Love this film. Jeff Goldblum is fantastic in it, even when he's unrecognisable under all the prosthetics, he still portrays the character so well and makes you feel for the 'monster' that he's become. Geena Davis is great too, I agree with Ammi that it probably wasn't the wisest thing her going back with him that first night, and I don't understand why he would have shown her his invention either with her being a journalist and him not wanting it to be written about, that's probably the only plot hole (besides the fact that it involves teleportation and a human morphing into a giant fly but y'know what I mean :laugh:)
The gruesome scenes are really gruesome but it's gore that has a place, rather than being just for the sake of it, and it's weird that a film can make you think "oh so that's what it'd be like if a person turned into a fly" :joker: and for it to still not come off as silly or unnecessarily gross. It's testament to how well made it is, and how it could have failed horribly with different production/writing/performances. The final scene is heartbreaking, just a really emotional and powerful climax.

I give it 9/10. I can't fault it really, the only reason it doesn't get 10 is because, well, it isn't Muriel's Wedding... so :whistle:

And a fun movie fact!: The phrase 'Be afraid, be very afraid' actually originated in this movie.

(Also, I would have loved a sequel that explored the scientific ramifications of his invention rather than the one we got. Like would the device had been refined and led to the fusion of other human/animal hybrids etc... for military purposes perhaps? :laugh: I'm just thinking out loud now but that would make for a great movie :laugh:)

So as I said, I have seen it before, and it was once a required watch in a Ethics in Science course I took ... because obviously the plot line follows what really happens in the scientific community :rolleyes: ... and I guess that may be why, while I found lots of laugh out loud moments in it, and Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were both amazing in it, I really don't like the movie. I has too many holes for my to think of as plausible... Jamie mentioned a couple that "bug" me... but from a perspective of how the computer programming went, and the science behind the device, it's invention... the believablity of it all just is to weak for me to not scoff the whole way through. I guess that is why it just isn't my type of film. But I did laugh and I did love the acting.. so a 6/10 from me.
(Also, I generally end up hating any movie or book a professor makes me over analyze )

It's interesting that you mentioned the computer programming... that's what I do for a living and it's something that I completely ignored in the film :laugh: I felt like I had to though to suspend belief. I'll admit, when he had the breakthrough about the flesh and then explained it, I facepalmed a little bit, because although they tried to make it sound technical, it was basically "All I need to do is teach the computer to get excited" and it's like, oh right ok then, just the simple task of teaching it human emotion then :laugh: But I can forgive that because like you say, it just wasn't your type of film, whereas it was my type of film. It's interesting we can watch the same thing but allow/ignore/challenge different aspects of it. One of the reasons I'm loving this movie club to be honest.

I liked it, good cast, and good soundtrack, and very funny in parts. Problem is I found nearly every character very unlikeable, even Muriel was someone hard to root for. A tad too girly for my liking as well, but I am just being picky. 3.5/5

I have to start with the fact that i've seen Muriels Wedding a number of times, it has a great sound track, however, the one thing that i spotted last night was how selfish Muriel is, she doesn't seem to have a relationship with her siblings, she overlooks the apathy her mum is feeling, and yet this is something i can connect with on a personal level, and is why i believe that most teenagers are selfish and out for themselves (note that i said most!). She has a deep longing to fit in, even at the the expense of her parents bank balance! The theme of this movie is about acceptance for who you are, she just wants to be part of something, even if it's girls who hate her! She has a longing to prove she's a someone after being told for so many years that she's lazy and useless, and the butt of jokes. Que Rhonda as her (Muriels) saviour, her friend who shows her how to live and be independant. It's a great film with an undertone of sadness that i could connect with, she wants to be so much more than she feels, she wants to be so much more than others think she is, she wants to win, to prove she is a someone, that she's not a nothing, and in the end she begins her life accepting her flaws and ready to embrace life honestly with Rhonda. 9/10

....hmmm, I didn't see Muriel as a selfish person, Ruby...I think that she loved her mum but her whole life of feeling a 'success' was to find someone to love her../to marry her and that's what her mum had and yet, she was a terribly unhappy person...I think that Muriel avoided facing that because if she did, it would shatter her dreams and leave her with nothing../just leave her feeling hopeless...to face that marriage to someone../the wrong person could be something that could destroy a person as in her mother's situation with her dad...and I think that she loved her siblings as well but all of their worlds with their dad were not that were love was ever shown../ever demonstrated...there was no affection in the family because the father only ever measured 'success' or 'failure'....and obviously, he was the one thing that was bringing that 'failure' because he didn't make his children feel loved/believed in etc...

..I enjoyed this movie much more this time just because I have known people like Muriel...people who have no belief in themselves.../no self confidence..and who see that being achieved in something it won't ever be unless they realise their own beauty, just as they are..(quoting a line from Bridget Jones...)...it's quite a dark movie with her mum's depression and eventual taking of her life and Rhonda's cancer but that only goes to make those feel good moments more emotional and lovely...Muriel and Rhonda singing Dancing Queen..:lovedup:...putting the 'mean girls' in their place and the ending when they finally escaped Porpoise Spit with Muriel finally finding her confidence and self-belief, without the reliance of anyone else...great Abba soundtrack, great characters and all perfectly balanced to make a pretty great movie..so I would say a lovely 8/10...


..thank you Jamie and Mokka for the choice..:love:..

Muriel lacked consideration for her parents by stealing their money, putting her own needs first, this makes her selfish. She also put her own needs first regarding Rhonda by deciding to get married to the South African, again putting her own needs first, with no consideration for how Rhonda was going to survive on her own. She thought happiness lay within the fact of getting married, yet her own mother was married and a complete doormat, totally unappreciated and her dad was an arsehole, and yet she didn't see this, the fact that her own mum and dad were unhappy. As i said this is a movie about self acceptance and i love this movie, it just seemed to jump out at me this time that she comes across as selfish. She realises true happiness doesn't involve a man and a wedding dress, but with her true friend Rhonda. The movie resonated with me on so many levels. The selfishness, the running away from problems, thinking that somethings going to be better when it actually isn't, trying to be someone you aren't, it's all part of life which is why i love this movie so.

..I guess for me, the selfish character was her father...obviously with his affair for many years with Deidre Chambers and how they had always pre-arranged that she would 'accidently' turn up on family occasions so he couldn't even give those small times to his family ..and had to flaunt his feelings for someone else so blatantly with his wife...also his lack of acknowledgement for his children unless they were to become in his eyes, 'successful'...the only time he spoke with any pride about Muriel was when he thought she had earned enough money to pay for the holiday herself..(so that bit did make me smile, that she had actually used his money and it seemed like a great karma thing..:laugh:..)...but he was most selfish in being perfectly happy to leave his wife and make her feel worthless..in fact he was quite cruel about it, in voicing her 'worthlessness'/uselessness as a wife and mother, as he saw it..but was quite happy, more than happy to hand over the care of their children to her/this 'useless person' so that he could have his life with Deidre, that's how little value he placed on them as well because she was obviously not capable of caring for them ..the 'inconvenience' was her dying because the deal wasn't and never had involved 'playing parents' but he hadn't given his children any self-belief to be independent from parenting and his wife's depression had prevented her from that also.....I liked the last scene with him and Muriel though because I felt that he would maybe become a better person and parent in the future../well I'd like to think that anyway...)...

I watched this movie for the first time in the theaters the year it came out, with two of my 4 sisters. Being with them was what made this movie so impacting at the time, because we grew up in Muriel's house practically... with a father who never really did anything for the family but couldn't stop throwing in your face what very little he had done for the family... and a mother who went into a place of deep depression in her 40's to the point where she was much like Muriel's mother in the tea making scene... just not there. The three of us walked out of that theater with just astonished faces... and we looked at each other and just started laughing at how real and honest and funny and dead on the nail the story was to us. It's a moment I will never forget.
So, while Muriel's actions may seem selfish to some, my view is they are two fold. Firstly, she was raised without being taught how not to be selfish. That was not a loving and caring environment the kids were in, and by the time she was at adult hood... no one had shown her or taught her better life skills. And secondly, she had to be selfish to get herself out of that **** hole of an environment. She was trapped in it, her mother was trapped in it, etc. etc. and while her choices weren't necessarily good or right, they were the ones that got her out and to realize the potential and reality of her own existence and self worth

Aside from all that over analysis of the characters... I have always loved this movie for being real, and honest and too funny to put into words... and messy because life is messy so why do we make it seem different in movies?? Is Muriel a good person? who cares. She is a relatable person imo, and I never cared for weddings or put much weight in the whole find a sole mate to be happy theory... but I still relate to her.

It also has my favourite love scene of all time.. Where Muriel shows up for Rhonda in the end and Rhonda says this
http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx...ho1_r1_500.gif

And they get into the cab and say goodbye to ****ty Porpoise Spit. That's what real love and friendship is ... better than Dancing Queen :lovedup:

10/10

..maybe it's just me but I don't see Muriel as selfish in her character, I see her as self-preserving ...her 'wedding world', her dreams of being married etc felt a bit like an 'imaginary friend' type thing that a child can have or an imaginary world that they retreat into, to shield themselves from their environment, which is so unhappy..a father who made her feel worthless, made them all feel worthless..friends who also made her feel worthless..a mum who was unable to help her in any way because of her depression and down-trodden siblings..her world of fantasy was the only escape she had to it all and she tried, her one chance to make those fantasies come true, or to escape them for a short while and experience 'a dream' in her holiday..which led her to Rhonda and to losing her self-loathing..and in doing that, not only did her life change but it would then enable her to be what her family needed, in something positive in their worlds...

...so sadly, there are many 'Muriels' out there, where someone's family../home should be their place of refuge and safety..their comfort..but it's the place which feeds all of their insecurities instead..it prevents them from being who they are and loving who they are.../seeing their beauty...

...over-thinking now, really...

You're right there are many Muriels out there, which is also why i love the film, it makes me feel like i'm not alone.

You could say i were Muriel, i know i was selfish, (and i hate to admit this) i stole, and i lied, but i came from a house where there were no love, no money, all my friends had a better life than me, my dad was an arsehole, and my mum the down trodden wife who went on to commit suicide. The fact that i weren't close to any of my siblings, in fact we pretty much hated each other, but that's all we knew.
I escaped my family by running off with my boyfriend, trying to find out who i were, where i belonged, and through his and his familys love and plus my moral compass grew stronger once i'd left home, so i can totally relate to Muriel and all her flaws:)