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The Help

post #1 of 17
8/11/11 at 11:53am
Thread Starter 
Usually when there is no publicity for a film it either means the studio thinks it is not worth publicizing or it doesn't need to be publicized. The Help is the latter.

Sure to sweep the nation, if not the Oscars, this film about a young White woman wanting to cut her journalistic chops by helping the Black domestic workers document their experiences in early sixties Mississippi, this is a lovely, highly enjoyable movie movie from the best selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Not great art but great entertainment in the grand Hollywood tradition, superbly acted by the entire cast. Octavia Spencer as Minnie (who as I recall the author envisioned when she wrote the book) and Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters steal the picture, but Viola Davis as Abileen is its heart and center. Emma Stone keeps up quite nicely too and proves herself again one of the finest actors of her generation.

Go on, get on the bandwagon. It'll make you feel good.
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post #2 of 17
8/14/11 at 8:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaded Dogfood View Post

Usually when there is no publicity for a film it either means the studio thinks it is not worth publicizing or it doesn't need to be publicized. The Help is the latter.

Sure to sweep the nation, if not the Oscars, this film about a young White woman wanting to cut her journalistic chops by helping the Black domestic workers document their experiences in early sixties Mississippi, this is a lovely, highly enjoyable movie movie from the best selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Not great art but great entertainment in the grand Hollywood tradition, superbly acted by the entire cast. Octavia Spencer as Minnie (who as I recall the author envisioned when she wrote the book) and Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters steal the picture, but Viola Davis as Abileen is its heart and center. Emma Stone keeps up quite nicely too and proves herself again one of the finest actors of her generation.

Go on, get on the bandwagon. It'll make you feel good.


Agree 100%. This is a very enjoyable, entertaining film which is heads and shoulders above most of the crap coming out of Hollywood these days. No 3-D gimmicks, explosions, shaky cam or such nonsense needed here... this is just pure entertainment plain and simple!

Highly Recommended!
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post #3 of 17
8/16/11 at 9:19am
DVDTalk gives it a "meh" (or worse): http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/51799/help-the/
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post #4 of 17
8/16/11 at 10:47am
The only thing that'll save this movie is Emma Stone's good looks.
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post #5 of 17
8/16/11 at 12:50pm
I read and enjoyed the book and look forward to the BD rental, but I think this is going to die fast at the BO, and a lot has to do with the reasons Airboss liked it.

Distributor Walt Disney Pictures' exit polling indicated that 74 percent of The Help's audience was female and 60 percent was age 35 years and older. Those numbers are another reason it'll die fast.
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post #6 of 17
8/16/11 at 2:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aliens View Post
......but I think this is going to die fast at the BO, and a lot has to do with the reasons Airboss liked it.
Yea.. that's the problem with the movie going public now a days they want gimmicks over substance.... fast cuts, shaky cam can't tell what's going on action sequences with lots of explosions.
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post #7 of 17
8/17/11 at 1:23pm
Thread Starter 
I think that Disney realizes there is no real way to publicize it without trivializing what it is trying to do; and it seems a portion of the African-American community already thinks it trivializes what was going on in real life in the fight for civil rights. (There were a great deal of African-Americans in the smallish audience I saw it with, and from what I could tell they enjoyed it immensely.)

I think it will eventually find its audience, but it may take a while.

rotten tomatoes said it's made 35.9 million as of 8/17. It's not exactly dying.
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post #8 of 17
8/21/11 at 12:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaded Dogfood View Post

I think that Disney realizes there is no real way to publicize it without trivializing what it is trying to do; and it seems a portion of the African-American community already thinks it trivializes what was going on in real life in the fight for civil rights. (There were a great deal of African-Americans in the smallish audience I saw it with, and from what I could tell they enjoyed it immensely.)

I think it will eventually find its audience, but it may take a while.

rotten tomatoes said it's made 35.9 million as of 8/17. It's not exactly dying.


LOS ANGELES "The Help" continues to clean up at the box office, taking over the No. 1 spot with $20.5 million in its second weekend.

The DreamWorks Pictures film starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer in a drama about Southern black maids had debuted in second-place a week earlier. "The Help" raised its domestic total to $71.8 million and bumped 20th Century Fox's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," which slipped to No. 2 with $16.3 million after two weekends at the top, according to studio estimates Sunday.

'Spy Kids,' remake of 'Conan the Barbarian' a distant third and fourth

..."It is a rare feat to see a film not open at No. 1 and then become No. 1," Hollis said. "To me, it's a testament of it being a great film, as well as the viral nature of the word of mouth about it."...

This is a really good film, stop wasting your money on Conan Crap and the like and go see a good, entertaining movie for a change.
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post #9 of 17
8/21/11 at 12:44pm
Thread Starter 
This is a really good film, stop wasting your money on Conan Crap and the like and go see a good, entertaining movie for a change.

You're probably wasting your breath, Airboss. Look at what most of the threads are about these days in most any of the Forums (Fora?) It Blowed up Real Good prevails.

But, as I thought, word-of-mouth is apparently doing its job. Come Netflix time and the females demanding a rental, many of the manly men around here may come to realize it's a pretty compelling picture.
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post #10 of 17
9/5/11 at 9:13am
"The Help" has stayed on the job over Labor Day, finishing as the No. 1 film for the third-straight weekend.
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post #11 of 17
9/5/11 at 5:24pm
Wife and I just saw this. Very good movie. It deserves the accolades it's getting.
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post #12 of 17
9/5/11 at 5:37pm
It's from the Daily Mail so take it with a grain of salt. Still a good read about what 'might' be another look at the film:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...ney-movie.html
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post #13 of 17
9/6/11 at 6:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by smudge981 View Post

It's from the Daily Mail so take it with a grain of salt. Still a good read about what 'might' be another look at the film:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...ney-movie.html

There are quite a few instances that Abilene mentions that I would bet hundreds of other people that have been in the same position could say the same thing. To think that the Aibileen character is unique to those situations would be ridiculous. In the two brief encounters between the author and Abilene, Abilene says, “I never told her about myself.” That should be it - case closed.

Quote:


Could she have told her story to Stockett’s sister-in-law, Carroll, who perhaps repeated it to the fledgling writer? ‘Carroll is a kind person,’ says Abilene. ‘I might have said, “You know, it’s a whole lot better now in Mississippi than it used to be,” and told her what it used to be like . . .’

“I might have said,” says Abilene. Not only is that hearsay in the court of law, it is hardly definitive. Even if that conversation happened between the two and Stockett’s sister-in-law told Stockett what Abilene said, authors use life experiences in writing books; she even says she did. If the courts heard every case about someone identifying himself or herself in a book, nothing of consequence would ever get done. This is flimsy and should be thrown out. However, my confidence in the justice system isn’t the best so who knows what happens; other than someone gets their 15 minutes.
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post #14 of 17
2/17/12 at 8:46pm
Not my usual type of movie but surprised my wife and saw it tonight.

Well worth it, regardless of fiction or real. I'm amazed at the 2 helps/maids, as well as Stone considering how young she is.
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post #15 of 17
1/6/13 at 12:51pm
Thanks to the comments in this thread I gave this a spin today & thoroughly enjoyed it. Recommended it to a couple of friends and was immediately met with resistance. mad.gif I wouldn't consider it a "chick flick" but it's a hard sell.
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post #16 of 17
1/6/13 at 4:53pm
Definitely not a chick flick, just hard core drama about history.....
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post #17 of 17
1/7/13 at 8:39am
Just a good movie based on realism with quality acting. Not a chick flick but I would call it a date night movie. My girl agrees.
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