Ah man, HIMYM, how many times have you pulled some big moment out of your ass at the end of the episode and saved yourself from the absolute doldrums. This one was headed for "meh" or worse in my book, but you put together a well-edited montage, hint toward the grand finale, and throw in some "Funeral" by Band of Horses, and I am a complete sucker. That ending, replete with Klaus's trite but sweet speech about an overwhelming feeling for someone, is nice, but doesn't cover up the flaws of the rest of the episode enough to make it good.
Where to begin? Well, Ted wanting Victoria to leave a note is in character, and a nice consolation to him being an accomplice to someone else being left at the altar even knowing how much that hurts someone else. There's even some laughs as he's coaching Victoria on how to write it. But most of the sneaking around goes pretty broad, especially the East German bridesmaid guard, and the conflict is something of a dud. Klaus is funnier than I remembered (his not being sure what German words Ted knew or didn't know was a nice bit), especially considering I remembered thinking he was kind of annoying, but for the most part this was a wacky caper dropped into something a little more serious and heartfelt and the tonal clash didn't mesh well.
The shtick that Marshal and Lily were so exhausted from child-rearing that they couldn't understand what anyone was saying and were basically zombies was too broad as well. We're getting to some pretty hacky humor about parenting here, without any of the show's clever insights.
But the worst is the Robin and Barney stuff rearing its ugly head again. Even if you buy them having this strong attraction to one another, which I don't, the contrived plot twist of Robin suddenly having yet another boyfriend who you just provides another convenient obstacle, and Barney not having told Quinn that they used to date and it being this huge thing, screams of romantic drama for the sake of romantic drama. We know where this is heading (even if the opening gives us some reason to doubt), but it's just not believable, or at least not sold well enough, that Barney and Robin are carrying torches for one another, and that storage locker full of mementos from the time they were dating is trying too hard to make up for what the show can't sell in the way it writes the two characters to try to make them make sense together and convey that they have actual feelings for one another. If anything, the show is actually being like Ted here -- offering big gestures rather than actual substance. Sometimes, like the big moments in the end of episode montage set to affecting indie rock, that gets you pretty far, but it's a bandaid, not a cure. Let's hope it's not as much of a trudge to the finale as I remember.
I loved the cast but the film is a bit of a jumble for me. I understand the approach and why it was made to appeal to Gen Y, but it all felt a bit cliche and try-hard. Strangely throughout the film I saw glipses of An American Tale - Fivel Goes West and Life. Don't even get me started on the mechanical tarantula.
Mother and children, hmm. "The bag or life, does anyone choose life?
7.3/10. Obviously the musical number at the end is awesome, and it alone bumps this episode into good territory. But it's very hit or miss otherwise. There's some nice additions to the mythos going on with the return of the yellow umbrella, and Ted briefly dating The Mother's roommate while catching glimpses of his ideal mate. But for the most part it's a pretty standard issue Ted dating story with not a lot to it beyond the end-game bait to liven it up.
By the same token, Barney's scheme to seduce the new bartender is one of his usual capers, and while the whole girls vs. suits angle gives it at least a bit of stakes, the humor is pretty broad and the whole thing really only works as a setup to the tremendous musical number at the end. The business with the rest of the gang hanging out at the bar--Lily trying to get Marshall to admit that the new bartender is hot, Marshall being nonplussed but then hurt that Lily thinks the bartender is hotter than him, and Robin being offended that she's not considered the hottest girl in the bar anymore--is much funnier than the rest of the episode, and leans into the hangout, silly argument vibe that the show does so well.
The difference between this show and TGW is that in the latter personal storylines were just as good as day-to-day cases and here cases are just brilliant but I find personal arcs to be way weaker. However I just loved this episode because it features a great, great meta case, fewer scenes of this Rindell case, the usual moral grey zones from the firm the Kings are so good at, and Tascioni !!! And I think that Echo-like device always listening may hint where they are going just a hunch!
oh well that escalated quickly
Yeah, it's a slow movie. Doesn't make it bad tho...
In my view, this is a good mix between The Invention of Lying (2009) and God Bless America (2012).
The story is pretty good - it throws out of the window some of the conceptions we have about the world (like women being picky or everyone gunning for a CFO position). And it's kinda unexpected that the world really ends (which is good) so you don't have to see last minute salvations - Armageddon anyone?
8/10 overall.
I think the end was very cheesy, if it ended on that part where Penny is on the plane, it would be a better movie.
From now on, I'm gonna call my tablet of "a book of light"
I was expecting the Doctor and the Tardis to appear any moment.
This is a boxed experience, by which it's clear whom has written it. Style can be great. This is intense, which is cool. It's convoluted. Can be very good. It's not complicated, but often a dirge in reverse; the dialogue is basically the same for all characters, which are all dressed differently. That's an issue that I dislike with Sorkin's films. Well, while a lot of people often behave similarly in real life, it's a murky feature to me, that stands out like broken pixels in a computer screen.
Having stated the above points, the film succeeds in displaying Jobs as a flawed person, but given all the hoo-hah that occurs during the film, due to everything happening during Apple events, it's hard to see his self. Well. I can't say I could or would have seen his self during other times, but the documentary "Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine" gives much more flesh to Jobs' bones, where this film appears quite shallow. Good acting and, at times, stellar writing is interesting, but as a whole, this film does not work for me. It's scatterbrained, amidst all of its seemingly good intentions and radiance. I rather recommend the documentary to this film.
After one hour of just people arguing backstage, I fell asleep.
If you don't already (roughly) know about the events portrayed in the movie, you will probably be quite lost. No introduction of characters and their role. It rather resembles a chamber play, focussing mostly on exploring the details of of Steve Jobs character, not telling "The Apple Story". If you're looking for this, you should probably watch one of the other biopics.
