MovieChat Forums > Changing Lanes (2002) Discussion > great cast. great premise. this might so...

great cast. great premise. this might sound a bit harsh...spoilers

posted 19 years ago by fergusg
14 replies | jump to latest

Apologies in advance to all those who loved this film....you're not going to like this!

Some films are so envigirating, compelling or simply inspiring, they make you want to to go out and make a film. For me, Changing Lanes makes me wonder how a film like this gets made. Why did they bother?

I also don't get why this has got a 6.6 on IMDB. It's not the worst film I have seen, I watched it on (RTE) television last night (Sept. 21st)..and popped in here to see other opinions on it...most posts are waxing lyrically about how great it is...maybe I should get it out on dvd and watch again.

Convince me.

I've seen mentions of this should be up for an oscar. For what exactly? is there an oscar for best hubcaps in a movie?

I'm usually a fan of jackson as an actor. I generally like his work...but I'm afraid I found this film painfully dull and excrutiatingly predictable.

The scene in the bar is a great example, when Jackons character, after an, er, eventful morning, walks into a local bar. The moment the barman asks him what'll it be..you know what's going to happen.

The "falling down" moments with both characters did little to delve deeper into the tenuous, underlying, karma-esque storyline and plot. You know..the type of karma that works along the lines of; What goes around, comes-back-and-bites-you-on-the-a*s type karma.

I can see how, on paper, the idea might have been great..but the tension didn't build for me. There was no tension. The total transparency of what the ending was going to be, left little to ponder, apart from the how low can they go? element.

There were a few avenues they could have gone down..such as the boss-without-scruples father-in-law versus idealistic son-in-law (who thinks he has scruples) battle that began to emerge...I thought that's where it might go. Which might have been very interesting. The cast was good, I thought. Similarly, the guy who bails out Jacksons' character and does the mini-speech on the sidewalk outside the police station...I thought, great! this is going somewhere. Alas, it wasn't.

It was, like the simmering battle of wits between son and father, just a fleeting tease of what might have been.

It reminds me a little of Wall Street...which was made in the late eighties/early nineties and played out the dark at-all-costs side of human nature very well...without giving away the ending.

Changing Lanes had a Wall Street-esque potential for something gripping, gritty and memorable. It failed on all counts in my opinion.

Just my two eurocents..

fergusg

[–] redpixie 19 years ago

I watched it on RTE last night as well.

I thought it was rubbish and I can't believe so many people on this site think it's brilliant.

Definetly not Oscar material.

[–] fergusg 19 years ago

Thanks RedPixie..

I was beginning to wonder if I had watched the same film the other posters on here have seen and was double checking I had inadvertantly posted on a film, by the same name, but, a different one to the one I watched.

I'm not sure if it was totally rubbish, as you put it, I have seen much much worse, but, I agree with you that the plaudits on here aren't warranted.

I think it might have been wiser if RTE broadcast it very late at night. Am kicking myself today, because I just realised that Being There was on TG4 around the same time as Changing Lanes.

Anyway..nice to bump into another film lover from Ireland on here (assume if you're getting RTE, you're in Ireland). I only discovered this place recently.

Fergusg

[–] redpixie 19 years ago

To tell the truth ....
I hate Ben Affleck.....can't help it... and I think that might sway my opinion.

Yep I am another film lover from Ireland.... but the mid week movie just doesn't do it for me anymore...

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ladive 19 years ago

I strongly believe that some movies, if you've heard good things, you focus more on the bad and believe it was a bad movie, and vice versa. I think most people who liked it so much expected it to be terrible, which it wasn't.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] redpixie 18 years ago

Radio Telefis Eireann..... its an Irish Television Channel

[–] AlexEvensen 18 years ago

I understand what you mean and feel some of the same stuff, but I still enjoyed the movie.

But it kinda failed to deliver, now it feels like a weak version of Collateral and Crash. Maybe not so much in the story as in the feeling I got from watching it. These two movies are both very good movies and maintain that feeling all through the picture, while this struggles to keep it going. And the end was a bit too sweet. But it's a movie, there is enough bad in the world, let at least the people in the movies end up happy ;) Or not, I don't know.

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 11 years ago

Still enjoyed the film a great deal.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

[–] Tales-from-the-Goondocks 11 years ago

But you didn't say anything about the movie itself. The only criticisms in there seem to be these 2:

1 - The film didn't build enough tension. It is a valid complaint if it just didn't work for you, but it definitely worked for me and others in here as you may have noticed. I think the tension was built perfectly.

2 - The film wasn't what you wanted it to be. Yep, it seems like you had your own ideas about what you wanted the film to be, and it failed for you because it didn't go the way you wanted it to go. Sorry, but this is not a film about a man confronting his father in law. There's not much else to say about your points. You wanted it to be something that the filmmakers didn't want it to be. That's it.

Everything else you mentioned was just a variation of "I don't get how others can have different taste than mine", so there's not much else to say about your post.

[–] fergusg 11 years ago

But you didn't say anything about the movie itself. The only criticisms in there seem to be these

erm. it's been a while since I posted, so I had to refresh a few times to remember what I originally posted. Everything I said was about the movie itself. If you can't accept that someone has a different take on a movie that's a shame.

I don't think I was being unfair in my post.

[–] Tales-from-the-Goondocks 11 years ago

No, most of what you said was either about how you can't understand people liking this movie or about what you wanted it to be, not what the film actually is. You are criticising the story for not taking the path you wanted it to take. That is irrelevant as a film criticism. No one cares about what you wanted the story to be, especially since your expectation has nothing to do with the real story. You only wrote a few lines about what you thought of the actual movie, like the fact that you didn't find it suspensful.

You are not being unfair in your appreciation of the movie, because you've got the right to hate it if you wish. You have your own taste and I have mine, but sayint that you can't understand why people like this movie is really pretentious.

[–] fergusg 11 years ago

you know what? you're right..my post is a tad arrogant and scathing. In hindsight...there was a great cast and a great premise...so perhaps I was expecting too much. have changed the original post title to be less scathing.

great cast. great premise. this might sound a bit harsh...*spoilers *

great cast. great premise. this might sound a bit harsh...spoilers