The Life of David Gale

[nazz180 0]

Kind of surprised no one's suggested this gem yet (I checked, sorry if I missed it). Kevin Spacey gets accused of rape/murder and Kate Winslet ("Bitsy"?) has to prove his innocence before he's executed. 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, convoluted plot, and a "twist" ending that makes 0 sense.

 

And I just googled it and it turns out that this movie was co-produced by Nicolas Cage who commissioned the script and was even originally set to star in it (why didn't this happen??)

[RyanSz 3140]

The twist makes sense in that Spacey's character was such a zealot in trying to get the death penalty abolished that his friends and he would sacrifice their lives and reputations to do it. While it is a nuts ending it makes sense for what the characters were trying to accomplish. I just don't think this is crazy enough for it to be covererd as it isn't so bad it's good but rather so bad it's depressing because Spacey does do pretty well as David Gale and Kate Winslet does a good supporting role at times.

[sillstaw 414]

Roger Ebert's zero-star review of this movie reads like a mother who's so disappointed in a child that she wants to smack him.

 

Also, it's worth pointing out that the director, Alan Parker (the man behind movies like "Pink Floyd the Wall," "Evita" and "Mississippi Burning") hasn't done a movie since this, eleven years ago.

[Lando 2019]

I always assumed that this movie was good. There's this post-metal band that I really enjoy that uses quotes from the movie with a great buildup and the two seem to fit together really well:

 

[Snake 165]

I always assumed that this movie was good.

 

Some friends put it on once and were all raving about it and swearing up and down that the rest of us would like it. I came away perplexed that anybody could like this movie. I am so glad to see the low rotten tomatoes score, I never thought to check back on it. I just assumed people liked it and it's oddly validating to see so many people shitting on it. I say this as a Kevin Spacey fan who is really against the death penalty - it's just a contrived, holier than thou mess that totally distorts a serious issue.

[nazz180 0]

 

Some friends put it on once and were all raving about it and swearing up and down that the rest of us would like it. I came away perplexed that anybody could like this movie. I am so glad to see the low rotten tomatoes score, I never thought to check back on it. I just assumed people liked it and it's oddly validating to see so many people shitting on it. I say this as a Kevin Spacey fan who is really against the death penalty - it's just a contrived, holier than thou mess that totally distorts a serious issue.

 

**spoilers!**Yeah exactly, Spacey's a good actor but it just couldn't save this bullshit. I feel like the film derailed its own argument, it just made the activists look like nut jobs. The fact that it took itself so seriously was what made it unintentionally funny to me, the spinning camera angles with the signs that said random dramatic words like "lust" "desire", and Kate Winslet's 12-hour sprint to the courthouse. I also liked when she put the plastic bag over her own head and almost asphyxiated herself to prove that that was how the woman died- amazing detective work.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

Some friends put it on once and were all raving about it and swearing up and down that the rest of us would like it. I came away perplexed that anybody could like this movie. I am so glad to see the low rotten tomatoes score, I never thought to check back on it. I just assumed people liked it and it's oddly validating to see so many people shitting on it. I say this as a Kevin Spacey fan who is really against the death penalty - it's just a contrived, holier than thou mess that totally distorts a serious issue.

It seems like one of those movies where some folks would have given it a pass because "It's got a message n' stuff", regardless of whether or not it was handled all that well. I remember there being very little hype besides there being some good actors in it, and then it came out, did no business, was gone from my theater in two weeks, and no one really talked about it again. In fact, I think this is the first mention I've heard of it in about a decade.

[Lando 2019]

I watched this film last night and I thought it was ok, not terrible but probably is to the anti-death penalty movement what The Day After Tomorrow is to climate science. Prior to the twist it was a so-so tale of a broken man. The part where Bitsey figures out exactly what happened because she didn't move her leg was one of the biggest stretches since just about every conclusion that Naomi Watts makes in The Ring. However, I may have been influenced by the fact that I watched it after Copycat, which features an unnecessarily elaborate serial killer, so the plot of David Gale was relatively simple in comparison.