The Reel Rejects - TWILIGHT (2008) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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Starting point is 00:01:00 This week's video is sponsored by Rocket Money, a personal finance app that I've been using for about a year and a half now before we ever partnered up with them after the reaction. I'll tell you why I love them so much and what they are onto the video, Reject Nation. They are, they are. That's the team you really want to be on. Team member of Team Jake. You want, you want Team Sexy Rejects. We're going to know. What do you think you are, team ever or team Jacob?

Starting point is 00:01:22 I don't know, man. I mean, I got to meet them, you know, I got to let them woo me. Judging by the fact that Robert Patton says the bigger career now, probably Team Edward, but I don't know. Let's see the other guy's name. Taylor, Lowler. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we got there. You ready for this?

Starting point is 00:01:37 I'm not ready, and I'm so ready. Me neither. Let's go. Because we watched the first Twilight movie. What is the first Twilight movie even called? Two New Moon, three clips. This one's just called Twilight. For Bringing Dawn, it's just Twilight.

Starting point is 00:01:54 And then I think they become the Twilight saga and then ever. Everyone has its book's subtitle or whatever. Okay, so just hit me with your initial thoughts on having just watched one of the biggest franchises, the first movie. No joke, man. I mean, like, there's Star Wars, there's Lord of the Rings, and there's Twilight. Sure. Let's go.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Catherine Grimmie, that name sounds familiar, too, Young Bella. Yeah, well, my first thought is that I certainly hope that people are compelled to rate this five stars on Apple. or Spotify, if you happen to be listening. Man, this movie has been built up so much for me over time. Obviously, I don't think you can live in culture, and I don't think you can have any interest in horror at all and not know something about Twilight.

Starting point is 00:02:42 And certainly I remember in high school when this was popping off and everyone was reading the book and then like the big major hype anticipation of the movie coming together. I didn't know any book readers. I didn't even know it was a book until today. I knew I forgot. book readers and I heard a lot of things about it that way and then the movie came out and yeah like you know I experienced the cultural wave but being removed from all that and seeing this as just

Starting point is 00:03:07 an actual piece and also again like we said earlier watching this at a time and place where you can see where a lot of these people have gone since and we're out of the mania the craze um I had a lot of fun watching this you know like I I feel like we share to different degrees a love of romance and I feel like this movie, this story, was dogged heavily because anything A that's aimed at, you know, like a teen tween girl demographic is going to get shit on because that's how culture works. And, you know, this was probably a time where I would have been like searching, like I said, for edgier vampire content and being a little, you know, more gatekeepery about like,

Starting point is 00:03:48 well, this is what real vampire rules are. But all that shit aside, I enjoy this a lot. There are moments where it is a bit hammy in the way that, like, high school journal poetry can be. That paramour, again, the needle drops. The soundtracks on these things are crazy. And Decode is a bop. Like, that's the thing. And I feel like watching these at this point in my life is going to be fun because I have a feeling that I am in a much better position to actually appreciate the things that do work.

Starting point is 00:04:21 And I'm not going to try and, you know, look past the things that could be better. But watching this, again, I thought that the emotionality for where the story is coming from and who it's about and who it's aimed toward and, you know, the real tension of the romance I had a blast watching and getting pulled into, you know, the, as much as there is some stuff at the top that's a little bit like, what's going on with this dude when he's looking like he's about to poop his pants when she's. She comes in the class and like some of that stuff is a little over the top. But when they really get down to brass tacks and the emotionality between the two performers, especially between, you know, Patinson and Case do, like, you know, I really enjoyed watching them and I really enjoyed the tension of the danger of the romance and all that stuff. You know, there's an aspect of it to me that is very like, you know, it is very, again, high school saturated in terms of its, you know, the, you know, the, way it presents its emotionality. But I think that's okay. I think that makes sense for what this is. And I feel like

Starting point is 00:05:27 Catherine Hardwick, again, not being super familiar with her body of work, but knowing that like 13 is a movie that is said to have a fair amount of lived in quality for its age demographic that it's portraying, but is also, you know, appropriately kind of

Starting point is 00:05:43 real and edgy. Seeing somebody with that pedigree come and tackle something like, this is fun and interesting to me because certainly this is a fantasy in ways. Didn't Kevin Hardwick do a crazy amount of very serious movies after this? Probably. Like Detroit or something? What was that one called? Did she? Maybe. I think she's like, I mean, I've definitely seen some of her very, very serious work. I'll tell you what she did. Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciated again what she brought to this in the moments in time. Yeah, there was a Lincoln Park in there too.

Starting point is 00:06:15 The moments where, you know, you are getting a little bit more intense, like toward the end, the fight in the, in the ballet studio. and like those montage pieces they had going when Edward was sucking out the venom and like, you know, the crazy racks in focus and the fire. Like there were moments where this dipped more into overt horror in a way that, you know, as a horror fan I enjoyed. But as a romance fan too, and as somebody, again, in a better position to appreciate like a macab, but, you know, mostly romance forward sort of story like this. Yeah, like, you know, the rules, I'm curious to watch the rule. and the lore expand because we've only had hints of what other things could be lurking in this universe. And obviously, I mean, again, I feel like most people get the idea that there's a vampire component and a wolf component involved in Twilight. But I like that this one is mostly about

Starting point is 00:07:05 establishing the vampire stuff. And even though, you know, the rules and the lore differ heavily from what you associate with, or at least in some ways with what you associate with a vampire story, I thought like all that, yeah, that sensuality that is kind of interesting. to vampire stuff was here and I enjoyed, you know, the kind of getting the qualities where it's like, oh, she's going to a new school, she's meeting new people, she's slowly developing a group of friends, she's got this tension with her dad. Like, this was, it just had more elements in it that I, like, appreciated for real than I expected, you know?

Starting point is 00:07:43 Catherine Bigelow is who I was thinking of. Catherine Bigelow is definitely be directing heavy caliber. I was like, I'm pretty sure she went to amazing job rocks. see really great work. Catherine Harder did do 13. You are right. I was like, I didn't think that that was. The only credit I'm fully aware of.

Starting point is 00:07:57 Lords of Dogtown, she did. Sure. Ms. Bala. Cool. Mafia Mama, which I saw came out last year, but didn't see. Tell it like a woman, which was a movie in 2022 with Caradalevine, and Eva Longoria and Marcia Gay Hardin. Okay. I feel like I should have seen that one.

Starting point is 00:08:17 Maybe that will be on our binge list. Catch up, Roxanne. You know, I have to tell you. you a lot of what you were saying kind of resonated with me except for the fact that I didn't find this movie to be like I kind of found this movie to be super grounded which I know sounds so weird but like based on in ways the way that everybody talked about it like it was going to be so over the top and so campy and just so yeah like too much to me it didn't feel that much It felt like at the base of this, I'm a lover, love, ship, or ship, as we all know, this is a love story.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Now, it's a very difficult. They're asking you for a lot. They're asking you to be okay with the fact that these are people of different ages, of different times. They're asking you to be okay with the fact that this guy is stalking her and putting. They're breaking into her house to watch her sleep. They're asking you to put aside the fact that he's putting her at severe risk and in danger. but I am willing to put all that aside for the fantasy because if this is my homie I can't put it aside but for for a vampire so once they say put all that aside that's when it does feel kind of like like it it makes sense to me I like that these are the the vegetarian vampires like this family is looking out I like that they're kind of vampire groups I think it makes sense that they throughout their hundreds of years they have issues with different people why they've come back here.

Starting point is 00:09:46 I liked this story with her moving from her mom to her dad's. It just, she felt like a teenage girl to me. And this felt like a teenage slice of life more authentically in ways than I expect. I think that's something that perhaps we both came in with is the idea that a lot of people, this movie has its reputation for people clowning on it. It's hard to not have preconceived notions when you come in, when this has been,

Starting point is 00:10:11 this came out in 2009. I was a senior in high school. It's like probably the worst time for this to come out for it not to have preconceived notes every single person I know being like, oh my God, it's so much, you know? Yeah, yeah. And then one thing I wanted to avoid, I think it would be really easy to come into a Twilight reaction geared up for a so bad it's good. We're here to make fun of this kind of experience.

Starting point is 00:10:36 And that's kind of what I think we both tried to not want to do. And I didn't think it was bad. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to meet this halfway. And I didn't think it was bad. thought it was so good it was good and of course of course if we're talking if we're flushing it out some of the dialogue was hysterical like what was that one scene where i was like oh my god some of these lines when you are my heroin i was like oh yeah i get why people quote this movie because it is so

Starting point is 00:11:00 intense it kept reminding me of uh why uh why can't i quit you or whatever oh i just can't quit you yeah just like this felt some of these lines felt like if i was in high school when this came out this is what I would want my boyfriend to say to me. Like, you're my personal heroin. Like, swoon, you know. And that's the thing about the toxic aspects of their relationship is it is that thin line of like, but if it's the right person and I'm attracted to them, then I kind of would love to be on the receiving end of all this attention.

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Starting point is 00:16:05 But if it's just you and you're in control of your little isolated bubble. And he's a vampire, bro. Yeah. Like he's a vampire. The rules are different. I am really curious because we do have two, three, four, and five. Like, the whole time I felt that, that Taylor Lawtoner was currently a wolf. However, it was weird if you are a wolf to tell Bella about wolves and vampires.

Starting point is 00:16:29 Like, to him is it still. lore has he not turned is this lore his families told him am i making up this whole wolf thing and this is just lore and actually they're another set of vampires i like that we're in a position to guess yeah totally i like they left a little bit of mystery obviously i think they knew a franchise was coming out of this so they can afford that but i thought that was kind of neat actually so what is your vampire history you mean in terms of like all the vampire things i've seen what was your first vampire stuff what's your first vampire thing like getting to this point did this remind you of other vampire things that you draw from for you or did you feel like this was totally different than

Starting point is 00:17:07 what you've seen you know this actually plays into a blind spot for me because i haven't seen like interview with a vampire i haven't seen the more anne ricy side of vampire fiction and you mentioned vampire diaries that's something that i know a lot of people love that i don't have much experience with either and so i feel like fresh for you this approach is fresh for me yeah i mean every vampire thing, I think, has some level of eroticism and there's often some level of romance involved, but this is the first time I've watched a vampire thing that I can think of that is like predicated more on the sensual and the romantic than the horror. It's cool that it plays by its own rules, you know, with the sparkles and they show us what they're playing with. And I also

Starting point is 00:17:51 am very fascinated by the fact that he can read minds, but his, the other person, his family can see the future so each vampire kind of gets a different enhanced heightened skill set so i'm curious about that i'm also curious why he can't read bella's mind i think there's more to that than they have let us know makes me think about her past how she got here um yeah just really really curious for the next movies i came to vampires with a soap opera called port charles oh and the theme song was tainted love and it was my first window into extreme vampires thought it was so sexy really really hot okay been a huge vampire girlie especially in this type of genre so like vampire diaries the originals any kind of lover of love ship

Starting point is 00:18:39 ship vampires my blind spot is horror vampires so this is like speaking my language i feel like it's funny our journey has been in the reverse because we started with blade which is mostly like action and shit then you go into underworld which is like to me now a great midpoint Because it's like, it's a little bit soap opera, but it's still got all your cool, you know, neo-noir matrix vampire werewolf stuff. And now we're going full into the other side of the spectrum. Yeah, yeah, and happy to be here. I am too.

Starting point is 00:19:10 I have to embrace. Like, I love a thing like this, actually. I love a thing that is presented to me is something where it's like, again, yeah, like this has a reputation and a lot of people feel a type of way about it. But you know what? I want to throw all that aside and just see how this strikes me on first glimpse. So I thought it's at a lot of atmosphere too. Yeah, it definitely did.

Starting point is 00:19:29 It definitely, I mean, some really cool shots. And like just the fourth, the, not Seattle, the Forks, Washington of it all, that was definitely a character in this. Yeah. The fogginess. And the tension, just the buildup. Like, we were sitting there the whole time like, kiss, like get the kiss. And that prolonged shot of the two of them with the really slow and the kiss finally. He said, don't move.

Starting point is 00:19:51 And I said, bitch, do not move. Yeah. Yeah. And like, that was a moment where I was like. like, you know what, the things this movie needs to get right, I feel like, are actually working and cooking more than, again, the movie gets credit for. I remember right after this when Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson started getting cast in things, and people were like, those actors, really?

Starting point is 00:20:12 So I kind of thought they were going to be way, way intense over the top, very, very, like, campy. I really thought both them did a great job here. Like, you know, watching this, I think it's a whole. They had some hard dialogue to really bring home. And I thought they both did kind of like an understated other than when he really had to like, you know, jump around the trees and be like, I just have wanted you for so long. And he's so intense. But even that part reminded me of a 17 year old boy.

Starting point is 00:20:47 Well, that's the thing is, yeah. There are parts that are, I guess I would describe as hammy or a bit overdramatic. But, like you said, they fit the setting and who the story is being told about and through. So, like, in that way, I almost don't begrudge it so much those elements. Or, like, Bella, certainly some of the things she says are not quippy, but, like, they're certain in the narrations she has and certain of her choices are a bit dramatic and a bit flourishy in terms of how she expresses, which is absolutely of a high school character. You know, that's how I would have been talking in writing probably at the time. The love triangle element didn't really come into this one. If we know anything about Twilight, we know that it's like you said at the top, Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Starting point is 00:21:36 There was no Team Jacob in this. So I'm curious how that kind of develops. You know, we can tell that Jacob has a crush on her, but it doesn't go much further than that. Everyone be crushing on Bella. You know, before this movie, I didn't get it because I was just like, I remember growing up thinking she kind of looked like, like a normal high school girl, but in this, there's kind of something about her, man. There's a beautiful, I think, kind of middle ground in the fact that, like, she does seem kind of like a normal high school girl, but she's also like awkward and like she's not like a goth kid, but she's like bordering on that vibe enough that I think a special kind of cast of young people probably see themselves and relate to that. And it is because it is macab and it is, you know, rooted in horror, which is, you know,

Starting point is 00:22:26 sort of the left of center genre anyhow. I feel like it does become this sort of, you know, a flag almost for, yeah, that set of kids, the sort of awkward, goth adjacent feeling kids who are still, you know, like I like that they didn't make the high school like a cartoon here where like you didn't have like a bunch of bullies or some, like, you know, mostly just the kids seemed like kids. And you had that one altercation with like the creepy dudes in town or whatever. But there wasn't a whole bunch of. Oh my God. Yeah. That was brutal.

Starting point is 00:22:54 Yeah. And that scene where they're showing from her POV is, it's just cutting around to all these faces and voices yelling at you. And like I really thought that in moments like that they, Catherine Hardwick managed to play up the tension. And really there was a nice ebb and flow of that kind of stuff. But yeah, like I feel like there's a, you're not watching the traditional like they are beautiful. And they are, you know, clearly chosen from, you know, this is a movie with all the Hollywood resources. But they're not the most traditional pairing in terms of, yeah, like dashing male lead and, you know, completely poised enjeune or something like that. And I think the awkward energy helps. And I think it also helps the moments where there were a lot of moments where I was appreciating the acting.

Starting point is 00:23:42 There were times where the choice wasn't always failing to. conjure humor for me so like you know toward the end when she's I liked the the intent of the moment but in that hospital bed scene where she's like but no you know like that was like okay like it's a little much like that was half direction half performance half dialogue right where it's kind of like somebody said to her like stumble over getting him saying your words and it's a good choice it's her first major thing yeah yeah and I can cut the slack on that but that's a moment that least in the moment, like, does make me chuckle a bit more than some other moment might. For sure.

Starting point is 00:24:24 The line that I opened with, Bella, where the hell have you been, Loka? That wasn't even in the movie. I know. What the heck? Where the hell is the line, Loka? Loka. That's, like, on the bumper stickers and stuff. Please don't forget to like this video.

Starting point is 00:24:38 Comment. Let us know that you want us to do Twilight 2. New moon? New moon, man. New moon. Got to get to the new moon, the eclipse, and then we got to break. Don twice. Is that it?

Starting point is 00:24:52 You knew that? I think so. Oh, I've seen enough copies of the books. The Twilight one has the apple and then... Final words from you, man. Props to the supporting cast. Anna Kendrick, what? Anna Kendrick.

Starting point is 00:25:06 Mustash Dad was a G. I like Mustash Dad. You know, more vampire baseball I hope we get next time. That was cool. Her pitch, when she would wind up that pitch and do like ballet leg, I was just like, Look, coolest. Really good. All right.

Starting point is 00:25:20 Thank you for watching this. Life will never be the same again. Later, Rejects.

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The Reel Rejects - TWILIGHT (2008) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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