Bad scene

zahra · May 19, 2007

Are you ever annoyed by a scene in an otherwise good film?

Just watching 'The Day After Tomorrow' (felt like a bit of spectacle today), and once more when it got to the bit where Emmy what's-her-face, Jake G's love interest, cuts her leg but then goes back to get the bag of the black non-English-speaking mother and child, I gritted my teeth, jolted out of a great action movie.

There's a wall of water coming at them, panic everywhere, and she goes back to get someone's bag, if you please, after helping to save her from the waterlogged taxi. There being nothing preventing the woman from going back for her own bloody bag, by the way, English not being required to reach into a car. And nothing preventing Emmy-Love-Interest from saying, 'I've just helped save your life, at risk to my own. I've got a bloody great gash in my leg. The world looks like it's coming to an end. Get moving or I'll drown you myself.'

It's such a sledgehammer way to show her 'character'. It's like the writers are saying, 'You WILL like her! You WILL! She's sweet and lovely and wonderful and you WILL LIKE HER!' Why not just have her saving a basketful of kittens and have done with it?

It reminds me of the Rasta-biker/cop in the trunk scene in the otherwise excellent 'Thelma and Louise'. Callie Khouri is showing us the cop is OK, and trying to lighten the situation, because otherwise we might not be so happy about what Thelma and Louise have just done, but what a shame she chose to use such a stereotype character, who seems so out of place in the film, to do it.

Anyone else feels like saying, 'Get out, you're spoiling my movie' to a certain scene?

MelodyO · May 19, 2007

First, about The Day After Tomorrow. Every damn time it comes on TV, I say to my husband, "That's right, they're trapped in a library for a week and nobody ever goes to the bathroom." It's a good thing there were hot men in that movie, that's all I'm saying.

As for a scene that comes to mind, I watched Copycat the other night with Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver. Just when you thought poor Sigourney was finally safe, the very last scene had Harry Connick Jr (also hot, but not in this movie) in his jail cell writing to another disciple ordering him to kill her, kill her, KILL HER. Okay, this guy caused a serial killer to murder a bunch of people, wreak havoc with the police force, and ruin the life of Sigourney's character...and the prison is STILL letting him mail letters out willy nilly?? ::suspension of disbelief snaps and plunges to its death::

AzBobby · May 19, 2007

This will sound trivial, but a shot with bad special effects, scenery or makeup in an otherwise flawless movie (or close enough to it) makes me say that.

I don't mean old films in which certain fake appearances are normal to the style, like the painted backdrops in Wizard of Oz. I mean like The African Queen, when after a gritty, realistic look and feel is set up with location shooting and natural looking studio settings, we watch the characters suddenly bounce around in blue-screen shots while their boat rides the rapids, with results that were poor even for special effects in the early 50s.

...or in the original Stagecoach when a saguaro cactus prominent in the background of a stage-set ranch looks like it was replicated from a George Herriman cartoon.

...or in Lifeboat when despite near-perfect scenes shot in a studio tank throughout the film, they had one nighttime scene with really fake, big round Christmas-light stars in the sky backdrop.

...or in Lawrence of Arabia when, despite all the dirty, realistic locations and action stunts, closeups reveal enough eye and face makeup to embarrass a silent film actor. Or when the pale blue sky is visible in those few obvious day-for-night shots.

jodiodi · May 19, 2007

Speaking of Day After Tomorrow, I always found it improbable that everything froze, but the little vials of antibiotics or whatever they got from the ship to treat that sappy girl's leg, were still liquid.

Silver King · May 19, 2007

You should never use the words "good film" in the same breath as The Day After Tomorrow.

kristie911 · May 19, 2007

Not good but I find it very entertaining. There is a definite difference between good and entertaining.

maestrowork · May 20, 2007

The ending of The Departed -- the last 15 minutes or so, right about the time Leo and Matt were on the roof. DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Made me so mad it ruined the movie for me.

Crash. I wouldn't really call it a great movie and couldn't believe it upset Brokeback Mountain as Best Picture. But the first scene with Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton was so riveting that the second scene at the car crash was just over-the-top, melodramatically bad.

ChunkyC · May 20, 2007

Being a techno-weenie, one that sticks out in my mind is from the original Star Wars. (an author fixed this in a novel written years later, but at the time....)

Scene: in the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo is asked if the Falcon is fast, to which he replies:

"She made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

Um, Han buddy? A parsec is a measure of distance, not time. That's like saying, "Is Carl Lewis fast?" and replying, "Yeah, he can do the olympic sprint in a hundred metres."

Wasn't there anyone involved with that movie who knew what a parsec was? Of course, the movie was so much fun that that little gaffe really didn't affect my enjoyment of it overall, but it was the one thing that bugged me about it.

To finish the story for those who care, in the subsequent novel I mentioned, the author came up with the idea that the Kessel Run involved navigating through a group of tightly packed stars, and only the fastest ships could take the shortest route through and not get pulled into one of the stars by gravitational forces. Very, very clever solution, imho.

zahra · May 21, 2007

kristie911 said:
Not good but I find it very entertaining. There is a definite difference between good and entertaining.

Oh, yes. Sometimes you just feel like popcorn as opposed to seared salmon with balsamic vinegar...but the popcorn still has to be fresh and flavourful. And you don't want burnt bits in it, thank you very much.

pconsidine · May 21, 2007

The fight scene in the kitchen in The Bourne Supremacy. All that shaky handheld camera and too-close framing made me crazy. What's the point of a fight scene if you can't see a damn thing that's happening?

It's one of the few times that I have unequivocally blamed my dislike of a movie on the director. Bad director, bad!

Tiger · May 21, 2007

"Ace Ventura: Pet Detective"

I hated the part right after, "A Tom Shadyac Film..."

alaskamatt17 · May 22, 2007

Well, I thought that by-and-large, Spider-man 3 was good, but the scene with Peter Parker dancing down the street pretending he was all bad just grated on me.

In The Return of the King I can't stand the slide off the trunk after Legolas brings down the Oliphant/Mumak.

Neo flying off from the phone booth at the end of The Matrix (and everything that follows).

zahra · May 22, 2007

alaskamatt17 said:
Well, I thought that by-and-large, Spider-man 3 was good, but the scene with Peter Parker dancing down the street pretending he was all bad just grated on me.

In The Return of the King I can't stand the slide off the trunk after Legolas brings down the Oliphant/Mumak.

Neo flying off from the phone booth at the end of The Matrix (and everything that follows).

But Legolas is an elf. He has to do elfin things, or else he's just...Orlando Bloom in a blond wig.

Actually, talking of Legolas, what's with the London accent that slips through sometimes? There's this one bit when he's vying with Gimli for the most badass killer title, and he says, 'Seven-TAYNE', like someone in an episode of 'The Bill'.

Sai · May 22, 2007

I can't stand the first 10 minutes of La Femme Nikita. The rest of the moive is fantastic, but first you have to sit through a badly lit, confusing and cheesy action scene that doesn't fit the rest of the moive. If I were the director, I would have started the movie with Nikita already in court, but I'm not.

Jcomp · May 22, 2007

You know... I'm going to give this distinction to Arnold's thumbs up at the end of Terminator 2. It just felt so out of place, forced and melodramatic. Such a reach for poignancy. I just didn't feel it.

FatTire · May 22, 2007

maestrowork said:
The ending of The Departed -- the last 15 minutes or so, right about the time Leo and Matt were on the roof. DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Made me so mad it ruined the movie for me.

Crash. I wouldn't really call it a great movie and couldn't believe it upset Brokeback Mountain as Best Picture. But the first scene with Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton was so riveting that the second scene at the car crash was just over-the-top, melodramatically bad.

Agree 100% with The Departed. I actually boo'ed when it won best picture.

alaskamatt17 · May 24, 2007

zahra said:
But Legolas is an elf. He has to do elfin things, or else he's just...Orlando Bloom in a blond wig.

Actually, talking of Legolas, what's with the London accent that slips through sometimes? There's this one bit when he's vying with Gimli for the most badass killer title, and he says, 'Seven-TAYNE', like someone in an episode of 'The Bill'.

Good elf trick: walking on snow while everyone else slogs through it.

Bad elf trick: foot-surfing down an elephant's trunk and giving a smug little head-cock at the end like, OMG I'm Orlando Bloom! Swoon all you teenage girls!

zahra · May 24, 2007

alaskamatt17 said:
Good elf trick: walking on snow while everyone else slogs through it.

Bad elf trick: foot-surfing down an elephant's trunk and giving a smug little head-cock at the end like, OMG I'm Orlando Bloom! Swoon all you teenage girls!

Oh...OK. Conceded. And a rep for making me chuckle.

pamelajo · May 25, 2007

All the scenes with "Danger" in Million Dollar Baby. They had nothing to do with the fim. It just felt like filler.

Jack Nog · May 25, 2007

Air Force One...the entire thing.

III · May 25, 2007

I actually enjoyed The Matrix right up until the scene where Trinity's kiss magically brought Neo back to life in the real world. Werst ... Scene ... Ever.

seun · Jun 4, 2007

I know it's a crappy girl film throughout but there's still one scene in the first Bridget Jones that makes me cringe.
Bridget walks into the bog while Hugh Grant's secret shag is hiding. As she turns to run, the shag says:
"I thought you said she was thin."

It was like someone holding up a big sign saying YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE THIS WOMAN.

Horrible.

Feyd · Jun 4, 2007

Drawing from an absolutely horrid movie, there's a scene in "Batman and Robin" (the 4th Batman movie, and the one that proved to the world that Joel Schumacher seems to just hate Batman)... it's the scene where they get the cure for Alfred's incurable, horribly progressive disease, and then you have George Clooney playing Mr. E.R. Doctor and putting the medicine into Al's IV drip. Even at the time I remember saying, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."

MarkEsq · Jun 4, 2007

pconsidine said:
The fight scene in the kitchen in The Bourne Supremacy. All that shaky handheld camera and too-close framing made me crazy. What's the point of a fight scene if you can't see a damn thing that's happening?

It's one of the few times that I have unequivocally blamed my dislike of a movie on the director. Bad director, bad!

YES! And after the best fight scene EVER in the Bourne Identity, what a tragedy.

Vincent · Jun 4, 2007

Concerning ''The Day After Tomorrow', what niggled at me was that while outside in Siberian-like conditions those kids kept grabbing metal surfaces with their bare hands, without, you know, losing all that skin as soon as they tried to pull away.

Bad scene

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