Pursuit of Happyness

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What do you think of this film? (and why is misspelled)

I'm kind of wary to see it b/c either a. it will greatly upset me with it's truthfulness b. it will upset me by it cheesiness.

which do you think it will be?

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Saturday, 16 December 2006 03:48 (nineteen years ago)

The papers are all over this in Chicago. "OMG this happened in Chicago." Because you know, nothing ever happened here before Will Smith starred in a movie about it. Chicago wouldn't be the tag-along little brother city if it would just get over its fucking stupid inferiority complex.

Anyhoo, the movie looks terrible.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:03 (nineteen years ago)

wikipedia: The word "Happyness" in the title has been taken from the misspelling of "Fun Joy Happyness" on a mural children have painted on the Chinatown daycare center where Chris Gardner takes his son, Christopher. When Chris points out the mistake, Mrs. Chu replies that it is not important to the pre-schoolers how the word is spelled, only that they have happiness. This leads Chris to contemplate the inclusion of the concept of the individual's right to "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, and how to pursue a happier, more emotionally secure childhood for his son, than his own had been.

― max (maxreax), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

I read a brief interview with the man himself, and he came off badly. All his answers were brusque and dismissive. "Let me ask you this..." "WELL, let me ask you THIS INSTEAD..." I thought to myself, nice guys finish last. This guy placed pretty high up in the race. So.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:14 (nineteen years ago)

That said, anyone who goes literally from being homeless to being a millionaire has to have brass balls roughly the diameter of car tires. So more power to the bastard.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

just saw the guy on dateline (?). seemed alright.

thanks for the spelling info. that shit bothers me (see fergie)

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:40 (nineteen years ago)

It's entirely possible he was balking at idiot reporters. I'll youtube him on dateline tomorrow.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Saturday, 16 December 2006 04:42 (nineteen years ago)

you sure this happened in chicago? because they have all this late 70's-early 80's period Bay Area shit in it, including fake BART stations. they shot a few scenes right outside both my front door and the front door of my workplace...

― mikebee (bizzle), Saturday, 16 December 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

it was filmed in san fransisco i thot.

― grady (grady), Saturday, 16 December 2006 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

Still thinking autocatheterization with a rusty length of barbed wire is the preferable option to this movie.

― a bulldog fed a cookie shaped like a kitten (austin), Saturday, 16 December 2006 16:51 (nineteen years ago)

You, sir, have no soul.

― milo (milo), Saturday, 16 December 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

Always hard working and tenacious, a series of circumstances in the early 1980’s left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dream of financial independence, Gardner started at the bottom. Without connections or a college degree, he earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program. Often spending his nights in a church shelter or the bathroom at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Gardner was the sole trainee offered a job at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1981. He spent 1983-1987 at Bear Stearns & Co., where he became a top earner, and then in 1987, he founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co in Chicago.

Weeeeee bit tenuous to claim this "happened in Chicago."

― Allyzay is cool: with Blue n White, with Eli Manning, with NY Giants (Allyzay Ei, Saturday, 16 December 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

"A millionaire has a part-time apartment in Chicago" would be more apt to say.

― Allyzay is cool: with Blue n White, with Eli Manning, with NY Giants (Allyzay Ei, Saturday, 16 December 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

This movie looks like a bag of shit.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 December 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

The thing I love about stories like this is how they unite everyone in thinking opposite things about the world: liberals can walk out thinking "yeah, a lot of fine decent people have it rough, and we should help them," and conservatives can walk out thinking "see, decent hard-working people always get rewarded in the end, they don't need our help."

The other funny part is that ... didn't the real guy's divorce and homelessness stem from losing all his money on a failed business venture? So his go-get-em attitude fucked him over once, and paid off huge the next time. Though I suppose the ostensible moral is that if he'd failed the second time, he would have picked himself up and tried repeatedly until everything worked out.

― the pony-poop paradox (the pony-poop paradox), Saturday, 16 December 2006 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

I can't be bothered to even read the plot synopsis here, but is this an inspirational movie about somebody who gets filthy stinkin rich?

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 17 December 2006 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/1042730541689525.jpg

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 17 December 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

only happy ending left in Hollywood = GET RICH

apparently Will's performance isn't up to his conveying absolutely none of the essence of Muhammad Ali.

― Dr M (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 December 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

a bunch of this was shot outside my house and I bet it sucks horribly

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 18 December 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

i was more confused by the fact that the post office DID mail the envelope with the old stamp. Even though it's worth millions to collectors, wouldn't it actually be insufficient for modern-day postage?

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 18 December 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yes Warren was gonna sue Monty for that 20 grand he had in the end if he lost but however, when Monty inherited that 300 million in the Nick of Time, he and Angela and Mr. Roundfield would have Grandville Baxter and also Warren sent to the showers which is an expression for Cooler or Hoosegow or Brig in navy term or jail. Angela would still have to use that 20 grand for the law school fee to earn that degree.

But however if Monty lost there was Spike with his savings who would have bought a ten grand car and went to some cabin out west. Then Spike would have tried to get that collection a second time.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 18 December 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

couldnt he hire someone to do something outrageous for the entire amount? Say he wants to see someone eat a hamburger off of the floor in the subway. every one has a price, and while most would be below 30 million I'm sure if you took 100 hamburgers down to the subway you could spend a lot of money paying people to eat them. Thats just one example of course he could hire people to do anything.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 18 December 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

How long has the burger been on the floor?

― Allyzay is cool: with Blue n White, with Eli Manning, with NY Giants (Allyzay Ei, Monday, 18 December 2006 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

this is a bad movie.

i always wish i could just see a well made doc about the real person when i see a shitty "real life story" like this.

― grady (grady), Monday, 18 December 2006 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

well, run out and get Grey Gardens before the Drew Barrymore-Jessica Lange version comes out, then.

― Dr M (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 December 2006 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

it was filmed in san fransisco i thot.
-- grady (goforgrad...), December 16th, 2006.

That's the Pursuit of Hippyness.

― Edward Bordas (edb), Monday, 18 December 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

There are certain movies that are so NOT intended for the ILX demographic that I often wonder a) Why did you bother to go see it? and b) Does posting mean things about a movie most people on this board don't give two shits about make you feel clever?

I sometimes feel uncharitable for having these thoughts.

― Jesus Dan (dan perry), Monday, 18 December 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

I honestly thought it would be something I'd halfway enjoy.

The story is still a good story, albiet one with the moral: "pursuit and achievment of high paying job = happiness." that's why I wouldnt mind reading more about the guy or seeing a well made doc. But seriously this movie has so much wrong with it that the fact Will Smith is in it was probably its best attribute. Heavy-handed and pointless voice-overs, shitty shitty use of music, anachronisms galore... blegh.

― grady (grady), Monday, 18 December 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

Weeeeee bit tenuous to claim this "happened in Chicago."

haha You know, they didn't tell that story in the Chicago newspapers. They just kept calling him a Chicagoan. Seriously. Like they could never admit it DIDN'T happen in Chicago. This city's insecurity is so tiresome.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

In Honolulu, "Hawaii-Born" is as inseprable from the front of Barack Obama's name as "Hussien" is from the middle of it on FOX News.

― grady (grady), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

This city's insecurity is so tiresome.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Then again, I've never seen any news items about The Pursuit of Happyness here in Chicago. I do get excited when movies are about or set in Chicago (like Stranger Than Fiction or High Fidelity) because I enjoy spotting locations that I know in real life, but I mean, doesn't everybody?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

Not if you live in LA.

― cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

Right, or New York probably, but I don't think it's evidence of my insecurity.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

I saw Batman Begins at that newish AMC on Illinois. It was cool walking outside the theatre and seeing the real-life drawbridge that the Bat-SUV launched over in the movie.

― grady (grady), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

but I don't think it's evidence of my insecurity

Not yours. What I meant was that the features about this movie way trumped up the Chicago aspect of it, and it turns out, there really isn't one. That's playing to some weird sense of Chicago pride that... well, come to think of it, may only exist in Chicago-specific media. But it's still annoying.

But maybe every city does this to an extent. Cf. New York running any New-York-related sitcom endlessly long after anyone cares.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

I saw Batman Begins at that newish AMC on Illinois. It was cool walking outside the theatre and seeing the real-life drawbridge that the Bat-SUV launched over in the movie.

ditto, all the way around.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 01:33 (nineteen years ago)

that newish AMC on Illinois

Probably my most frequented theater. The sound is top shelf.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

FILMED BY MY HOUSE TOO BITCHES. I AIN'T NO WINDY CITYING.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 02:11 (nineteen years ago)

in other news i got to see the polar bear cages from LOST irl yesterday!!!

― grady (grady), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 03:26 (nineteen years ago)

TBS is not "New York"

― Allyzay is cool: with Blue n White, with Eli Manning, with NY Giants (Allyzay Ei, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 05:30 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't say it. I was quoting someone else. Nabisco, I think. I don't live in New York.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 19 December 2006 06:05 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Saw this:

Funnily enough, a lot seemed 'glossed over'...

Mother leaves, then leaves town for New York and Job.

Father "You know you can't look after him"
Mother "OK" (leaves and is never seen again)

What seemed to have started as someone's "how I succeeded in business and my attributes in doing so" memoir seemed to me to have become a "how I pissed on/over everyone I loved in return for kissing the right ass on the way up" film. Fact is, if he hadn't succeeded (and it takes him virtually the whole film to do so), we'd all be slshing our wrists on the way out!

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Sunday, 18 February 2007 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone else seen it now?

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Monday, 19 February 2007 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

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