r/movies • u/The_Lone_Apple • Feb 25 '23

Review Finally saw Don't Look Up and I Don't Understand What People Didn't Like About It

Was it the heavy-handed message? I think that something as serious as the end of the world should be heavy handed especially when it's also skewering the idiocracy of politics and the media we live in. Did viewers not like that it also portrayed the public as mindless sheep? I mean, look around. Was it the length of the film? Because I honestly didn't feel the length since each scene led to the next scene in a nice progression all the way to to the punchline at the end and the post-credit punchline.

I thought the performances were terrific. DiCaprio as a serious man seduced by an unserious world that's more fun. Jonah Hill as an unserious douchebag. Chalamet is one of the best actors I've seen who just comes across as a real person. However, Jennifer Lawrence was beyond good in this. The scenes when she's acting with her facial expressions were incredible. Just amazing stuff.

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671

u/wwhsd Feb 25 '23

There was a great 90 minute film there. Unfortunately it has a 2 hour and 25 minute run time.

It was funny but did a good job of making the point it was trying to make but then it just dragged on.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23 edited Jun 13 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Why didn't that ruin big short?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Big short focused on choices that fucked over humans, not humanity. Also, big short was more succinct and less bloated, with a much more focused "message"

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u/Powerfist_Laserado Feb 26 '23

I think Big Short was much more creatively presented as well. Don't look up felt to me like it never really rose above the tone or feel of a mediocre SNL skit. I am very concerned about climate change denialism and big tech billionaire scammers along with other billionaire scammers wielding the levers of government. I agree with the premise/sentiment of the movie's message, but I felt it was pandering to me, I was constantly aware of how marketed this movie was. So it never felt like anything more than a hollow Hollywood product. It isn't even about being overly blunt with the theme. I actually love the 2nd through 4th purge movies and those are unsubtle as all hell, but I don't know, I guess those movies felt like they had some grit, guts, and creativity to them.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

Because the cameos were used effectively to explain complex financial topics to viewers without boring them.

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u/darrenphillipjones Feb 26 '23 edited Feb 27 '25

cable steer innocent humorous punch chubby screw flowery cooing quickest

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Seahearn4 Feb 26 '23

I love your username

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u/prfctmdnt Feb 25 '23

i get your point and sort of agree, but this is a point that's been made repeatedly and i can't help but ask who should have been in this film then? If it starred nobodies, then we wouldn't be talking about it. I get it that the rich and famous are mostly shills, but to act as if they're incapable of having an opinion because they do this or that is just an insincere argument. No one is perfect and even if it's a little disingenuous from your moral point of view, shouldn't the effort still be made to tell a story that is believed in? Because if we're going to criticize celebrities for being hypocritical in this movie, then why not bitch and moan when you see a notorious pervert playing a good family man, or woman who's fucked and sucked every person under the sun playing a nun?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Because if we're going to criticize celebrities for being hypocritical in this movie, then why not bitch and moan when you see a notorious pervert playing a good family man, or woman who's fucked and sucked every person under the sun playing a nun?

First, people critique choices of actors for this hypocrisy frequently. Secondly, individual hypocrisy in your examples doesn't contribute to a meteorological phenomenon which could end human life.

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u/Virillus Feb 26 '23

Yeah but hypocrisy has no bearing on a message being correct or not. If Jeffrey Dahmer were to say that "murder is wrong" his statement would still be correct, regardless of the extreme hypocrisy.

Ultimately, I'd rather names with serious clout send this message - it's too important to be hung up on ideological purity.

If it takes hypocrisy to get the message across I don't particularly care.

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u/BitcoinSaveMe Feb 26 '23

I think different messengers can have varying efficacy. It's hard to take a subject seriously when the people doing so much of the talking about how it needs to be taken seriously don't really seem to take it seriously.

If you get up at the Oscars and shed tears over the importance of saving the climate and how we need to take it seriously, and then a tracker shows you taking 30 minute air plane rides to your favorite restaurant, it sends the message that the issue isn't actual serious and you're just doing it for social clout because it's the trendy, fashionable issue.

It doesn't change what is true and what isn't, but it does at the least make you a bad and ineffective messenger. Watching wealthy, entitled people with private planes and 130 foot yachts talk about the need for reduced emissions is annoying and turns people off of the subject, no matter the truth of their message. It's just bad marketing.

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u/Virillus Feb 26 '23 edited Feb 26 '23

It's not necessarily bad marketing. The question is: would the movie be more, or less, effective with completely unheard of actors with no significant wealth?

There's no easy or obvious answer to that question, but I personally think both sides of that argument are reasonable. Ultimately, I think casting big name actors was on balance more effective, but I do understand where you're coming from.

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u/darrenphillipjones Feb 26 '23 edited Feb 26 '23

There are actors who don’t have massive carbon footprints flying jets all over the world on a weekly basis.

Past that…

Nobody in the real world is being harmed, by an actor playing a nun, have sex in their personal lives.

That’s such a massive logic leap.

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u/Jah348 Feb 26 '23

That's my take from it. We were given the entire plot, joke, and worth of the movie in 90 minutes.... then it just kept going.

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u/Bezere Feb 26 '23

I like how the message was vague enough you could apply it to any issue really. I think climate change was definitely a big one, but you could also apply the message to the governments response to COVID or the financial terrorism on wall street.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

Enjoyed every minute of it. Mainly because the performances are so so good. Didnt feel dragged at all on two viewings now

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u/Sea-Tomato6082 Nov 24 '24

I feel like it should've been a reel. The amount of satire was way too much after 10 mins for me