Pursuit of Happyness

Anyhoo, the movie looks terrible.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

That's the Pursuit of Hippyness.

I sometimes feel uncharitable for having these thoughts.

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.

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.

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?

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.

ditto, all the way around.

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

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!