comment #1

EdHavens says ...

"It's easily her best screen work since her underrated supporting turn in Crash."

No shit, Petey? Let's take a look at her work released between Crash and The Blind Side, shall we...

All About Steve
The Proposal
Premonition
Infamous
The Lake House
Loverboy

Yeah, that's a mark of fine quality work to make such a boastful claim, Petey.

comment #2

ZayTonday says ...

This movie looks like the sappiest most exploitative pap I have ever seen.

ooooo privileged white woman takes in underprivileged black teenager and gives him the life he never DREAMED he could have. After the initial period they have problems, there is mistrust, she hurts him and then he leaves. After he is gone for a while she comes back and apologizes. they all live happily ever after.

comment #3

ZayTonday says ...

Her character in this flick and in Crash could easily be the same woman.

comment #4

televisiontears says ...

"Her character in this flick and in Crash could easily be the same woman."

What? I'll never defend Crash, but what the hell is up with this comment? It looks like race has no place whatsoever in this. She takes in a homeless kid and helps him to be a better football player. That's the same as Bullock's character in Crash being a hateful closet-racist who has a chance to show her true colors?

Is it because the kid is black, so your thoughts immediately turn to racism, and then Crash? Forgive me for my assumptions, but that's the only line of thought I can begin to imagine for that comparison.

Seriously, I have no fucking idea what this comment means.

comment #5

lazarus says ...

She's got to be the most uninteresting female movie star of the last 30-40 years. Not a very good actress, not very attractive...I never understood the hype.

comment #6

hollyman says ...

just the thought of Sandra Bullock getting an Oscar Nomination should make everyone want to vomit

comment #7

The InSneider says ...

I happen to LOVE Crash but Bullock was EASILY the WORST thing about that movie. Blind Side doesn't look half-bad. Could be a real crowd-pleaser. But Best Actress? Really?

comment #8

monettx says ...

I think one reason the trailer plays as somewhat ridiculous is the southern accent Bullock affects. To me it is painful. Am I the only one who feels that way?

comment #9

wwlkd says ...

Sally Field might have earned an Oscar nomination with this role 20 yrs ago. Bullock will have to settle for a having a bucket of green shit dumped on her head as a presenter at the Nickelodeon awards.

comment #10

THE MovieBob says ...

The "I've never had one before." / "A room of your own?" / "A bed." scene in the trailer makes me want to hurl my soda every fucking time I see it.

Bullock could spontaneously morph into prime-era Katherine Hepburn in this and it'd STILL look like the sappiest "thank god for white people" movie in a decade or more...

comment #11

JBarragan says ...

I'm sorry, but this looks embarrassingly bad. I hope the trailer isn't indicative of the film's content as a whole.

comment #12

Uncle Larry says ...

Why would you even give credence to an idiot like Hammond? Geez, the guy blurbs more regularly than a goose drops turds. He's the go-to guy for the worst crap out there.

comment #13

LFF says ...

I can comfortably say that I really liked Bullock in THE LAKE HOUSE.

That said, this movie looks like standard issue winter season glurge product, ala WE ARE MARSHALL, GLORY ROAD, RADIO and 100 other other movies you've already seen. If its not one of those; if its actually a decent movie, they've got a serious marketing problem and they need to pull that trailer immediately and cut something better.

comment #14

Josh Massey says ...

I think everybody is forgetting this is a true story, based on a best-selling book. If it was fiction, then yes, I'd rail against the "white savior" angle too - but if you watched this year's NFL draft, when Oher was taken and they showed him with his "family," then you realize how awesome the story really is.

It's not about race, it's about love. Which, yes, is a line cheesy enough to be in that trailer.

comment #15

plastiqueelephant says ...

that trailer is horrible but the michael oher story is stupidly cool. that kid is burning it up for the ravens, could end up being one of the truly great tackles over the next decade. i'm in.

comment #16

Chase Kahn says ...

I hear Shawn Edwards thinks its the best sports film he's ever seen...

There's no way I'm watching this turd, with it's ham-fisted, drippy dialogue and Christian-rock bullshit.

I said this yesterday, but there is no f-ing way that Sandra Bullock's character walked into practice and gave that stupid speech about "protecting your quarterback's blind side", "when you think of him, think of me." That's pure Sandra Bullock/Hollywood fiction.

comment #17

mat says ...

Something is pulling toward this movie. I haven't seen a Sandra Bullock vehicle in a long, long time, I hate forced sentimentality, and I really can't stand the Ravens, but I'll be damned if I'm not positive that I'll be on board for this. It must be the glut of movies that have brought me down lately, but this might put me in a good place for an hour and a half.

comment #18

ZayTonday says ...

Yeah MovieBob, you said it best, it just looks like a "thank GAWD for white people" movie.

comment #19

Joel says ...

The book was wonderful but this movie looks terrible. Based on the preview and her scene on the field, I can't imagine this is Oscar material.

comment #20

TL says ...

"I think everybody is forgetting this is a true story, based on a best-selling book."

And to that end, I fully expect the real-life sassy white lady portrayed in the film to walk out of the premiere after the first reel, get on her bicycle, and say, "I don't have to see it.... I lived it."

comment #21

nodirectionhome says ...

Why is Hollywood still making "magic negro" films or in the case of BLIND SIDE (stupid title, by the way) "white savior showing savages how to live life on the righteous path" This is so blatantly racist. The trailer alone is something I didnt think I would see outside of a comedy routine. Others story is something to be admired but not in the context of a forced film overloaded likely with Chirstian themes, dialoug and showing blacks as the ignorant and poor.

comment #22

kyleb says ...

totally agree with nodirectionhome. insane white liberal guilt hollywood racism. not only does the rich white woman save the "magic negro" but she does so by... wait for it... introducing him to football. so embarrassing.

comment #23

VictorLazlo says ...

I think the Oher story is wonderful and I have no beef with this movie but...

Wells is going positive on this and on the verge of going nuclear on Precious... hmmmm.

BLINDSIDE - as wonderful as the true story is, still presents a paternalistic view of white people coming to the aid of poor blacks. Hits all the right liberal guilt buttons.

PRECIOUS - focused internally on the problems of the black community, with black characters solving their on problems. Complex, dark view of the innercity where white people good or bad, don't even enter in the equation.

I smell a replay of DRIVING MISS DAISY vs DO THE RIGHT THING

comment #24

Gogocrank says ...

When I saw this trailer it was all I could do to keep from rolling on the floor laughing. True do-gooder story or not, it cracked me up for all its ridiculous cliches. And Bullock's southern accent. And yet another variation on the rich and pretty white person meets magic negro movie. Groan.

comment #25

Phreaker says ...

Give me a fucking break. Her Erin Brockovich? Yeah, add in Soderbergh as the director and remove the magical negro plot and, yeah, maybe. Nothing against Pete - he's just doing his job but no way, no how, no McCain.

comment #26

Gabriel says ...

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't see this at rape-point.

comment #27

raygo says ...

Bullock was very good in Infamous and Murder By Numbers. I enjoyed The Proposal. She's likeable ... no crime in that.

comment #28

ErrantElan says ...

There is nothing more racist or disgustingly anti-intellectual than bringing up the "magic negro" theme in regards to Blindside.

The whiners about "liberal guilt" are people, like ZayTonday, who see blacks as always being victims, as always being simple, as always needing help, and thus it offends their "liberal" sensibilities when they see it actually portrayed (in a realistic manner, one might add). This isn't about race, it's about class, but the racists on this board will never be capable of understanding that.

Honestly, why do these boards attract people with junior high-level intelligence and social awareness?

comment #29

ErrantElan says ...

As I said on another post, go to Michael Oher and tell him he's a "simple, magic negro" who was being exploited by a racist white family who just wanted to feel good about themselves. See what happens to you, you racist idiots.

comment #30

Gogocrank says ...

OK, I'll take the bait. The "magic negro" canard is not a true-life thing but a reference to how these sorts of films are marketed and sold. Real life is all about class, but movies are rarely that nuanced. In the trailer, Bullock goes to see Oher's family, and that family is not portrayed as merely poor but poor and dangerous. Oher, on the other hand, is portrayed as a gentle giant, looming but innocent. In real life, his race is irrelevant to the story. In the trailer (can't speak to the film), it's an utterly familiar Hollywood cliche. Unfortunately.

comment #31

TL says ...

As I said on another post, go to Michael Oher and tell him he's a "simple, magic negro" who was being exploited by a racist white family who just wanted to feel good about themselves.

And in the same trip, go tell Mark Whitacre he's not really a goofy bastard. Then we can talk about how sometimes movies "take liberties" with their source material.

Seriously, if they hadn't wanted to make a "magical negro" movie, they would have told it from Oher's point of view, not the sassy white lady's.

comment #32

nodirectionhome says ...

ERRANT

It's a cliche, okay. It's not an overtly racist term nor does it make people ignorant or racially biast for pointing out such obvious themes as marketing tools. Like I and others have posted if Hollywood wanted to make an uplifting or engaging story about Ohers achievements, Sandra Bullock, "the white woman" wouldn't be the main focus of the promotion, nor "the white family" who find themselves "knee slapper" situations with the poor black kid. The above comments really dont deserve any apology, if you cant figure that out Im afraid your shining the lack of awarness and low level of intelligence upoon yourself.

comment #33

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

Pete Hammond said Amelia was a really good movie too, and that all the advance bad buzz was wrong. Yup, sure.

I try to separate his awards-writing from his blurb-raves (he clearly does know his stuff, just has no taste), but they're starting to merge a bit.

comment #34

Rob says ...

Jesus Christ, this movie. I saw the trailer for it in a theater a few weeks ago, and when it ended, the friend who I was with turned to me and said, "Oh look, 'Diff'rent Strokes, with Sandra Bullock as Mr. Drummond!"

comment #35

Scott Mendelson says ...

I rather liked The Lake House. It was that rare thing, a genuine adult romantic drama that didn't wink at the audience. As a sober and often sad mediation on adult loneliness and the need to form some kind of human connection, it really works. And Murder By Numbers was a pretty solid old-fashioned thriller.

comment #36

ZayTonday says ...

I enjoyed her in Speed, Demolition Man and The Net.