Movies when the main character loses it

[armful]

Movies when the main character loses it

I love any film which involves the main character losing their shit   and going on a rampage. Some personal favourites of mine

(Falling Down) Michael Douglas should have got an Oscar for his performance in this film "What's wrong with the street?"

(Straw Dogs)  Dustin Hoffman is quality in this film, you can see the exact moment he looses his marbles.  This is is one of the few films which can still shock me, very brutal. 
 
(Harry Brown)   An enjoyable revenge film.  Michael Caine as a Granddad on a rampage.  Caine is also good in get Carter, but he is a bad ass from the start in that film. In Harry Brown his murderous skills are exposed as the film develops

(Dead Mans Shoes)  Man avenges brothers death and goes on a rampage through a small British town, quite funny as well,   


Can anybody recommend any others ?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Didn't you find Harry Brown rather right-wing, as in squalid, depressing and sadistic in its revelry in retribution?

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Magic, with Anthony Hopkins, is a film with a great slow-burning deterioration.  Bug, from 1975, is great in the way the naturalist professor lead (Bradford Dillman) is shown at the start as really happy, easy-going and well-adjusted, before his wife's death turn him into a reclusive, obsessive madman.

[Bad Ambassador]

Didn't you find Harry Brown rather right-wing, as in squalid, depressing and sadistic in its revelry in retribution?

Judging by some interviews, that's why Caine took the role.

[armful]

Didn't you find Harry Brown rather right-wing, as in squalid, depressing and sadistic in its revelry in retribution?

To be honest not really, I just enjoyed it as a run of the mill revenge flick

[armful]

Magic, with Anthony Hopkins, is a film with a great slow-burning deterioration.  Bug, from 1975, is great in the way the naturalist professor lead (Bradford Dillman) is shown at the start as really happy, easy-going and well-adjusted, before his wife's death turn him into a reclusive, obsessive madman.

Ill track  that  Magic down, ive not heard of that.

[Black_Bart]

Psycho.

[Blumf]

Man on Fire (2004) has good old Denzel Washington going man mental in a nice controlled way. He

Spoiler alert

shoves a bomb up a guy arse

[close]

.

Tony Scott's direction takes a little getting used to, but is actually good use of shaky-cam.

Anyway it's always on fucking TV so wait a few minutes and watch it.

[thecuriousorange]

Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant. That drug-store counter bit.

[armful]

Man on Fire (2004) has good old Denzel Washington going man mental in a nice controlled way. He

Spoiler alert

shoves a bomb up a guy arse

[close]

.

Tony Scott's direction takes a little getting used to, but is actually good use of shaky-cam.

Anyway it's always on fucking TV so wait a few minutes and watch it.

Ive seen that, my wifes fave film Actually, good call  :-)

[armful]

Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant. That drug-store counter bit.

I have not seen this, so will add to the list

[neveragain]

Didn't you find Harry Brown rather right-wing, as in squalid, depressing and sadistic in its revelry in retribution?

I enjoy seeing Michael Caine kill a bunch of kids in order to walk through an underpass.

[Default to the negative]

If you don't mind subtitles, 'I Saw The Devil' is a good, intense revenge flick with an antagonist so vile that even the pansy-est of liberals won't be troubled by any hand-wringing about his fate, or by 'what it all says' about 'our society' or whatever.

Also, the revenge becomes so overblown and elaborate that it reaches cartoonish heights and you could never equate it with anything in the real world.

[zomgmouse]

Kill Bill

[Steven]

Christine

[Small Man Big Horse]

Network seems an obvious choice, it takes him a fair while to lose it but it's spectacular when he does.

Taxi Driver - Nobody loses it quite like DeNiro, and this is his best example.

Crank 1 & 2 sees Statham losing it all the time, which is why they're such amazing films.

Phantom of the Paradise - As mentioned in the Non-2017 Films thread recently. Some lovely losing it going on there.

[Twit 2]

Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant. That drug-store counter bit.

Also Julianne Moore at the drug-store counter in Magnolia.

[Bhazor]

Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant. That drug-store counter bit.

Nicholas Cage in any thing really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S73swRzxs8Y

[HappyTree]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

[Blumf]

Any of The Punisher films, seeing as the character is basically all about majorly loosing his rag after his family are killed, the delicate flower.

[Noodle Lizard]

(Harry Brown)   An enjoyable revenge film.  Michael Caine as a Granddad on a rampage.  Caine is also good in get Carter, but he is a bad ass from the start in that film. In Harry Brown his murderous skills are exposed as the film develops

Harry Brown's a bit weird.  It does feel very Daily Mail and a bit like it's been written by a kid[nb]the bit with Sean Harris's drug dealer character is unintentionally hilarious - it's like Reefer Madness in modern-day Finsbury[/nb], but I did quite like the set-up.  It gets pretty fucking poor after the first half.  I seem to remember Emily Mortimer's character being about as stock and perfunctory as you like.  There was also all the horrible-looking CGI blood and this was around the time when people were still trying to pretend Plan B was talented at anything, so he's all over it.

[Noodle Lizard]

John Wick, although I didn't find it nearly as "lol awesome" as a lot of people seem to.  It's more like watching someone else play a pretty poor videogame.

[armful]

Christine

Christine is a good shout. Only just realised the other week the main guy in Christine plays one of the geeks in Jaws 2.

Lots of good suggestions here that I will track down

[armful]

Another Film I forgot about is The Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood version). A total switch of character at the end.  I love the look on Gene Hackman's face when Clint delivers the line "I've killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you done to Ned"

[Brundle-Fly]

"That's very nearly half my arm!"



Fantastic 1977 revenge thriller with the god-like William Devane (below) as a returning home army major who gets mighty pissed off. Early outing for Tommy Lee Jones too.

[DrunkCountry]

I Saw The Devil

"I SAW THE DEVIL is a shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge. The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse."

[Brundle-Fly]

I Saw The Devil

"I SAW THE DEVIL is a shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge. The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse."

Default To The Negative nominated that about six posts ago. It is great though.

[DrunkCountry]

Default To The Negative nominated that about six posts ago. It is great though.

Aw, shit, totally missed that post. Still, fucking great film.

[Shit Good Nose]

Fritz Lang's Fury.  Shit ending though.

All the Death Wish films (and most of Bronson's latter career films, in fact).

Ransom (albeit losing it in a very cool and collected way).

[kidsick5000]

Man From Nowhere - it works well as a Korean companion piece to John Wick.
It involves an insanely talented killer in a cool suit reluctantly pulled back into that world.
In this case, it's because his neighbour's daughter is taken by wannabe mafia types.
He shows little emotion until the big showdown at which point men become fodder.