Both the Rocky films and the first two M. Night Shamalamadingdong (*Sixth Sense *and Unbreakeable) films were set in Philadelphia. Coincidence?
Grosse Pointe Blank is set in Grosse Pointe, though I can’t really vouch for how much time they spent filming there (although I’ve been there a couple of times, and some things certainly looked familiar). The Virgin Suicides is also set in Grosse Pointe, at least in the book; the movie is a lot more ambiguous about the location.
Striking Distance was also set in Pittsburgh.
Harold & Khumar go to White Castle started out in Hoboken, NJ.
My own Private Idaho - Portland, OR
Northfork - Montana
King of the Hill (the Soderbergh film not the cartoon show) - St. Louis, MO
Oh, and there’s more but I have to go now.
The Score (with Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, and Marlon Brando) was set somewhere in Canada–Toronto, I think.
The movie version of The Punisher, a comic book vigilante who for decades was synonymous with New York City, was inexplicably set in Tampa, Florida. I still think this is because John Travolta, who plays the film’s villain, lives in nearby Clearwater (a major Scientologist stronghold) and didn’t want to leave.
I don’t think nearly enough movies are set in New Orleans. It’s a beautiful, exotic, picturesque, and mysterious American city with plenty of European flair, and it is truly like no place else in the country or the world.
Hollywood has been part of the City of Los Angeles since 1910
On topic: Sacramento gets used fairly frequently as a film location, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a film that acknowledges that it is Sacramento.
Sissy Spacek’s first film, Prime Cut (also starred Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin), was set and filmed in Kansas City, Missouri and the Lawrence, Kansas area. It’s an odd movie, but I’ve always liked it. White slavery and mob guys in the heartland; a beautiful and vulnerable Spacek (and for the guys, full frontal nudity); a chance to see the gorgeous Angel Tompkins; a thresher making mincemeat of a mob limo; Hackman making sausage and hot dogs (literally) out of his enemies; Hackman as a wonderfully cheerful and creepy bad mob guy; Marvin as a wonderfully grumpy nice mob guy; and a great cameo by Eddie Egan (the real “Popeye Doyle” from The French Connection)…what’s not to love?
nostalgia about seeing Prime Cut at the Drive-in several times in 1972 in a small town in Kansas and wishing Prime Cut were on DVD
Oh, sorry, what was the question?
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge was set and filmed in a posh suburb of Kansas City (Mission Hills, Kansas) and in Kansas City, MO. Of course, The Day After was set and filmed in Kansas City and Lawrence too.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set in Savannah, Georgia, which was a major character in the film.
And the movie “Cat People” was set in New Orleans and did a great job of conveying its Gothic beauty.
“The Road to Wellville” was set in turn-of-the-century Battle Creek, Michigan, but I think it was filmed near the Catskills.
Montreal.
I should note that I’m not really counting a) domestic productions (other than the U.S.); naturally, a Canadian filmmaker has a much better chance of setting something in Regina than an American one does; or b) cases where the film is really about the city in question (such as Paris, Texas or the like) rather than having been just dumped there randomly.
Fargo
Field of Dreams, Country (with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard) and Sleeping with the Enemy (Julia Roberts) were all set, at least in part, in Iowa. The last one was filmed in part in my old college town of Cedar Falls.
I think the film was French Kiss, with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. Toronto played a small role.
Ryan plays a woman from Toronto who flies to France for some reason. The film begins in her family’s Toronto home, with Dad watching the Maple Leafs playing hockey (hey, in Canada, hockey is on TV 24/7/365, dont’cha know :rolleyes: ). Naturally, Ryan flies Air Canada to France, where most of the film takes place.
But why Toronto? Except for the Air Canada product placement, there is really no reason for Ryan to be Canadian, or from Toronto. She might as well have been from Pittsburgh, Denver, or Boston, for all her Canadian-ness had to do with the plot.
Ever seen The Whole Nine Yards? It is set in Montreal, and Montreal does indeed play itself, but one character’s Quebecoise wife sounds like she’d be more at home walking down the Champs Elysees rather than Rene Levesque Boulevard.
(Apologies for the lack of necessary accents on the French names, but I’m unsure how to do them on this machine.)
Terms of Endearment was set in Houston because it’s based on a Larry McMurtrey novel that was set in Houston. Larry spent some time at Rice University & used the city for several of his novels. The movie made some adjustments. The garage apartment on West Main was moved to The Heights & the house in River Oaks was actually a house near River Oaks. And the shortest route from Brennan’s to River Oaks does not go by any beach. Artistic license–the area has few scenic wonders.
Urban Cowboy was mostly shot at Gilley’s Club in Pasadena, just outside of Houston.
Brewster McCloud was another film set here. And parts of Local Hero; Houston worked quite well as the diametrical opposite of that beautiful bit of the Scottish coast.
As was Flashdance, much of The Deer Hunter (well, in the general area, at least) and that epic Van Damme actioner Sudden Death. Hell, the place is practically Hollywood on the Monongehela.
Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts was filmed in my home town of Stonington CT. We also happen to be the home of Peter Benchley, we all know what He wrote. 
And the smog. Don’t forget the smog, palm trees and women walking thier dogs while wearing bikinis.
Nobody mentions Sacramento because it’s one of the most boring cities on the planet.
There’s been a few movies set in Detroit (Robocop, the openings of all the Beverly Hills Cop movies) however, it’s very rare to actually have one film here.
The exception was 8 Mile, which while not a very interesting film, it was fun to look for buildings I recognize. (I actually live about a mile from the trailer park depicted in the film)
Ah, you’ve forgotten about the classic Sleepaway Camp . Filmed in Argyle, Fort Edward, (not Fort Edwards as the IMDB claims), and Glens Falls in upstate New York. Some paramedics from Lake Luzurne were in the movie wearing their uniforms as well.