# Films Which Have The Opposite Effect On You To That Which The Makers Intended **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2008, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594 "2008-08-11T10:26:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/61 "2008-08-12T20:20:51Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I’ve seen _The Mummy_ about a dozen times. And the scene you just described? Doesn’t exist. [/QUOTE] The only scene I can think of that comes close is when Imhotep withdraws in fear after being confronted by Rick holding a housecat, followed by some explanation about ancient Egypt and cats that sorta-kinda held together. Interestingly, the DVD commentary for that scene (which I recommend generally for anyone interested in the making of action movies) talks about how they wanted to cut an earlier conversational scene between Rick and Evie, but couldn’t because it introduced the cat and without this, its appearance during the battle was too sudden and arbitrary. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/62 "2008-08-12T20:27:51Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I’ve seen _The Mummy_ about a dozen times. And the scene you just described? Doesn’t exist. [/QUOTE] I don’t remember it either, but I’ve seen _The Mummy_ only once. I’ve seen _Army of Darkness_ more than once, and I think I remember that scene from there. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/63 "2008-08-12T20:29:36Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I’ve seen _The Mummy_ about a dozen times. And the scene you just described? Doesn’t exist. [/QUOTE] But a scene very similar to that, with Imotepp’s bride (as a bandaged and wrapped Mummy) completely freaking out does exist. I’m pretty sure, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/64 "2008-08-12T20:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] They didn’t refuse to rescue the sailors. They were _unable_ to rescue the sailors. You saw the Captain cursing because he could do nothing. [/QUOTE] Meh, unwilling, unable. That last scene still cheers me up. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/65 "2008-08-12T20:50:20Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > The only scene I can think of that comes close is when Imhotep withdraws in fear after being confronted by Rick holding a housecat, followed by some explanation about ancient Egypt and cats that sorta-kinda held together. True, but only the mummy flees, not both the mummy and the human, and scene is clearly not being played for laughs. [QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] But a scene very similar to that, with Imotepp’s bride (as a bandaged and wrapped Mummy) completely freaking out does exist. I’m pretty sure, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I remember that. [/QUOTE] Nope. Maybe in the second movie, but not in the first. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/66 "2008-08-12T20:54:31Z")
well, I laughed all the way through “Die Hard with a Vengeance.” Don’t know if that was the opposite of what they were going for or not, but I enjoyed myself. I’ve got an answer for the OP, but it’s from television, “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. It’s billed as and is supposed to be a comedy. But I gave it 3 chances, and each time the effect it had on me was to make me sad. The main character has such a sad, hopeless life, that no amount of one-liners by quirky supporting characters could undo the uneasy feeling I got from this “comedy”. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/67 "2008-08-12T21:35:32Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] I was watching one of the 90’s bond movies (Goldeneye? You Only Live Twice? Whichever one had him doing the sidestroke to swim into the airplane falling in midair), and for about the first third, I was listening to his sleazy lines and stupid jokes and watching him get all the beautiful women, and I was thinking, “What the hell? This guy is dumb and sleazy and completely obnoxious? Why are they all sleeping with him?” Then I remembered that he’s a stone cold killer who’s a deadly shot with his pistol, and I realized the women were all laughing at his stupid one-liners because they feared **he would kill them if they didn’t laugh**. I watched the rest of the movie as a portrait of a serial killer with a too-high opinion of his own charm, and enjoyed it a lot more. [/QUOTE] [post=6468498]Bond has issues.[/post] Also, even a superficial analysis of _Goldfinger_ indicates that Bond is completely incompetent, and succeeds only due to Auric’s utter hubris. _Pretty Woman_ had me rooting for Gere to get away from this unstable, crazed prostitute who flaked on him after making a fiscally rewarding agreement. And those Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan “romantic comedies” are really a study in pathological stalking behavior. I know how people hate to hear the truth about _Casablanca_, but Ilsa was a manipulative grifter through and through, setting up Rick like a windup toy to get her and Laszlo out of Casablanca before Strasser had him offed, and instead of feeling all optimistic and hopeful I’m just relieved that Rick was shed of her before she destroyed him completely. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/68 "2008-08-13T00:03:50Z")
[QUOTE=Windwalker] **Signs**. The aliens were supposed to be creepy, but I just found them hilarious. Then, when I realized all that build-up had been for naught, that the whole plot made no sense, I just felt really annoyed. [/QUOTE] It makes more sense when you realize that although the characters call them aliens, they’re really bogeymen. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/69 "2008-08-13T00:40:29Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] [post=6468498]Bond has issues.[/post] [/QUOTE] 😃 That’s great! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/70 "2008-08-13T03:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] “A Few Good Men”. When Jack gave his “those walls need to be guarded by men with guns” speech at the end, I totally agreed with him. Some pissant lawyer who is just punching a ticket until he can get out of the Navy and start billing $1200/hr in private practice takes down a decorated combat officer, and I’m supposed to admire that? [/QUOTE] **Skald the Rhymer** has said it already, but the point of that whole monologue is that Jessup is right about an awful lot. The problem is that he’s an egomaniac who feels like he’s got the right to play God in his corner of the world, consequences be damned. You’re _supposed_ to agree with him to a point, but you’re also supposed to come to the conclusion that his execution of his authority is dead wrong. I don’t know about you, but I’d be scared to serve under Jessup. (as an aside, _A Few Good Men_ was originally a play, and I highly recommend it) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/71 "2008-08-13T04:00:19Z")
[QUOTE=Miller (re: the Mummy)] Nope. Maybe in the second movie, but not in the first. [/QUOTE] It could have been the second movie that I saw. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/72 "2008-08-13T04:50:11Z")
It’s been said before, but _Rent_ deserves another vote. Its oh-so-last-century tired tale of evil capitalists (and their running dog lackeys, too!) _vs_ the Noble Suffering Bohemian might have been palatable if the Bohemians had a shred of nobility to them… but, alas, they did not, highlighting instead the worst whiny and pouty tendencies of 20-something Gen-Xers. Throughout the entire film my thoughts ran like this: \ _WTF? You can’t be bothered to show up for dinner and be polite? Is it going to kill you to listen to uncle Arnie talk about his decorations? Will you really be ‘oppressed’ if you go to church with your parents? Can’t you be bothered, for one day a year, to make your mother happy? You’re whining about what horrible people they are, but let’s face it: it’s **you** who is acting all out of proportion to what she called about. Grow up!_ \: _Grow the f_\*\* up, people! You got to live in **Manhattan** for a single year, RENT FREE!!! Yeah, it’s nice that you made it into some ultra-cool Bohemian Utopia™, but that’s some pretty pricey real estate that you’re sleeping on for gratis… and the free lunch, er, rent is over. Pay or move.\* \ \*What the hell? Every single person at this table is a miserable, whiny, piece of slag… and now they’re going to celebrate the very behaviors that brought them to this point: addicted, broke, nearly homeless? This is akin to watching a gambling addict celebrate the losing of his house because of a “few bad guesses”. This movie is stupid. I’m going home.\* I do not think that my reaction is what the makers of the film/play intended, to be honest. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/73 "2008-08-13T10:02:03Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] I do not think that my reaction is what the makers of the film/play intended, to be honest. 😉 [/QUOTE] The lyricist/composer/writer of RENT, Jonathan Larson, very famously died just before the show opened and became a huge hit. I’ve a feeling that had he lived to receive the millions and millions in royalties that have come into his estate since, RENT’s sequel might have been called TAX SHELTER (and you can be pretty sure he wouldn’t live in a coldwater walkup). ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/74 "2008-08-13T10:47:17Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] _Mrs. Doubtfire_. I couldn’t help feeling that a guy willing to be that bizarrely manipulative in order to be close to his children, just might decide one day that they should all go see Jesus together. [/QUOTE] Exactly. There are a number of details in the movie that bugged me, but none managed to rise above the overwhelming feeling that he went right past Devoted Dad Territory and well into Extremely Creepy Guy Land in the first twenty minutes of the film. Speaking of bad parents, _Home Alone._ The rest of the flodnak household loves this movie, but it infuriates me. Kevin acts like an eight-year-old under pressure, the other kids get together to pick on him until he rises to their bait, and then he catches all the cr@p for it. Hell, I’d want that family to disappear, too. And I say this as the mom myself of an 8-year-old boy who can be pretty damn picky about what goes on his pizza, as well, although he’s pretty good at packing a suitcase as long as he has a list of what he’ll need. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/75 "2008-08-13T11:21:51Z")
I laughed all they way through Woody Allen’s [Interiors](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0077742/). I don’t believe it was supposed to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/76 "2008-08-13T12:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] I laughed all they way through Woody Allen’s [Interiors](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0077742/). I don’t believe it was supposed to be funny. [/QUOTE] On the other hand, I didn’t find the critically acclaimed comedy **Sideways** funny at all. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/77 "2008-08-13T13:06:33Z")
The movie I wanted to mention was \*\*Patch Adams. \*\* The movie, which is basically another version of the Asshole Bucking The System movie Robin Williams had already starred in a few times, presents us with a cardboard villian and a hero who is just a transcendently arrogant asshole of the first order. Even if you don’t know the real story, it’s obvious, sitting through the movie, that they’re sugar-coating the story of a guy who’s both a colossal prick and a quack. With respect to Rent: [QUOTE=JohnT] It’s been said before, but _Rent_ deserves another vote. Its oh-so-last-century tired tale of evil capitalists (and their running dog lackeys, too!) _vs_ the Noble Suffering Bohemian might have been palatable if the Bohemians had a shred of nobility to them… but, alas, they did not, highlighting instead the worst whiny and pouty tendencies of 20-something Gen-Xers. [/QUOTe] When the play opened in Toronto, there was an article in the Star about “Rentheads,” people who went to see the musical many times. All of those interviewed described in essentially like this: “It just totally speaks to me about how you have to suffer for your art. I’ve been trying for three years to be a painter/actor/interpretive dancer and I totally know what they’re going through.” Every one of them was an upper middle class white kid. If it wasn’t for the fact that “Rent” is based on “La Boheme,” and in any event was worked on for years and years and barely resembles its earlier forms, I’d say it was a deliberate satire. It’s impossible to take it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/78 "2008-08-13T14:17:16Z")
[QUOTE=Eonwe] **Skald the Rhymer** has said it already, but the point of that whole monologue is that Jessup is right about an awful lot. The problem is that he’s an egomaniac who feels like he’s got the right to play God in his corner of the world, consequences be damned. You’re _supposed_ to agree with him to a point, but you’re also supposed to come to the conclusion that his execution of his authority is dead wrong. I don’t know about you, but I’d be scared to serve under Jessup. (as an aside, _A Few Good Men_ was originally a play, and I highly recommend it) [/QUOTE] What I personally _think_ Aaron Sorkin was trying to put across was that true soldiers like Jessup, Kendrick, and Dawson are abhorrent, and we’d all be better off if we could get rid of them. In the world we live in, they’re unfortunately necessary though, so we must hold our noses and tolerate them. Kaffee is only to be admired for bringing one down. I think he wrote that speech to be ironic - anyone who could believe such a thing must be insane. I agree though - Jessup & Kendrick broke the code themselves when they left Dawson & Downey to take the blame for something they ordered them to do. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/79 "2008-08-13T14:22:39Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] What I personally _think_ Aaron Sorkin was trying to put across was that true soldiers like Jessup, Kendrick, and Dawson are abhorrent, and we’d all be better off if we could get rid of them. In the world we live in, they’re unfortunately necessary though, so we must hold our noses and tolerate them. Kaffee is only to be admired for bringing one down. I think he wrote that speech to be ironic - anyone who could believe such a thing must be insane. [/QUOTE] Watching the first four seasons of the \*West Wing \* would disabuse you of this notion. Sorkin has a complex approach towards warfare and its neccessity, but he shows nothing but respect - even awe - for the U.S. armed forces. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594/80 "2008-08-13T14:30:29Z")
[QUOTE=longhair75] On the other hand, I didn’t find the critically acclaimed comedy **Sideways** funny at all. [/QUOTE] That’s okay, because except for brief instances, it wasn’t intended to be a comedy at all, except in the ironic, self-effacing sense. Unfortunately, the Hollywood marketing machine doesn’t know what to do with this kind of film and so it was pimped as your standard issue buddy-road-trip-cum-romantic-comedy when it was actually in diametrical opposition to those genres. Sure, you could have made _Sideways_ into a road flick staring Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider with just minor changes (add a few scat jokes, a fat chick to make fun of, and a happy resolution) but instead Payne played it straight, and what humor there is points uncomfortably close to home, and the characters are thickly drawn enough to be real but not sympathetic enough to root for. I commonly hear the same complaint about Billy Wilder’s _The Apartment_: “It stops being funny halfway through, and the Jack Lemmon character is more creepy than romantic.” Well, duh; Wilder is taking the conventions of a standard romantic comedy and forcing the reality of disappointment, disillusionment, and genuine human emotion upon them, which makes the viewer realize just how jerkish, juvenile, and contrived most characters in romantic comedies really are. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-which-have-the-opposite-effect-on-you-to-that-which-the-makers-intended/459594.md?page=5)