The Invention of Lying

yawn @ this thread.

quote:

---

Besides all that, there was nothing funny in any of it.

---

I saw it last night and never even smiled one time. I went in thinking it would be decently funny but was largely let down. This movie sucks arse.

What did yall expect? Ricky Gervais is not funny.

quote:

---

---

So, you actually thought this movie was good?

quote:

---

So, you actually thought this movie was good?

---

I actually liked it. As did the girl I saw it with, and a few other friends that saw it as well. None of us thought it was some great hilarious movie, but everyone liked it. If you don't like Ricky Gervais, you won't like the movie. But what did you expect?

quote:

---

you don't like Ricky Gervais, you won't like the movie. But what did you expect?

---

I do like Ricky Gervais, and I still didn't like the movie.

quote:

---

This. The laughs turned to chuckles turned to smiles turned to not even paying attention within the first 15-20 minutes.

---

Yep

quote:

---

Ricky Gervais is not funny.

---

I haven't seen the movie in question but his stand up is fantastic.

I'm fine with alternate realities... yes, it's possible that people evolved without being able to tell lies... but this movie was logically inconsistent within its own premise, and that disqualified it for me.

Gervais's vision of a society that can not tell lies also apparently meant that nobody could be mistaken. For example, when Ricky told the bank teller he had $800 in his account and her computer told her otherwise, even in a lie-less society there is a great possibility he could have simply been mistaken. If people can't even make mental mistakes I had to wonder how Napoleon's wars had ever occurred. Surely both sides would have just accepted whatever the other side said they were entitled to?

Also, Ricky's apparent message is that religion would never have occurred on the planet if the first religionist hadn't invented a lie. I don't think that makes much sense evolutionarily... surely an ancient person seeing lightning bolts from the sky might have thought there was a powerful being up there. You don't have to lie to believe so.

It also bugged me that Ricky, a lying thief, is the hero of this movie and we're supposed to sympathize with him???? What's the message here?

All of that would have been OK if there were some laughs. But there weren't.

quote:

---

Have not seen that. I thought he was funny in some brief cameos and limited roles, but not enough to carry a main comedy role.

---

Yea, Gervais could never carry a main comedy role through at least two series with critical acclaim or anything like that.