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This used to be an internet "classic" And now they made a movie out of it  The Synopsis Writer for a Magazine and two interns go to investigate ad in question. Hijinks ensue. Honestly, that's about the best way I can describe this movie. I just got back from seeing it, it's out in limited release as far as I can tell, and then scoured the forums for any mention. I could have sworn there was a thread about it, maybe it just fell into the archives, or there some ban on taking about movies based on internet memes or something, or are most goons not going to watch it because it is, let's face it, a movie based on a goddamn meme. It's a pity about the limited release, because this is one great movie. I would love to be able to nerd out about the actors that star in this movie, or the director, however I know diddy squat about indie films, or the background of anybody who made this. It's a movie that takes it's idea and runs with it completely straight, which I love because I've seen plenty of ironic quasi-scifi plots end up just ironic. There isn't much irony here, and maybe because I'm a dirty TFR posting goon, the main character is just an endearing weirdo. We've all had that phase when we were teens or something. Just look at this guy.  IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1862079/ Official Site: http://www.safetynotguaranteedmovie.com/ Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/safety_not_guaranteed/ Anyway, if it's playing in your city, I recommend go watch it. It's pretty short, doesn't grate, and you'll get a good laugh (or just be uncomfortable and hug your Star Wars figurine collection when you get home you goon.) Fast Edit: gently caress I just realized this apparently came out back in June, but for some reason the local offbeat movie theater is just showing it now.  gently caress it let's talk about it anyway.
OWLS! fucked around with this message at Aug 10, 2012 around 01:38 |
| # ? Aug 10, 2012 01:35 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 13:09 |
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caught the trailer for this in front of moonrise kingdom - apparently it just started showing in my local indie theater too, will try to catch it this weekend! good call
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 01:59 |
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I saw the film and was pleasantly surprised. It straddles the line between cute and quirky without delving into hipster stereotypes and pretensions quite well. The acting across the board was solid and had a great ending. Recommended, just don't expect 92% Rotten Tomato level's of good.
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 02:11 |
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For whatever reason, Mark Duplass being in a film makes me want to go see it. I think he's at that sweet spot for celebrities, where he can do what he wants, but he's not enough of a draw that studios pay him to be in poo poo just because they know people will show up (I'm looking at you Johnny Depp). Definitely need to check this out, I remember hearing about it months ago and then nothing. Surprised to find out it's been in art houses for months.
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 07:56 |
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This was released on DVD this month, so if you were waiting to check it out, you can do it now (I got it from Redbox). And honestly this is one of those films, given that it's fairly low budget and digital that works fine, possibly better, on a home screen. I really liked that it manages to never quite indulge in the 'let's celebrate how quirky and lovable people are!' or have a big indie-movie self-realization moment, or try to charm the audience. Almost all the characters have such depth and real motivations that I loved it. The few that don't feel fleshed out are kind of glaring by contrast, notably Shannon, the co-worker, but also the government agents. One of the best parts is the way people reacted in the theft scene, which seemed perfect. I can't wait to see what comes next from the writer (Derek Connolly) and director (Colin Treverrow). While I've never spent more than a day there, I've been to the Ocean Shores* area before and the feel of it seems pretty right, too. Additional trivia I found out at IMDB: the man who first goes into the post office is the original writer of the ad. *Oceanview, WA (a take on Oakview, CA from the ad) does exist, but it's further south. I'm pretty sure I recognized the beach where he picks her up as being Ocean City.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 19:17 |
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One of the government agents is the head of drama at my school and will be my acting coach next quarter. Was weird seeing him onscreen. Then I noticed a bunch of students in the credits as crew. Pretty cool of the production.
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 10:23 |
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I have a huge love of time travel movies, be they good or bad. This movie disappointed me not because it was bad, but because it was so close to being utterly fantastic. The story starts off great. Kenneth is intriguing and just manic enough to make use believe he knows what he's doing. The problem is that the film does not build on that "feeling" at all. Kenneth needed to demonstrate more evidence of higher education. This could just be my inability to completely suspend disbelief, but I needed more back story on how Kenneth knew enough about cutting edge physics to create a time machine. The film demonstrated this only in the last minute or two with a series of schematics taped haphazardly to the wall of Kenneth's shed. The filmmakers should have revealed his skill as a brilliant mind further by utilizing Jeff and Arnau, in order to preserve Darius's faith in Kenneth; something that's crucial to the plot. A brief summary of how I would accomplish this is as follows:
The effect of these few changes is multifaceted. Firstly, it builds suspense with the audience. Will Kenneth's experiment explode or will it actually work. Secondly, it lends credibility to Kenneth without sacrificing the plot crucial leap-of-faith Darius must make with him. The end of this film was so disappointing because you are indeed wondering about Kenneth right up until the end but you have very little reason to believe he can actually pull it off so when the payoff actually comes, it seems unexpected and almost Deus Ex Machina. Other than that the movie was pretty good. The characters weren't flat or stereotypical unless you count Aubrey Plaza reprising her role as April on Parks and Rec. I just think it could have been so much better with some minor tweaking. dayman fucked around with this message at Dec 2, 2012 around 14:04 |
| # ? Dec 2, 2012 14:01 |
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I've always heard that the best inspiration for a screenplay is a short story, so by that logic this is a pretty great idea. That ad pretty much is its own little story in a single paragraph.
massive spider fucked around with this message at Dec 2, 2012 around 14:24 |
| # ? Dec 2, 2012 14:22 |
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About 7 years ago I used this on Craigslist in a dating personal ad and met a pretty hot girl.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 15:04 |
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jet sanchEz posted:About 7 years ago I used this on Craigslist in a dating personal ad and met a pretty hot girl. I was saying this throughout the film. This is an amazing way to pick up girls. Just treat all the dudes (and ugly girls) that respond to your ad like government agents.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 15:13 |
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dayman posted:I have a huge love of time travel movies, be they good or bad. This movie disappointed me not because it was bad, but because it was so close to being utterly fantastic. Why would you ever do this when the entire point of the movie is that Kenneth might be insane, or he might not, we don't know? Dedicating any more time than they did to whether or not he can really time travel is completely counterproductive to the theme of the movie. The movie isn't really about whether or not Kenneth can time travel, it's about doing things that you're not always comfortable with, and how both good and bad can come from it. Why would you want to make Kenneth safer? You're adding a possible level of safety to a movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. It would be a waste of time, and completely destroy the pacing and the tone of the movie.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 15:36 |
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Vargo posted:Why would you ever do this when the entire point of the movie is that Kenneth might be insane, or he might not, we don't know? Dedicating any more time than they did to whether or not he can really time travel is completely counterproductive to the theme of the movie. The movie isn't really about whether or not Kenneth can time travel, it's about doing things that you're not always comfortable with, and how both good and bad can come from it. Why would you want to make Kenneth safer? You're adding a possible level of safety to a movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. It would be a waste of time, and completely destroy the pacing and the tone of the movie. Not when it occurs right before the end of the film. All my changes occur in the last 15 minutes of the film. You've got a film that appears to be rooted in reality then just wildly swings into the surreal at the last second. Personally I think that was a little lazy and I wanted a more developed connection between the two rather than lasers=time travel. There would be plenty of doubt left in the viewer's mind, it would just be steered and informed instead of left adrift, which is how I felt.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 15:41 |
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dayman posted:Not when it occurs right before the end of the film. All my changes occur in the last 15 minutes of the film. You've got a film that appears to be rooted in reality then just wildly swings into the surreal at the last second. Personally I think that was a little lazy and I wanted a more developed connection between the two rather than lasers=time travel. There would be plenty of doubt left in the viewer's mind, it would just be steered and informed instead of left adrift, which is how I felt. I suppose I can see that argument, but for the purposes of this film and this audience lasers really DO = time travel. If the entire film has been not-really-about-scientifically-plausible time travel until that point, why do we need an explanation of the possibility? The point isn't to make us, the audience, believe time travel is possible, it's about whether or not Kenneth can make Darius believe he can. Darius doesn't understand the science, and we don't need to either. Adding another element to an already fairly complicated plot would have stretched the film too thin, and weakened it.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 16:01 |
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Vargo posted:I suppose I can see that argument, but for the purposes of this film and this audience lasers really DO = time travel. If the entire film has been not-really-about-scientifically-plausible time travel until that point, why do we need an explanation of the possibility? The point isn't to make us, the audience, believe time travel is possible, it's about whether or not Kenneth can make Darius believe he can. Darius doesn't understand the science, and we don't need to either. Adding another element to an already fairly complicated plot would have stretched the film too thin, and weakened it. I suppose you're right. The end just seemed a little too "cute" for me, but I guess that's more a matter of taste.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 16:09 |
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dayman posted:I suppose you're right. The end just seemed a little too "cute" for me, but I guess that's more a matter of taste. Well, here, think of it this way: Even though Kenneth can time travel, it doesn't mean he's not actually crazy in many other ways. If anything it makes him more likely to be insane. So it's entirely possible that Darius is travelling through time with a mentally unstable man. So when you put it in those terms, it's actually a pretty dark ending.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 16:17 |
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For about 95% of the runtime this was just a mediocre indie quirk movie, but the ending completely ruined it for me. The movie would have worked much better as a meditation on loss and mental illness rather than Kenneth being right all along and ending with them traveling into the past.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 16:19 |
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Guys, I know that it seems weird to say "The time-travel doesn't matter in this movie about time travel" so, just for a second, bear with me. What if the movie isn't really about time travel? Here, I went and dug up what I said about this film in my review. I'll let past-me explain it, because he does a better job than I do:I posted:We think the film is asking, "Is Kenneth crazy, or can he really time travel?" only to realize by the end that these two concepts do not necessarily negate each other. Duplass, who is one of the few director/actors I like in front of the camera more than behind, puts in such a convincing performance that it's almost irrelevant whether Kenneth can time travel, it still doesn't quite feel like Darius is safe around him. Which is fine, because the movie tells us that in the title.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2012 16:48 |
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I finally saw it last night and was quite surprised what it turned into. I was so sure it was going to be a stereotypical boy meets girl, girl changes perspective on life, blah blah blah. Early on in the movie, I was questioning myself if Kevin actually could time travel , but I kept convincing myself this is set to be a love story between two broken people. The last scene on the boat had me changing my mind every 10 seconds, is it going to work, is the boat just going to explode, is it going to do nothing and Darius will still like him? I've never been so unsure as to what is about to happen to an ending. Sure some things were super obvious like Jeff coming to terms that outer beauty and material possessions aren't everything, but it's the ending and it making you questioning yourself sold it for me. Having it end with nothing happen and Kevin being escorted away to receive mental help I think would have been a bull poo poo ending more so than actually traveling through time.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 16:36 |
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I caught this on netflix the other night and while I thought it was a cute film, it didn't blow me away by any means. I also think it was unfortunate that his mania was justified by making the time machine actually work. By far the most powerful moment of the film was Duplass playing the zither and singing the song "Big Machine". It caught me off guard and I really enjoyed that part.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 22:37 |
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I saw this a couple of months ago and it was just boring. It just tries to be quirky but nothing bites at all. I wish I had specific examples but I really don't remember very much about it from the combination of time past since I've seen it and how unremarkable it was. And why does Mark Duplass write himself in or get cast as some cute guy that the lead girl ends up falling for when he really looks like a guy that plays video games all day with an 8 year old boy's haircut?
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 06:25 |
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BIZORT posted:And why does Mark Duplass write himself in or get cast as some cute guy that the lead girl ends up falling for when he really looks like a guy that plays video games all day with an 8 year old boy's haircut? Writing himself into it is obvious. Getting cast... he's an every man. A really good every man. Makes nerds and geeks and indie kids want the same dream. It's no different than Joe Swanberg making movies about a guy who makes movies who fucks a lot.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 10:31 |
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Just saw the movie on Netflix and I absolutely loved it. I didn't really think of it as a movie about time travel, which is maybe why I liked it so much. I mean, well, not literally, but everyone was doing metaphorical time travel things. Longing for a past they wanted to get back or never really had, getting that "things you wished you knew back then" advice from a friend etc so for most of the movie I was just thinking of time travel as more of a central theme than an actual important plot element, if it makes sense. But I do admit at the end when they were firing up the time machine, I was hoping so hard it would work. But I think what really made me like the movie was how closely I could relate to the characters. Maybe I just happened to hit the center of the Venn diagram for this movie, but man, I just completely loved it.
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| # ? Mar 20, 2013 20:11 |
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I loved every second of this film. My absolute favorite film I watched last year.
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| # ? Mar 21, 2013 16:51 |
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Why would they use the internet meme verbatim but then explicitly contradict the "I have only done this once before" line by making it so he's going back for the first time and never acts or suggests otherwuse? It's not like anyone would care that they slightly tweaked the ad's wording to actually fit into the plot, and it makes the fact that none of the characters ever brings it up, even when they think they're humoring the crazy guy, stand out in a stupid way. Other than that, yeah, pretty generic indie film. The indian kid's little side-plot in particular was painfully telegraphed and Aubrey Plaza was kind of phoning in that disaffected character she plays all the time now. I really liked Mark Duplass' performance, but I really like the League so I'm not exactly an unbiased viewer here. I did like that he wasn't just a misunderstood genius or a total loser, but both. The fact that his original plan was to go back in time not to save Veronica Mars but to creepily found out how to make her love him was pretty funny.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2013 04:25 |
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I really disliked this movie. I had heard so much hype about it, I was eager to see it. After around five minutes I was thinking, "So far this is just about the epitome of a quirky hipster indie romcom stereotype. I can't wait to see the part where it breaks out of that mold." Only it never did. Really, if you've seen any romantic comedy in your life before, you know exactly where this is heading. That was bad enough, and the fact that it really has nothing to do with the whole "Safety Not Guaranteed" phenomenon in the first place was salt in the wound.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2013 04:25 |
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Wolfsheim posted:Why would they use the internet meme verbatim but then explicitly contradict the "I have only done this once before" line by making it so he's going back for the first time and never acts or suggests otherwuse? It's been a while since I watched it, but I remember them making it pretty clear that he went back before(or at least he thought he did).
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| # ? Mar 23, 2013 20:37 |
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I just saw the movie today as it was available on my flight. I'm not sure if i loved the movie or just Aubrey Plaza's character. I did love the Kristen Bell cameo though.
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| # ? Mar 25, 2013 05:11 |
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Watched it today because of this thread and I enjoyed it very much, I think a lot of the indie rom-com criticism is valid but this movie elevates beyond something stagnant like 500 Days of Summer. The biggest thing that kept pulling me out of the movie was disbelief that Aubrey Plaza could ever be an awkward, introvert who never gets male attention, but that's a minor gripe. I have to admit, I loved Jeff and was delighted he was the B plot to Darius and Kenneth. He was just a wonderful character to watch him interact with everything and everyone. For example I loved his pep talk to Arnau (which I thought was very good advice) much more than their actual carnival adventure. He was just very sincere in his shallowness and it was endearing. His jubilant fist pump as the boat is powering up is like a metaphor for his entire persona - kinda douchy and predicable but lovable and inspiring. Der Shovel posted:I didn't really think of it as a movie about time travel, which is maybe why I liked it so much. I mean, well, not literally, but everyone was doing metaphorical time travel things. Longing for a past they wanted to get back or never really had, getting that "things you wished you knew back then" advice from a friend etc so for most of the movie I was just thinking of time travel as more of a central theme than an actual important plot element, if it makes sense. But I do admit at the end when they were firing up the time machine, I was hoping so hard it would work. This exactly, the three companions are occupying a different spatial reality. Jeff is infatuated with the past, Arnau can only plan for the future, and Darius is listless. The events of the movie push them all to a different place, not exactly re-inventing the wheel but it worked for me. Miss Lonelyhearts fucked around with this message at Mar 27, 2013 around 01:06 |
| # ? Mar 27, 2013 01:00 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 13:09 |
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I found the film very boring and really dull, something about Aubrey Plaza and the ha ha guy is crazy part jarred me.
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| # ? Apr 9, 2013 22:03 |
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