Pay It Forward (2000) - Romantic drama film by Mimi Leder, based on a novel

[Black Man Underwear]

In my humble opinion, Pay It Forward is a shit movie for multiple reasons: it has Kevin Spacey and David Ramsey, two actors I despise. It prominently features single motherhood and divorce and attempts to make Las Vegas residents look like people. I also had to see Kevin Spacey's bare chest, which is not helping.

But it also sends a message. The main character

Spoiler: spoiler

fucking dies

as a result of his good natured helping of others. So what am I to conclude? Helping others will get me

Spoiler: spoiler

stabbed

? What was this movie trying to say?

Also I have this to share:

Trevor's school assignment marks the beginning of the story's chronology, but the opening scene in the film shows one of the later favors in the "pay it forward" tree, in which a man gives a car to Los Angeles journalist Chris Chandler. As the film proceeds, Chris traces the chain of favors back to its origin as Trevor's school project.

-Wikipedia

Tell me what you think.

 

[Cat tit bingo]

For the longest time I thought pay it forward just was a gay short advertising a movement since my school played a clip of sora talking about the concept, took me years to realize it was an actual movie. Never seen the full movie but the fact it was such preachy shlock that people tried to use it as some social movement is some of the gayest shit imaginable

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I was vaguely aware the movie existed and people would like, pay for some drive thru for the person behind them or something.
I saw some bumper stickers but never encountered it in practice.

 

[vomitusdeux]

Never watched it, never will because chris chandler doesn't wear a sonichu medallion.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

I watched the entire movie, and the stabbing is the only thing I remember. But, to their credit, it was a memorable stabbing. Some movies don't even have that much.

 

[Not Really Here]

It's too good for you.

 

[Skitarii]

Why pay it forward, when you can pay me? What a retard

 

[Your Starter for 10]

I liked the wnd when you found out that Kevin Spacey was the bad guy all along and was just making up a story using stuff from the bulletin board he was looking at.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Decent if very maudlin movie ruined by a shit ending and bad casting choices in hindsight.

 

[Coolio55]

Never seen the wanky movie but found out about it due to Sam Hyde mocking it.
It's an interesting concept but I've never lived around lame hippie types so it's probably retarded in practice.

 

[Symbol of the Chud]

Decent if very maudlin movie ruined by a shit ending and bad casting choices in hindsight.

In hindsight?
The character Kevin Spacey is meant to be playing from the book is supposed to be black. Instead they got the pasty pedophile Spacey for it.
It's impressive how nobody cared about this back in 2000s and how in just a quarter of a century we've reached the point where the media does it to every white character they can get away with.
Also, speaking of the book, rather than just trying to save his friend from bullies, this is how it ends:

Trevor dies after being stabbed by a skinhead whose companions were assaulting two gay men, Gordie and Sandy.

God that's so much funnier.
Imagine dying trying to save two literal faggots.

 

[candlejack]

55 burgers, 55 fries, 55 tacos, 55 pies, 55 cokes, 100 tater tots, 100 pizzas, 100 tenders, 100 meatballs, 100 coffees, 55 wings, 55 shakes, 55 pancakes, 55 pastas, 55 peppers and 155 taters.

 

[*Grunts Softly*]

eh, i like it

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

This and The Pagemaster were really popular in my school for some reason, I think they screened it for us like 3 times. It's weird that the film has a very child oriented moral premise but was relatively dark with the mom being a whore and the ending where the kid dies. The producers went overboard with making him Jesus.

Hearing how they whitewashed the film (in the based way) makes me appreciate it more.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

I know I saw this movie because my favorite teacher showed to us, but I don't remember a thing about it. I thought the premise was really dumb and probably slept through the movie.

 

[74164978231]

Movie was bold as can be. Having it end with the main character, a child being stabbed to death on screen?

Balls.

 

[Mmemes]

Man the 2000's really had shitty moral concept films back then. Other than this you had Reality Bites, Crash, Shallow Hal, Lorenzo's Oil, The Notebook, The Power of One etc etc. Fuck the 2000s.

Movie was bold as can be. Having it end with the main character, a child being stabbed to death on screen?

Balls.

Bridge to Terabithia did it first with out of nowhere child deaths except the book predated Pay it Forward and not the film. I guess Cujo and The Langoliers did it earlier but that's Stephen King for you.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Man the 2000's really had shitty moral concept films back then. Other than this you had Reality Bites, Crash, Shallow Hal, Lorenzo's Oil, The Notebook, The Power of One etc etc. Fuck the 2000s.

Bridge to Terabithia did it first with out of nowhere child deaths except the book predated Pay it Forward and not the film. I guess Cujo and The Langoliers did it earlier but that's Stephen King for you.

My Girl was big shit in the day for killing the Home Alone kid shortly after Home Alone in a movie marketed around Hey Look It's The Home Alone Kid In Another Movie

 

[Mmemes]

My Girl was big shit in the day for killing the Home Alone kid shortly after Home Alone in a movie marketed around Hey Look It's The Home Alone Kid In Another Movie

Yeah holy fuck I forgot about My Girl. It's pretty fucked up to he goes to a treehouse to get something for her and gets stung by a million wasps? Also contrast that to his previous film The Good Son where he drops another kid out of a treehouse but that's supposed to be a thriller not a children's movie.

 

[Sweetpeaa]

I think the film was trying to hit the "tone" of American Beauty but didn't get there. The characters were too trashy and the "death" was unrealistic. You're expecting me to believe a ten year old white kid was stabbed to death by three other ten year old white kids at his school? Jesus Christ that's stupid. The murder in American Beauty was a shock but somehow not that unrealistic as you saw the wife's mental health problems through the film and her slowly unraveling until she finally killed her husband, plus he was was fucking a 16 year old girl.

The pay of forward murder was had no motive.