Anyway, have you ever seen something in a movie that at first made you think “oh, come on, this is completely stupid,” but then later you thought “but on the OTHER hand…”
I’m still not explaining myself well. Here’s an example:
In the first Iron Man film, there’s a scene where the main character comes back from being in captivity for years and years and the first thing he says is “all I want right now is an American cheeseburger” (paraphrased, of course). Then we cut to a shot of him carrying a Burger King bag.
My first thought was “oh please, dude, you’re a millionaire. You honestly can’t get anything better than Burger King?? Also, hellooooooo obvious product placement.”
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, hell, I’d probably do the same thing. If I’d been in a foreign country as a prisoner or captive for years and years, I don’t think I’d WANT something gourmet: I’d want something familiar and comforting. And let’s face it, Burger King is exactly the kind of familiar comfort I’d want, product placement or not. Even Anthony Bourdain welcomed–was downright THANKFUL for, in fact–a meal of tuna noodle casserole on the aircraft carrier he was on when he had to escape from Beirut in 2006.
When they let the alien on board the ship in Alien. Completely stupid move. Later, they explained it (though the explanation made absolutely no sense if you thought about it), but by that time the entire film had fallen into such a morass of pure idiocy that the explanation was too little, far too late.
The first segment of the move Hoodwinked!
With the subpar animation it looks like you’re just watching a cheap version of the Little Red Ridinghood story.:rolleyes:
But it turns out to be the base story line for the much more intersting point-of-view versions of the same story told by various characters told to a police detective trying to piece together what really happened.
OK, I’m going to have to call you on this.
What was so stupid? Ash was under orders to bring the alien back. The crew was never going to let him do that if they saw it kill Kane in the quarantine area, so he just opened the airlock.
Also, the Burger King food was significant to Robert Downey Jr. himself. I read somewhere that he said the day he decided to quit drugs and turn his life around, he happened to be eating at a Burger King.
Yeah, but a SoCal with any options whatsoever wouldn’t choose Burger King over In-N-Out, Fatburger, Tommy’s, etc. The fact that Downey was scarfing a BK just shows you how low his bottom really was.
What I hate is the “we think the product is cool but we wouldn’t pay for it” placement- like showing what is clearly a MacBook with a pear logo on it instead of an apple. :dubious:
ETA- Do you know why James Bond wears an Omega watch? Cubby Broccoli wanted Bond to wear a Rolex, but they couldn’t afford to buy one, and Rolex refused to loan them one for the filming. IIRC, Connery was wearing his own Omega, and they went ahead and used it.
There was a scene the “The Sarah Connors Chronicles” where a Terminator shows up and starts shooting up the living room, and the main characters dive behind the couch for safety. Uh huh.
Later the cops are investigating the scene and find that the couch was stuffed with 6 inches of kevlar.
There’s an excellent episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” in which a defector from the hostile Romulan Empire claims to have information about an invasion of the Federation, to be launched from an as-yet undetected base within the Neutral Zone. Picard is faced with a tough decision: investigate the location of the supposed enemy base, thus breaking the treaty himself and providing the Romulans with an excuse to attack. Or disbelieve the defector (whose story is questionable at best) and remain on his side of the Neutral Zone, possibly allowing his own fleet could be caught flat-footed by a surprise invasion launched from the base, if it exists.
After much deliberation, Picard orders the Enterprise into Romulan space… only to discover that the planet on which the base was supposed to be located is completely uninhabited. At this point, to nobody’s surprise, two Romulan warships decloak and demand the Enterprise’s surrender for treaty violations. There’s a fair amount of posturing back and forth between Picard and his Romulan counterpart, but it’s obvious that the Enterprise doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, diplomatically, and is completely outgunned. It looks like Picard has fucked himself over badly. Both sides prepare for a battle whose outcome appears pre-ordained.
Until, of course, three friendly Klingon warships decloak behind the Romulans, effectively quadrupling the Enterprise crew’s firepower and forcing the Romulans to beat a hasty retreat. Because, as it turns out, Picard wasn’t ever that stupid - he’s not going into the Neutral Zone without backup.
