Rubber (2010)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Anthony L

  
  I liked Rubber because it's strange, original and stylish. The fact that it is a parody that pokes fun at other films, film makers and formulaic Hollywood seems to have missed a lot of people, hence the contrast in ratings - it seems you either love it or hate it. To be fair… More
  I liked Rubber because it's strange, original and stylish. The fact that it is a parody that pokes fun at other films, film makers and formulaic Hollywood seems to have missed a lot of people, hence the contrast in ratings - it seems you either love it or hate it. To be fair though, it was sold as a stupid B-Movie/slasher-horror, so it's no surprising some people were disappointed but then again, I guess the whole concept had to come as a surprise in order to work. It's a very brave move, a very clever idea and somewhat of a welcome breath of originality. Straight to DVD though, or is that part of the post-modern irony too? 4 stars is a bit generous of me but then, it's not going to be a film I forget in a long time and you have to give it credit for that!

• Tim S

  
  Rubber has got to be the most bizarre and interesting film that I've seen this year, and that's over Out, which I found to be postively off its rocker. The plot from the trailer suggests a 'killer tire come to life' movie, and while it does have that element to it,… More
  Rubber has got to be the most bizarre and interesting film that I've seen this year, and that's over Out, which I found to be postively off its rocker. The plot from the trailer suggests a 'killer tire come to life' movie, and while it does have that element to it, it has SO much more. It involves a group of spectactors (movie watchers) viewing everything through binoculars on the sidelines and a cop who knows that it's all really just a movie. Whack doesn't even begin to describe it, particularly with the "no reason" monologue at the beginning of the film. Overall, I liked it a lot and found it entertaining on different levels. I was never bored once and the ridiculousness of it had me nailed to it, wondering what would happen next. My only complaint would be its leisurely pace during some scenes, in particular the ending which seemed to never end at all, really. I'd recommend this to enthusiasts of strange and bad movies, but not really to anyone else. They won't really get its messages or its humor, and it isn't really reaching to that sort of an audience anyway.

• Chris W

  
  Oh, man. I don't really know where to begin, aside from saying that you will either enjpoy this movie, or you will despise it. If you are baffled by it, then that could put you in either catgeory. You may have heard about this movie. It's about a tire, yes, a rubber tire,… More
  Oh, man. I don't really know where to begin, aside from saying that you will either enjpoy this movie, or you will despise it. If you are baffled by it, then that could put you in either catgeory. You may have heard about this movie. It's about a tire, yes, a rubber tire, that comes to life and kills things using psychic powers. No, it doesn't make sense, but it doesn't have to. It is a horror comedy, because it is about a killer that stalks and kills, but it's done with an odd sense of bizarre humor, so it's a comedy too. But really, it's so much more than just a movie about a killer tire. It has as schlocky B-movie concept, but it has the style and execution of an art film. Only the French could or would come up with something like this. Besides the tire, the film is also a meditation on/ a critique of how people view or experience created works. This is very much a self referential meta type thing, but that's also what makes it cool, because it's all very unexpected and odd. This is probably one of the most bizarre films I'ver ever seen, and it's definitely the most surreal and absurd. I actually kinda have to respect this movie for being what it is. It's not perfect, and it tries a bit too hard with the post modernist deconstruction of narrative and consumption or art, but the effects, cinematogrpahy, and music are pretty rad. This is minimalist low budget stuff, but a little goes a long way. It's fun and unique, and it's pretty watchable. No, not everyone will like this, but that's okay. It's not trying to be a crowd pleaser. If an artsy somewhat pretentious film about a killer tire that also comments about art and how people react to it sounds like you're type of movie, then definitely check this out.

• Robert C

  
  Pretty funny, really clever, totally random, a bit gory and lots of fun. Pays homage to the horror genre, while poking fun at the movie industry in general. Having said that...it is also about 25 minutes too long. But worth seeing.

• Lee ?

  
  One of the most random films I've ever seen! Has a crazy premise which follows a killer tyre that can use psycho-kinetic powers to explode any living things from rabbits to crows and any humans it should come across... except for a gorgeous brunette it has taken a liking to.… More
  One of the most random films I've ever seen! Has a crazy premise which follows a killer tyre that can use psycho-kinetic powers to explode any living things from rabbits to crows and any humans it should come across... except for a gorgeous brunette it has taken a liking to. There's also other stuff going on that comes completely from left field all adding to its wacky nature, though having said that it does take a semi-serious tone. It's funny but not hilarious, there's generous amounts of gore too adding to the entertainment value. One of my favourite things about the film is its electro musical score which is very cool. I didn't find it the greatest of movies but it's worth watching once due to its uniqueness.

• Kristijonas F

  
  Possibly the most absurd excuse for a movie that I've ever seen, Rubber won't be appreciated by most people due to its ridiculous premise. Yet perhaps it was that very same quality that allowed this artsy horror-comedy (about a telepathic tire named Robert that blows… More
  Possibly the most absurd excuse for a movie that I've ever seen, Rubber won't be appreciated by most people due to its ridiculous premise. Yet perhaps it was that very same quality that allowed this artsy horror-comedy (about a telepathic tire named Robert that blows peoples' heads off....?) to be so off-beat and refreshing. The silly music cues and self-referential dialogue - especially when characters break the fourth wall - it all helps tremendously.

• Mark H

  
  Bizarre tale of a rubber tire that inexplicably goes on a murderous rampage. In the beginning he can barely roll without falling over. The he begins destroying things. He starts slowly, first crushing only an aluminum can, then later a scorpion. The tension builds until he starts… More
  Bizarre tale of a rubber tire that inexplicably goes on a murderous rampage. In the beginning he can barely roll without falling over. The he begins destroying things. He starts slowly, first crushing only an aluminum can, then later a scorpion. The tension builds until he starts killing people, causing their heads to psychokinetically explode. Anthropomorphizing something as nondescript as a tire is no easy task. It has no discernible face, legs or arms. It can only roll around to convey personality and intent. In this case it also visibly shakes whenever it's about to strike. The cinematography is stunning, the music is vibrant. The production certainly has style. An interesting idea could have been brilliant but the story wears out its welcome with a lack of story and self conscious artistic touches. You see some of the participants are aware they are in a picture. Actor Stephen Spinella as Lieutenant Chad address the audience early on and expresses a "no reason" philosophy of many movies (including this one, I presume). Other actors are members of a crowd watching from the sidelines with binoculars commenting on the action. Those conceits are less successful than when the tire is just acting under its own power. Confusion, anger, despair, even love - the tire feels all of these. It's simply 82 minutes of surrealism. The brilliance of the script is that you actually believe it has these emotions.

• Spencer S

  
  The frivolity of the carefree, awkward, and abstract cinema that has developed over the past decade has been a process that has interested us all, bringing forth screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, director Wes Anderson, and a bevy of intellectuals and French modernists that have cultivated… More
  The frivolity of the carefree, awkward, and abstract cinema that has developed over the past decade has been a process that has interested us all, bringing forth screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, director Wes Anderson, and a bevy of intellectuals and French modernists that have cultivated a light construct. This film intertwines that genre along with the violence and sickness of the recent Hobo with a Shotgun and Machete, not in their visual representations, but mere violence for the sake of action packed impropriety. The film follows, of all things, a roaming and clearly alive rubber tire, as it kills, rolls, and is followed along by a string of spectators and characters, in that order. The premise and execution are tirelessly pounded into us, an audience that isn't appreciated and told to open our minds to absurdity for the sake of....profit? It's hard to tell through the long winded narration (the only way to describe it) by the people surrounding the story, which they're not part of; but there really isn't anyone in this story. There is the tire, precariously named Robert, but the series of queer events are not the cute little unexpected comedy you want. It's more strangely made than anything, though I still enjoyed the direction, music selection, and bounty of fake bodies and exploded animals. It was good for a friendly watch but not an expert analysis.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"Are You Tired of the Expected?"</i> When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession. <center><font size=+2 face="Century… More
  <i>"Are You Tired of the Expected?"</i> When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> The main plot of Quentin Dupieux's "Rubber" is that a tire comes to life and goes around killing people. But there are some more things going on. The movie opens with a man asking why certain things are like they are, with the answer to each being "no reason"; naturally there can be no logical reason why a tire should kill people. Throughout the movie, a bunch of people are watching the action: they are literally spectators as the tire goes on its murderous rampage, just as we the audience are (and they enjoy it, just as we do). Is what they see any more fictional or real than what we see? Just how much can one blur the line between fiction and reality? We could go over these questions for hours, but in the meantime, "Rubber" is simply a fun spoof of horror flicks. Starring Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Roxane Mesquida, Wings Hauser and Ethan Cohn. PS: Director Dupieux is a French techno musician who goes by the pseudonym Mr. Oizo. "Oizo" is a corruption of "oiseau" (bird).

• Matt G

  
  This is the story of a killer tire, apparently named Robert. Let me say this again, this film is the story of a KILLER TIRE. Rubber is ridiculous in just about every way. There are some fun moments but not nearly enough to keep my attention. I found myself bored throughout this film… More
  This is the story of a killer tire, apparently named Robert. Let me say this again, this film is the story of a KILLER TIRE. Rubber is ridiculous in just about every way. There are some fun moments but not nearly enough to keep my attention. I found myself bored throughout this film and I do not recommend it for even the indie lovers.

• Drew S

  
  Rubber essentially critique-proofs itself, so I hardly see any point in talking about it, except that I found it joyless and cynical and impossible to appreciate on almost any level. Its one-step-ahead-of-you treatment of the relationship between cinema and spectatorship, and how we… More
  Rubber essentially critique-proofs itself, so I hardly see any point in talking about it, except that I found it joyless and cynical and impossible to appreciate on almost any level. Its one-step-ahead-of-you treatment of the relationship between cinema and spectatorship, and how we fundamentally understand it, isn't particularly clever. It's essentially working at the same intellectual level as an elementary schooler who asks you "why?" over and over again just to troll you. The depth of its confrontations is not limitless, as is impossible to do in a movie like this, but it shields itself in just about every way from trying to be understood, and its metaphorical punishment of those who try to "solve" it feels more like bullying. The wheelchair-bound character, that painfully obvious stand-in for the educated viewer, is more or less derided through the course of the entire film. If you're not on board with how this movie operates, then clearly you fall in the category of filmgoer who just isn't meant to understand its incisive observational ability. Questioning Rubber means that you become the guy in the wheelchair, simple as that. The problem is that, viewed through a critical lens, this isn't a particularly clever or unique idea at all. Funny Games sustained a very similar premise with immensely more subtlety, and though I was by no means a fan of Funny Games, this film significantly increased my appreciation of its approach. Adaptation, Synecdoche New York, The Limits of Control - anything that explores the societal roles of art and metafiction, really - all have something to offer. All Rubber seems to say is "people think this way when they watch movies." And yet the very act of viewing Rubber through this same critical lens seems to prove its shallow point. Because I have the ability to say that this movie is not clever or unique, I in turn empower its anti-critical stance. Why try to give something reason when it doesn't need it? Why be that guy in the wheelchair, the one who actively resists surrendering to a stupid movie? It is quite the double-edged sword that Rubber plays with, and even though it knows it, I'm not going to let a movie tell me the right or wrong way to watch a film. I don't appreciate being told that thinking critically about what's being put in front of me is somehow antithetical to enjoying it. Rubber is as far as can be from a story told straight, and that's probably the most interesting thing about it, aside from its admittedly effective bait-and-switch marketing. In the end, though, I thought it was an incredibly self-congratulatory exercise in demonstrating the vacuity of media and viewership, where I felt persecuted no matter how I approached the film.

• Melvin W

  
  I definitely didn't hate Rubber. It had a lot of interesting aspects such as the spectators and the movie looked really good, which I didn't expect. The cinematography really surprised me. Other than a few interesting parts the movie was really to boring to enjoy. I can only… More
  I definitely didn't hate Rubber. It had a lot of interesting aspects such as the spectators and the movie looked really good, which I didn't expect. The cinematography really surprised me. Other than a few interesting parts the movie was really to boring to enjoy. I can only watch a tire roll around for so long before it just becomes tiresome. On the whole, it was a lot better than I expected it to be, but still, it's a movie about a tire. How good can it really be?

• Lewis C

  
  "All great films, without exception, contain an important element of 'no reason'." This could have been a fantastic movie. Unfortunately, it isn't. I love the premise, but the fun of things happening for "no reason" seems to be destroyed when… More
  "All great films, without exception, contain an important element of 'no reason'." This could have been a fantastic movie. Unfortunately, it isn't. I love the premise, but the fun of things happening for "no reason" seems to be destroyed when it's made clear that things are happening by design. That's not clever and it's not authentically random, it's pretentious. Even worse, the filmmakers were so focused on making some kind of a unfocused, ham-fisted statement, that they forgot the most important thing: making Rubber entertaining. Without that, all this meta thinking is a failure. An interesting failure (at least, at first), but still a failure. It's not much of a stretch to say that a person like me is probably part of the main audience that would potentially be appreciative of something like this. Instead, I found it to be a thorough disappointment. If they would have just taken the basic idea and gone with it, this could have been a fun, inexplicable romp. Instead, they tried to add meaning to a movie created solely to celebrate "no reason".

• Aaron N

  
  Lieutenant Chad: No reason. Would anyone suspect something serious to come out of a film in which a rubber tire comes to life and kills people, using telepathic powers? I would not think so. Why would this happen? As the movie's mantra suggests, "No reason." It is… More
  Lieutenant Chad: No reason. Would anyone suspect something serious to come out of a film in which a rubber tire comes to life and kills people, using telepathic powers? I would not think so. Why would this happen? As the movie's mantra suggests, "No reason." It is fitting that I saw Rubber around the same time that I watched Scream 4. Both films are designed to satirize horror and film culture and subvert audience expectation. While I think Scream 4 only managed to point out these themes without being clever enough to pull off something more meaningful, Rubber is more of an experiment, made to address the tropes and status of horror films and the audiences that watch them. While very bizarre, self indulgent at times, and overlong, the film works as a ridiculous meta-horror-comedy pushed to the extreme. read more at thecodeiszeek.blogspot.com

• Luke B

  
  I was slightly disappointed at how good this film was. From the trailers I was expecting a silly little B-Movie about a killer tire. What they don't show you, is this is a self knowing parody. The film is a comment on films in general. As the tire goes around killing people, a… More
  I was slightly disappointed at how good this film was. From the trailers I was expecting a silly little B-Movie about a killer tire. What they don't show you, is this is a self knowing parody. The film is a comment on films in general. As the tire goes around killing people, a group of spectators watch from afar. We are told that everything happens in films for "No Reason", and as we watch Robert discover his powers, it all becomes a bit twisted and too smart for its own good. Still, after the shock wore off, I was able to enjoy the movie a lot. First of all, the film looks incredible. It should seriously be considered for Best Cinematography. The dry landscapes are captured in all their brown/orange glory. The sun looks alive as the flares hit the lens. Probably the biggest comment about films, which it may not have intended to make, is the use of the tire. Here I was wondering how they got the thing to move. When watching Avatar I just sat there knowing it was a computer. Here, simple techniques are harnessed and it's a joy to watch. I was completely entranced by this moving tire. The music was also a great accompaniment. It slowly built the mood of a unique film. I just wish it had tried to be simply absurd, instead of being so critical about films in general.

• A.D. V

  
  Bee-zarre. It's alot of weird fun but the last act kinda goes flat.

• Justin Y

  
  As explained in the first 5 minutes, Quentin Dupieux's <i>Rubber</i> has no reason.<p>The story is as it sounds, and yet not. The fact that the film revolves around a tire is completely outrageous, but that is only one of the many pieces that are out of the… More
  As explained in the first 5 minutes, Quentin Dupieux's <i>Rubber</i> has no reason.<p>The story is as it sounds, and yet not. The fact that the film revolves around a tire is completely outrageous, but that is only one of the many pieces that are out of the ordinary. It's not that it's terrible film making going on because the cinematography is good, along with the effects. The dialogue isn't that bad either. It's just too difficult to put together and that puts a damper on the experience. Yet somehow the film still generates laughs.</p><p>As mentioned earlier, the effects are pretty good. There isn't a whole lot of gore, but the deaths are brutal.</p><p>There is nothing in the way of award winning acting, but there are far worse performances out there. Stephen Spinella is the life of the party. Jack Plotnick and Roxane Mesquida also have some notable characters.</p><p><i>Rubber</i> runs an entire 75 minutes; a little more with some extra scenes in the closing credits. All that's left to say is keep an open mind while approaching.</p>

• Kevin C

  
  Inventive, fun, and bitingly original. This won't appeal to all, but even the biggest fans of Rubber must admit that this is nothing more than shallow entertainment with a killer soundtrack.

• Cory T

  
  I will be in the minority but I throughly enjoyed this experimental French oddity. Yes, it is excessively self-referential and the action can be a tad tedious, but it also posits that we as an audience will accept any absurdity when it's framed as realistic ala Christopher… More
  I will be in the minority but I throughly enjoyed this experimental French oddity. Yes, it is excessively self-referential and the action can be a tad tedious, but it also posits that we as an audience will accept any absurdity when it's framed as realistic ala Christopher Nolan's films.

• Kevin M

  
  Eh. Starts off interesting but gets stupid later on.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings