I am going to have to go with Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff where he played a waiter who glares at the government fellows when they suggest that Yeager is unqualified to be an astronaut.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is the perfect Hollywood movie. It is entirely cliche including the circumstances of the two stars falling in love. It was just a perfect storm of every cliche Hollywood throws at you, and on top of it all, it was an entertaining move.
OK, how about Sean Connery’s 007 singing Underneath The Mango Tree in one of the James Bond movies?
Best movie intentionally built entirely out of cliches: Dancer in the Dark
I would have to nominate “The French Mystique” in Blazing Saddles. Just because, it’s Blazing Saddles.
Best Cameo Appearance of an Original Cast Member in a Remake
I’ll nominate (because somebody has to nominate it) Ann B. Davis as a truck driver and Florence Henderson as Grandma in The Brady Bunch Movie.
If I may nitpick over the definition of the term “gratutious,” the nudity in that scene doesn’t really qualify since there was a point to Peete’s character being naked (i.e., distract the bad guy and mentally get the jump on him). It also important in that, contrary to what the movie’s other characters and the audience previously thought of her, she was actually a cagey hit women.
Best use of a car exploding in a giant fireball after a minor traffic collision: The rear-ending of a Pintoin Top Secret!
An American Werewolf in London:
Jack and David have just left the creepy pub where they’ve heard tales of monsters roaming the moors. They realize they’ve wandered off the road in the fog and then hear strange noises. Getting more and more freaked out, they quicken their pace bit by bit, mirroring the building tension of the scene, until they are flat-out running through the moors. Suddenly, David screams and falls to the ground! Jack turns and then realizes David has just tripped and is OK. He and the audience heave a sigh of relief. Forcing a smile, Jack reaches to help David up and says, “Man, you scared the shit out of --” and the werewolf attacks him from nowhere!
The idea is not original but the timing of this scene is perfect. Gets me every time.
For Best Cameo Appearance of an Original Cast Member in a Remake, I am compelled to nominate the mostly-dreadful Beverly Hillbillies.Buddy Ebsen (the original Jed Clampett) makes a quick appearance as his post-BH character of Barnaby Jones. One of the very few laughs in the film, and an out-loud one for me.
Best Historic Figure In A Cameo With Someone Playing The Younger Him: Jim Lovell in Apollo 13.
While I agree wholeheartedly that this was great, it violates the no parodies rule in the OP. Disqualified!
I’ll have to go with JFK, where Jim Garrison played Earl Warren.
The railway scene in Reds
I wish to nominate Paul Newman’s rendition of “Plastic Jesus” in Cool Hand Luke.
(Though I I will probably vote for “Zulu”)
[quote]
**
[li]Best use of gratuitous nudity**[/li][/quote]
Starship Troopers. No competition IMO.
But I think we should define “gratuitous nudity”. I propose that the dialogue/scene should need to work (albeit less effectively) without the nudity. So “ST” qualifies as gratuitous because the same scene could have been set in a laundry or just walking along a road and an audience wouldn’t have thought it odd. “W9Y” or “Fight Club” or any actual sex scenes don’t qualify because the nudity is an integral part of the scene, and thus not truly gratuitous.
[quote]
[li]Best “Aha! You only THOUGHT I was dead!” moment[/li][/quote]
Aliens, where the queen announces her presence by bisecting Bishop.
Best spontaneous musical number: That Scene from Magnolia. I know lots of people hate it, but to me it makes the movie.
(Of course, if the Marseilles scene from *Casablanca *counts, then that.)
Best use of a car exploding in a giant fireball after a minor traffic collision: *Raiders of the Lost Ark *- the truck that was supposedly carrying Marion. Actually had a reason for exploding (it was full of munitions).
Best Spontaneous Musical Number in a Non-Musical Film:“Say a Little Prayer For You” in My Best Friend’s Wedding
Best use of gratuitous nudity: Jamie Lee Curtis in Trading Places
Are you serious? I never knew that. Now I have to watch it again.
.
Best use of gratuitous nudity: Halle Berry in Swordfish
For a twist ending, I’d have to go with Fight Club. Its a really good twist and once you know what it actually is, it makes watching the movie second time even better IMO. And for someone who has never seen it, don’t worry, its really NOT a stupid movie about people who join a club just to beat the shit outa each other for fun.
Nooooo – the true original: Diabolique!
My vote for best use of gratuitous nudity goes to Rene Russo in the Thomas Crown Affair.
She spends about the middle third of the movie topless on a beach. It’s pretty nice.