That sequence might be my favorite of all ST movies. The look on Hemsworth’s face when he realizes he won’t be getting off the ship and when they’re naming the baby. “Tiberius? Are you kidding me?… let’s call him Jim.” I weep every single time I watch it. The score alone kills me.
What's Up Doc and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are two of the movies with the most accurate SF topography; you could draw a map of the characters' routes across the city.
Slow dollies. Withholding close-ups for maximum effect. Kinetic blocking within fairly simple camera movement.
When, after a fantastical city-wide occurrence, a potential romantic interest gets up the nerve to return to someone but is barely seen/heard & then the someone smiles directly at camera.
1. Dead characters appear at the end as ghosts for a tearjerking final farewell
2. Horror movies where Justin Long is menaced/killed because I knew him in college and it never stops being funny
3. Flame suit stunt
He took a year off in junior year to see if he could make it in Hollywood, did, and never came back.
Meanwhile, I did my junior year abroad, came back to the U.S. without knowing any of this, went to see Galaxy Quest and there's the guy from my comedy troupe three stories tall
One of the best early examples of this was the Hash episode of Barney Miller. All of the cops, except for Barney, got stoned from the brownies Wojo's girlfriend made.
Otherworldly revelations, when a character suddenly realizes there's more to their world than they understood (ghosts, other dimensions & realities, magic, etc).
Any heisty sequence where they're explaining the plan intercut with that plan being put in motion, especially if the execution goes immediately awry. (Credit my 9yo son who pointed out recently that he loves this trope, cause he's right, it rules).
Yes! I also love in ROGUE NATION when they describe and several failed attempts at infiltrating a vault, only to reveal that none of those plans were even attempted, just talked through.
I watched a movie once—Inertia, as I recall—that was filmed in Winnipeg and set in Winnipeg. It was a winter movie, but they filmed in an unusually warm March, so they had to go to all the mall parking lots and shovel snow into their trucks so they could do the set dressing.
Mulan has an exceptional one and my college roommates and I would watch it to get amped out for a night out, which I should probably be embarrassed to admit, but IT SLAPS.
Static cameras and characters moving in and out of frame. Conversely cameras that function as the eyes of an unseen narrator who is present in the room but is following action in real time so missing action or key moments bc they were focused on the last important thing.
The slow moments, when the plot seems to stop & you get to appreciate the environment for a while, whether it's Leone's wide desert shots, travel sequences in Lord Of The Rings or the cityscapes of Mamoru Oshii
The bit in the big RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK car chase when Indiana Jones and his horse get to the top of the hill and the music stops for just a second while he waits for a second is brilliant.
Any time someone's secret labors are openly appreciated it really gets me. Even the end of the 2016 Ghostbusters, which was not a spectacularly good movie.
When you live in Vancouver, which portrays many American cities in the movies, and you suddenly see an intersection, restaurant or neighbourhood you’ve visited hundreds of times, it usually pulls me right out of the movie.
I guess my equivalent of this is when I see incorrect London geography in films. That scene with Thor on the tube in Thor: The Dark World, for example, makes no sense at all.
Definitely. When you see a chase down roads you’ve literally driven down your entire life, and how they connect up just isn’t right, it throws you out of the scene. I’ve seen conversations where the backgrounds of the two people are miles apart.
when two characters are in love, but can't be together for reasons; any "for Frodo" moments (i.e., a person or group rushes to certain death for the faint glimmer of hope that their cause will be won by another); "Director of Photography: Roger Deakins"
A woman is correct in making a crucial assumption; the men around her dismiss that view and take action very much against, even in defiance of, the woman's assertion; catastrophic consequences ensue. Works in any genre, from comedy to horror.
I love movies in which people of different generations or cultures learn to appreciate & accept each other. Movies like Ang Lee's beautiful debut film "Pushing Hands" about an elderly Chinese man transplanted into his son's American home, and his next "Eat Drink Man Woman".
I was going to use Wonder Boys as my example too, so I’ll just add mine to yours: a charming fuckup who just takes a small step towards getting their shit together by movie’s end.
All seems lost, but then we find out someone’s been in control, playing the long game, the entire time, and the evidence is right there in front of us.
When a character willingly yeets themselves out of a window out of sheer survival. Id extend that to people who willingly get into car accidents to escape, but I need to make a separate list for that https://boxd.it/dlc7e
When everyone has been underestimating Our Hero and then the scene arrives when Our Hero shines and they all get to realize just how wrong they’ve been.
Comments
And another Pine movie—Star Trek (2009) when Chris Hemsworth does something similar in the opening scene.
San Fran is another location that always looks great to me in film. Dirty Harry series, 48 Hrs, Vertigo, Mrs. Doubtfire, Zodiac and...
be SURE to watch
“What’s Up, Doc?”
🧢
When, after a fantastical city-wide occurrence, a potential romantic interest gets up the nerve to return to someone but is barely seen/heard & then the someone smiles directly at camera.
2. Horror movies where Justin Long is menaced/killed because I knew him in college and it never stops being funny
3. Flame suit stunt
Meanwhile, I did my junior year abroad, came back to the U.S. without knowing any of this, went to see Galaxy Quest and there's the guy from my comedy troupe three stories tall
I love it when the detective rakes everyone over the coals, even the innocent.
At least they were great, until 2016.
🧢
I guess my equivalent of this is when I see incorrect London geography in films. That scene with Thor on the tube in Thor: The Dark World, for example, makes no sense at all.
a horror movie shot on 16mm. homemade effects? here is $50 for the disc.
in space, but sad and poetic.
the villain it turns out was capitalism
a zen bouncer who teaches us things about ourselves
[smash cut]
"Goddamnit I'm doing the thing, aren't I."
Counterfeit cash in To Live and Die in LA
Casino scam in Hard Eight
Making crack in Menace II Society
See also:
“You talking to me?????