It doesn’t completely ruin it but The Rock might have the most gratuitous sex scene I’ve ever seen in a film.
I’m pretty sure the part you’re referring to is in The Two Towers (Helm’s Deep), not Return of the King. And it’s one of several things in the trilogy that strike me as a bit jarring—put in because the director thought they were cool even though they didn’t quite fit (another example is “Nobody tosses a dwarf!”)
I don’t think they “completely ruin” the film, and I’m not even totally sure that Jackson was wrong to include them; but they take me out of the movies a little bit.
Agree.
On a similar note - I am aware the James Bond movies are pure male fantasies, but the tsunami-surfing in Die Another Day is utterly ludicrous.
There’s a nice line in the Youtube comments - ‘I wasn’t even involved in the making of the movie yet I still feel ashamed’.
For me, ‘the definitive’ Audrey Hepburn movie is My Fair Lady. (Or Roman Holiday.)
Sabrina, IMHO.
Totally agree. A really jarring note to an otherwise entertaining movie.
Remember, Peter Jackson started out as a self-aware schlock filmmaker in the Sam Raimi mold - his first three films were Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Dead Alive. He managed to repress most of those specific filmmaking instincts while making LotR, but not all of them.
Charade!
Same here! Princess Ann in Roman Holiday defined Audrey Hepburn; she hit her stride early in her career.
I read that Truman Capote objected to the casting of Hepburn. He wanted Marilyn Monroe for the role, and I have to say that she seems a much better fit for Holly. Hepburn herself said that she would have difficulty playing an extroverted character Even though critics said she was great, Capote never really liked her in the film and according to his biographer, he praised it as an independent work, but not as an adaptation.
And @Seanette yes, I would have mentioned poor Cat being abandoned in the rain, but Mickey Rooney got in first.
That attraction made a lot more sense in the book, where Jack Torrance was a complex character and not the one-dimensional Grinning Evil.
Shelley Duvall was not a good casting choice either, to be sure. The real Wendy had a spine and her own backstory with an abusive mom (complete with an occasional tendency to channel her and dole out her own towards Jack Torrance) and a lot of courage when things got weird.
Breakfast at Tiffany is not Hepburn’s definitive picture; it is, however, Hepburn’s definitive poster:
I’ll say Roman Holiday also. In second place for me would be Sabrina. And while I love My Fair Lady, I’m going to differentiate it from the other two, because it’s a musical, and they are not. It’s still good, though; and they’re all worth rewatching.
But I’ve seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s once or twice, and that was enough. It was the Mickey Rooney scenes and poor Cat that did it. Never seen it again, nor do I plan to.
By some accounts, Orangey the Cat gave as good as he took.
What in particular was it about ‘midichloreans’ that broke these movies? I’ve heard this complaint before but I don’t get it.
I thought the prequels weren’t great by any standard, but… Its a story about magical space wizards with laser swords. The original movie had “turbo lasers” for christ sake, and the second movie a giant space slug. No disrespect intended, but how are midichloreans the dumb part?
That’s not really how the scene happened.
Agree with Legolas on the shield and the Oliphant and the dinner scene in Temple of Doom.
Trying to think of any new ones and nothing specific comes to mind, but if there’s a trend it’s probably unrealistic competence or like unending magazines or whatnot in movies that are otherwise supposed to be realistic.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the classic example for me of a bad movie adaptation of a novel, but Mickey Rooney’s gig in yellow face was so soul scarring I honestly remembered it as being Jerry Lewis.
The random “ghost blowjob” scene kinda soured me on Ghostbusters. (Apparently the original screenplay had an extra scene or two justifying its existence.)
Never ever watch a Nikki Glaser comedy special.
The one that really bugged me with Legolas was the Mario Brothers level of jumping from one collapsing step to the other in the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. There was a lot to dislike (at least for me) in that film, but that one was really over to the top.
The other one that I always mention, is the ending of the First Mission Impossible, mainly because they make a point of talking about taking the train from London to Paris, which would be the Eurostar, but the train they use is a standard TGV. Although the whole movie is fantastical in the execution of a lot of things, this took me out of the movie because I couldn’t believe they skimped on the very simple research on an existing train.
//i\\
Because it was a stupid explanation for something that didn’t need an explanation. We had three great movies, and no one ever complained about, “Well how does the Force even work?!??!?” We were all quite happy with the Jedi just being naturally attuned to the Force.
But now we have to ask, “If it’s really just some kind of infection, can’t you just make new Jedi at will by infecting people? If I get a blood transfusion from a Jedi, will I get temporary Jedi powers? Can I destroy a Jedi’s power by dosing them with antibiotics?”, and so on.