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Movies that you thought were lighthearted but were actually really dark

CloudWolf

Member
I recently watched the film Suntan, a Greek comedy about the doctor of a small Greek holiday town who falls in love with a beautiful, 20-year old party girl. The first act sets him up as kind of a cute dude who wants to gets back in touch with the youth he never had, but the second act was something else...
He goes on a drunken bender, neglects his patients which causes the entire town to hate him and loses his job. Then he stalks the girl and her friends, sedates and kidnaps her and tries to rape her.
 

Oppo

Member
i agree that Sandler could have been good. Reign Over Me - he was like a different person altogether. an actor.
 

legend166

Member
The idea that Sandler is a legitimately horrible person because he takes Hollywood studio money to make crappy films with his friends is weird.

Like, he's not robbing charities to fund these things. And evidently he makes money for his financiers because they keep giving him money. And even if they weren't, who cares? If people are dumb enough to give him money, why blame him?

Like, I get that most of his movies are terrible, but you're going way over the top. It's just movies, it's really not as serious as you think.
 
the fact that you believe in some possible universe he might have a somewhat decent filmography is fucking hilarious

no man, just no. has nothing to do with how "hard" he's trying. he just fucking sucks and is a con man criminal POS.

Up until Jack & Jill, more or less, for as shitty as you might have thought his films were, they made the studios that made them money. There's a very good chance that his Netflix movies are actually profitable by whatever metric Netflix uses to determine that. He's not conning anyone except maybe you out of your time for watching them.

Lighten up, Francis.

The scene right after his boat has crashed into the wall and he's just beating on it, trying to will it out of existence, just crushes me. I saw it again a few years ago as well, and was surprised how well it held up. Carrey gave a great performance.

The fact that he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for that performance is when I found out that people in Hollywood really didn't like him.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Surprised at all the Click mentions. It's just the standard Sandler maudlin bullshit that doesn't actually end up meaning anything and is hardly darker than a dozen variations of a Scrooge movie.
 
Lots of good suggestions in this thread.

I'm going to go with Bambi. It fucking wrecked me as a little kid, but I went back to it as an adult and it's still a fucking one-two gut punch. It's not just the famous death scene; it's also the incredibly jarring tonal shift that happens immediately after. For me it was so jarring that it didn't even really change the tone - it just made me feel lost and distraught. Maybe it just had more of an effect on me than other people, but going into it as a kid was something I wasn't prepared for. Even as an adult, it's pretty brutal in how much it changes.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
fair enough, I haven't seen Spanglish but I believe it wasn't released under Happy Madison Productions? it would explain why it might actually be a watchable film
It's written and directed by James L. Brooks. Got a mixed reception, but I really liked it. He coaxed a good performance out of Sandler, IMO.

the shit RLM covers in the video I linked in regards to what he's doing nowadays is beyond depressing and just outright frightening

Adam Sandler is a bad, bad, bad person. I really wish more people would watch that RLM video.
I've seen the video and am aware of what he is now, though, so I'm not defending that. Just noting that the notion that he could have had some good films under his belt isn't so fanciful, because he did show that potential early on. Potential decidedly not realized.
 

Sheroking

Member
Adam Sandler is a con man and a criminal. he is not an artist. he is 100% scum and that piece of shit should be in prison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNsT7-Lwsk

EDIT: also, Sandler having a "nice filmography under this belt"? ... hahahahahahahhahaha

I clicked on that and watched a good portion of that 50 minute review for a film I care nothing about, expecting to hear about some serious criminal behavior I had never heard about.

Instead I heard two assholes make a joke about "retarded" "mentally disabled" film critics 5 minutes before they criticize the predictable shittiness of Sandler making fun of minorities or "crippled" people - only to find out the scam here is that the lionshare of his budgets went to paying the salaries of him and his friends.

Which is less a con and more like capitalism at work. Had nobody went to his last stupid movies, nobody would have paid him to make this stupid movie and the studio would not have signed the check. It's artistically bereft, but criminal? Please.
 
I can say with all honesty that if I could make films and cast my friends in said films and go to exotic locations to shoot said films... well, anyone would take that offer.

To say otherwise is a lie.

Also Grease.


Why Grease?


I nominate Roger Rabbit, seeing toons get murdered was hard to watch as a kid
 

Woz

Member
I kind of went into Apocalypse Now thinking it would be a fun, kickass war movie, like the first like 20 minutes or so, playing music, surfing, i love the smell of napalm in the morning, etc.
ended up being a slow descent into madness.

Have you seen it in 1978? Because I think everybody knows that AN isn't a "fun, kickass war movie".
 

Capitan

Member
Have you seen it in 1978? Because I think everybody knows that AN isn't a "fun, kickass war movie".

no, i was just woefully uninformed. I hadn't heard that much about it honestly, it was just one of those classics I had never gotten around to watching, and I think i hear more people saying "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" than "the horror, the horror."
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Hancock.

There was a pretty PG-13 sex scene in the outtakes that is a shame it got cut because while a little silly the end of it really cemented his isolation.
 
Manchester by the Sea.

I remember the trailers making it look like one of those coming of age indie films.

What a depressing movie that turned out to be.
I haven't seen it but they mention that his dad dies like 5 times, I can't imagine thinking it would be some cutesy coming of age flick.

I didn't get that vibe at all at least.

Anyway yeah I agree with most of these, Up, Eternal Sunshine etc.
 

Woz

Member
no, i was just woefully uninformed. I hadn't heard that much about it honestly, it was just one of those classics I had never gotten around to watching, and I think i hear more people saying "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" than "the horror, the horror."

You definitely have a point!
 

David___

Banned
La Vita e Bella is a charming romantic comedy about a clumsy Jewish-Italian man who tries to woo a beautiful woman.
And then the Nazis happen and his family gets sent to a concentration camp.

Saw this a couple of times in Italian class in High School. Absolutely loved this one
 
I thought Super, with Rainn Wilson, would be a more comedic version of kickass. Got pretty heavy at the end.

That's what I came in here to post. I definitely thought it might have some violence and such but would be more of a comedy and lighthearted. Really caught me off guard.
 

jb1234

Member
Colossal



trailer made it look like a comedy

gallery-1491421472-apr-05-2017-15-42-06.gif


movie is not funny and actually pretty fucking dark

My first thought. It's a good film but man, it gets real pretty fast.
 

gforguava

Member

Tuff Turf.

Everything about this seems so typical for an 80s movie, new kid in school runs afoul of the local thugs, falls for lead thug's girl, music, we've all seen this, but everything about the actual movie is off. There are elements along the way that do point out that not everything is as by the numbers as it seems...
our hero is the instigator of everything, to the point were it feels like he gets off on it, the movie is a quasi-musical with a few different diegetic musical performances(some involving Jim Carroll somehow), the violence being more brutal than usual(combination locks in towels beat down!), but it swerves so much harder than one could imagine in the final act. Rape, murder, and more murder!

You basically sit down for:

And you somehow end up: HERE

edit: The movie is also amazing. I mean look at this. It is heaven on earth.
 
The wailing.

I was expecting a horror movie and didn't know much else about it and then like the first bit of the movie is straight up comedy with some dark bits in it. Movie wildly swings away from this by the end.
 

hiredhand

Member
All That Jazz

What I expected: A standard Hollywood musical.

What I got: A brutally honest, very cynical and grim autobiographical film with some very trippy imagery. Also the best performance of Roy Scheider's career.

011-all-that-jazz-theredlist.jpg
 

sakipon

Member
I had this experience with Conspiracy Theory (starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts). That movie was a lot darker than I had imagined.
 

EGM1966

Member
Mostly I know what I'm getting into but a few thfilms that went darker than I thought they would are:

  • Something Wild
  • Pan's Labyrinth
  • Grave of the Fireflies

Grave in particular went way beyond what I expected tone wise.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
One that comes to mind is Audition, a romance drama film about a widower whose friend holds fake auditions to help him find a girl to ask out and get him back in the game
who in turn turns out to be completely loopy and cuts his foot off. Kiri Kiri Kiri Kiri!
 

Laieon

Member
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Yup, this. Similar situation with Adam Sandler's Click (perhaps the only Adam Sandler movie I enjoyed)

Edit: damn it chrisPjelly.

You should check out "Reign Over Me". Dude can act if he tries.

He was also really good in "Funny People". First 1/2 is really good, drags on when they get to his ex'es house though.
 

lazygecko

Member
Being John Malkovich is really mean-spirited and depressing. Everyone except Malkovich himself is an irredeemable asshole in that movie. It only manages to pass as a comedy through its sheer absurdity.
 

Chuckie

Member
One that comes to mind is Audition, a romance drama film about a widower whose friend holds fake auditions to help him find a girl to ask out and get him back in the game
who in turn turns out to be completely loopy and cuts his foot off. Kiri Kiri Kiri Kiri!

Really? The film poster of that one totally gave it away. Also it is made by Miike Takashi, which also says enough haha.
 

gizio

Member
Robocop.

I remember it being advertised like a fun comedy with this futuristic robot.

I was not expecting such violence.

Movie was rad though
 
Where the wild things are is just a sweet young kids book right?

Well fuck me not the movie.

Never expected this to be lighthearted, but this is the single most heartwrenching film I've ever seen.

My suggestion for the thread: make someone watch Audition without any context or even seeing the cover. It's a fun ride.
 

Dali

Member
That Seth Rogan mall security guard movie. That shit went places. The end was like... well ok then.
 

Apathy

Member
OK, I've got a TV series, adult swim one I believe... Moral Orel... Good Lord I thought this'll be fun, so damn bleak

It was such a change, it was awesome. Reminds to a lot of bojack horseman going from lighthearted to super depressing in season one. Bojack doesn't stay down there for too long thought whereas moral Orel does that whole last season
 

KDR_11k

Member
We randomly came across Felidae as kids while watching TV... It's really only the thinking that cartoons are for kids that made that unexpected but still...

And my grandparents watched La Vita e Belle (or whatever the correct Italian title is, in German it's translated).
 

Platy

Member
Happy Feet literally ends with the main character in solitary confinement becoming completely crazy with loneliness imagining his dance bought world peace

On a reverse note, I didn't expect Perfume the story of a murder to be a colorfull fairy tale
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Really? The film poster of that one totally gave it away. Also it is made by Miike Takashi, which also says enough haha.

To be fair that's true, the cover/poster does give it away but at the time I didn't really know when my friend showed me the film. Caught me off guard anyway :p

Was one of the first Takashi Miike films I saw, only after that I became a fan and saw what his filmography was like! (though he seems to dabble in everything!)
 

YourMaster

Member
I'm surprised nobody mentioned starship troopers.

Seems like just pulp about teenage space soldiers shooting up giant insects, but it is actually a social commentary, and a very accurate prediction of the (then) future.
 

Dali

Member
Happy Feet literally ends with the main character in solitary confinement becoming completely crazy with loneliness imagining his dance bought world peace

On a reverse note, I didn't expect Perfume the story of a murder to be a colorfull fairy tale
Was that the ending to happy feet or sucker punch?

And I love perfume. It was really was told like a fairy tale, the way it was narrated.
 

Forkball

Member
Where the wild things are is just a sweet young kids book right?

Well fuck me not the movie.
This. I don't know how you read the book and then transform it into that. I took a girl I liked to this movie since we were both fans of the book. We barely talked after that.
 
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