[mikech]

let's just dispense with the unnecessary spoilers in white. this is a discussion thread about the movie, anyone who doesn't want spoilers shouldn't be reading it. with that warning, i'm including spoilers in the rest of my post.

russell crowe's sudden transformation simply MADE NO SENSE. after spending the whole movie trying to escape, he suddenly decides, "oh what the heck, sure, i'll go to prison." riiiight. literally one minute he's strangling christian bale, the very next scene he's running across rooftops with him, dodging bullets. his gang's trying to shoot bale, but they could easily miss their intended mark and hit him instead. um, ok...i get that crowe likes the guy and wants the son to look up to his dad, but so much so that he's gonna risk getting killed for it? WTF.

as for the contention that "The movie had been showing Ben's [crowe] disdain for his comrades the whole way": huh? when? where? what movie were you watching? the movie showed the whole way that crowe was confident that his crew would come rescue him! his line: "as sure as god's vengeance, they're coming." why was he so confident? presumably because he was sure of their loyalty to him, at least among some members. in fact, at one point when one crew member expressed doubts about continuing the rescue, because they'd been tricked to go more than 80 miles in the opposite direction, charlie prince commanded that they go on, saying, "you're forgetting how much he done for you."

and this leads to the end where crowe shoots them all--another huge WTF. let's take charlie, who was his comrade-in-arms thru who knows how many robberies, who was so grateful and loyal to him that he spearheaded a rescue mission that lasted two days and nights, who just saved him from being put on this prison-train by shooting his captor: WHY THE HELL WOULD CROWE KILL HIM??? did crowe shoot him to avenge bale? if so, HOW THE F was charlie supposed to know that he wasn't supposed to shoot bale??? look at it from charlie's point of view: "alright! finally! i saved our leader! um...boss, why'd you just shoot me in the chest?" he must've died thinking, WTF?????

so yeah, this movie really ticked me off.