The Spirit (2008)

[royaldutchofdukes 1]

Without a doubt, the most deserving of the HDTGM treatment

[Foxtrot1 67]

This movie is a textbook example of why directing is important. If you don't know the first thing about directing actors, you will end up with terrible shit like the Spirit.

[Corey1326657766 1]

This movie was made specifically to be on this podcast. Big name actors, bizarre script, and flat out awful performances. This movie needs to be on HDTGM .

[Nasher 29]

It really was a disaster.. and you are so right.. there is not a single thing you can put you finger on to cure it.. just about everything fails as a whole and its a bemusing mess that just doesn't work.

When i first saw it i was utterly confused as to why i didn't enjoy it.. its not like the script is desperately awful or one performance was terrible.. it was like a filter was used to make everything bland and meh!

[sillstaw 414]

This movie has to be done. Especially to get an opinion of it that doesn't use the "whoreswhoreswhores" joke that everybody on the Internet took from a comic.

[FnFrank 0]

Couldn't finish it, and never will.

[Corman 1]

I'm a fan of Will Eisner's original Spirit comics, but Frank Miller was possibly the worst choice they could've made for a director (even though he was friends with Eisner). He has none of the playful humor or subtlety that made the Spirit comics work, not to mention the two-dimensional female characters Eisner threw into the mix. Miller's idea of a joke is to name three henchmen Phobos, Huevos, and Rancheros.

[sillstaw 414]

Tim: Don't forget "Dildos," "Adios" and "Amigos." (Sensing a trend?) And also, melting a cat. And toilets.
I haven't read the original comics, but the recent reboot was actually pretty good, and according to most it's a good representation of Eisner's intents. The movie was NOTHING like it.

[Professor Procrastination 9]

I'm really hoping that this movie gets covered. I saw it in the theater and had no expectations for it. It met my lack of expectations and dove me down into an abyss of confusion. I will never watch it a second time and still have no clue what was so wrong about it...other than everything.

[DanielNash 11]

Sam Jackson dressed as a Nazi for no discernible reason. Yeah, I have to agree this belongs on the show.

[RyanSz 3140]

Let's not forget that Miller tried to turn the movie into a Sin City knockoff and gave the Spirit a healing factor when he never had one in the comics.

[thestray 361]

This movie was so boring to me I don't even want to hear a HDTGM episode about it. I don't think it was bad in a funny or interesting or bonkers way, it was just incredibly dull.

[AndrewMurray 21]

This is the problem with trying to keep the distinct look of a comic book and adapt it onto big screen. Sin City worked as it kept the stories quick and intense. None of the individual stories would last 90 mins and hold up.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

I just thought about this movie again today and had to bump this thread.

 

Without a doubt, the very worst superhero movie ever made. The most retarded parts of The Shadow, Sin City, Kill Bill, and Sucker Punch all got together and had a mutant baby.

 

For anyone questioning if this movie deserves the HDTGM treatment, I present to you this 2 minute clip and DARE you not to be begging Paul after.

 

2 hours of this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGV1kmATl0E

 

 

(I remember the trailers for this trying so hard to make it seem like another V for Vendetta. They covered up and hid all traces of the weirdness and painful humor)

[wakefresh 689]

This movie was so boring to me I don't even want to hear a HDTGM episode about it. I don't think it was bad in a funny or interesting or bonkers way, it was just incredibly dull.

 

This was a low point for everyone involved.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

This was a low point for everyone involved.

Ironically, it was probably the high point for it's leading man, Gabriel Macht. I mean, it fuckin' bombed, no doubt, but it looks like the first and only time that anyone tried to build a big budget movie around the guy. He's on that show "Suits", so good for him, but it looks like his highest profile leading role since then was in the straight-to-video SWAT sequel. I wonder if even HE remembers that one time where he could have almost been a star?

[wakefresh 689]

Ironically, it was probably the high point for it's leading man, Gabriel Macht. I mean, it fuckin' bombed, no doubt, but it looks like the first and only time that anyone tried to build a big budget movie around the guy. He's on that show "Suits", so good for him, but it looks like his highest profile leading role since then was in the straight-to-video SWAT sequel. I wonder if even HE remembers that one time where he could have almost been a star?

 

Oh shit! I forgot he was in this. I think he was on his way to being a big star. He was in that movie "The Farm" or "The Recruit" with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. And I would bet good money that he considers "The Spirit" a low point as well -- that bomb probably set back his career a bit more than Sam Jackson or Scarlett Johannsen.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

Oh shit! I forgot he was in this. I think he was on his way to being a big star. He was in that movie "The Farm" or "The Recruit" with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. And I would bet good money that he considers "The Spirit" a low point as well -- that bomb probably set back his career a bit more than Sam Jackson or Scarlett Johannsen.

On the plus side, at least he got to wear a mask, so even if he was recognized for this thing, he still might luck out and NOT be recognized for this thing. I thought I was actually on set with this guy on "Love and Other Drugs" the following year and wasn't sure if it was him, even though I KNEW he was in it. It was like "Is this that guy? I don't know if this is that guy, but it might be that guy...". Having watched the movie, I don't THINK it was him that was around that day, but maybe it was...

 

And yeah, those other two were probably already at work on "Iron Man 2" I'd bet, and "Spirit" was just a minor misstep for everyone but Macht.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

On the plus side, at least he got to wear a mask, so even if he was recognized for this thing, he still might luck out and NOT be recognized for this thing. I thought I was actually on set with this guy on "Love and Other Drugs" the following year and wasn't sure if it was him, even though I KNEW he was in it. It was like "Is this that guy? I don't know if this is that guy, but it might be that guy...". Having watched the movie, I don't THINK it was him that was around that day, but maybe it was...

 

And yeah, those other two were probably already at work on "Iron Man 2" I'd bet, and "Spirit" was just a minor misstep for everyone but Macht.

 

Just like Karl Urban in Dredd (a movie that didn't deserve to bomb).

 

It's funny because I can't think of 2 characters more opposed than Dr. McCoy and Judge Dredd.

[SamGorena 0]

I saw this movie back in theaters and wanted to leave. This was the first movie I ever felt that. I kept asking myself "when is this going to get better? When? Oh no... it isn't. Isn't it...?"

 

 

The cast is pretty good tho! Attractive one too so I know there can be a lot of funny talk about that. Over all, a wacky ridiculous homunculus of a Sin City wanna be plot with a weak super zero.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Around the time Frank Miller was telling his side of the whole RoboCop 2 debacle, I remember feeling a bit sorry for the guy. I mean, here was the man who gave the world The Dark Knight Returns talking about getting his script for the RoboCop sequel butchered and feeling like a hydrant in a town full of dogs (or however he put it back then.) How could you not feel for the dude?

 

Then a couple of years later, some ex-Orion suit let it leak that Miller's script was absolutely unfilmable. Miller's answer to that was the Frank Miller's RoboCop comic run, which was even more mean-spirited, joyless and misogynistic than the film was. It was a jumbled fuckin' mess.

 

Right before this, Miller had a Hollywood resurgence co-directing the film adaptation of Sin City with Robert Rodriquez (who I imagine was holding Miller's hand the whole way through). Based on the success of that film, Miller got a greenlight for his version of The Spirit.

 

You gotta love how he basically grafted his stylized hard-shadow/light play Sin City look to Eisner's noir-ish world. I suppose Miller figured that trick worked once, why not replicate it again. The result is haphazard and tone deaf.

 

I made it 30 minutes into The Spirit before turning it off. I had no idea who anyone was, what their motivations were and why I should care about anything I was seeing on the screen. This movie (or what I saw of it) made me deeply sad. Will Esiner deserves much, much better than this.

 

It's bad enough that The Spirit is dreary and cynical, but it's also perplexing and boring to boot. From the cast to the crew to the poor saps who sat all the way through it, this film is a huge waste of everyone's time.

 

So, yes: highly recommended for HDTGM.

[Brad Wesley 1]

This movie should be done. I saw this in the theater (for free, and still a rip-off!). I haven't seen more people walk out on a movie before or since. Samuel Jackson is usually entertaining. It's an amazing feat to get Scarlett Johanson and Eva Mendes to star in a movie that is unwatchable.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

This movie should be done. I saw this in the theater (for free, and still a rip-off!). I haven't seen more people walk out on a movie before or since. Samuel Jackson is usually entertaining. It's an amazing feat to get Scarlett Johanson and Eva Mendes to star in a movie that is unwatchable.

 

Well, at least they all got a pay days out of it. And up until you mentioned it, I forgot that ScarJo was in this turd. Great! Now I feel sorry for Scarlett Johansson.

[GiveMeYourBaby 102]

I agree that the unbearable dullness of it might make this a poor HDTGM, but this film could potentially break the boring barrier and come out on the other side, ie. a lively discussion of how something so lifeless and slogging could get produced.

[Peter_Awesome 28]

I was psyched when this movie ended because I knew it had to be talked about. I was definitely laughing way too loud at a few points, because of just how much everything didn't work. That girl who played a young Eva Mendez's character has probably the most poorly delivered monologue of all time. Oh, and the old-timey accent of the new police recruit? Whenever she came into a scene, I was like, "Oooh it's her!" Guess I'm the only one who enjoyed it (and I own it too)! Maybe because it's like a cartoon: no one feels pain, everyone talks in a funny or strange way, deaths around every corner that no one cares about. Actually, cartoons usually have characters get sad when someone dies. But otherwise, "The Spirit" is a huge pile of nonsense.