Don Jon

G

Gillvane

Veteran
Ok, so I had heard good things about Don Jon. I like the actors. Main character did a great job in Loopers, and of course Scarlet Johansen. But, this movie sucked. It wasn't sexy at all and I didn't like the characters, especially Scarlet Johansen. I didn't like the older woman he falls for either, as a character. The actor playing her did a fantastic job. Just not a likeable character. And the story...went pretty much nowhere. Very disappointing. A movie about porn that was entirely flaccid.
 
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I couldn't take more than half an hour of this, it was painful to watch - a guy doing a bad impression of popeye the sailor man who suffers from sex addiction,
how the f**k did this get ANY good reviews?!
 
Gillvane said:
Ok, so I had heard good things about Don Jon. I like the actors. Main character did a great job in Loopers, and of course Scarlet Johansen. But, this movie sucked. It wasn't sexy at all and I didn't like the characters, especially Scarlet Johansen. I didn't like the older woman he falls for either, as a character. The actor playing her did a fantastic job. Just not a likeable character. And the story...went pretty much nowhere. Very disappointing. A movie about porn that was entirely flaccid.
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Well, I thought that was the difference between 'porn' and 'highbrow entertainment based on sexual situations'... 'makes one turgid' == low class porn... 'leaves one flaccid' == highbrow...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Well, I thought that was the difference between 'porn' and 'highbrow entertainment based on sexual situations'... 'makes one turgid' == low class porn... 'leaves one flaccid' == highbrow...
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There's plenty of well respected movies that aren't even about sex that have really sexy scenes in them. You'd expect a movie about sex to have some sexy scenes in it, but not the case in Don Jon.

http://www.hollywood.com/photos/movie/56822441/movies-with-the-sexiest-scenes#936941/8
 
Gillvane said:
There's plenty of well respected movies that aren't even about sex that have really sexy scenes in them. You'd expect a movie about sex to have some sexy scenes in it, but not the case in Don Jon.

http://www.hollywood.com/photos/movie/56822441/movies-with-the-sexiest-scenes#936941/8
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Did you watch this movie with the intent of finding "sexy scenes" and not just strictly entertainment? I don't know about you, but having "sexy scenes" is never on my checklist for "was this movie good or not."
 
Gillvane said:
Ok, so I had heard good things about Don Jon. I like the actors. Main character did a great job in Loopers, and of course Scarlet Johansen. But, this movie sucked. It wasn't sexy at all and I didn't like the characters, especially Scarlet Johansen. I didn't like the older woman he falls for either, as a character. The actor playing her did a fantastic job. Just not a likeable character. And the story...went pretty much nowhere. Very disappointing. A movie about porn that was entirely flaccid.
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You might then enjoy "Nymphomanic Volumes I & II" ... or "Starlet" ... both have scenes that border on Hardcore porn.
(...and yes, some incredible editing using real porn stars as body doubles) I imagine we will see the "X" rating come back one of these days.
 
SDub said:
Did you watch this movie with the intent of finding "sexy scenes" and not just strictly entertainment? I don't know about you, but having "sexy scenes" is never on my checklist for "was this movie good or not."
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I would expect a movie where the main character is a world class surfer to have a few decent surfing scenes in it.
 
************************** SPOILERS!!!!! ************************** (if that wasn't obvious?)

Maybe the fact the movie lacks "sexy scenes" is Levitt's intent. The movie is about how Don's sexual life is kind of falling apart around him as he tries to uphold a relationship and his addiction to porn. It especially makes sense considering the fact that Don finds porn better than real life for there to not be any sexy scenes because it is, after all, from his POV and he is the one narrating. Additionally, I'm pretty sure Levitt had a anti-porn intent for this movie, so to show "sexy scenes" would be completely counter-intuitive to the movie's goal and a subject for massive criticism. I guess in the end all I care about is the story and not really the content thereof. They are somewhat intertwined, however, but I find myself looking for a good story rather than specific scenes.
 
SDub said:
Maybe the fact the movie lacks "sexy scenes" is Levitt's intent.
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And to get a lower MPAA rating so a larger audience can see his film.

Paul Anderson's "Boogie Nights" had an R-rating for several scenes in it, but I never found it to be a "sexy" film. ( same goes for Bob Fosse's "Star 80" )

For the record I liked both Don Jon, Boogie Nights, and Star 80. ( mostly for the story and for the characters portrayed on screen )
 
I had no problem with the ammount of lack of 'sexy scenes'

Truthfully, I think that serves the narrative well.

It's a movie about a guy who, despite countless encounters, never gets anything truly meaningful out of sex. It's a means to an end.

You get more out of the apple computer turning on sound than out of the sexual scenes in the movie.

The only thing I had a problem with was that dry humping scene in Scarlett Johansen's doorway
 
SDub said:
************************** SPOILERS!!!!! ************************** (if that wasn't obvious?)

Maybe the fact the movie lacks "sexy scenes" is Levitt's intent. The movie is about how Don's sexual life is kind of falling apart around him as he tries to uphold a relationship and his addiction to porn. It especially makes sense considering the fact that Don finds porn better than real life for there to not be any sexy scenes because it is, after all, from his POV and he is the one narrating. Additionally, I'm pretty sure Levitt had a anti-porn intent for this movie, so to show "sexy scenes" would be completely counter-intuitive to the movie's goal and a subject for massive criticism. I guess in the end all I care about is the story and not really the content thereof. They are somewhat intertwined, however, but I find myself looking for a good story rather than specific scenes.
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I agree. I found the story tedious and boring and the characters uninteresting, more annoying than anything else. Whatever Levitt's intent was he failed to entertain me and if you can't do that in a film your intent is moot.
I'd compare it to the Betty Page movie. You make a movie about an iconic sex symbol and manage to take all the sexiness out of it turning it into a boring story that is so mundane and definitely doesn't do justice to the source material.
But you know, I'm a fan of early John Waters so my bar is set pretty high.
 
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