I Love These Films, But...
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Thu, 01/08/2004 - 10:23
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- Bowling for Columbine - Michael Moore becomes sickeningly sentimental in describing the hometown of the 6-year-old who shot and killed his classmate - complete with cheesy violin music.
- Chasing Amy - The scene in which Jason Lee draws that four-way intersection. The writers took a very old joke that wasn't funny to begin with, and managed to make it less funny by dragging out the scene, at the expense of any good timing that could've possibly made the scene chuckle-worthy.
- The Party - That interminable, boring scene with the drunk waiter stumbling about.
- Pulp Fiction - Spoiler: Highlight to viewJohn Travolta's character is likable and probably has the most screen time of any character, appearing in both the first and third segment. When he comes out of Bruce Willis's bathroom in the second and Willis abruptly shoots him, I wanted to yell at Tarantino. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a stereotypical American audience member (or at least as the Hollywood producers see us) who can't take it when a character dies. But Travolta, who is developed both before and after this scene, deserves a better death than this abrupt, pointless moment.
- The Purple Rose of Cairo - Spoiler: Highlight to viewWoody Allen's desire for a downer of an ending got in the way of believable decisions of the characters. Yes, the end is sad, but there is absolutely no reason for Jeff Daniels to abandon Mia Farrow, and it makes no sense based on what we've seen of his character so far.
- The Station Agent - For one brief moment, the movie abandons its wonderfully subtle characterizations and has Olivia saying about Joe, "He does love life", an obvious attempt to sum up Joe's character in one line. It feels very dumb in an otherwise intelligent movie.
- 12 Angry Men - In a scene that wasn't in the original play, two of the characters meet after the trial and introduce themselves, shattering the anonymity of the characters.
- Y Tu Mama Tambien - Ana's last words to the boys (revealed only in narration) seemed rather trite and hokey to me.
Author Comments:
I've noticed that some films I love, or at least really like, usually have one scene, moment, or line of dialogue that really rubs me the wrong way. I've written up some of the more obvious ones here. I hope to include more as I think of them.
For '12 Angry Men', I agree with you. The film is great, but Fonda should just have been Juror #8.
Damn straight. That brief moment, however, is not enough to make "12 Angry Men" less than one of my favorite films.