Night of the Hunter was a spectacularly haunting film, but it sure laid a couple of eggs. Namely, Peter Graves and Shelley Winters. Whatta couple of goofy roles! And that phony repetitive scream that Bob Mitchum supposedly gives out when Lillian Gish shoots him in the ass is just plain silly. Still, this is an ass-kicker of a film, and Charles Laughton’s only directing job.
The scandal in “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” doesn’t make
any sense. Either the dam project would pay more for the
land, or the boy scouts (whatever they were called in the
movie) would. Jimmy Stewart just had to point out that
the land was being sold to the less-profitable party.
“Field of Dreams” except for the line, “I never saw my
dad so young - only after he had been worn down by time.”
Yecch.
Uh, Sweetie? Did you read the book? I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but the screenplay writer tried to keep it as true to the book as possible, and that’s what happened in the book.
That, and what Phil said.
Big agreement on the Saving Private Ryan bookends. First time I saw the movie, they didn’t bother me so much, because the rest of the film hit me so viscerally. Second time through, when I knew what was coming, the second bookend was like a fistful of shit on the forehead of the Mona Lisa. Totally irritating.
A few more:
Albert Brooks makes great movies, but almost to a one they have sucky endings. His most recent film The Muse had a pretty major misfire in the last five minutes, and his previous film Mother, after over an hour of pitch-perfect emotional satire, screwed the pooch so bad at the end I jumped off the couch and screamed at the TV (scaring my wife in the process).
I thought the recent Titan A.E. was pretty cool all around, except for the small detail of the storyline. Kind of a big hurdle to overcome, but the movie’s still neat to look at.
Kenneth Branagh’s Dead Again is an extremely fantastic movie, but is marred by two things: one, a rather amateurish bit of camerawork towards the end of the opening dream sequence, and a totally unnecessary gag reaction by Wayne Knight right after the bad guy buys it.
Mystery Men would have been a much more entertaining movie if the director had laid off the distracting wide-angle lens.
Pleasantville is great too, but the choice to take the climax into a courtroom was a pretty major misstep from which the movie almost doesn’t recover.
Ronin is a lean, mean, very efficient spy thriller with two big problems: First, the tacked-on “romance” between Robert De Niro and Natasha McElhone (sp?), and the equally tacked-on coda where Jean Reno explains the theme of the film to anyone in the audience whose IQ hovers just below room temperature.
Eyes Wide Shut minus the digital blobs. Nuff said.
I mentioned this in another thread, but Miracle Mile would go from a good movie to a great one if they had handled the whole thing with the character played by Denise Crosby (“Tasha Yar” on Star Trek) differently.
The Insider would have worked better if the Unabomber bit had been better integrated into the main story, instead of sticking out to the side as an unconnected dead end.
That’s enough for now. More as I think of them…
Any scene with the assistant chief of police in Die Hard - I wince whenever I see those. Except for one line: “Guess we’re gonna need some new FBI guys.”
A film I just saw a couple of days ago - Frequency. This has some really cool ideas, even though it brings the far superior Back to the Future to mind at times. My advice if you see it - leave the cinema (or turn off the video) two minutes before the credits roll - it’s one of the most disgracefully manipulative pieces of fluff I’ve ever seen on a non-Disney Christmas movie (soppy song over slow motion ‘growing up’ footage). You’ll know it when you hit it - it’s the point you’ll suddenly feel the urge to run to the bathroom.
HenrySpencer.
My personal un-favorite is The Shawshank Redemption, regardless of what my sister thinks of it. Actually, I liked it very much right up until the most necessary moment, when we learn Tim Robbins has been digging a tunnel behind his poster of Rita Hayworth/Marilyn Monroe/Racquel Welch for the last twenty freaking years!.
I don’t know how many of you have ever worked in a prison (I worked in a large county jail, once), but the idea that a prisoner would be incarcerated underground, without being moved from the same cell, for such a long period was just too ludicrous to stand. As well as the idea that the head bull, in tossing the cell over all those years, would never ever have torn the poster from the wall to reveal the man-sized hole behind it. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen it (despite TNT running it to death lately), but even if Robbins’ character persuaded the warden to let him keep the cell over that length of time as a perk for skillfully cooking the prison books, this is too preposterous to swallow, and ruined my appreciation of the rest.
Ever read the original Shawshank? It’s by Stephen King, believe it or not, and the original title was Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. It’s in the collection Different Seasons, and it’s great.
Okay on topic:
Flashdance: she does a cute little dance and gets into the Pittsburgh Ballet school? Um, hello, in what century? I believe the Pittsburgh Ballet school is one of the top ten schools of dance in the country. (I live in Pittsburgh). And you can’t just audition for a ballet school-you have to start dance when you are very young, and the girl in the movie was 18. By that time, she should’ve been a professional. I would think she’d be too old to be accepted.
While it isn’t really a movie (I’m sure that there’s a movie that I’ve seen that qualifies for this list, my brain is just completely frozen right now), have any of you ever seen Rent? Great musical, brilliant story, amazing songs. . . . .and the single most obviously tacked on ending in human history.
It reminds me of one P.D.Q. Bach Opera where ‘the producer’s of the day decided that only happy endings were good for the people and so at the last moment everyone is miraculously ressurected.’ BLECH
You’re absolutely right about Rent. The ending is stupid and cheap. It reminded me of the Romeo and Juliet parody in Nicholas Nickerby.
What I get annoyed at is the “you’re too dumb to figure things out, so we’ll give everything away” voiceovers at the beginning of films. The Dark Crystal and Dark City are best viewed with the sound turned off for the first three minutes.
I think Alfred Hitchcock is one of the greatest, but the shot of the strangled woman in Frenzy – complete with blaring music – really stinks, especially after the brilliant track down the staircase a few minutes earlier.
I think this is a case of your previous work experience tainting your view. I never thought of this (though it makes sense). As an engineer, I have similar problems when movies take short-cuts or just get things wrong, but I’ve learned just to remember it’s fiction and move on.
I always thought the end of League of Their Own really added a little emotional heft to what had been a good but lightweight comedy. Sentimental, yes, but effective.
Schindler’s List would have been a great movie even without the end scene, but I don’t object to the ending. In fact, I think it gives the viewer a chance to “decompress” after the movie’s emotional punch and also puts the events into context.
For a pleasant movie gone wrong, check out Space Cowboys. Nothing that takes place in orbit makes a lick of sense.
In Independence Day, the Internet, which was designed for such a situation the Earth was in, wasn’t used, until the virus transfer part (The advanced aliens have no firewalls? My home PC does!!)
Well he’s bound to have more latitude as an inmate seeing as how he’s making the Warden hundreds of thousands of bucks.
But as for the cell, he’s not underground. He’s on the second floor. When he gets to the maintenance area between cell blocks, if you notice, he climbs DOWN onto the shit pipe.
Perhaps this thread should have a spoiler warning?
–Tim
I didn’t hate the assistant police chief (“Dwayne”) quite as much as you did. I also liked that line where he’s told that the FBI is here and Reginald Veljohnson’s character asks him: “You want a breath mint?” 
Going back to that “Pretty In Pink” ending… I gotta agree with that one, and also, did anybody notice that in John Hughes’ “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (which was basically just “pretty in pink” but gender reversed and kinda boring) the ending was: poor girl and pooor guy get together and decide rich love interest was actually a snot and that the poor friend was actually the REAL soul mate all along? Mixed messages from Mr. Hughes?
also: Alec Guiness (R.I.P.) in Lawrence of Arabia, he’s usually great but that was basically blackface. Kinda embarrassing to watch now.
Francis McDormand having lunch with the Asian Guy in Fargo… huh?
“Magnolia” - the part where the whole cast sings.
Some people think it’s one of the high points of the film.
Other people, of course, don’t like the movie at all.
Me, I love the movie (everybody go rent it right now) but I hated the stupid MTV moment.
I just saw “The Third Man” last night. Billiant. Classic. But what’s with the music?
The other day I saw the movie The Cell, which just came out on Friday. FWIW, I recommend seeing the movie. It rocks. It might even become my favorite movie, now that I think of it…
Near the end of the movie, one of the characters must find a way to break a glass wall. There is water on the other side, so theoretically, if you broke the glass, the pressure from the water would instantly crash through the glass (I won’t reveal anything else about the situation, because that would kind of spoil some of it.) He has a gun, so he shoots the glass 3 or 4 times. When that doesn’t work, he picks up a pipe off the floor and smashes through the glass with it.
Now, I’m no scientist, but unless it was a really fking heavy pipe**, wouldn’t you assume that a BULLET would have more force, in a more concentrated area, than the pipe?
(Note: This happens in real life, not inside anyone’s mind. I’m pretty sure I’m not spoiling anything by that statement that isn’t in the commercials.)
Other than that minor detail (which may actually even be right, I wouldn’t know for sure) the movie was fantastic, and I recommend it.
Anakin’s virgin birth and Keanu in Much Ado get my vote as well. Gotta add Labyrinth, too. I’m a sucker for fantasy movies. First time I saw it I was 14 and I loved it unreservedly. Then, almost 15 years later, I order it on DVD and sit down to watch it with my boyfriend, only to realize that:
a) Jennifer what’shername can’t act her way out of a wet paper bag (or couldn’t at the time-- I don’t think I’ve seen anything else she’s done).
b) Just because David Bowie’s in a movie doesn’t mean he should sing.
I still like the movie a lot, though. The ball scene is so wonderfully surreal, and hits on themes (like the Goblin King’s desire to seduce the girl) that get glossed over in the rest of the film.
Hijack -
Rosebud - I find the book The Labyrinth to cover it much better, but of course most books do cover the material better.