looks like a dollar store Dr. Phil.

What was always wild to me about the parents hating me was that their kids, especially after age eleven, were usually the ones wanting to do low-key dangerous stuff, and I was the one who just wanted to keep doing relatively safe kid stuff. I had far off country grandparents as well, and going to visit them was the highlight of every summer vacation. My grandmother always had a stack of new books to give me and there was usually a stray neighbor cat hanging around that I could play with. And lizards, so many lizards to look up at the library when I got home. We only moved the one time though, in the middle of my sophomore year, coincidentally, from a Chicago suburb. I hope you guys have a rad time at the show!

::sympathetic internet hug:: I also see myself in this movie, so do some folks on Twitter it appears. Club ADHD, anxiety, depression, and autism spectrum disorder reporting in. My mother was excited to have a daughter and for a while tried to dress me in cute clothes, fix my hair, the pink room with dollies; there were times where my behaviour and other family dynamics obviously frustrated her. Thankfully after a time when she realized I was not that girl at all, she supported me and let me be my own kid. My parents have never had a great relationship, but they're both so off I don't know who else would have either of them if they divorced (and neither are capable of independence). We have always been a very isolated family. My folks wanted me to have friends but never rolled out the welcome wagon to have anyone over. When I wasn't in a bubble of self-involvement I could definitely pick up on their tension and would retreat back into myself. School was great since the teachers loved me, but I never had any long-term friends. Friends either moved away, or I would say or do something wrong and they'd shut me out; one parent flat out told me I was a bad influence on his kids. That's messed up to hear at nine! Never once growing up did I feel normal or confident, and I couldn’t figure out why my life wasn’t what I thought it was supposed to be. I also have a strong logical side but am prone to magical whatifisms that the logical side has to drown out. I know I had at least one imaginary friend but I can't recall for the life of me what they were like. I was the kid playing with myself, talking to myself, tuning out the world. I spent all of my teenage years and twenties studying others and trying to be a different, regular person, to be what other people wanted me to be, and surrounding myself with the wrong people. Only recently have I really been able to be myself and be happy with who I am at my core. Yeah, I can see that. Honestly, I can see a past where the mother wasn't allowed to be her own person by convention, was pushed into a life she didn't want or wasn't prepared for. She's only working with the tools she has, and they aren't great. I appreciate the moment that the movie lets her be complex and not a cartoony villain.

Yep, yep, yep 100%. It is okay to be alone, it is okay to be single. Media does a terrible job of showcasing this. I don't think I've ever been this passionate about a movie before.

Agree, or even the nanny whom she pulls the prank on at the end. There definitely needed to be a scene or two more of the daughter with an adult treating her awfully, perhaps before the lunch date.

Pointing out the flowers beforehand seems like bad writing or a note for audience clarification (they did cause a reaction in her though). The cop thing, I have no explanation for that, it was silly in a bad way and should have been cut. Honestly, I hated the love interest character the most and felt he was unnecessary. I get the impulse to have that character, to show that she can be loved for who she is or might be, and Look! A decent man from the men we've been shown! He's the inverse of your terrible father!, but he was such a dip and I hated all of his scenes. Hated the bit with the daughter too, it doesn't help with the confusion about the movie's rules. A better ending for me would have been Elizabeth moving into her own place (even a throwaway line to Carrie about a new job), seeing a little neighbour girl very similar to her past self, and "giving" Fred to that kid.

I'd argue Annabella wasn't the only affair prior to the beginning of the movie. The woman in the dealership seemed very familiar to him (very lunchtime liaison), and Elizabeth doesn't recognize Annabella at the wine tasting party at all even though she walked in on the two of them together on the couch. Do we ever see him comfort or show her any genuine love at all? He does end things with her, but as soon as he wants her back (because tight dress and haircut) he continues to lie and manipulate her, and is alright with her being a medicated zombie as long as things can continue on as they were. And this is nitpicking I know, but their apartment looked to be all him. Like she's a husk of a person but that looked like his apartment that she moved into and never got to bring anything personal into. Since the movie is pretty much all post-Fred there's no way to know how much over-the-top acting out happened before. But from what the movie does give, these were two adults who should not have gotten married (or had a child) based on personality types alone. Checked out, deadbeat father; a mother that needed to be in constant control with everything having the appearance of perfection. Like it makes sense that Fred snowballed out of that. Maybe if the father had been more involved maybe Fred wouldn't exist? If we take out the instances of the mother being passive-aggressive towards Child Elizabeth because of Fred ("I think I love you less", scolding her for ruining her 'long, beautiful hair'), there's still stuff like keeping flowers in the house that she knows her child is allergic to, blaming the child for the father's actions, not playing or acting like the little girl that the mother would prefer. Like that kid doesn't have that bedroom. Her interactions with her adult daughter are just as bad. When we first meet her she doesn't comfort her daughter or say anything about Elizabeth being better off (which she is). It's very 'your husband left you because you did something wrong, and we need to fix you so he'll find value in you again.' She takes her to the mall and gets her a make-over to look exactly like her (she scolds the make-up woman to do Elizabeth's make-up like hers). The trip to Doctor Feelgood to drown out all the problems with pills which is very on-brand. Yes, Elizabeth deeply needs help, but it all comes across like it's a burden to the mother and not something she's doing out of genuine love. The bit at the end where the mother finally shows some vulnerability really makes me feel like she was also emotionally abused as a child and is remorseful of her actions because it's all she knows. I do like the small message that yeah, even if you lose everything and have to start over, it's better to do so as you.

True, she's out a job, car, and place to live, but Carrie Fisher was still her friend (she had a really weird reaction to losing her houseboat, but was thrilled with the insurance check), and she rid herself of her two biggest abusers. Like, comedy aside, her mother, husband, and in the distance her absentee father, are really, really awful people and the implied notion (not singling you out just in general from the episode!) that these people were beneficial at all to her life is a bad take. Fred or not Elizabeth is definitely in need of a good therapist and a support group.

I haven't seen this since 2004, but I remember liking it at the time enough to think that Gans would be competent enough to do Silent Hill. He was not.

Also, -Elizabeth having MAC makeup applied- "Now, Elizabeth, don't worry, all these products are cruelty-free."

Whew, this episode was a roller coaster. I have so many thoughts, but I'll try to contain most of them because I do get why people dislike it. It is loud and over the top and there’s stuff that definitely could have been executed better. I would also hard agree that this is 100% not a kid’s movie. Much like Ace Venture was definitely not a kid's movie, but was shown to me and my peers repeatedly as a child. Elizabeth’s mother was abusive. Period. Abuse may not have been her intention, but it’s what she was serving up. There’s the whole makeover scene where she styles her daughter exactly in her image. That’s friggin' nutso. Her daughter isn't allowed to be her own person! Repeating someone’s name is like gaslighting douchebag abuse 101. Why marry Elizabeth at all? Because he was an abusive garbage monster who saw a dowdy, childlike dummy he could keep under his thumb that would keep house and play wife when he wanted, and would never leave him for chasing skirts all over town. He called her mother behind her back! He knew who the original abuser was and went right to the source to get Elizabeth back in line! The only problem I have is that Carrie Fisher's character makes no logical sense any way I wrap my head around her. While I completely understand being as delicate as possible around a friend that's suffered long-term emotional abuse, at some point (I'd assume when she renders you homeless and then comes into your serious place of employment) you have to be firm and put your foot down. The dopey love interest and his dismissal of Elizabeth's mental state does make sense to me though. From way afar she's kind of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and he seems to be the kind of dope that would buy into that nonsense. Nobody seems to see Elizabeth as a person because she doesn’t know who she is. She was never allowed to form her own personhood. Fred, real/magical or self-actualization aside, does finally get her to start living her own life.

If we go with Fred being a manifestation of Elizabeth, I think most of that could be explained by her self-sabotaging, feeling she's not worthy of happiness or love. Pushing away good people and staying with the wrong ones.

They used to show The Young Ones on Comedy Central for a while in the mid-nineties, but I remember trying to talk about it with friends and getting blank stares. He made an impact on my childhood anyway.

So I just rewatched it as it'd been a couple of years, and it still stands up for me, so hopefully it might for you as well. A few things could stand to have been refined/better fleshed out, and one particular character doesn't make a lot of sense logically, but I think it all still works. Though I guess one big issue is Rik Mayall; as with a Jim Carrey or Robin Williams one's tolerance of him and thus enjoyment of the movie may vary.

DDF is a great movie. I will live, die, resurrect, and be staked in the heart on this hill.

The video store I worked at had two copies of WFRR; one copy was in the comedy section and the other was in the children's section. Make of that what you will. Watership Down was also in the children's section, though I later manually changed it to the special interests section as I wouldn't call Watership Down light children's fare.

But seriously, if small kitties love butt scratchies, then big kitties must also love butt scratchies. What if crocodiles are excellent cuddlers? One day I will find out.

I will never stop judging Sea World! But I definitely would love to pet a great white in the wild, like underwater as one passes by whatever safe container I'm in. Or if I'm sitting on a boat and it goes underneath. My previous comment was hypocritical! I'm the type of person who has to touch everything! I will one day lose a hand!

I had that book too. Edith Hamilton's Mythology was like my ancient tome though; I carried it everywhere as if I could conjure the Gods and creatures inside. I wonder what the crossover rate is for people into Lola Bunny and those into the Na'vi. So they didn't have any security cameras in those underwater tunnels, did they? There's an underwater shot from a camera pointed at the tunnels, and one pointed at the outside of one of the filtration tanks, but nothing for inside the tunnels. That, like so much else, seems like a terrible idea. Did they have any security at the park?

I don't recall any kissing disasters, but I too used to pour myself a drink after school and pretend it was an adult beverage. Like apple juice in a cold beer glass, grape juice in the wine glasses, and Sprite with an olive and toothpick in a small tumbler because we didn't have anything close to a martini glass. There were construction paper cigarettes too. Much worse, I used to take a big plastic tumbler and fill it with strawberry soda- my stand-in for a goblet of goat's blood- and then kneel in front of my window for a tribute to Zeus.

::happy shoulder shuffle::

I believe the plum job at Sea World is masturbating the whales for their liquid gold. So for me the nuttiest thing was the waist-level open pool they put the baby Great White in. That's a pool meant for gently touching starfish and small rays. Realistically eighteen dumbasses a day would put their hands in that water and then sue Sea World into the next millennium. Also, when we first see the coral thieves they scan the lagoon with their flashlights and happen upon a crab, a snapping turtle, and a large toad just hanging out on the rocks together. Only those three distinct animals who scatter after they're spotted. Those critters were clearly conspiring. What other business would they have to be there together at that very moment?! That's the better movie.

Yeah, bread shark! For those with a cable subscription, right now all the Jaws movies are free on demand with STARZEncore.

That's actually (sadly) true to life. I've owned a few games where the NPCs will walk in a straight line toward the player or whichever place they're sent to. Game GPS has also directed me in as straight a line as possible to a goal. Which is great until you reach a steep cliff or unscalable mountainside, insta-deadly water, insanely high-level enemies, or your unescorted NPCs die in the wilderness.

I mean, the twist of this movie is just the final episode of St. Elsewhere. It traded an autistic boy looking into a snow globe and reimagining the people in his life, to an autistic boy looking into computer code and reimagining the people in his life. I know that they don't specifically say that he has autism spectrum disorder, but he's definitely written that way. The stepfather calls him a 'creepy weirdo' who stays in his room all day with his video game, but that his teacher says he's a genius. His mother gets super defensive when he's mentioned. His bedroom is still very childlike. Doesn’t seem to want or have any friends. He's hyper-focused on the world he's created and that world only. He has a strong sense of justice. Having him actually commit murder was the nail in the coffin for me. After sitting with the movie for a bit I thought maybe I was just reading into things, but then I read some Tweets from a few other people with ASD who felt similarly. I just couldn't enjoy this one. The cat(s) were adorable though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯