Movie you love--sequence you hate.

[Rii]

The second playbunny sequence in Apocalypse Now Redux.

Really? I would have kept that, and edited out the French Plantation scenes, myself.

I get the objections folks have to the plantation sequence, that it breaks the flow and such, but when I'm watching the film I need the flow to be broken at that point. It gives me time to take that metaphorical breath before the plunge, whilst still providing some interesting material to chew on.

 

[Goliath]

The second playbunny sequence in Apocalypse Now Redux.

Really? I would have kept that, and edited out the French Plantation scenes, myself.

I get the objections folks have to the plantation sequence, that it breaks the flow and such, but when I'm watching the film I need the flow to be broken at that point. It gives me time to take that metaphorical breath before the plunge, whilst still providing some interesting material to chew on.

It's not so much the break in the flow that bothers me, though that is a problem.

I dislike it primarily because, in my eyes, it diminishes the movie, by making it too specific, and tying it too firmly to a single place and time.

Without that sequence, Apocalypse Now has a mythic, dreamlike quality, and like Marlowe's original journey in "Heart of Darkness," the boat's journey upriver could symbolize many things--a journey into the past, into the future, into the subconscious.

But once we hit that French plantation--clunk. We're in Vietnam, and only Vietnam, listening to a bunch of anachronistic French colons debate politics.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I love the first Tim Burton BATMAN flick, but the Prince music video segments are not aging well . . . .

The music isn't, but the sequence of Jack Nicholson smashing up an art museum and then murdering dozens of people by giving them poison money are still awesome.

 

[Harvey]

It's not so much the break in the flow that bothers me, though that is a problem.

I dislike it primarily because, in my eyes, it diminishes the movie, by making it too specific, and tying it too firmly to a single place and time.

Without that sequence, Apocalypse Now has a mythic, dreamlike quality, and like Marlowe's original journey in "Heart of Darkness," the boat's journey upriver could symbolize many things--a journey into the past, into the future, into the subconscious.

But once we hit that French plantation--clunk. We're in Vietnam, and only Vietnam, listening to a bunch of anachronistic French colons debate politics.

Still, I'll take it for the magnificent shot of the smoke/fog clearing and the French soldiers coming into view with the look of death on all their faces. Honestly, I prefer the Redux for its much more belaboured pace, but I realize I may be alone on that. You do make a valid point about the film's mythic qualities, although I find the pristine plantation in the middle of a war zone to be so bizarre that I feel as removed from the political debate at the dinner as Willard seems to be from it.

And since somebody else mentioned Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds, I'll echo that sentiment. Everything that happens in the film's third act is completely in opposition to the tone and narrative established previously. And the happy ending in Boston is particularly annoying--both in the fact that the city is standing and that his son survived under impossible circumstances. Spielberg's instincts towards happy endings are so powerful that they defy the logic of the film.

 

[Yassim]

The Return of the King (Extended Edition): In the theatrical cut, when Aragorn beseeches the Army of the Dead to fight for him and break their curse, the scene cuts away and we don't find out what happens until the Corsair ships show up at Minas Tirith.... While I generally prefer the EEs over the TEs, in this instance the theatrical cut was superior.

Agreed.

Another addition that hurt was the new Council of Elrond in LOTR:FOTR. The additions telegraph Boromir's intentions, and make it clear he will steal the ring at his first opportunity.

 

[Goliath]

Still, I'll take it for the magnificent shot of the smoke/fog clearing and the French soldiers coming into view with the look of death on all their faces.

Well, that was a nice shot, I'll grant you that.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The Day the Earth Stood Still (original) - The overcranked shot of the crowd running in panic shortly after Klaatu first emerges and everything goes to hell. Looks silly and ruins an otherwise great sequence IMO.

EDIT: Or is that undercranked? Anyway, where the action is sped up to look faster but always looks fake.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Transformers (2007) - The bit where Sam is at his house trying to find the glasses, and the Autobots are hiding in the yard. I always fast forward over that bit when I watch the BR.

Although hearing Optimus saying "Oops, my bad" was pretty funny.

 

[Cicero]

And since somebody else mentioned Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds, I'll echo that sentiment. Everything that happens in the film's third act is completely in opposition to the tone and narrative established previously. And the happy ending in Boston is particularly annoying--both in the fact that the city is standing and that his son survived under impossible circumstances. Spielberg's instincts towards happy endings are so powerful that they defy the logic of the film.

The happy ending is taken from the original novel, which was, if anything, on the whole much grimmer and more unrelenting than the film:

I was startled. Had I spoken my thought aloud? I turned, and the French window was open behind me. I made a step to it, and stood looking out.
And there, amazed and afraid, even as I stood amazed and afraid, were my cousin and my wife--my wife white and tearless. She gave a faint cry.
"I came," she said. "I knew--knew----"
She put her hand to her throat--swayed. I made a step forward, and caught her in my arms.

​

(I admit, my favorite part of the movie was watching the - real life - 10th Mountain Division destroy the shieldless war machine.)

 

[Harvey]

I need to read that book at some point. It's not very long at all, and has been sitting on my shelf at home for years. Perhaps later this summer.

Still, the fact that his son manages to survive what happens to him in the film is one step too far, IMO. He was plainly dead. And I don't like Cruise's action hero antics against the aliens that come out of left field, either.

Harumph, harumph!

 

[Goliath]

I need to read that book at some point. It's not very long at all, and has been sitting on my shelf at home for years. Perhaps later this summer.

Do it. It really is a classic, like all of Wells's early scientific romances.

Still, the fact that his son manages to survive what happens to him in the film is one step too far, IMO. He was plainly dead. And I don't like Cruise's action hero antics against the aliens that come out of left field, either.

Harumph, harumph!

I'll add a "harrumph" to that.

 

[Harvey]

I need to read that book at some point. It's not very long at all, and has been sitting on my shelf at home for years. Perhaps later this summer.

Do it. It really is a classic, like all of Wells's early scientific romances.

I will. Perhaps I'll even start a thread when I finish, if there's any interest here in that sort of thing.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
- Any scene with Mos Def in it.

Blasphemy! Mos Def as Ford Prefect was a comedic revelation. He breathed life into one of the most difficult to grasp of the characters in that story.

[Return of the King--everything between the people of Minas Tirith kneeling before the hobbits, to Frodo writing in his book, preparing to depart for the Grey Havens.

I agree on the principle that the film did have a long drawn out ending, although considering how the book finished I'm glad we got what we got!

It does feature some beautiful dialogue, such as Frodo's "how does one pick up the ways of their old life" speech, and the "you kneel for no one" was very powerful.

I'm not sure there's any specific sequence in that ending that I would cut out but it does certainly need tighter editing.

I feel the same way about the end of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. We didn't need the part with Yoda telling Obi-Wan about his beyond the grave communications with Qui-Gon. We didn't need the part with baby Leia being taken to Alderaan. And part of me thinks that the movie should have ended not with Obi-Wan giving baby Luke to the Lars family but with Darth Vader & Emperor Palpatine overseeing the construction of the Death Star. As is, the final shot may be a tad too happy for the ending of a movie called "Revenge of the Sith."

Superman: The Movie. Lois Lane and Superman flying around Metropolis " Can you read my mind?" ugh.

Another sequence that I like but needs to be a LOT shorter. In particular, they really needed to get rid of the part where Lois Lane talk voice overs the lyrics to "Can You Read My Mind?" Generally, songs sound stupid when you're not singing them. (The exception to that rule is musicals starring Rex Harrison.)

I'm tempted to include several other Spider-Man 3 sequences, but as they add up, I realize that I actually don't really like the movie at all. But what the hell...
- The emo-Parker montage. The story is about Peter Parker being taken over by an evil alien symbiote. Why are they making it funny?!?!
- The whole Harry blackmails Mary Jane to break up with Peter BS. Why didn't Mary Jane just say to Peter, "Harry told me to break up with you. He's hiding behind that tree. Go kick his ass."
- The Sandman's closing monologue reminding us that he's a sympathetic villain. Like we care.

 

[GotNoRice]

The scene in Armageddon where they are on Mir, and all they have to do is fire the thrusters and magically they have perfect gravity on the station (not in the direction of centrifugal force), with the station having ladders already installed, etc which wouldn’t be there in a zero-G environment.

Not that the movie is a beacon of scientific accuracy but the scene still makes me cringe.

Other than that I can think of quite a few movies that are pretty decent, but when it comes to a scene with computers in it they chuck any sense of accuracy out the window. It usually involves someone “hacking” something by flying around in a cartoon world of microchips that look like a mini-city or throwing out tech-sounding buzzwords (“hurry up and open a socket so I can hack the firewall!”). I guess when it comes to computers in movies, authenticity is boring?

 

[Jadzia]

Anybody really love a movie but hate one sequence?

For me it's Superman 1.

I love almost everythibg about the movie, but despise the 'reprograming the missles' sequence.

I liked that scene. I thought it was fun viewing. Security that's realistically tight and works is far too serious to be any fun. But it's lots of fun seeing people in films sneak around, flick a few switches on the quiet, and bypass stuff that they shouldn't have access to.

I like Goldfinger, but I hate the sequence where the plane is going over fort knox spraying the nerve gas and large groups of people are dropping dead instantly before the plane has barely gone overhead. The gas just wouldn't spread down that quickly and people breathe at different times. It just looked rubbish to me, even if they were just pretending.

 

[Davros]

I Love the 1980 movie Flash Gordon, but I hate the "go Flash go!" Football fight scene.

 

[Candlelight]

Alien.

I love this movie so much, my favourite of all time... but why does it take so long for Brett to find Jones?!? It goes for 3 minutes but there's hardly any tension. At that stage no one even knows the Alien is a large, vicious killing machine so having him wander round endlessly just kills the momentum of Jones scaring the shit out of Ripley and co moments before.

The additional shot of the Alien hanging in the landing gear bay in the Director's Cut is great, but it still takes ages to get to Brett's demise.

 

[Too Much Fun]

For me, "High Fidelity" is the best example. That movie would be absolutely perfect and definitely one of my top ten favourites if not for one horrid piece of casting...Lisa Bonet as the singer that all the guys fall for, who Rob eventually brags to the camera about bedding.

Her rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" is pathetic, and in the scene where the three guys drool over her and say they like that song now that they've seen her perform it after never liking it previously, the only thing worse than the way she sings it is how bad she looks the whole time. And we're supposed to believe her as sexy?

Terrible, terrible casting. I later read the book and found out that she's about the complete opposite of the way the character is described in the book, too...in the book her style is sort of country-ish, but in the movie she's all soul/R & B-like. I love every minute of this movie except the scenes she's in, and just because of them I can't bring myself to buy the DVD.

 

[DeafPoet]

I don't love Spider-Man 3 but it's watchable enough. But the annoying "state-the-obvious" newscasters covering the climactic fight derail the entire fucking movie. I don't know what Raimi was thinking. Three whole movies of complicated action sequences and now he thinks we need this shit explained to us?

It's pretty much the same deal as the already mentioned, equally reprehensible water guys from Batman Begins.

 

[Harvey]

Alien.

I love this movie so much, my favourite of all time... but why does it take so long for Brett to find Jones?!? It goes for 3 minutes but there's hardly any tension. At that stage no one even knows the Alien is a large, vicious killing machine so having him wander round endlessly just kills the momentum of Jones scaring the shit out of Ripley and co moments before.

The additional shot of the Alien hanging in the landing gear bay in the Director's Cut is great, but it still takes ages to get to Brett's demise.

Really? I find that scene wonderfully plays up the tension. Sure, the film hasn't established that the alien is a big killing machine, but we've all seen the trailers at this point.