Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Die Hard: when McClain falls two stories and then catches himself by his fingertips on the AC duct. There's a lot of implausible stuff in that movie, but that defies the laws of physics.

What else?

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

This scene from Back to the Future:

Diner owner (Mr. Carruthers?) (DO) : So kid, you gonna order something or not?
Marty: Yeah, I'll have a "Tab".
DO: You can't have a tab unless you order something.
Marty: Then gimme a "Pepsi Free"
DO: If you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna pay for it!
Marty: Just give me something without any sugar in it...


"Pepsi Free" was caffiene-free, not sugar-free. I know there's no other way to have that joke come across, but it's still lame.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I think the standard answer to this question would be the subway shootout in Collateral. They should have figured out a way to end it without Jamie Foxx having to turn into a hero.

Swede

Swede

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I really don't like "Age of Aquarius" at the end of 40 Year Old Virgin.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

No, the standard answer is summed up in this quote from Wiki:

Just as Dorothy is resigning herself to spending the rest of her life in Oz, Glinda reappears. She tells Dorothy that she can use the ruby slippers to return home... her and "Toto too!" She didn't tell her at first, though, because Dorothy needed to learn a lesson.

No, Glinda needed a good kick in the nutz.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

The datedness of Swingers with the chains and the swing music. And the one scene where the answering machine talks to Mike. I heard a reason for it on the Director's Cut or something but it was still dumb and out of place.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I really don't like "Age of Aquarius" at the end of 40 Year Old Virgin.

[/ QUOTE ]

I loved it.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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The datedness of Swingers with the chains and the swing music. And the one scene where the answering machine talks to Mike. I heard a reason for it on the Director's Cut or something but it was still dumb and out of place.

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when that movie came out, there were a number of people into that style and music in Denver, so i assume L.A. was the same, but on a larger scale. in fact i know people who are still into it. there's nothing unbelievable about it.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I was referring to the talking answering machine as unbelievable.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I was referring to the talking answering machine as unbelievable.

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you don't believe in talking answering machines?

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

"A Touch of Evil" is one of my all time favorite movies, but I cannot possibly imagine what was going through Orson Welles' mind (and/or producers, assistants, movie studio execs, minds') when they made/saw the scene at the hotel with the hotel attendant.

Is he supposed to be retarded? And/or drunk?

I mean it really boggles the mind. All the wonderful cinematography, and the all around high quality of everything else in the movie, and it was created by someone who had to actually be on set and tell that actor, "Can you play it a bit more like you are mentally handicapped as well as physically a bit lame?" Or maybe it was the actor's idea and he said, "Let me run with this for a while Orson; I'm thinking: I play it like a cross between a goofy cartoon character and an inbred oaf with an IQ of about 45. Give me a shot, I know I can make it work!"

Ridiculous foolishness in the middle of a well made serious drama.

(Oh yeah, and the fact that they browned-up Charlton Heston and had him play a Mexican. But I can get past that; it very well may have been impossible to woo an American audience with a Mexican lead actor in 1958.)

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

umm... ya... a couple good ones here.

The talking answering machine scene in swingers just sucks.

Also, I used to hate the ending of Collateral, but I now really like the irony of Tom Cruise dying on the subway.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

the video game scene in The Beach

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

The lengthy Ed Norton rant to the bathroom mirror in 25th hour that practically seems to come from out of nowhere.


Some thought this was just great Spike Lee and Ed Norton stuff.
I thought it was a horrible addition to an otherwise wonderfully compelling story and was just Spike being overly-artsy for artsy-ness sake.

You've already got some great acting, great story and the makings of a great film. Why ruin it with that sillyness?

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I hate the entire cast of American History X aside from Ed Norton.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I hate the entire cast of American History X aside from Ed Norton.

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Oh come on. This guy was perfect.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip...ges/suplee.jpg

In Casablanca, Rick uncharacteristically helps an American couple get out of town. I hate this part with the fixed roulette wheel, etc.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Not that I like the movie very much, but the scene in American History X where Ed Norton and the black guy he does laundry with have their 'moment' joking about the smell of pussy or something.

Similarly, the scene in Seven where Morgan Freeman goes to Brad Pitt's house and they all joke about the trains running by so close.

There are lots of scenes involving 'character breakthroughs' and laughter that are really bad, but those two take the cake for me.

More relevantly, though, in the truly great Chinatown, which I should say I haven't seen in ages, the scene where Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway kiss I seem to remember being an incredibly stilted and awkward movie moment, anticipated in the soundtrack about 5 seconds beforehand by some truly awful "they're about to kiss" music.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

The Maltese Falcon

When Sam Spade is first talking to Brigid O'Shaughnessy in the office his partner Miles Archer walks in the room. Archer has something in his right hand that looks like it might be a matchstick. Whatever it is, he eventually just throws it down on the floor. It drives me nuts every time I see him do this.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Swede,

The ending of Collateral bothers me too. It's a little hokey that Jaime Foxx takes out Cruise because he finally builds up the resolve to take charge and do something.

Buck,

I also like that Cruise died on the subway. I wish they had thought of another way to do it, or at least have a tougher struggle between Foxx and Cruise.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I also think the end to Seven just sucks. It's one of those endings that makes you think it's cool just because it's so extreme, but the movie deserved better.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

The justification for enslaving humanity in The Matrix. So the machines have mastered nuclear fusion, but they'd rather use humans to generate heat than, for example, cattle? I could think up any number of more plausible justifications there -- it was just an extremely conspicuous point of no thought in an otherwise creative movie.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I also think the end to Seven just sucks. It's one of those endings that makes you think it's cool just because it's so extreme, but the movie deserved better.

[/ QUOTE ]wow, couldn't disagree more.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Assani-

Ya, I'm pretty much a troll in every ring for making that call. ;p

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

The casting of Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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The casting of Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

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wow, so true.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Michael Madsen's acting in Sin City. My favorite movie, but his scenes are just unwatchable.

I simply can't understand not liking the Age of Aquarius ending. It's so fantastically random and out there, it makes the movie twice as good. Some people just have a really different sense of humor than me I guess.

Katie Holmes in BB is a great one.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

the casting of Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code

having numerous amounts of actors play Batman in every Batman movie.

there being only older woman nudity in Varsity Blues

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

Whenever Elijah Wood's big blue eyes are on screen in the Lord of the Rings movies.

-SmileyEH

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I dont like in Violent Cop, they dont show enough of a close friendship between him and his work partner who was killed to make it totaly plausible that he's going to go into suicide mission mode.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I really don't like "Age of Aquarius" at the end of 40 Year Old Virgin.

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Wow. I LOVE that part. Made me go back and watch the movie again almost immediately.

I was pretty drunk though.
[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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the video game scene in The Beach

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This made sense if you read the book first. In the book, he is constantly using video game analogies and relating them to his current situation. But I agree that the scene came out of nowhere and really didn't tie into the movie at all.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

I loved the movie Tombstone, but...

...the part where Wyatt Earp is stomping across the river, shooting the baddies and yelling, "No!" is really lame.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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The justification for enslaving humanity in The Matrix. So the machines have mastered nuclear fusion, but they'd rather use humans to generate heat than, for example, cattle? I could think up any number of more plausible justifications there -- it was just an extremely conspicuous point of no thought in an otherwise creative movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even more importantly, the whole setup violates the laws of thermodynamics. You can't get energy out of nowhere just because you have a bunch of humans locked up. They need to be fed, and whatever you're using to feed them could be processed much more efficiently by a mechanical system than by a person.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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I loved the movie Tombstone, but...

...the part where Wyatt Earp is stomping across the river, shooting the baddies and yelling, "No!" is really lame.

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Hm, interesting. I really like that part, especially the exchange right after:

"Have you ever seen anything like that?"
"Hell, I ain't never even heard of anything like that."

The part I hate in Tombstone is the "Hell's coming with me!" line by Earp. Booooooooooo.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

[ QUOTE ]
Die Hard: when McClain falls two stories and then catches himself by his fingertips on the AC duct. There's a lot of implausible stuff in that movie, but that defies the laws of physics.

What else?

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i don't mind that, but i think die hard would be even better if the cops/fbi working on the ground weren't such douchebag idiots

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

And to continue my harping on Tom Cruise, what the hell were they thinking when they made the ending of Last Samurai. I really enjoyed the movie for the most part, but they totally should have ended it as they samurai make their last charge. Yet another case of Hollywood chicken-[censored] endings that neatly wrap everything up...

Swede

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The justification for enslaving humanity in The Matrix. So the machines have mastered nuclear fusion, but they'd rather use humans to generate heat than, for example, cattle? I could think up any number of more plausible justifications there -- it was just an extremely conspicuous point of no thought in an otherwise creative movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even more importantly, the whole setup violates the laws of thermodynamics. You can't get energy out of nowhere just because you have a bunch of humans locked up. They need to be fed, and whatever you're using to feed them could be processed much more efficiently by a mechanical system than by a person.

[/ QUOTE ]

The original script had it that humanity was enslaved not for an energy source but as computing resources - we were wired together and they were using the processing power of our brains. The matrix itself was being run on our own hardware so to speak. Along the lines of some of the real world research which indicates that our brains may function as rather intricate quantum computers i.e. exceedingly powerful. The thermal energy was captured just as a byproduct, i.e. if we're going to enslave them for their processing power we might as well capture their bio-energy and use that as well to help power the systetm.

Most of these details were obviously simplified in to the "human = coppertop" speech that Morpheus gives in the first Matrix movie.

Not that having this detail exempts the movie, as they obviously chose to shoot / cut it as they did. And certainly doesn't excuse the travesty of the following two movies...

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

In Schindler's List, I hate the scene in the end where Schindler is bemoaning how he could have done more, how he could have sold his watch.

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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The datedness of Swingers with the chains and the swing music.

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You're upset because the movie is dated to the era in which it was made? Does the hockey video game bother you too? How about the fedoras in Casablanca, or the make of the cars in Bullit?

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And the one scene where the answering machine talks to Mike. I heard a reason for it on the Director's Cut or something but it was still dumb and out of place.

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You're crazy. That scene is money and you don't even know it. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Something you hate about an otherwise great movie
 

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In Schindler's List, I hate the scene in the end where Schindler is bemoaning how he could have done more, how he could have sold his watch.

[/ QUOTE ]

This I really don't understand. Very powerful scene, and perfectly understandable emotions as the war finally ends.