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Transcendental moments in otherwise crappy films

Started by biggytitbo, September 15, 2010, 08:27:01 PM

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biggytitbo

Cult favourite return of captain invincible is actually a pretty boring and tedious film, save for the few Christopher lee song and dance numbers that are indescribably brilliant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8W2fkhfFPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meXAVS2vb2o&feature=related

Let's have some more crap films with brilliant moments!

gmoney

The beginning of Enduring Love is great, a really tense and graphic ballooning accident which makes the rest of the film so much more disappointing and drab in comparison.


BJB

The Smooth Criminal part of Michael Jacksons Moonwalker. That part is up there with , if not better then, Thriller. Everything else in that film is self indulgent rubbish.

I don't know about 'transcendental'... but I found myself going along with the recieved opinion that the opening 20 minutes of Jeepers Creepers made you feel like you were watching a very tense, perfectly-paced and creepy horror, sort of like The Hitcher but with a fucked up mothman instead of Rutger Hauer. What followed is anyone's guess.

Famous Mortimer

There's a similarly incredibly tense 15-20 minutes in seemingly forgotten film Mute Witness. Where the protagonist is trying to get out of a film set or a hotel where there's some bad lads. Basically, it's great, although is the rest of the film crappy? Not sure.

EDIT: Just found out from Wikipedia that they're doing a remake of it in the US next year - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mute_Witness. Watch it now so you can be smug about how much better the original is when it comes out!

Phil_A

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on September 19, 2010, 06:18:30 PM
There's a similarly incredibly tense 15-20 minutes in seemingly forgotten film Mute Witness. Where the protagonist is trying to get out of a film set or a hotel where there's some bad lads. Basically, it's great, although is the rest of the film crappy? Not sure.

EDIT: Just found out from Wikipedia that they're doing a remake of it in the US next year - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mute_Witness. Watch it now so you can be smug about how much better the original is when it comes out!

I have to agree about Mute Witness, - brilliantly tense first half, then it just turns into a really cack-handed farce. Including a pointless cameo by Alec Guinness.

Artemis

I wouldn't describe The Truman Show as 'crappy' by any stretch, but the sequence in which his boat hits the sky wall and he's hurling himself against it in confusion and realisation, with the music used for that sequence, is something quite beautiful - certainly more so than the rest of the movie.

Shoulders?-Stomach!


neveragain


Cohaagen

I've always found the last few seconds (and final freeze frame) from I.D.[nb]
Tangential note: if you find yourself in the house of someone you don't know very well and happen to spot a copy of I.D. or Romper Stomper on the living room floor next to the DVD player, leave as fast as you can. Just trust me on this one.[/nb] pretty devastating.

Nik Drou

Though I largely enjoyed the movie, this sequence from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was the first thing to pop in my mind when I saw the title of this thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02a2HSB58M&

In the radio and TV versions, this was played more directly for laughs, but there's a wonderful sense of majesty and genuine sadness that I feel is unique to the film.  It's also great to see such an absurd and beautiful non-sequitur survive the transition.

mycroft

The death of Optimus Prime in the proper Transformers movie. Warrior, philosopher, pacifist, bitchin' big red truck - we all wished he was our dad. His passing, along with the regeneration of Megatron (another excellent scene, actually), marked the moment the Transformers went all rubbish. Fuck you, Hot Rod. Fuck you.

Pepotamo1985

The whole clip used to be on YT but it's long gone (I would assume), but the whole segment in Eraserhead which begins with the Lady In The Radiator song and ends with Henry's brain being sold for pencil rubber material stands out as the one genuinely mind altering and enthralling segments of the film, which drops jaws and absolutely intrigues. I found most of the rest of it pretty dull.

Dead kate moss

When Sybil Danning does a sexy dance in The Man With Bogart's Face.

Jumble Cashback

Watched 'The Punisher' (the 2003 one) the other day.  Mostly RUBBISH, but there are two scenes (pretty much back-to-back) that are actually really good.  The first is a fight scene that comes out of nowhere with a big, blonde Russian.  It's not quite the
Spoiler alert
'put on the glasses!'
[close]
scene from 'They Live!', but it's close.  Then there's a really well done and quite troubling torture scene.  Now, I really don't like torture scenes in films and I find goregasm films such as Hostel to be fairly distasteful, given that torture does actually happen to people and is pretty much the worst thing in the world, but this scene manages to be understated and yet really pretty shocking.  It also serves it's purpose of really making you hate the baddies.

On a completely different note, the Abbott and Costello film 'In The Navy' is mostly just the usual fluff except for the bit with the lemons, the blackboard scene and the bit where he has to keep the water in his mouth which is pretty much the only time I've ever scene real corpsing in a comedy of that generation.  Joyous to watch.  To be honest, a lot of comedies of that era were just mince with a couple of real stand-out moments.  Obviously, the ones that are still famous are usually exceptions, but, if you watch just an ordinary comedy or musical from the 40s, they tend to conform to that format.

Solid Jim

Quote from: Jumble Cashback on October 12, 2010, 12:05:39 PM
Watched 'The Punisher' (the 2003 one) the other day.  Mostly RUBBISH, but there are two scenes (pretty much back-to-back) that are actually really good.  The first is a fight scene that comes out of nowhere with a big, blonde Russian.  It's not quite the
Spoiler alert
'put on the glasses!'
[close]
scene from 'They Live!', but it's close.  Then there's a really well done and quite troubling torture scene.  Now, I really don't like torture scenes in films and I find goregasm films such as Hostel to be fairly distasteful, given that torture does actually happen to people and is pretty much the worst thing in the world, but this scene manages to be understated and yet really pretty shocking.  It also serves it's purpose of really making you hate the baddies.

It's perhaps not a coincidence that those two scenes are quite faithful to the Garth Ennis run of Punisher comics which otherwise serve only as the very vaguest outline for some aspects of the film's storyline. Not that I'm necessarily saying an exact retelling of the comics would make for good cinema.

Anscombe

This is not an original suggestion, but I do find the unbroken, four minute (approx.) tracking shot which opens "The Bonfire of the Vanities" totally thrilling, the best sustained master shot in cinema history (as Steven Spielberg called it at the time).  The fact that the rest of the film is so mediocre is therefore a real disappointment.  (And I emphasise 'mediocre'.  When the film was released, some critics gave the impression that it was somehow unwatchably dreadful, like a late entry in the Police Academy series, or Michael Winner's "Bullseye".  But it's not: it is superbly shot throughout, and it contains the odd nice cameo performance, e.g., Robert Stephens as the newspaper editor.  But it is by no means a good film, by any stretch.)

non capisco

Quote from: Anscombe on October 20, 2010, 01:13:34 AM
This is not an original suggestion, but I do find the unbroken, four minute (approx.) tracking shot which opens "The Bonfire of the Vanities" totally thrilling, the best sustained master shot in cinema history (as Steven Spielberg called it at the time). 

I'm a total sucker for those show-offy unbroken tracking shots. I still think the one in 'Children Of Men' (not a crappy film I should hasten to add) is the best I've seen.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Cohaagen on September 23, 2010, 01:50:19 AMTangential note: if you find yourself in the house of someone you don't know very well and happen to spot a copy of I.D. or Romper Stomper on the living room floor next to the DVD player, leave as fast as you can. Just trust me on this one.

I'll trust you.  But it still sounds like a story that needs to be told!  New thread in GB, maybe?

lipsink

Sly Stallone's early 90's thriller The Specialist is an awful, awful film. An absolute piece of shit. But James Woods is bloody wasted in it. His turn as a completely unpredictable nutcase has some great little moments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzjd0Fehwis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v95_3Ox1V0

AsparagusTrevor


SavageHedgehog

John Barry also gives it a bloody good score doesn't he? Remember finding that film watchable, but then action films can be a bit of a blind spot for me.

chocky909

The Invention Of Lying was largely crap but it had a few good lines and performances although given the amount of comedic talent throwing themselves at it I'd expect more. However there was one short scene that I'd been told about and it did tickle enough for me to replay it a few times. It's a good performance by Jimmi Simpson and the last line makes it.

Real advertisement of Coca Cola (From The Invention of Lying)

momatt

Without a trace of irony, this is the finest film ever made in my opinion.
Crappy DVD extras though.

Quote from: mycroft on September 26, 2010, 07:43:19 PM
The death of Optimus Prime in the proper Transformers movie. Warrior, philosopher, pacifist, bitchin' big red truck - we all wished he was our dad. His passing, along with the regeneration of Megatron (another excellent scene, actually), marked the moment the Transformers went all rubbish. Fuck you, Hot Rod. Fuck you.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Jumble Cashback on October 12, 2010, 12:05:39 PM
On a completely different note, the Abbott and Costello film 'In The Navy' is mostly just the usual fluff except for the bit with the lemons, the blackboard scene and the bit where he has to keep the water in his mouth which is pretty much the only time I've ever scene real corpsing in a comedy of that generation.  Joyous to watch.  To be honest, a lot of comedies of that era were just mince with a couple of real stand-out moments.

Agreed, those routines are wonderful, but you could say that about most of the better A&C films: a lot of dull filler interspersed with top-notch, brilliantly delivered comedy routines. Which admittedly you did say.

Having (both) said that, I'd argue that Lost in a Harem and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein are entirely filler-free and number amongst the best comedy films of the era. Obviously, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is generally regarded as a bit of a classic, so I'm not really blowing minds with my opinion here, but it's slightly annoying that it's the only A&C film that's ever singled out for attention. As uneven though they are, there is a lot to recommend about films such as Hit the Ice, Who Done It?, Hold That Ghost, Buck Privates and - as you say - In the Navy. Also, Buck Privates Come Home is a surprisingly charming film, featuring as it does rare forays into - perfectly acceptable - pathos.

Me there, on the films of Abbott & Costello.

Icehaven

The bit in 'Scenes of a Sexual Nature' where Tom Hardy gets his bum out is fairly transcendental. Apart from that splendid moment it's one of the worst films I've ever seen.

Quote from: mycroft on September 26, 2010, 07:43:19 PM
The death of Optimus Prime in the proper Transformers movie. Fuck you, Hot Rod. Fuck you.

Hot Rod(imus Prime) is Gabbo, next to Optimus Prime's Krusty The Clown.



I'm a bad wittle boy!