Allied (2016)

Lawrence Edwards58 said:Good grief, why does it matter??!
It’s just a mindless popcorn flick—everyone looks perfect, everything is polished, and realism is the absolute last thing on my mind when I'm watching this stuff...

I don't know, it just bugs me when everyone looks perfectly manicured and airbrushed in situations where they really shouldn't. Sure, it's a movie meant to help you switch your brain off, but that doesn't mean it has to look totally plastic...

Great movie! Honestly, I was bawling my eyes out by the end there at AMC Theatres.

And trust me, I wasn't the only guy in the theater losing it. ☕

electrictrucker88 said:Honestly, it bugs me when everyone looks perfectly manicured and airbrushed in settings where they really shouldn't... Sure, the movie is meant to be mindless entertainment, but that doesn't mean it has to look entirely artificial...

True, but you have to realize this is classic Zemeckis territory, where the aesthetic polish always takes precedence over any semblance of realism.
Basically, just a tear-jerker for the whole family.

Watched a movie yesterday and just shut it off. I couldn't stop staring at how heavily airbrushed Brad Pitt looked. Looks like they ran a steamroller over his face in post-production.👎
He seemed totally checked out and wooden, too. Like he figured being Brad Pitt was enough and he didn't even need to act.🙄

Yeah. Though, for the record, I didn't turn it off. Maybe it’s just because of Marion; she’s got this charisma that makes watching her a total blast, plus that chemistry—you know, the biology, physics, sociology, psychology of it all—that just seems to bleed out of her.

I honestly don't get why Brad even bothers showing up to sets anymore. Why not just take a cardboard cutout of him in a nature documentary, slide him into the frame whenever they need him, and call it a day? Just dub in some audio afterward and you're done. 🤷

Some completely uncharismatic hack wouldn't be able to convey a single thing on screen. They'd just exist and move around. That's it. 🙏

Anyway, go ahead and enjoy the movie.

Well, if people were actually laughing or crying, I guess that's on me. I suppose I passed along all that intense, messy love of mine. 🤷

He’s usually great, but he seemed a little off here. Maybe it was the divorce or something, who knows.

Nicole Jones13 said:Well, if people were actually crying or losing it, I guess I missed the mark.

Not really. Honestly, the movie was such a mediocre slog that I could barely finish it. The whole thing just drags on through these failed attempts by the writer and director to jumpstart the plot like they're trying to shock a corpse in an ER—but it just doesn't work. They only kind of pick up the pace at the very end with some weak climax.

A bit bland, sure, but still better than 90% of what came out last year. 2.5/3

Brad Pitt looks totally artificial here—over-filled with Botox and his hair dyed a shade too much,
Marion, though, she’s got that effortless French charm that just works;
The movie itself isn't half bad.
Everything feels a bit too polished and sanitized for my taste, but honestly, I’d rather watch something this clean than something truly gritty...

SPOILER ALERT:

Right about halfway through, when those guys from Intelligence—you know, the ones who never say what they mean and never mean what they say—called him in, I knew immediately they were going to drop the suspicion that she was a German spy.
And of course, because in these stories, Intelligence is never wrong. 🤷

The bottom line? War is brutal and unforgiving, obviously! At the same time, you can't quite forgive her for spying for the Germans, especially since she did it right to Brad Pitt, but then again, "they threatened Anne"... 🤔

That final scene where she’s being comforted by her beautiful blonde daughter on some sunny ranch out of his war-torn dreams? It felt almost like seeing a young Robert Redford playing the hero, making you feel like the girl is finally in safe hands.

That kind of role used to belong to Redford in his prime, but maybe Marion can carry that torch.

Pretty dull, honestly. If there had been even a shred of actual chemistry between the leads, I might have actually enjoyed watching their romance play out—but instead, it felt like they just laid two planks of wood on the floor and told us, "Hey, you guys are madly in love now." The second half was totally predictable too... just no real plot and still lacking any genuine emotion.

As I’ve already noted, the saving grace of this movie is the feminine energy Marion brings; she honestly has more "chemistry with herself" 😁 than anyone else on screen. She embodies everything Angelina Jolie has been desperately trying—and failing—to capture over the last few years. As for Brad, he’s wooden. He’s bad. Honestly, you could have carved him out of cardboard and he probably would have been more cooperative. Ultimately, the film is just a mediocre attempt at paying homage to Casablanca.

Betty Nelson71 said:So I was watching this movie yesterday and honestly? I just had to turn it off because I couldn't stop staring at how incredibly airbrushed Pitt looked. It’s like they went absolutely wild in post-production; his face looked so smooth it was like someone ran a heavy-duty steamroller right over it.👎
He looked totally checked out and wooden too, almost like he was thinking, "Hey, I'm Brad Pitt, who cares about acting?"🙄

Man, I am totally with you there. It’s like he has this weird plastic coating on his skin, you know? Like a literal plastic face. And the acting? He looked like he was just going through the motions, like when you're stuck doing some tedious chore at work and you're just trying to get it over with as fast as possible.

The concept itself isn't bad—kind of giving me those old-school Casablanca vibes like someone mentioned earlier—but seriously, Brad and even Marion are such huge misses that they just completely tank the whole movie.
Lately, I feel like Marion hasn't been hitting the mark at all, like she's just not as good as she used to be. Or maybe it's just the roles she's picking lately? Because man, she was actually great in Inception.

Watched it yesterday. It’s an excellent movie, especially the second half.
It's been a long time since I've seen anything this good 😁

The only minus is Brad Pitt, as some people pointed out. He had a few decent moments, but he was below par for most of the film.
Not to mention the age thing—using prosthetics just to fit the role.

It was actually kind of funny how he tried to hide his American accent in the first part, if anyone noticed.

On the other hand, Marion Cotillard was top-tier. Oscar material.

Nicole Jones13 said:Well, if some people were laughing and crying, it must be because of me. I passed all that intense, messy love onto them. 🤷

It clearly wasn't him.

The ending stirred some emotions in me too (though I didn't cry 😁 ). That’s usually how I rank great films.

If someone else had played the lead better, and if they had worked more on the tension and suspense instead of that long intro, this would be at the very top of my list.

As it stands, it's an 8, maybe a 9/10.