MovieChat Forums > Cold in July (2014) Discussion > Anybody think the same?

Anybody think the same?


It seemed a little surreal to me that Richard teamed up in the raid to kill Russel's son and his gang.
In the beginning, Richard seemed to have a hard time getting over the fact that he shot an intruder.
Then he suddenly goes all Rambo on those mobsters?
Seeing him storm that fort in the end, being aware of the danger, seemed a little out of character.
I could understand Jim's motives for helping Russel as they were best friends and Russel saved Jim's life.
But Richard had no obligations to Russel.
Russel even threatened the safety of his family. So why should he risk his life for Russel? What's in it for him?

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He didn't really "go Rambo," the other guys had to bail him out when he got cornered.

I think Richard just wanted the peace of mind of knowing these snuff filmmakers wouldn't live to see another day. The final shot of him in bed reinforces this. Evil has been defeated and he can rest again.

I quite like that Jim and Russel let him tag along and never question why he's there. They're in it together.

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But he sure didn’t seem like he was resting in that bed in the end. Seemed to me that he still felt the call to action, as if regular life couldn’t satisfy him anymore after what he saw and took part in.

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"Seeing him storm that fort in the end, being aware of the danger, seemed a little out of character."

Seeing him dig up the corpse in the graveyard seemed more than a little out of character. After this, all logic and reason went out the window. The actors made up for some of the script's nonsense, but they could only salvage so much.

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I was thinking the same thing. There was absolutely no sense or logic to his motivation. It was absurd,especially looking at how he was portrayed in the beginning of the movie. And it wasnt any better really for other characters. How someone ok-ed something so poorly written baffles me.

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I think it was a great film except for that one thing - that Michael C Hall's character would help the man who just terrified his family a short time before.

Did the book give a further reasoning for this?
Purely because of the different face on the Wanted poster and that he saved the dad on the train track?

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Yes...I think that everyone with a brain and some high standards in movies will think exactly the same...the movie was all good in the first half, then just like that...nothing at all makes any sense, I would really like to know if the book is this bad as well. So many plot holes and failings in realistic details of the story to even consider this a good or even decent movie...sure I like the 80s style and the score is great and the acting is really good but the script and story is beyond retarded and even if Don Johnson did a fine job, his character was out of place...he ruined all of the mysteries the movie tried so hard to build up in the first half, when he came into the movie, it went from a mystery thriller to a howdy ho clown day at the circus action movie with no solid story...such a shame...such a shame...

~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~

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in general, try not to speak for everybody else if you don’t want to be surprised at how wrong you can be.

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Then he suddenly goes all Rambo on those mobsters?
That, I agreed, plus I have no clue how Russell Junior's witness protection program and these mobsters were related (I watched just once, will have to watch again). These mobsters, they were bad guys indeed, but what did the witness protection have to do with their video shop? What did I miss?

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The man went through some serious changes, people. Richard knew he was being lied to by the sheriff and then tailed them to the intended murder site. He wrestled with doing the right thing by saving Russel from the train and did so in the nick of time. There was a mystery here that he HAD to unravel. Who was the intruder that he killed? Why does the sheriff want to murder Russel? What are the cops trying to cover up? These are just some of the questions he had to find the answers to. I can't believe how many people on this thread alone are blind to it and calling it bad writing. He was timid in the beginning and then he started becoming stronger towards the end of the film due to all the circumstances he had witnessed up to that point. This was a fine movie and obviously one that certain people needed to pay closer attention to.

Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up!

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Agreed. His actions were totally implausible, inexplicable, and out of character with his earlier behavior.

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Yeah, that was growth, it was his character arc.

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