The Postman (1997)

[yipeekiyay 0]

others would be:
Predator 2
Grown Ups

[BarbadosJim 0]

Oh man, they've been showing The Postman repeatedly on Encore and it is awful. Will Patton chewes scenery in that movie like a man dying of starvation and the dialogue is painfully awful. One of the most random cameos I've ever seen in a movie that in way way helps the movie but makes a bad movie just that much funnier.

 

Please do this one guys!

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

I think Nolan ripped-off the statue reveal scene at the end of The Dark Knight Rises from this film.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

This one would be hard to do just because its so goddamn long, with vast stretches devoted to very little onscreen action.

[Nunderwater Lair 2]

If HDTGM ever does the Postman, they can get easily get David Brin, the book's author, to participate. I have heard him rip the movie on other podcasts already. I remember him as being a little long-winded, but pretty affable. I think he'd be up for it.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I'd rather they get Tom Petty to explain what the fuck he was doing in this movie.

[MelissaBecker 79]

Tom Petty was the best part of this movie. I would pay to see a spin-off movie that is just how Tom Petty (who plays himself) ends up ruling this town.

 

This also probably has the worst climatic fight scene ever. Middle-aged guys wrestling in slow motion. Terrible.

 

This was the movie that caused me to institute the "No Kevin Costner" rule. This was the final Costner movie that I've seen in theaters, although I do continue to watch them at home, mostly out of masochistic impulses.

 

Looking over Costner's IMDB page there is a lot of terrible stuff here. Rumor Has It is of note because it is so bad it makes you retroactively hate The Graduate for inspiring it.

[sillstaw 414]

If HDTGM ever does the Postman, they can get easily get David Brin, the book's author, to participate. I have heard him rip the movie on other podcasts already. I remember him as being a little long-winded, but pretty affable. I think he'd be up for it.

 

Interesting. He has a note on his official site that takes a position of "it's flawed, but likable." One particularly telling quote:

 

My best analogy is this: watching Kevin Costner's three hour epic is a bit like having a great big Golden Retriever jump on your lap and lick your face, while waving a flag tied to its tail. It's big, floppy, uncoordinated, overeager, sometimes gorgeous -- occasionally a bit goofy -- and so big-hearted that something inside of you has to give... that is, if you like that sort of thing.

 

Incidentally, I'm mystified at how Hollywood seems to have decided that people want Kevin Costner back on movie screens, even though the box office for most of his movies lately have not been good. The most successful movie he's done lately is "Man of Steel," where his character dies before the third paragraph of the Wikipedia summary. Other than that, he's had movies like "3 Days to Kill" and "Draft Day" (because who wouldn't want to watch a movie about the owner of a football team deciding on a draft pick?).

[cgill24 0]

The Postman won the Razzie in 1998 for Worst Picture, beating out Anaconda, Batman & Robin, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and Fire Down Below.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

If HDTGM ever does the Postman, they can get easily get David Brin, the book's author, to participate. I have heard him rip the movie on other podcasts already. I remember him as being a little long-winded, but pretty affable. I think he'd be up for it.

Here's a funny story. Years ago, an editor friend of mine was posting on Facebook, talking about the worst movie he'd ever seen, and his friends were chiming in about terrible things that they'd seen, and someone mentioned 'Waterworld'. I posted to say that it wasn't nearly as bad as 'The Postman', which started out as something interesting and devolved into a long-winded mess. My editor friend immediately private messaged me to ask me what my fucking problem was.

 

Confused, I checked the thread, and the guy who'd posted about 'Waterworld' was... David Brin, author of 'The Postman', and so it looked like my response was designed to tear him down and make fun of an adaptation that he was very sensitive about. What are the odds, eh?

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Well thats just silly, you were right. If Postman were at all the superior movie there would be a live action show of it instead of Waterworld at Universal Studios.

[SlidePocket 707]

Bumping this up in honor of Tom Petty's sudden passing.

[RyanSz 3140]

This movie was infuriating. From the idea that by bringing in years old mail that men literally throw their wives at Costner to him becoming a revolutionary leader with an army of other mailmen behind him makes this a great film for the show if not for the 3hr run time. Also there is a character named Ford Lincoln Mercury, that kinda product placement is only allowable in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

The only good thing about this movie was Will Pattons speech about how he was a copy machine salesman before he became some crazed warlord.

 

I really can't believe Costner got away with a three hour runtime. This was a movie begging for edits, it easily could have been two hours long and been a much better movie because of it.

[RyanSz 3140]

The only good thing about this movie was Will Pattons speech about how he was a copy machine salesman before he became some crazed warlord.

 

I really can't believe Costner got away with a three hour runtime. This was a movie begging for edits, it easily could have been two hours long and been a much better movie because of it.

Especially after Costner's last big world building film, Waterworld, was over two hours which then seemed overlong, I can't believe a studio said "maybe if it was longer the film would be better." To be fair though, Costner never seems to want to do a movie if it doesn't run over two hours long.

 

As for Will Patton, I have to assume that his character was the inspiration for the sub-villian Paul "De Pleur" Harmon in Far Cry 4 who lost his job due to downsizing and then inspired by Dr. Phil, went into business for himself as a mercenary, eventually becoming a General under a dictator.

http://youtu.be/aEJjpoPIjWA?t=2m45s

[nthurkettle 148]

I remember when Will Patton's cult shares their special cult laws, and it gets to the law that any member can challenge the leader in hand to hand combat. I just immediately wanted to raise my hand and say "Excuse me Mr. Will Patton, your cult management plan has a flaw with this open hand-to-hand challenge thing; the flaw is that you are Will Patton."

 

Like, they throw a line in about this big, hulking henchman, saying he was the last person to challenge Will Patton and Will Patton tore his tongue out; and it is just...the least plausible thing.

 

And so we get the glorious slow-motion climax of middle-aged men awkwardly tussling for the future of humanity.