I've always felt slightly ashamed that I actually got some laughs out of that movie, since it seems to be so universally hated. I suspect that the parody may have been dumbed down a little after test screenings (they tried so hard to explain to you what "The Seventh Seal" was).
I let some friends drag me along to this when it first came out and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't actually a dumb action movie but rather a critique of dumb action movies. Mostly. Unfortunately, the latter portions of the movie fell flat as it forgot to hold itself above the cliches it spent the previous 90 minutes mocking. See also: Shrek. I always wonder if it's the writers/directors who can't resist the easy, Hollywood endings or if that crap is forced on them by the producers and studios.
I don't know exactly how much of an actual critique this was, given the director's pedigree; it could have been more of a playful sort of thing. But, yes, the ending was a little sad, and I doubt there's a real way to be sure whose fault that was at this stage. Sigh. Never saw Shrek; sometimes I am just not up for a challenge.
No, definitely. And, seriously, how satisfying is 'wow, Schwarzenegger is yelling back at the chief! Holy crap, never in my wildest dreams!' (Not very.) Also I'm still slighly peeved about the bike sequence, for which there was no excuse.
I always kind of wanted to see the original ending that was in the first few drafts of the script, where the old dude with the movie theatre turns out to be SATAN and they have to FIGHT HIM.
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A shame, too, after the relatively large helping of cleverness.
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Never saw Shrek; sometimes I am just not up for a challenge.
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Anyway, even if it wasn't intended as a critique, the film abandoned its own internal logic, so boo.
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Also I'm still slighly peeved about the bike sequence, for which there was no excuse.
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