Reply #59: All this talk of frogs... [View All]

First and foremost, I'll say that I didn't really care that much for this movie. But that's ok. Different folks have different tastes and that's just fine. I'm not going to ridicule you or anything becuase you liked it and I didn't. (For the record, I didn't like the story and I thought the acting was very spotty; some of the actors were good, others were really bad, IMHO (Julianne -- I'm looking at you!))

But -- I've always had a question about a very unusual moment in this film that I've never heard anyone else mention (and it's NOT the frogs!).

*SPOILER AHEAD*
When Jason Robards character dies, PT makes a very blatant and direct homage to the end of 2001. (The framing of that shot and the swelling of the 2001 theme as it segues into Cruise's intro at his info-lecture; it's been awhile since I've seen it, so that may be a little off, but I'm pretty sure...) Anyway, I've never understood the reasoning behind that. Was it merely an homage for homage's sake? Or was that supposed to represent something? (I don't really see any resonance of themes in either of these films.) For me, that moment was really distracting and off-putting. (It made me really wish I was watching a Kubrick film instead.)

Seeing as you enjoyed and took a fair amount away from Magnolia, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.