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The little things...

post #1 of 60
11/18/05 at 8:51pm
Thread Starter 
It's a trivial and frivolous topic for a thread, but I'm a trivial and frivolous kinda guy, so here we are...

Was watching GHOSTBUSTERS the other night and, for the most part, really enjoying it. But as it approached the end, I was forcibly reminded of a couple of tiny elements that really jarred me out of the movie and irritated the shit out of me, quite frankly.

Sounds stupid, I know, but one was all the 'I Love NY' nonsense, which was basically a few scattered lines of dialogue about the awesomeness of Manhattan (culiminating in Ernie Hudson's bellowed non sequitur "I LOVE THIS TOWN!" - yeah, real happy for ya, Winston).

The other - and far more annoying - was this prominent extra rocking a full-on '80s look. When the Ghostbusters pull up at 'Spook Central', you can see this doofus first looking all terrified at the supernatural shit, then ecstatic when Venkman and the team arrive - he's pulling these exaggerated, Crispin Glover-style expressions. Then as the Ghostbusters pass by, he adopts a whole new persona and starts acting all frat-boy: "Yeah, Ghostbusters! All right!"

Who the fuck is this guy? Couldn't Reitman edit around him? And why do I care so much?

Well, like the mosquito that disrupts your evening sleep, this guy bugs the hell outta me. So tell me, is there any minor element in a movie you otherwise enjoy that diminishes its value for you? It could be the Coupe de Villes's theme song for BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (ugh!) or a Rosie Perez cameo - it could be anything.

Please tell me I'm not alone in my nitpicking.
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post #2 of 60
11/18/05 at 8:55pm
What's wrong with loving New York? GHOSTBUSTERS is one of the all-time great New York movies.
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post #3 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Well, jeez, Devin, you might be a little biased...

I just thought GHOSTBUSTERS laid it on a smidge too thick, that's all. I can't recall any movie that yells "Woo-hoo, Chicago!" or "Houston kicks ass!" (Having never visited any of these cities, I can't say for certain whether they do in fact rule.)

And, hey, I never claimed this was going to be the most rational of threads.
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post #4 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:09pm
It's just a weird point to be on about because that's one of the main elements of the movie. It's very much a film that's about it's own environment. It's a celebration of New York.

You can't compare New York to almost any other American city, by the way. People don't grow up dreaming of moving to Houston (unless they grew up in the suburbs of Houston or something). The only two American cities like that are LA and New York - and even the people who live in LA hate it. It's part of the town's mystique. Some European cities have the same myth and pull of New York, but they're all too classy to be "woo hoo" cities. Part of the charm of New York is the way people love it despite how horrible it can be, and how uncouth New Yorkers can be about that.

But you also can't take the New York boosterism of the film out of the context of the film's release, which was just a handful of years after New York City had gone bankrupt and people thought it was over. The city was coming back in the early to mid-80s.

Honestly, being annoyed at the New York stuff is like being annoyed at the ghost stuff.
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post #5 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:19pm
What the fuck was with all those ghosts, anyway?
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post #6 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tommy five-tone
I can't recall any movie that yells "Woo-hoo, Chicago!"
Might be a good idea to stay away from FERRIS BUELLER, then. And THE BLUES BROTHERS.
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post #7 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:43pm
Can't that New York boosterism be a little annoying to someone who doesn't live there - in movies and in real life?

One thing I always get drawn into when watching Ghostbusters - the main characters' receeding hairlines. All i can look at are their widows peaks. Explain that to me.


Here's a little thing about movies that annoys me for some reason - people calling the films they work on 'shows'. It seems a very insider, 'biz' sort of word.
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post #8 of 60
11/18/05 at 9:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Clarke
One thing I always get drawn into when watching Ghostbusters - the main characters' receeding hairlines. All i can look at are their widows peaks. Explain that to me.
The widow's peak is where the forlorn chick waits for her missing husband to come back from sea. Frequently he came back a ghost. Q.E.D.

Quote:
Here's a little thing about movies that annoys me for some reason - people calling the films they work on 'shows'. It seems a very insider, 'biz' sort of word.
Since the people working on a movie are usually insider biz sorta people doesn't that make sense?
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post #9 of 60
11/18/05 at 10:00pm
Widows peak:

http://ask.yahoo.com/20021227.html

as for 'shows':
Yes, they are in the 'biz', but it comes over to me as willfully cliquey, as if they are using it to seperate themselves from the great unwashed of the audience. Or perhaps it annoys me because they seem to be emphasising that it's just another job to them, another day at the office, rather than, heaven forfend, a work of art.

It's a tiny, silly detail but we all get caught up in silly details from time to time. There's no justification and often very little valid reason, but we all do it. It's one of the things that makes movie watching personal and fun.
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post #10 of 60
11/18/05 at 10:16pm
I was thinking of a widow's walk. Sounded good at the time.

Quote:
Or perhaps it annoys me because they seem to be emphasising that it's just another job to them, another day at the office, rather than, heaven forfend, a work of art.
A lot of times it is. When you're on the fourth terrible indie flick in a row, working six day weeks again, art is the last thing on your mind.
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post #11 of 60
11/18/05 at 11:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
It's just a weird point to be on about because that's one of the main elements of the movie. It's very much a film that's about it's own environment. It's a celebration of New York.
Well, I thought it was mainly about ghosts, and the busting thereof.

Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
But you also can't take the New York boosterism of the film out of the context of the film's release, which was just a handful of years after New York City had gone bankrupt and people thought it was over. The city was coming back in the early to mid-80s.
See, that part I wasn't really aware of. CHUD.com - you have fun and you learn a little something.

I'm still gonna hate Hudson's "I love this town!" till my dying day. Maybe it resonates for New Yorkers but it leaves the six billion or so other people in the world out of the loop.

Like I said, though, it's that dipshit extra who really blows GHOSTBUSTERS for me. I loathe that guy about as much as I loathe the henchman in ROBOCOP with the high-pitched giggle who says "A new toy! Can I play?" when he sees an assault rifle. Tool.
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post #12 of 60
11/18/05 at 11:58pm
See, I thought this was going to be related to that monologue in Almost Famous, about the little things making a song, except in movies.

For example, continuing with the Crowe through-line, the pause between "Do you need somebody or do you need me" and "Forget it, I don't care" in SAY ANYTHING. That's probally one of my favorite moments in a movie filled with them, mainly because Cusack completely and totally sells it, and it stays true to the character.

But on topic, what about Bill Clinton in CONTACT? I bought him in the Anna Chlumsky/John Ritter vehicle, "A Child's Wish, but CGI Bill was completely unnecessary--why does this have to be set now, why can't it be set in an unnamed future like the book? Angela Basset would have killed as the female President, and I think just the fact that they have a woman president without acknowleging it would have tied in well with the movie's optimism. Not to mention that having Clinton in the movie dates it.
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post #13 of 60
11/19/05 at 12:37am
Thread Starter 
Rath, your positive energy has helped me see the light. This thread will now incorporate the little things that make a movie, in addition to the little things that can fuck a movie right up.

So let's return to GHOSTBUSTERS, and the end of a scene early on where Bill Murray says "Egon, I'm going to take back some of the things I've said about you" to Harold Ramis and hands him a candy bar: "You've...you've earned it".

Such a cool and funny little bit of business - I wonder if it was scripted or thought up on the set.
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post #14 of 60
11/19/05 at 2:16am
I agree that Ghostbusters is all about embracing New York, but friends of mine have described Ghostbusters 2 as basically being about shitting all over New York. Not me, though. I love Vigo. They can the best grocery-level black olives.

Annoying Robocop-type hyper high-pitched henchmen irk me most times, as well.

But wasn't the Clinton deal from Contact culled from his speech about the Mars meteorite found in Antarctica that perhaps housed evidence of extraterrestrial life? (The name given to this rock is nearly identical to my first and last birthname and date, I might add) Seems to me they wanted to take advantage of the footage for the purpose of the film, and being hot off the archival-rapage from Forrest Gump put Zemeckis in the mood to put a topical spin on the flick. Don't get me wrong, they're both great movies (especially Contact), though my favorite Zemeckis will always be Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

A positive little thing: When Beetlejuice knocks over the tree and exclaims, "Nice fucking model!". Take THAT, PG rating!
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post #15 of 60
11/19/05 at 8:42am
A nice little thing I've always liked in Jurassic Park (a movie which I generally feel has aged badly, but...): the two raptors enter the kitchen where the children are hiding. Instead of going directly about looking for the snacks, one of them turns and snaps at the other, and second one hisses at the first. It's a nice little unecessary bit of special effects artistry that makes the creatures alive, instead of just killing machines.
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post #16 of 60
11/19/05 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel St. Buggering
A nice little thing I've always liked in Jurassic Park (a movie which I generally feel has aged badly, but...): the two raptors enter the kitchen where the children are hiding. Instead of going directly about looking for the snacks, one of them turns and snaps at the other, and second one hisses at the first. It's a nice little unecessary bit of special effects artistry that makes the creatures alive, instead of just killing machines.
I agree - that moment is excellent - I'm not sure about it ageing badly though, maybe certain shots have, but I saw it on the TV recently and the T-Rex emerging from the paddock is just fucking note-perfect.

When Gandalf is on the cart near the beginning of FOTR, and he drives by the kids who gather behind him, waiting - there's a fantastic pause, he lets the fireworks off, and his face is lit up by a smile - it makes me well up. Such a perfect little moment.
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post #17 of 60
11/19/05 at 2:25pm
GHOSTBUSTERS as a film is just built on those brilliant little moments though, like Egon lunging at Peck yelling "YOUR MOTHER!", or Bill Murray's delivery of the line "I don't know" when he and Dan Ackroyd are discussing setting up the biz.
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post #18 of 60
11/19/05 at 6:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Connors
I'm not sure about it ageing badly though, maybe certain shots have, but I saw it on the TV recently and the T-Rex emerging from the paddock is just fucking note-perfect.
Oh, I don't mean the special effects; those work just fine. I'm talking about the lengthy dialogue scenes that are way too preachy, and tell the audience what to think about, and sometimes don't even make sense. When it was a new movie, showing off its CGI dinosaurs, the spectacle allowed us to ignore its problems as a screenplay. On TV, however, the storytelling flaws really stand out. I find myself skipping to the good parts on the DVD, something I rarely do with other films.

Now here's a little thing I hate in an otherwise great film. In Richard Donner's Superman (still my favorite superhero movie), when Lois is hanging from the Daily Planet building, and Clark becomes Superman for the first time. Now this should be a big moment for the audience; we've waited around 40 minutes for this. For some reason, Donner deflates the reveal by having a black guy in a pimp outfit stop Superman and say "Hey Jim, that is a bad outfit." Besides being kind of racist, it takes some of the power out of the scene, which is otherwise one of my favorite sequences.
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post #19 of 60
11/19/05 at 7:15pm
I've always felt the Donner Superman falls apart once it gets to Metropolis. The Krypton and Smallville scenes are so damn good, so epic and timeless, and then there we are basically in 1970s NYC, with all the campy humor and Otis and such. Reeve keeps things from getting too silly, but the first half of the film is much stronger to me.

Oh, let me add a little thing so this isn't a complete derailment: Indy's reaction to the big German mechanic during the flying wing fight. Just the little "Hang on, I'm coming" gesture with his hands, so simple but so completely defining the character.
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post #20 of 60
11/19/05 at 8:31pm
A little thing that irritates: The 3rd FRIDAY THE 13TH film, where Jason's right eye is slid down his face with the mask off, but both eyes line up perfectly with the holes when the mask's on. Might have been really creepy to see blank flesh under one of those holes in the mask.
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post #21 of 60
11/19/05 at 8:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel St. Buggering
For some reason, Donner deflates the reveal by having a black guy in a pimp outfit stop Superman and say "Hey Jim, that is a bad outfit." Besides being kind of racist, it takes some of the power out of the scene, which is otherwise one of my favorite sequences.
I once said that to a guy in my named Jim who used to work in my office, and then I had to explain the awful, awful brilliance of the scene in question to all of my co-workers.

"I mean, way to fuck up the long-awaited reveal of an iconic character," I said.

My boss replied with:

"Yeah, like Darth Vader saying NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
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post #22 of 60
11/19/05 at 8:59pm
A little thing I always dug comes toward the end of PULP FICTION. When Harvey Keitel is starting to explain how to dispose of the body, Tarantino hands him a coffee. Keitel takes a sip, turns back to Tarantino, and nods his approval at this good cup of coffee. Nice touch.

A little thing I do not like involves Macy Gray in SPIDER-MAN.
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post #23 of 60
11/19/05 at 9:18pm
In Jurrassic Park, in the kitchen, when the raptor is leaping up towards the girl trying to climb up into the air conditioning, it falls on its back and you can see its penis.
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post #24 of 60
11/19/05 at 11:36pm
MI:2 is full of unbelieveable shit, but when Ethan Hunt puts on a mask of Sean Ambrose, how does Ethan make up for the extreme difference in height between the two characters?
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post #25 of 60
11/20/05 at 12:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barkatthemoon
MI:2 is full of unbelieveable shit, but when Ethan Hunt puts on a mask of Sean Ambrose, how does Ethan make up for the extreme difference in height between the two characters?
That's not a little thing; it's part and parcel of the extreme amount of fucked up that movie is.
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post #26 of 60
11/20/05 at 12:28am
I always was both amused\annoyed at the guys around the ring during the first Mortal Kombat movie. Especially the one where the no-name guy fights Goro.

There's also these 2 or 3 guys that are at almost every fight that are TOTALLY out of place. I have to watch it again to find out exactly what they were wearing, but it was only jeans and a t-shirt type-of-thing. It's like they ran out of costumes, but why put them in the front-row? These two schmucks look like they walked in after doing a sound-check for Aerosmith.
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post #27 of 60
11/20/05 at 12:37am
A little thing that bugs me (which I've raged about before) is how football games in most movies seem to take place under the light of four candles and someone's headlights. The game at the beginning of The Last Boyscout looks like it's taking place pre-electricity.
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post #28 of 60
11/20/05 at 12:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel St. Buggering
That's not a little thing; it's part and parcel of the extreme amount of fucked up that movie is.
Speaking of John Woo films, Nick makes the point of that obvious wire-work during Face Off.
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post #29 of 60
11/20/05 at 1:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
A little thing that bugs me (which I've raged about before) is how football games in most movies seem to take place under the light of four candles and someone's headlights. The game at the beginning of The Last Boyscout looks like it's taking place pre-electricity.
So does everything that goes on in a lab in every CSI show.
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post #30 of 60
11/20/05 at 1:28am
The celebrity cameos of Henry Rollins and Marilyn Manson in David Lynch's Lost Highway were little touches that annoyed me, while the celebrity cameo of Robert Blake in the same movie made the picture worth watching.
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post #31 of 60
11/20/05 at 7:15pm
I love in Die Hard when Mclane is talking to the cop on the walkie talkie and makes the guess that the criminals are largely european...he rattles off a list of reasons while fishing out a smoke from a pack of fags he pinched from one of the crims, then pauses tremendously before saying "....cigarettes"

I love in Jurassic Park the way Goldblum wipes his shoe after stepping in the Triceratops poop.

And on the Ghostbusters front, the moment where the lovelly Dana Barrett (my very first crush) asks Dr Venkman if he is using the equipment properly and he seems to be about to say yes, but blurts out "I think so"
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post #32 of 60
11/20/05 at 7:36pm
My only problem with all the New York love is that I can think of several large U.S. cities which I find more deserving.
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post #33 of 60
11/20/05 at 7:44pm
If there was ever a post with the potential to derail a topic faster than that, I have not seen it.
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post #34 of 60
11/20/05 at 7:48pm
Name them, please.

Anyway, one of the things I loved most about I HEART HUCKABEES, which I just saw, was the cameo at the end. I'm not going to spoil it because it's so great, but it's set up in such a way that you never see it coming.
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post #35 of 60
11/20/05 at 7:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu
Name them, please.
Everyone has their own favorites of course. Just speaking from personal experience, in ranking the large U.S. cities I'd like to live in I'd have to place New York behind Chicago, Boston, and yes Washington (and possibly Miami). Which is not to say I haven't had fun in New York, but I just prefer the vibe in the other cities.
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post #36 of 60
11/20/05 at 9:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobblemonkey
A positive little thing: When Beetlejuice knocks over the tree and exclaims, "Nice fucking model!". Take THAT, PG rating!
That crotch-honk-honk makes me bust out laughing to this day. It's the last completely lowbrow hysterics moment from my young childhood that still makes me crack up today. The rest of them seem stupid now.

I still absolutely love The Matrix. In a movie that got so much of its attention from its unbelievable special effects, that train seen drives me fucking insane. When Neo backflips out of the tracks to let Smith get hit, not only can yous see the wires, but Keanu GRABS ON TO THEM FOR LEVERAGE. It's so awful.

And here's something that always takes me out of a movie. Whenever there's a movie set in the past, and some character makes some "hilarious" guess about the future or they emphasize how awful an invention of the past is with the character's enthusiasm. TWO examples are in Almost Famous. For the former, when William's principal says "And in twenty years when we're all in flying cars..." or something like that. And the latter, when Ben Fong-Tourres says "It only takes 20 minutes a page!" for the little pre-fax gadget they've got. I hate those kind of jokes.
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post #37 of 60
11/20/05 at 10:36pm
The look on Tyler Durden's head after Marla says "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school," in Fight Club. It makes the scene, it really does.
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post #38 of 60
11/20/05 at 10:38pm
Washington?
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post #39 of 60
11/20/05 at 10:41pm
In Collateral, Vincent sends Max to meet Felix and Max is given the go ahead by Cosme the doorman - Cosme makes a near-silent OK sound which just nails the character and makes him completely believable.
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post #40 of 60
11/20/05 at 10:43pm
That little moment in Terminator 2 just after Robert Patrick throws Ah-nuld through the window, as he turns around he squints confusedly at the silver head of a mannequin. I love that.
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post #41 of 60
11/21/05 at 4:46am
In Batman Begins, most of the times you see Bruce in civilian clothing it's some combination of Gray and Blue tones. It goes beyond the normal grays and blues of business suits and is in everything from his work jacket and prison garb to his bath robe. It's got to be a nod to the batsuit's comic-book counterpart, as there's too much attention to detail in a film like this for even a wardrobe color scheme to be coincidental. I just thought it was a nice touch that sort of said, even when he's not batman, he's batman.

I can't think of many negative "little things," because I try not to nitpick, but I know there's got to be a few. It sometimes bugs me when a movie is filled with sub-par special effects, but that's part of the suspension fo disbelief.
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post #42 of 60
11/21/05 at 7:29am
I love in The Two Towers that one tear rolling down Grima Wormtongues cheek when he sees the massive army Saruman is sending to war. In a trilogy filled with great moments, that's one that immediately comes to mind.
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post #43 of 60
11/21/05 at 12:56pm
At the risk of exacerbating the NYC debate here, I have always cringed at the end of "Spider-Man" when GG is pummelled by angry New Yorkers. The lines are yelled, "You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York! You mess with one of us you mess with all of us!"

Now, I've been to NYC several times, and I have enjoyed it. It's a fascinating city, and 100% unique. But the city of brotherly love it ain't, and this line just sort of seemed like post-9/11 pandering.
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post #44 of 60
11/21/05 at 5:15pm
Keeping with the Ghostbusters theme, I love the line, "Listen, do you smell something?" It's sort of a throw away line that most people don't even realize is a joke... like most dialogue in the movie, it's classic.

Another favorite small thing comes in Back to the Future II. When Biff's grandson and posse decide to chase McFly across the pond in front of City Hall, they break out Biff's grandson's hoverboard, a Pitbull. I love, love, love the sound that the board makes as it drops out of its case... sort of a growling, motorized rumble.
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post #45 of 60
11/21/05 at 5:39pm
Quote:
MI:2 is full of unbelieveable shit, but when Ethan Hunt puts on a mask of Sean Ambrose, how does Ethan make up for the extreme difference in height between the two characters?
Sure Tom Cruise is several inches shorter than Dougray Scott, but did they actually photograph him that way in the movie? I don't really think so, but I haven't seen the film in a long time. Plus there's always those shoes or boots that make you look taller.

In a similar regard, it always bothered be in Face/Off, where Cage and Travolta obviously have different dental structures, but somehow they also get each others teeth when they switch faces. Things that make you go hmmmm.
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post #46 of 60
11/21/05 at 5:53pm
I like it when in RoboCop, when there's a party filmed from the pov of RoboCop and a woman kisses him and then falls on her ass as she backs away.
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post #47 of 60
11/21/05 at 5:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
In a similar regard, it always bothered be in Face/Off, where Cage and Travolta obviously have different dental structures, but somehow they also get each others teeth when they switch faces. Things that make you go hmmmm.
You're going to be a stickler for logic in a movie about an FBI agent and a terrorist who switches faces with each other?? If you accept that whopper, then questioning their dental structures is goofy.
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post #48 of 60
11/21/05 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stew
You're going to be a stickler for logic in a movie about an FBI agent and a terrorist who switches faces with each other?? If you accept that whopper, then questioning their dental structures is goofy.
Yeah that's one of those things that falls under the Suspension of Disbelief Category.
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post #49 of 60
11/21/05 at 6:01pm
It's not like it's bugging the crap out of me. I guess "bothered" is too strong a word, that's not really the case. Just something that caught my attention, really.
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post #50 of 60
11/22/05 at 1:05am
What really bothered me about the MI:2 masks was that I assumed from the first film that those things took some time to prepare and some work to apply. But according to MI:2, apparently, they can be whipped up in no time out in the field and slipped right over the head in seconds. At that point, it went past being a spy movie, past being an action movie, took a turn at science fiction, and wound up in fantasyland. He may as well have put on a pointy hat and waved a wand.
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