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  • Us

    Hi all,
    I am going to see Us tomorrow and wanted to see if anyone here has already seen it or are going to.

    I am looking forward to this one. It looks like it could be very interesting and dare I say...scary.

    It's been a long time since a film truly frightened me and from the trailers this one looks like it might or at least make me feel un-nerved.
    Last edited by Done Deal Pro; 10-08-2020, 03:03 PM. Reason: Added tags

  • #2
    Re: Us

    Saw it last night and left the theater a bit underwhelmed. I think the story works if you're not one to ask questions, but there are plot holes/illogical issues galore. When the movie ended we all just sort of got up and left, I could feel the disappointment in the air. To top it off? It's not at all scary. I'm not sure how the 100% on Rotten Tomatoes happened. I'm a fan of Jordan, his best work was on the Key & Peele show, but I think he missed the boat with "Us.-
    FADE IN:
    PERSEVERANCE OVERCOMES ADVERSITY
    NEVER FADE OUT.

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    • #3
      Re: Us

      Lately, the director has made the late night talk show circuit and each time the (same) clip was suspenseful enough to make me consider seeing it. Thanks, Jai. you’ve saved me what I consider a significant amount of pocket money and also what I consider some valuable movie-watching time. Thanks for being considerate and saying what you thought about the movie.
      “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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      • #4
        Re: Us

        Happy to help! Hype is the most powerful tool in advertising, so on that basis, the film has succeeded. I'm looking forward to more chiming in about what they thought.
        FADE IN:
        PERSEVERANCE OVERCOMES ADVERSITY
        NEVER FADE OUT.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Us

          I agree with Jai...a bit underwhelmed afterward.

          I will admit I have kept thinking about the film for a couple days now since seeing it, and usually that is a sign a film was good. However, that is not the case here. I keep thinking about this one because my brain is trying to "fix" this film. Trying to fill in all the gaps and change certain scenes to make them better.

          Honestly, many scenes were sooooo slow and dragged on. They could've been tightened up immensely. This film did not need to be 2 hours long. Most horror films are only 90mins anyway.

          There were also many missed opportunities that could've made scenes better than what they were or the dialog better. And the lame jokes.....sad. Nobody in the theater laughed.

          There were also too many loose ends and throw away ideas. Ideas which I felt were pretty good, but they were just left dangling.

          Also, the "twist"...I figured it out very early in the film so was not surprised when it was revealed later.

          This felt like a segment in an anthology that was stretched out for time. Perhaps Jordan should have made an anthology instead (aside from twilight zone). He has great ideas and I have been a fan of his for awhile.

          I will say though that Lupita's performance is worth the ticket price. She knocked it outta the park. I would definitely recommend going to see this film for her alone.

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          • #6
            Re: Us

            Glad to hear that I'm not the only one in our community who felt underwhelmed by US. I feel sooo bad too. I see so many people praising how great it is and how scary it is. I felt like I was missing something. And I hate how people on social media are attacking people who didn't like it by calling them stupid and saying that they didn't get it. I got Peele's message loud and clear. It wasn't that deep or mysterious. But I will say that Lupita and Winston Duke KILLED IT! That soundtrack and score was amazing. There's one scene with a certain NWA song playing over it that was superb. I thought the cinematography was great as well. I just didn't vibe with the story. I do plan on seeing it a second time just to see if my thoughts change.
            Last edited by ricther; 03-23-2019, 08:23 PM.

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            • #7
              Re: Us

              Finally saw it.

              I felt somewhere between underwhelmed and confused -- mostly about the whole hand holding thing shown at the beginning and the end.

              I think it should have been marketed as a phycological thriller instead of a horror. The people in my theater seemed very engaged, laughed at the jokes and seemed to be satisfied overall though.

              Seemed extremely slow in the beginning to me for the return on investment we get at the end.

              I'm not sure where the whole "masterpiece" hype is coming from, but it was solid IMO. I probably wouldn't rewatch it though.
              One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

              The Fiction Story Room

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              • #8
                Re: Us

                i thought it was a lot of fun, much closer to Get Out's humorous tone than i had been led to expect from the creepy trailers. the big mystery/twist at the center of the story wasn't as compelling or thematically strong as Get Out's but just on the level of a horror thrill ride, the first 90 minutes delivers. audience at Cinerama Dome clapped and laughed a lot, so they seemed really into it

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                • #9
                  Re: Us

                  I enjoyed it, for the most part. I do want to see it again, as this was the most excited I'd been for a movie in probably 8 or 9 years, so I feel like I do need another viewing free of the baggage of that hype. That said, it's a fun and enjoyable home invasion movie with interesting ideas about class underneath all the scares. It didn't reach the heights that Get Out did for me and definitely has a few plot holes/logic problems... but its impeccably directed and Lupita's performance is worth seeing it alone. She's absolutely brilliant in her dual-role.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Us

                    Originally posted by Jai Brandon View Post
                    Saw it last night and left the theater a bit underwhelmed. I think the story works if you’re not one to ask questions, but there are plot holes/illogical issues galore. When the movie ended we all just sort of got up and left, I could feel the disappointment in the air. To top it off? It’s not at all scary. I’m not sure how the 100% on Rotten Tomatoes happened. I’m a fan of Jordan, his best work was on the Key & Peele show, but I think he missed the boat with “Us.”
                    I'm glad you said it first. To be honest, I was really frustrated with this movie, and mind you, I did not pay to see it in a theater. The first thing that bothers me is that Peele really did start out with a great idea. In an era of zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demonic possession, et al, it would be refreshing to see a story based on a seldom-used entity: the Doppelgänger. The thought of someone who looks exactly like me going around doing terrible things, for which I get blamed, that's terrifying. And the fact that this idea hasn't been used in a long time opens up all kinds of possibilities.


                    I was hesitant to comment on this movie because all I can remember about it is bits and pieces. But now that I think about it, that's exactly what the movie is: a lot of bits and pieces strung together. The story does have a few similarities to the Edgar Allen Poe story "William Wilson," the mirror for instance, which manifests itself at the end of Poe's tale. With a few twists and turns, this could have been a pretty scary movie. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think instead what Peele chose to do is turn this into science fiction. Did this story have something to do with an army of clones? -- who live underground and feed on rabbits? -- and they all wear red jumpsuits that came from -- where?? I'm confused. Please straighten me out on this.


                    Okay, the movie looks great, and I'm sure a lot of hard work went into it. But with the technology nowadays, people are making much worse movies that look just as good. I am obliged to give credit to the acting. Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and the two children all turn in fine performances.


                    And at this point, I've probably said too much. Maybe I just missed something. Maybe this is the kind of movie you need to see more than once in order to "get it."


                    I'll give it a year.
                    "THIMK." - Amomynous

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                    • #11
                      Re: Us

                      Like most on here, I was underwhelmed. For me:

                      Pros: Strong acting (especially by Lupita), strong direction, great score

                      Cons: Unrealistic behavior by characters, slow pacing, weak twist

                      This is why I love DDP. People on here don't get wrapped up in the hype of the outside world. Instead, as screenwriters, we look at it objectively: is it a good story or not?

                      Despite my feelings, I still think Jordan Peele is heavily talented and I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.
                      "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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                      • #12
                        Re: Us

                        I finally got around to watching this on HBO.

                        As a horror, the script was weak, the cinematography flat, but the acting outstanding. Lupita Nyong'o gave an Oscar quality performance, and the others were outstanding as well. But since we're in the script-writing business here, these are my thoughts:

                        IMO, GET OUT was letter perfect at just about every level, but especially as a script. The set-up and final payoff was satirical -- unusual for American horror --but it worked because of what it was satirizing: a racism that so deep baked into society that even seeming attempts to overcome it are revealed as false fronts, Trojan horses for something even more subversive to human decency. It was a bit complicated, for a good horror, but the scare moments worked and the "resolution" was unforgettable.

                        US continues the satire, with the Hands Across America stuff, but in more parodistic fashion. What was a brutal send-up in GET OUT becomes a surreal Charlie Kaufmanesque gesture mocking -- what? Reagan-era shows of "patriotism?" The pathetic attempts of shadow people to recreate a country that was never real there and in any case is irretrievably lost...? As an attempt at a theme, it's like something cribbed from the gratuitous sniping of talking heads on cable news.

                        The business about the "Tethered" existing in tunnels while they mime the activities of real people on the surface makes no sense. The rage of literal alienation that leads to their murderous attack on "normal society" is sketchily set up and paid off with a violence that pushes the script into thriller territory, albeit with zombie movie overtones. IOW, the suspense dies at the end of the first act and doesn't return until the twist at the end. Whereas in GET OUT, the suspense builds throughout the film.

                        The script, IMO, needed a couple of deep rewrites, and any number of polishes, to work. But could it have worked?

                        That's the pity. The potential was there, for a retelling of the Cain-and-Abel story on... let's call it a Marxian basis. You can see that potential in the acting of Lupita Nyong'o, who seemed to get the underlying material in a way the screenwriter and director himself either didn't, or lost track of. But to bring out that story, to make it work, would have meant forgoing the Charlie Kaufman schtick and pushing the identity politics to a subtextual level -- to the back burner IOW.

                        I think US could have been a great movie, in a way that GET OUT -- which depended on everything working just right -- was not. It would have been a truly horrific story not about these paper doll cut-outs mirroring us under our feet, but shadow people in a repressed dimension finally rebelling against marionette existences and coming out of the darkness to come into their own. Perhaps the true horror could have been that, after their growling inhuman start, they turn out to be BETTER THAN "THE ORIGINALS," at what the originals did in "real life."

                        Whatever. Everybody's a critic, I know. But unless Jordan Peele intends to follow the track of M. Night Shyamalan, he needs to stop trying to recreate the buzz that GET OUT ginned up, get to the heart of his next project, and go from there, in a way that US could have done, but -- obviously, at this point -- didn't.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Us

                          Get Out was entertaining enough but this movie bored the hell out of me. I also thought Lupita's "tether" voice and performance was cringey, though I agree she is a good actress.

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