MEGALOPOLIS

[number six]

OK it came out 5 months ago but never saw this in the theater due to it's short run and universally terrible reviews.

How bad is it? Pretty bad.

It's a completely unhinged allegorical SCI-FI (?) film likening the fall of the United States to the fall of Rome. It weaves in fantastical and SCI-FI elements but it's hard to really define as much of anything other than a total mess.

With a budget of $120m the special effects are terrible. It's mostly green screen work but with unconvincing CGI backgrounds. It reminded me of a 90s FMV video game. This isn't to say there aren't some interesting visuals here and there and some fun sequences but the entire thing is very disjointed.

The script itself is almost nonsensical. I understand it's an allegory and the characters are not necessarily characters in the traditional sense but more representations of portions of society but it's still a pretentious mess. It's really like somebody gave Neil Breen an unlimited budget and told him to go nuts..

The final element here is the cast which is pretty stacked.. but everyone is set to 100% ham. For example Shia Lebeuf makes a rare appearance here playing a transvestite that eventually becomes the trump analogue (presumably) and he's in total Lebeuf mode.. yet he's nowhere near the most outlandish performance here. I can only imagine all these actors just went with it because it's Francis Ford Coopala and they assumed it would make sense in the edit (spoilers, it does not).

Is it worth watching for fun value? I mean, I had fun with it for the first half because while it's batshit crazy its interesting enough to keep you going.. but at the half way mark it starts to just become tedius and limps through the finale without really doing much more interesting than just being a strange passion project by one of the best directors of our age. At least Coopala tried to do something different I guess so there's that.

[RussG]

You got farther than I could with this mess.
I couldn't make it a quarter of the way through before giving up.
I love Francis Ford Coppola but this was terrible.

[Miracleman]

 
Kudos to Jack for suffering through the whole thing, I don't think I made it past the 3 minute mark.

[number six]

Like I said I found some sort of perverse pleasure in the first hour of the film. It's bad, but it's at least train wreck bad. Also it's got Audrey Plaza in a see-through dress and that hot chick from Game of Thrones.

It falls apart in the 2nd half which is interesting because it was never really together to begin with.

[tufnel1530]

Also it's got Audrey Plaza in a see-through dress

haha... she did a video at Alamo in NYC where she checks out some of the VHS collection there.  It was on a Wed late morning or something and no one was there.

I walk right by her at one point in the video and actually said hi to her when they were just hanging around between takes and true to form she said something like "sup dude".

She's pretty cute but in person if she wasn't famous I don't know that you would look twice. 

[tufnel1530]

when she's talking about serial mom i walked right behind her

[number six]

lol that's awesome.. i watched this video when it came out.

I didn't even know that had Alamo Drafthouses in NYC until i saw all the workers on strike a few weeks ago.

[tufnel1530]

lol that's awesome.. i watched this video when it came out.

I didn't even know that had Alamo Drafthouses in NYC until i saw all the workers on strike a few weeks ago.

Yah, the strike.. they are struggling to make it work and had to lay off some staff.

Alamo has 3 total locations but I only like the downtown Manhattan one.

Screens are smaller but it’s like having your own home theatre since some are only 3 rows deep.

If you go off peak times there is barely anyone there, sometimes you’ll have a theatre to yourself or close to it.

I wish they played more older and cult stuff but they seem to be pushing away from that now.

[number six]

Yah, the strike.. they are struggling to make it work and had to lay off some staff.

Alamo has 3 total locations but I only like the downtown Manhattan one.

Screens are smaller but it’s like having your own home theatre since some are only 3 rows deep.

If you go off peak times there is barely anyone there, sometimes you’ll have a theatre to yourself or close to it.

I wish they played more older and cult stuff but they seem to be pushing away from that now.

Yeah I've never been to one. They do sound cool.

Usually when we are in the city seeing a movie is last on our list. We did see something once at the big AMC on Thanksgiving once.. saw Bill Nighy in the lobby which was neat.