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johnnyhaggis

Reality Bites (1994)

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Clearly written by rich, middle aged marketing psychologists to capitalize on the grunge movement by manipulating the pituatary glands of pubescent upper middle class girls who don't yet realize that going out with a greasy, smelly (I swear I could smell him), whiny, narcissistic, abusive wifebeater is only exciting for about 2 days until he hits you in the face because you gagged when he peeled off his fermented sweat and uriny underwear.

 

Worst (best?) scene ever is when Ben Stiller shows Wynona Rider his commercialized sellout version of her video - given that Reality bites is already the epitome of commercial insincere selloutdom, the director's attempt at creating what he thinks a commercialized video looks like is so insane that if it doesn't give you brain damage, it will make you laugh your ass off as you're upchucking...

 

I remember watching it as a kid and every guy I knew was like "why did she go out with that selfish guy who hit her in the face instead of nice, supportive Ben Stiller" and all the girls were like "he's so dreamy!" about Johnny Greaseballs!

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Worst (best?) scene ever is when Ben Stiller shows Wynona Rider his commercialized sellout version of her video - given that Reality bites is already the epitome of commercial insincere selloutdom, the director's attempt at creating what he thinks a commercialized video looks like is so insane that if it doesn't give you brain damage, it will make you laugh your ass off as you're upchucking...

 

 

While he didn't write the film, Stiller himself did direct "Reality Bites", and it's nice to see that with the right creative team around him, he would go on to do some AWESOME satire with "Zoolander" and "Tropic Thunder". As far as other people's films are concerned, he turned in great performances in "Dodgeball" and "Starsky & Hutch", which also did a great job of satirizing (I wouldn't quite call "Starsky" a parody) their respective genres.

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Oh wow, I didn't realize Stiller directed Reality Bites! I assumed it was a cyborg marketing psychologist owned by warner bros studios...

 

I love Ben Stiller, he's smart and funny, I loved his sketch comedy show, and most of his movies, his curb your enthusiasm and Tim and Eric appearances, etc. - very surprised that he directed such an obnoxious stinker as Reality Bites. I assumed all the actors were just doing it because they needed the money.

 

Sorry Ben! But what do I know, it was a huge smash hit, contributing to my misanthropy.

 

That's what you get when you assume! Thanks for letting me know...

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I think Stiller's follow-up was "Cable Guy", which got a lot of hate at the time, but I think it's mostly gone away. Stiller directing, Apatow producing, and Carrey doing something different? Yeah, that would have been better-received on its initial release if it would have been done in the following decade. Instead, it's a movie people claim to hate for reasons that don't seem to exist!

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Never saw Cable Guy cause I was always allergic to Jim Carrey, but I should check it out cause I always love or at least like Apatow movies, and there are some things with Carey I really like now.

 

I eventually came to like Carey when I saw Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Also liked Earth Girls are Easy which I saw a couple of years ago and I think Carey has no lines... It's his hyper Robin Williams on even more coke style that I don't like. And I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of Dumb and Dumber.

 

Since then I've seen most of In Living Colour (we didn't have that in Canada when it came out - It was all about Kids in the Hall in those days!) and he was really really good in that, so I'm more open to watching movies with him in it now than in his heyday.

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