# The best thing that ever happened to movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203 "2008-08-07T18:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/41 "2008-08-08T14:50:59Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] Chase scenes are as versatile as cigarets and eyeglasses, and chase scenes can go on for much longer. Car chases are best . . . [/QUOTE] Car chases can also be enhanced by the miracle of the Automobile Radio, which can be turned on by the Bad Guys as the _exact instant_ when news of their exploit is being broadcast to a terror-stricken city. (If, just once, they would have to sit through three minutes of commercials first . . .) For a variation, we have _Back to the Future_, in which the car radio is turned on at the exact instant when a particular sports score is being announced. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/42 "2008-08-08T15:06:51Z")
[Marlon Brando](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeVq1e6JKlw&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/43 "2008-08-08T15:20:18Z")
What about motorcycle gangs? Nude, zombie, motorcycle gangs, with Quint as the rebellious leader, who falls in love with an Asian librarian girl with glasses whose grandfather is a ninja mob boss in a Godzilla-ravaged Tokyo. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/44 "2008-08-08T15:45:24Z")
It sounds good, but where’s the leather-clad badass girl? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/45 "2008-08-08T16:02:52Z")
Maybe this isn’t the best thing for movies in general, but robots provided employment opportunities for mediocre actors of all shapes and sizes. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/46 "2008-08-08T18:21:44Z")
I vote for foley. Any movie scene is immediately improved with the following: Tire squeal Bullet ricochet “Meatslap” fist punch Include those in Schindler’s List, and you wouldn’t even need Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/47 "2008-08-08T18:40:41Z")
Polarity: the duct tape of science fiction. Got a technological problem? Throw 'er in reverse! ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/48 "2008-08-08T19:04:06Z")
Yes, can you imagine: “Dammit! My car won’t start!” “Why don’t you switch the positive and negative terminals?” “Good thinking!” Vrooooooooom ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/49 "2008-08-08T19:40:41Z")
[QUOTE=Rocketeer] It sounds good, but where’s the leather-clad badass girl? [/QUOTE] And the Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/50 "2008-08-08T21:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] In that they were cartoon Nazis whose only purpose in the plot was to give Indiana Jones—sorry, Oskar Schindler[sup] **TM** [/sup]—something to be heroic against. (I’m talking about the movie Schindler, not the real Schindler.) [/QUOTE] Amon Goeth was just as nasty in real life as he was in the movie. In fact, he was nastier in real life. The movie toned him down. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/51 "2008-08-08T22:16:30Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] Amon Goeth was just as nasty in real life as he was in the movie. In fact, he was nastier in real life. The movie toned him down. [/QUOTE] He was portrayed as entirely insane, and therefore not responsible for his own actions. If that’s toned down, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/52 "2008-08-09T00:01:12Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] He was portrayed as entirely insane, and therefore not responsible for his own actions. If that’s toned down, whatever. [/QUOTE] What, specifically, makes you think he’s portrayed as “insane”, as in “not legally responsible for his actions”? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/53 "2008-08-09T00:08:37Z")
[QUOTE=Blalron] What, specifically, makes you think he’s portrayed as “insane”, as in “not legally responsible for his actions”? [/QUOTE] I’d love to discuss this movie, but maybe in its own thread. In any case, I don’t expect to talk anyone into hating a universally loved movie; I’m only sharing my own opinion of it. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/54 "2008-08-09T00:10:51Z")
Jeffrey Dahmer acted in a manner that most of us would consider crazy (if killing 17 people, cannibalizing and doing weird sexual stuff with the bodies isn’t what a crazy person would do, then I don’t know what is). But the court rejected his insanity defense. Similarly, Amon Goeth as portrayed in Schindler’s list acted really fucking crazy, but I never got the sense that he was unable to understand his actions. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/55 "2008-08-09T05:16:37Z")
Kroenen from **Hellboy** was the greatest thing ever to happen to movies: frankly, what film _wouldn’t_ be improved by an undead Nazi clockwork cyborg ninja assassin? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/56 "2008-08-09T14:02:28Z")
Plastic surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/57 "2008-08-10T01:33:03Z")
No one has mentioned cowboys, vampires, apocalyptic scenarios, the"gay", wizards or magic, exotic locales so far… Gay cowboy zombies ride dinosaurs ina battle with vampire nazis on robots in a chase scene filled with exploding ninja driven hovercrafts (no one has ever had a multiple hovercraft chase scene, I think!), through a post apocalyptic, exotic Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. They are fighting to control the cybernetic brain that is actually controlling the reality they experience. Only a nerdy hot asian woman wizard (Lu Ci, in disguise with glasses)knows the access code… Does anyone else smell OSCAR? Thought I caught a whiff of it there… FML ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203/58 "2008-08-12T20:21:42Z")
[QUOTE=Full Metal Lotus] No one has mentioned cowboys, vampires, apocalyptic scenarios, the"gay", wizards or magic, exotic locales so far… Gay cowboy zombies ride dinosaurs ina battle with vampire nazis on robots in a chase scene filled with exploding ninja driven hovercrafts (no one has ever had a multiple hovercraft chase scene, I think!), through a post apocalyptic, exotic Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. They are fighting to control the cybernetic brain that is actually controlling the reality they experience. Only a nerdy hot asian woman wizard (Lu Ci, in disguise with glasses)knows the access code… Does anyone else smell OSCAR? Thought I caught a whiff of it there… FML [/QUOTE] Hovercraft are boring. What you need are radio-controlled helicopter models. Now that’s high-tech goodness. Also, I think I mentioned earlier that without a leather-clad buttkickin’ girl, you’ve got nothin’. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-movies/459203.md?page=2)