Terrible scenes in otherwise good movies

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mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
The scene in Jurassic Park (1993) where Sam Neill pretends to get electrocuted. He's trying to get a pair of traumatized and extremely frightened children back to safety, so he thinks it's funny, right in the middle in an emergency survival situation, to traumatize them further by pretending that the only adult nearby who is their only real chance of getting to safety is suddenly electrocuted. These children have just witnessed one man brutally killed in a horrific way, suffered through a night of absolute terror and almost-being-killed experiences that they will probably never recover from and are still in immediate danger - good thinking for the guy they're depending on to pull an inconceivable practical joke (involving yet more death).
I love that scene because of how dumb it is.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
In Jurassic Park, wouldn't it have made more sense if the boy had pretended to get electrocuted, in front of the others, since he is the one with the sense of humor more?



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One possibly bad scene in a really good movie was the sex scene in A History of Violence (2005). It plays like one of those cheesy no means yes scenes you would see in a 90's erotica B movie. Unless I'm wrong on that...



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
Gotta admit, I found the first 30 minutes of Maps To The Stars pretty hard to sit through. I even almost feared it would be like The Bling Ring, which sounded like an innovative story about how shallow and greedy people can be, but turned out to be nothing more than style-over-substance repetitive garbage. Thankfully after that point however, the Cronenberg I know and love finally surfaces, and the movie revealed itself to be quite a sharp, angry satire on how cruel Hollywood can be as an industry.



This is really silly, but the scenes in Three Amigos where they meet the singing bush and invisible swordsman!
Okay, I know it's a comedy, but it was still within the realm of plausibility up to these points (it used the plot device of actors being mistaken for the roles they play - this same device was used in the movies Galaxy Quest and Tropic Thunder and I'm not saying the plot device itself is very believable, but it's within the realm of possibility).

But it went from plausible comedy to metaphysical fantasy by suddenly pulling things in that don't exist in reality.



One possibly bad scene in a really good movie was the sex scene in A History of Violence (2005). It plays like one of those cheesy no means yes scenes you would see in a 90's erotica B movie. Unless I'm wrong on that...
Honestly though the reaction to this always seemed like a good example of how US attitudes to sex and violence differ so much. The sex scene always had much more fuss made out it but I think the is perfectly gauged for the drama, showing both the Tom and Joey sides that she loves and hates, its showing it for what it is rather than looking to put some simplistic morality onto it. Its the end of the film that feels out of place to me, I mean its not badly made but pretty straight forward brutal gangster violence that looks to cast the situation in a rather more simplistic moral light, that Tom/Joey can somehow redeem himself with more violence.



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Reign Over Me (2007).

Pretty Good movie, but the scene when the guy points a gun at the police wanting the police to kill him, and the police have their guns pointed at him and they don't shoot, I find to be completely eye rolling, and not believable at all, and it was just a poorly written scene in a very good movie otherwise.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Honestly though the reaction to this always seemed like a good example of how US attitudes to sex and violence differ so much. The sex scene always had much more fuss made out it but I think the is perfectly gauged for the drama, showing both the Tom and Joey sides that she loves and hates, its showing it for what it is rather than looking to put some simplistic morality onto it. Its the end of the film that feels out of place to me, I mean its not badly made but pretty straight forward brutal gangster violence that looks to cast the situation in a rather more simplistic moral light, that Tom/Joey can somehow redeem himself with more violence.
Oh okay, I didn't think of the ending as Tom's redemption though. I just saw it as something unfortunate that Tom had to do in order to get out of the situation. I don't think Tom saw it as redemption either, cause he seemed like he didn't want to do it, and at first tried to talk his way out of the situation before resorting to violence.

I guess the sex scene does make sex technically, but it feels like it will always have that no means yes 90s porn stigma attached to it, unless I'm wrong?



Oh okay, I didn't think of the ending as Tom redemption though. I just saw it as something unfortunate that Tom had to do in order to get out of the situation. I don't think Tom saw it as redemption either, cause he seemed like he didn't want to do it, and at first tried to talk his way out of the situation before resorting to violence.

I guess the sex scene does make sex technically, but it feels like it will always have that no means yes 90s porn stigma attached to it, unless I'm wrong?
The film doesn't overtly state its redemption but the nature of the scene does kind of make it feel that way to me, the character returns to face his dark past and defeats it in a physical confrontation. I believe its in the graphic novel as well but perhaps that shows you how much the film advanced the story otherwise?

The sex scene obviously isn't intended to be viewed in isolation(or as very erotic) and within the films drama I think it makes sense. You don't get the sense that the conflict has been resolved from it but rather that its nature has been highlighted more clearly, hence the reason for including it in the first place.



Unpopular opinion- I don’t like the opening of Jaws. I love the movie, it’s in my top ten... but the beginning hasn’t aged well to me.



Ami-Scythe's Avatar
A bucket of anxiety
I can't really think of specifics, but what comes to mind is the tired cliche of "the two friends" having a fall out. Even in good movies, I rarely see it having a point in the story.



How so? The opening is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
I don’t know... just the soundtrack with shaky camera work underwater, supposed to give off tension. And then the swimming scene, but it just sounds like she’s exaggerating an orgasm to me. Just a personal thing though, I don’t hold it against the movie, just myself.