THE BIG SHORT | Paramount | December 23, 2015 | Adam McKay directing | Pitt, Bale, Gosling, Carelll

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, The Panda Menace said:

 

I already knew most of everything the movie was going to tell me, but there were plenty of people that didn't.  And even as somebody who already knew about the situation (not really the guys betting against the American economy part, but the specifics of the fraud of the big banks), it still hit it home and hit hard (for me) at the very end.

 

There's so much that's infuriating: the horrible government oversight, the lobbying for deregulation, the incestuous link between the ratings agencies and Wall Street, the callous disregard for the American taxpayer, all of it.

 

The movie is hilarious, but the laughter is so bitter and bleak because of how completely the system is fucked. In that regard, this is somewhat like DR. STRANGELOVE and its view of the military/industrial complex.

[The Panda]

5 minutes ago, Obi-Wan Telemachos said:

 

There's so much that's infuriating: the horrible government oversight, the lobbying for deregulation, the incestuous link between the ratings agencies and Wall Street, the callous disregard for the American taxpayer, all of it.

 

The movie is hilarious, but the laughter is so bitter and bleak because of how completely the system is fucked. In that regard, this is somewhat like DR. STRANGELOVE and its view of the military/industrial complex.

 

Yeah, despite the movie being a comedy, it works up your emotions more than a drama and is a lot more horrifying to watch (at points) than a horror film.

 

I thought it was structured brilliantly.

[Plain Old Tele]

54 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

 

They had the exact same mentality that the banks did is what I meant (who cares if others are going to suffer, we'll be rich!). I wanted to see more of that side of the story

 

There's one key (and huge) difference, though: they had fundamentally no ability to do anything about it. When confronted by a corrupt system, do you just get out? What's interesting is their naïveté (in a way) that the system would correct. They originally made their bets assuming that once everyone else realized what was going on, the system would self-correct. It would be a relatively short-term and non-catastrophic situation. The gassy horror is that the system didn't care. 

 

So these guys, at some basic level, still believed that capitalism was working, that enlightened self-interest would bring balance to the Force. But of course it was just a Ponzi scheme with basically everyone in on the action except the American public. 

[Hatebox]

10 minutes ago, Obi-Wan Telemachos said:

 

There's so much that's infuriating: the horrible government oversight, the lobbying for deregulation, the incestuous link between the ratings agencies and Wall Street, the callous disregard for the American taxpayer, all of it.

 

 

That part in the book really angered me. The Ratings Agencies managed to somehow be both corrupt and completely ignorant at the same time.

[Plain Old Tele]

2 minutes ago, Hatebox said:

 

That part in the book really angered me. The Ratings Agencies managed to somehow be both corrupt and completely ignorant at the same time.

 

Exactly! I mean, you assume that banks will try to make money, as much as they can. And that they'll skirt up against the edges of the law to do so. But the whole point of a regulatory agency is to keep them in line so that the whole system continues to function. 

[The Futurist]

15 minutes ago, Hatebox said:

 

That part in the book really angered me. The Ratings Agencies managed to somehow be both corrupt and completely ignorant at the same time.

 

They all went to the same faculties and schools, they all know each other.

 

It s so incestuous it boggles the mind.

 

 

[Cmasterclay]

Bernie Sanders is praying that this movie explodes at the box office. People need to see this.

 

It's such a terrific movie. Has really stuck with me over the past few days. Dr. Strangelove is in many ways the perfect comparison here. McKay is a fucking great director. And that ensemble....great. It's not the point of this movie, but I find it pretty telling that me, my mom, and my best friend saw this, and we all had a different favorite actor/character. My Mom loved Bale, my best friend loved Carrell. For me, the best actor was actually Gosling- a perfectly self-aware and totally magnetic performance that drew you into the story. He weaponized every trait we think about when we think about Ryan Gosling, and turned it into someone we wanted to guide us through this world. 

[The Futurist]

40 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Bernie Sanders is praying that this movie explodes at the box office. People need to see this.

 

It's such a terrific movie. Has really stuck with me over the past few days. Dr. Strangelove is in many ways the perfect comparison here. McKay is a fucking great director. And that ensemble....great. It's not the point of this movie, but I find it pretty telling that me, my mom, and my best friend saw this, and we all had a different favorite actor/character. My Mom loved Bale, my best friend loved Carrell. For me, the best actor was actually Gosling- a perfectly self-aware and totally magnetic performance that drew you into the story. He weaponized every trait we think about when we think about Ryan Gosling, and turned it into someone we wanted to guide us through this world. 

 

Now you know da troof about the financial cronies.

 

[Cmasterclay]

6 minutes ago, The Futurist said:

 

Now you know da troof about the financial cronies.

 

I've always know da troof. Sadly, most people don't/

[Goffe]

So, this is basically a Margin Call remake?

 

Also, everyeone looked so miscast in the trailer 

Edited December 28, 2015 by Goffe

[The Futurist]

Margin Call was appalling, I wanted to punch JC Chnador in the face for his speech justifying the existence of those parasites.

[Goffe]

I don't remember JC trying to justify anyone existence in that movie, in fact, I remember one of the reasons why I disliked it was because JC made the bad guys practically look like monsters.

[Joel M]

Margin Call was a very good movie.

[Blankments]

Final predicts:

 

DOM: 60M

[Blankments]

It won't let me edit, but I meant 40M

[bapi]

Amazing movie! The best of this year!

[AJG]

I saw this earlier today. I enjoyed what I saw then completely forgot about the movie until I saw this thread.

[Blankments]

After seeing it, add me to the Best Picture bandwagon. Not the best movie I've seen this year, but one of the most important and certainly the best of any of the BP noms that'll have a shot at winning

[The Panda]

Was I the first on the, "The Big Short could win BP wagon"?

 

I feel special.

[MovieMan89]

On 12/28/2015 at 10:51 AM, Telemachos said:

 

There's one key (and huge) difference, though: they had fundamentally no ability to do anything about it. When confronted by a corrupt system, do you just get out? What's interesting is their naïveté (in a way) that the system would correct. They originally made their bets assuming that once everyone else realized what was going on, the system would self-correct. It would be a relatively short-term and non-catastrophic situation. The gassy horror is that the system didn't care. 

 

So these guys, at some basic level, still believed that capitalism was working, that enlightened self-interest would bring balance to the Force. But of course it was just a Ponzi scheme with basically everyone in on the action except the American public. 

Some popular conspiracy theories out there may get carried away, but make no mistake: the elite few truly in power care nothing about the rest of us. I don't know how much more obvious that can really be. 

 

Btw, the Dr. Strangelove one is a perfect comparison. Bitingly funny social commentary that makes you a bit horrified too.