Good Time Max
Two genius brothers grow up and grow apart as one becomes a successful surgeon and the other pursues a drug-fueled high life.
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- Cast:
- James Franco , Wilmer Calderon , Richard Portnow , Jarrod Bunch , Trip Hope , Robyn Cohen , Ahna O'Reilly
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Reviews
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
i must have seen a different film!!
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
This film tells the story of two genius brothers, one grows up to become a surgeon, the other becomes a drug dealer.I guess it's quite common for two brothers to diverge on their paths and throwing their lives away - at least in films anyway. The story is told in a linear fashion, it plainly tells the effects occurring in their lives. Max is the messed I up one, while Adam is the high flier. However, they are both unsympathetic, and I don't find myself caring for them. Towards the end, I was confused as to what the video tape contains that leads to the character's downfall. Hence, I was left with the feeling of confusion and apathy towards the characters. That being said, "Good Time Max" is a better effort than the other films directed by James Franco.
It could be instructive to have one of your nerdy genius friends develop an algorithm to determine the relationship between the amount of screen time given to shots from a character's video camera in relation to the erosion and downfall of the quality of a movie.It is a lazy, cheap, modern trend that has added nothing to the enjoyment or purpose of a film. It could even be responsible for the increase in the sale of headache remedies. Please, stop, no more.The "auteur" of this film also uses another of the most irritating involvements in modern screen history. The presentation, for all of us to enjoy, the purging of bodily fluids, vomiting, urination, defecation, drooling, nose running. It makes one sick just to write about it let alone see it in high-definition. Name one movie that showing these eliminations of waste, that wasn't a waste, that actually made a point and developed the plot or was essential viewing for the audience.So, having violated two of the most egregious and useless modern mechanisms of self-conscious exploitations to the max and making us endure, once again, another attempt at a profound "personal picture", one can not help but to say, it would have been better to hold it in.
I think the majority of the people seem not the get the right idea about the movie, at least that's my opinion. I am not sure it's a movie about drug abuse; rather it's a movie about the way of thinking of those genius brothers, drugs are side effects, something marginal. Again, it's not a commercial movie that you see every day and if the author wanted that, he definitely failed, as most people think it's one of the many drug related movies. I, however, think something else is the case. As in many movies portraying different cultures, audience usually fully understands movies portraying their own culture, i.e. something they've grown up with and are quite familiar with. This movie is to show what those "genius" people very often think and what problems they face. The reason why they act like this is because they are bored out of their minds :) They have to meet people who do mediocre things and accept those things as if they are launching space shuttles on daily basis. They start a fairly hard job and excel in no time. They feel like- I went to work, did nothing, still did twice as better as the guys around me when they were all over their projects, what should I do now with my free time. And what's even more boring? When you can start predicting behavior not because you're psychologist, but instead because you have seen this pattern in the past. So, for them, from one side it's a non challenging job, which is also fairly boring sometimes, and from another they start to figure out people's behavior. It's a recipe for big big boredom. And the dumbest things are usually done to get out of this state. They guy earlier who mentioned that their biggest problem is that they are trying to figure out life in terms of logic (math describes logic), while life is not really a logical thing, is actually absolutely right.
This movie can be interpreted on many different levels. Don't listen to the other comments bashing the movie and saying that it is a played again story or w/e and that it is just about drugs. It has very overt superficial metaphors about drugs; however, the rest of the movie (and why I think it was personally made) is really not about that at all. It is really mocking psychology and the conditioning of society. It shows, for a split second, that the main character's brother is watching those sick videos online. Why? My interpretation is that it is to demonstrate that all of this gruesomeness that we are exposed to makes it easier for us to be mechanical in our professions instead of seeing people as people. As far as the scene about logic, it is also reaching out to the people who were in the federally mandated 1% smart classes who are confused and frustrated because life isn't as predictable and mathematical and logical as it seems on a macroscopic level. You have to apply Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (along with all the other laws and principles of uncertainty) not just to physics but to life and leave room to change your plans and adjust along the way. One of the best movies I have ever seen. It just might go way above your head; it isn't for you it is for those people who are are having trouble coping with life not working out like a math problem. When you are critically analyzing a movie or writing your critical review's try not reading the back cover first (written by marketers and parapsychologists)