Russell Crowe admonishes "kids these days" for failing to appreciate 2003's Master And Commander
Peter Weir’s Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World is a movie without any Iron Men or wars in the stars (though it does have Paul Bettany, who is friends with Iron Man and was in a Star Wars), but don’t let star Russell Crowe hear you calling it a boring movie. That’s what happened to Twitter user Ian McNabb yesterday, when Crowe discovered a Tweet that he had posted earlier this month in which he suggested that Master And Commander—a movie about old-fashioned sailors having old-fashioned sea-battles—is a good way to put yourself to sleep. McNabb, an English musician and former frontman of The Icicle Works (and someone who just shouldn’t be on Twitter today, for unrelated reasons), said that he couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes and then inexplicably tagged Crowe, just in case he wanted to read a snide comment about a movie he made nearly 20 years ago.
Crowe, though, didn’t just say “hey, screw you.” Instead, he declared that the movie is actually “brilliant,” referring to it as an “exacting, detail oriented, epic tale of fidelity to Empire & service, regardless of the cost.” He also mentioned the “incredible cinematography” and “majestic soundtrack,” and referring to Master And Commander as an “adults movie” that “kids these days” don’t have the attention span for. (Ian McNabb is older than Russell Crowe, which actually makes Crowe’s tweet funnier.)
The replies to Crowe’s tweet are now filled with other fans of the movie talking about how much they like it and how people don’t appreciate it enough. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s co-director Peter Ramsey says McNabb is a “fucking idiot” and that Peter Weir “is a god.” Josh Gad says it’s a “perfect movie,” and we all know how hard it is to please the famously snide and bitter Josh Gad. So, the internet has evidently spoken: Master And Commander rules.