Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)

[ladyevenstar22]

i wanted to give this an A- but yeah noo a B+ it is 

 

the movie was ok , i really can't hate on it, the acting was ok , kept me interested the core family unit

 

but yeah the last 30 mn i started getting antsy and wondering when its going to end, never a good sign if you're taking your phone out to check the time

i'm not sure how much you can criticize a film when it goes down that narrative style  forest gump one as a poster said, but where forest gump weaved seemingly the character life with political events/presidents here i felt like watching picture slides where they never go deep 

i might have cut out a president or two to focus more on those i kept , agree on the presidents

john cusack and james marsden and robin williams couldnt help but see the actor, alan rickman and liev schrieber were cool their makeup was great  (toilet scene was indeed funny)

 

even though i didnt like the son character his life seemed more interesting 

still his father was cool too , i mean butler in the white house not too shabby

 

perhaps a tighter script and directing might have help this film be more, as it is i don't think it deserve to be in awards discussion certainly not as a frontrunner 

 

in contrast right before the film i saw the trailer for 12 years a slave OMG what a trailer , the movie looks feels and seems great and so many good actors in it , i'm sure once this comes out they'll forget about the butler 

 

its a good movie but it could have been better but def on a top 20 list of decent dramas

 

ps: one thing that bothered me is the film over-use dancing as some interlude 

 

 

as it is i don't feel like rewatching this , i might if its on tv but on my own i'm not over the moon or wanting to discuss it intensely!

but then again its ten times better than your usual tyler perry movie

 

i do wonder why hasn't anyone done a tv series about that time 60-70s  a la band of brothers style , there is so much material there ripped for the undertaking and i don't care if its a black person helming the project , they could do different directors 

there's a lot of good black actors out there and if need be do just like everyone else go poach them over the pond in shakespeare land , they breed actor actors over there regardless of skin color

Edited September 15, 2013 by ladyevenstar22

[The Futurist]

Is it just me or  this movie about a black butler at the White House and the civil rights movement also features a joke about

 

double vaginal fisting ???

 

After Dame Nicole playing water sports with zac Efron, that makes sense.

 

That makes Lee an " auteur" I guess.

[Michael Gary Scott]

I love history but I was pretty bored by this. I also woyld have rather the movie more focused on the son. Oprah does not deserve any oscar consideration. The only thing good about this film is Forest Whitaker. 3/5

[iceroll]

This had some great scenes, like the diner scene like Shawn mentioned, and the Freedom Bus scene but overall it felt a bit long and boring.  The performances were great too but nothing standout and Oscar-worthy IMO.

 

The script felt kind of aimless but I guess it had to be if they wanted it to be anything similar to the real butler's life (it is "based on a true story")

 

B/B-

[ShouldIBeHere]

This was almost awful... despite Whitaker being really great, his performance was not enough to carry this movie.

 

For most of the presidential scenes it felt almost like a comedy or parody... the movie is so self-important at times and then suddenly seems to throw in some irony... it doesn't work, imho.

 

Really wanted to see this after seeing the trailers and thought this might end up being close to the greatness of "The Queen". It isn't. It is a White House Downton Abbey during its good scenes. And "The Bold and the Beautiful" during its worst.

 

And certainly nothing Oscar-worthy in this... especially not Oprah. Her performance here is indeed a parody and no believable character creation. The fact that her role was done with "Oscar" written all over it does not equal being Oscar-worthy.

 

C-

Edited August 18, 2014 by ShouldIBeHere