Not So Good Scenes in your Favorite Movies

[roscoegino]

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid -- the picture montage didn't work for me.

[English Dave]

Kelly's Heroes - Donald Sutherland's pre-beatnick beatnick jarred.

[Pen Dragon]

Butch and Sundance -- Raindrops keep fallin'...

The Searchers -- The wedding brawl between Jeffrey Hunter and Ken Curtis was way overdone comic relief

Singin' in the Rain -- The Broadway Melody sequence is out of place and a total annoying detour from the story

The Bishop's Wife -- the ice skating sequence wasn't convincing. Cary Grant looked shaky on skates

[Hairy Lime]

The last scenes in Rosemary's Baby. What a disappointment after such a brilliant exploration of a woman gone mad.

[Writer1]

In FARGO...the scene where whatshisname meets with Margie in the diner and confesses his love for her...I still don't get it.

[Erehwon]

There's this one part in The Godfather, where Sonny is beating Carlo. There's a totally blown angle with the camera so you can see that James C's fist is a good 7-8" away from the dude's face, but his head snaps back anyway.

Always cringe at that.


Dark Passage: In the climax, the way the killer is killed is totally lame, as is the following explanaition by Bogie as he's on the phone to Bacall. Really bad writing there.

[dano68]

Eyes Wide Shut - Nicole Kidman trying to act stoned.

[Johnny Stacatto]

eyes wide shut - tom cruise trying to act

[TheKeenGuy]

Rita Hayworth singing "Put the Blame on Mame" like a million times in Gilda.

[Deus Ex Machine]

The rape scene (I love you because you raped me) in Hospital.



The bookend scenes in Green Mile.

The drunken fisherman throwing the wife's pot roast in the water at night in Jaws.

[refriedwhiskey]

Well, let's see...Casablanca is perfect in every way, so what else is there....

Batman - When Batman's in the Batplane (Batwing?) and he strafes the Joker -- who's standing perfectly still -- with two machine guns and a pair of air-to-ground guided missiles...and misses. And then the Joker pulls a revolver out of his pocket...and shoots Batman's plane down with one shot.

I cringe at that sequence every time. (And it's followed by the crash sequence, which is one of the phoniest looking miniature shots in modern film history.)

The Two Towers - The dumb stuff with Gimli and Legolas comparing the number of Orcs they've killed; the really, really dumb stuff with Gimli not being able to see over the rampart wall.

Return of the King - In the extended edition, the dumb stuff with Gimli and Legolas comparing the number of Orcs they've killed, and Gimli's completely jarring, anachronistic reference to the Orc's "nervous system."

(Also the dumb dwarf-tossing stuff in the first two movies.)

Return of the Jedi - Pretty much all of the Ewok stuff.

Silence of the Lambs - The big cheat where the FBI is supposed to be bearing down on the killer's house, and then it's revealed it's not the house we thought it was, and this isn't the door we thought it was, etc.

Hm. Interesting that most of my favorite movies that have problems I can think of are genre movies, and the more "serious" movies I love (like Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.) don't seem to have such problems.

[cluckyburger]

Return of the King - In the extended edition, the dumb stuff with Gimli and Legolas comparing the number of Orcs they've killed, and Gimli's completely jarring, anachronistic reference to the Orc's "nervous system."


i think that's in Two Towers extended. the nervous system bit i mean. and come on gimli's all about the comic relief. the whole gimli/legolas back and forth builds to ROTK when gimli says "i never thought I'd die next to an elf" and legolas says "what about next to a friend"? i'm getting teary just thinking of it.

[refriedwhiskey]

Hm, I think you're right about that nervous system bit being in TTT Extended. There is some silly Gimli stuff in ROTK, though, like when Legolas kills the Mumakil and Gimli yells "That still only counts as one!" :rolleyes:

I know Gimli's the comic relief, but I disliked the idea of putting most of the comic relief on one character, and I thought most of the comic relief was dumb and unnecessary and also dumb. Comic relief is a very tough trick, and it's very easy to put it in the wrong place or go too broad with it and break the mood.

(I think Jackson and Walsh and Boyens did a fantastic job adapting the novel, but they shouldn't attempt comedy.)

[Erehwon]

"Return of the King - In the extended edition, the dumb stuff with Gimli and Legolas comparing the number of Orcs they've killed, and Gimli's completely jarring, anachronistic reference to the Orc's "nervous system."



Oh god, yes! That was so fvckin' bad. It made me cringe, almost as much as Hugo's horrible uttering of "wold" instead of "world" in his big "I'm now the king" speech.

I always, ALWAYS cringe at that scene, and I think that's the one, ONE scene in all of the LOTR movies that I just can't excuse. It's so lame, with his "Wold".

Dude, you've had like 5 different accents through 10+ hours of film, and you flub THAT, AND they let it GO!?!?!?!!

/shudders.

[Bad Liver]

The bat hallucination scene from Lost Weekend.

Come on. We've all seen bats when we're having the DT's. They look nothing like that.

[Pencey]

The Deer Hunter - That entire wedding sequence should've been left on the cutting room floor except for the part where the men encounter a vet who has come back from "doing his time." They get a hint in that scene that maybe the cause they're fighting for isn't gonna be as rewarding as they think.

All that other crap with the wedding and especially the dancing just slows down the movie.

[TheKeenGuy]

The rape scene (I love you because you raped me) in Hospital.
Wait wait wait. Wasn't she coming onto him in that scene? He resists, but then after that monologue relents and tears her clothes off. Indeed it's a rough sex scene, but unless I'm remembering it entirely incorrectly, it's not a rape scene. Perhaps you are confusing it with Straw Dogs.

(By the way, I totally agree with you on the terrible bookend scenes in The Green Mile.)

[Erehwon]

The rape scene in The Hospital totally works, based on what we know of the characters, and the point they are in their lives.

I own that film, and it's awesome. I love George C. Scott.

That's all I'm sayin'. My opine, is all.

[Beantowner2]

The drunken fisherman throwing the wife's pot roast in the water at night in Jaws.[/QUOTE]

The scene was okay. The fisherman were not drunk. They attached the pot-roast to a chain & hook to catch the shark for the reward-money.

[Austen]

"The drunken fisherman throwing the wife's pot roast in the water at night in Jaws."

I disagree. The scene may seem to be bad, but I think differently. What was originally intended was for the harbor master to be strolling the dock at night. He leans over the edge of the dock to clean out his cup, in the background the masts of the boats begin to sway back and forth. As the harbor master cleans out his cup, the shark pops out and gets him.

Although I do like the scene above, I do agree with the scene they still have. Just two men looking to cash in on a reward for some "fish." Well, they are simpletons who don't realize that some "fish" is more dangerous than it is.

If you haven't guessed yet, JAWS is one of my favorite movies.

Austen.

[Pen Dragon]

The goofball comedy schtick in Superman. Donner was not really the right guy to direct that film at that time. as Lex Luthor, Hackman is doing a parody of a Bond villain that would have made Matt Helm cringe. Beatty is as threatening as one of the Ritz Brothers.

As much as I love Quigley Down Under, Laura San Giacomo is badly miscast and at times awful. Thank god the script was so good that she couldn't sink it.

The 1970's cars and taxis seen in some of the traffic shots in My Favorite Year

in Mister Roberts, Pulver coming back after the laundry explosion with his shirt torn to shreds but without a scratch on him. Not sure if John Ford or Mervyn Leroy directed that scene, but it was way overdone

Jodie Foster in Maverick grates me

The fact that the entire crew and mission in Memphis Belle were fictional. It's a good film, but it plays like Indiana Jones over Germany. Everything happens in that mission but a rolling boulder. And many of the actors came across anachonistically in manner.

Speaking of Anochronisms, there's anout 1 every 4 minutes in Young Guns, but it still is a good western

The wires manipulating the palm trees in Key Largo

The wires manipulating the snakes in Gunga Din (and that obvious wrinkled sheet they used as a backdrop in a few shots)

When Sandahl Bergman reappears as a ghost in gleaming valkyrie armor in Conan. Geezus

Braveheart's liberties with history just because Randall Wallace is a mediocre writer

Apollo 13. The sequence where Lovell imagines himself on the moon during the flyby. Howard can never resist hammering sentimentality into his audience with a mallet

[joe9alt]

The raining frogs ending in MAGNOLIA.

[Pencey]

The raining frogs ending in MAGNOLIA.

YES! I'm still trying to convince myself that it's a brilliant plot point and yet the other half still isn't buying it!

[refriedwhiskey]

I loved them frogs.

[Deus Ex Machine]

I think the scene of the two fisherman is bad because ti doesn't tell us anything about the people on the island or the threat that we don't already know. It's also a rather slowly paced scene that I think is int here for levity and to give the audience and to slow the story down a little before it kicks up again, which is all well and good but it doesn't work for me.


To me that scene is the wrongly tied knot in Spielberg's tapestry that he left there to remind himself that only god is capable of perfection.

Yes, it is a rape in The Hospital. I get what Chayefsky (a hero of mine) was trying to accomplish, but to me it is just too creepy and perverse to play the rape the way it is played. It's a moral judgment. I think he took what he was saying about society too far in that scene and the impact of what he was trying to accomplish was lost on me because I was so repulsed by the scene.

[Hamboogul]

In Star Wars, when Creedo shoots first. I hate that crap.

[Erehwon]

The pot roast scene in Jaws does in fact give us information. Up to that point, sure, we know we're dealing with a very large fish, but watching it turn around and come after the guy moves the fish into a whole 'nother realm and ups the ante. It shows us that this ain't no normal sharky, at all.

And I vividly remember, in teh theater when it came out, that this scene had everyone on the edge of their seat.

I think what doesn't work is the horrible loop job with the voices.

[JesseNC]

The only one that comes to mind is one of the battle scenes in Braveheart. I can't remember which one -- I don't feel like pulling out my DVD.

But.. when the battle is over, the background has some guys still fighting and right before they're about to kill eachother, seriously, both swinging swords at eachother, they stop and start talking.

It catches my eye every time I watch the movie and ruins the entire scene for me.

[jmgogdog]

Agree completely with JesseNC about the Braveheart scene. How could they have missed that in the editing room? I once heard a comdeian comment on that scene but I don't remember who or when.
p.s. JesseNC...that avatar gives me the creeps big time.

[rockridesva]

Fantastic Four...the begining, middle, end.

[greyghost]

As much as I love Quigley Down Under, Laura San Giacomo is badly miscast and at times awful.

Jodie Foster in Maverick grates me


I loved both women in both roles.

[refriedwhiskey]

Fantastic Four...the begining, middle, end.
And yet it's one of your favorite movies?

Interesting.

[rockridesva]

Favoritest EVER!

[Pen Dragon]

I loved both women in both roles.

Julia Roberts in Quigley

Kim Catrall in Maverick

Too bad Catherine Zeta Jones was too young for both

[TwoBitHack]

Every scene with an Ewok in RETURN OF THE JEDI.

[billythrilly7]

The "Matt Damon: Let me tell you about my dead brothers with a funny story that wasn't funny at all" scene in Saving Private Ryan.

Atrocious.

[Pen Dragon]

Lemme explain that scene to you, billy. Spielberg needed a scene to tell us who Ryan is as a character, that he's a decent kid worth putting their asses on the line for, but that he's also , partly, just an ignorant, immature kid, one who needs some work, and therefore to give meaning and resonance to Hanks' 'earn this' line at the end. By telling a story about basically a rape in a farmhouse, that he has a funny recollection of, Ryan taints his character just enough away from the squeaky clean upstanding all american boy he initially comes across as. Hanks listens politely to the story, and forces himself to smile, but is watching Ryan like a schoolteacher seeing potential in one of his students, but subjected to a rough edge to his character that needs polish. The insensitive but still twistedly humorous (at best) story about he and his brothers having their way with an 'ugly' girl rings true. And we listen with a painful smile to it just like Hanks. Ryan needs to grow up, Hanks is thinking, he's obviously a decent kid with flaws, but yeah, he's a decent kid, and he grows the very second Hanks' gets through to him with his dying breath. In that regard, the scene is actually crucial, though could have been written a little better. I always get the vibe Frank Darabont scribbled it off for Spielberg over the telephone. Probably wrong of course. But it does sound like Darabont to me.

[Pencey]

Very good Pen. You get an A+ for today...

[roscoegino]

Voight meeting with and beating up the old guy towards the end of Midnight Cowboy.

The flashback in Casablanca could have been written a little better, but why carp?

[Han Shot First]

In Star Wars, when Creedo shoots first. I hate that crap.

This bothered me enough to make a handle out of it. And it's "Greedo." ;)

[whitenavel]

The frogs in Magnolia are brilliant and basically, the point of the film. But my answer for this thread is the rapping kid in the same movie.

[Biohazard]

Raiders of the Lost Ark and that god damn deus ex machina ending.

[billythrilly7]

Lemme explain that scene to you, billy. Spielberg needed a scene to tell us who Ryan is as a character, that he's a decent kid worth putting their asses on the line for, but that he's also , partly, just an ignorant, immature kid, one who needs some work, and therefore to give meaning and resonance to Hanks' 'earn this' line at the end. By telling a story about basically a rape in a farmhouse, that he has a funny recollection of, Ryan taints his character just enough away from the squeaky clean upstanding all american boy he initially comes across as. Hanks listens politely to the story, and forces himself to smile, but is watching Ryan like a schoolteacher seeing potential in one of his students, but subjected to a rough edge to his character that needs polish. The insensitive but still twistedly humorous (at best) story about he and his brothers having their way with an 'ugly' girl rings true. And we listen with a painful smile to it just like Hanks. Ryan needs to grow up, Hanks is thinking, he's obviously a decent kid with flaws, but yeah, he's a decent kid, and he grows the very second Hanks' gets through to him with his dying breath. In that regard, the scene is actually crucial, though could have been written a little better. I always get the vibe Frank Darabont scribbled it off for Spielberg over the telephone. Probably wrong of course. But it does sound like Darabont to me.

Wayyy to much analyzation.

The scene was there to simply show Ryan reminiscing about his dead brothers the way people may tell a funny story about a loved one while mourning that loved one AND to give us all breather before the big finale. And the funny story wasn't funny. And the scene stunk.

I agree that the scene is crucial, in theory, but it was atrocious in execution.

[Pen Dragon]

Well, that's why you're wrong and I'm right

The reminisance of his dead brothers was just a catalyst for a 5 minute glimpse into Ryan's still immature character. Otherwise the scene would have been cut

[billythrilly7]

Wrong.

The scene had nothing to do with trying to show that Ryan was immature. I called Spielberg last night and he said "Huh?" when I told him what you said.

It was a breather/brother remembrance moment that was kept because we needed a breather and a remembrance even though the "funny" story wasn't at all funny and the whole scene fell flat.

[Pen Dragon]

Between you and mdb, my forehead has formed 150 hairline cracks.

I got an A+ for my analysis. I'll back down when someone (other than you) gives you the equivalent or higher.

And not just because they feel sorry for you or think you look like Rob Lowe

[billythrilly7]

I've often said that you are a brilliant film historian and that includes analyzation. Unfortunately, on this particular case, you went too deep.

I'll have Spielberg PM you when he has the time, sir.

[AnconRanger]

i think the scene was important and worked because it finally showed and gave voice to the "thing" the ranger unit was dying to save.

turned out he was just another kid barely shaving wearing a uniform and carrying a rifle in a bad place. just like the ones who had died already trying to find and save him.

but he had a mother who had lost all of her other sons doing the same thing.

scene was important. the mission of "private ryan" suddenly became a young soldier named private ryan. nothing special...right?

was it worth the sacrifices seeing the losses already with surely more ahead trying to get him out of there?

that's the importance of that scene because that was the movie.

ryan turned out to be just a good soldier, like the rangers who went to get him out of there, and it elevated the ranger cpt's conflict who already said he tried to boil some sort of sanity from the deaths of his men by tallying up how many men each dead man of his unit saved in their sacrifice.

made the ending really work. standing in that huge graveyard, the elderly soldier needed to know if he'd tried his best to "earn" what so many had sacrified for.

at the end of a long life standing in an old cemetery, did the ranger captain's math add up...

that scene was needed to make it all work.

[Biohazard]

the entire scene in the tree with the stupid kid telling the incredibly unfunny dinosaur jokes in Jurassic Park.