Third-act chase and fight antics diffuse film's originality

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[From a Wired review of the upcoming 'Splice']

Other films with the same problem?

Sunshine
District 9

sent from my neural lace (ledge), Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:55 (fifteen years ago)

Capricorn One

rhythm fixated member (chap), Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)

District 9's a good one

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)

No one say Adaptation.

rhythm fixated member (chap), Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)

Fight club?

Gravel Puzzleworth, Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:59 (fifteen years ago)

Heat

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 15:59 (fifteen years ago)

The Matrix was great and genuinely creepy before its descent into a beat-em-up video game.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:02 (fifteen years ago)

Is that wrt to the first film, or the trilogy as a whole?

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:03 (fifteen years ago)

pretty much every american blockbuster action film ever

in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:06 (fifteen years ago)

nah, had to have originality to start with

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:07 (fifteen years ago)

xp first film. Sequels unforgivable all round.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:07 (fifteen years ago)

i thought the first one held up for the most part, but obviously agree on the sequels.

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:08 (fifteen years ago)

A good reverse on this thread would be 'Films which turn from good to AMAZING in their third act'.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:10 (fifteen years ago)

'Films which turn from good to AMAZING in their third act'.

Wild Things!

in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:10 (fifteen years ago)

nah, had to have originality to start with

ach yes - point taken

in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:11 (fifteen years ago)

xp although if you guys are referring to Jaws, the third act where they go and blow him/her up is definitely beneath the creeping tension of what preceded it.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:12 (fifteen years ago)

lotsa 80s comedies: Beverly Hills Cop, National Lampoon's Vacation, and arguably Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Animal House

Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:12 (fifteen years ago)

Ferris? That would be a pretty dumb argument.

sent from my neural lace (ledge), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:14 (fifteen years ago)

Stripes obvy

in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:14 (fifteen years ago)

The Ferris end is so triumphant! Go Cameron!

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:14 (fifteen years ago)

I want to say Blues Brothers but that car chase is soo epic.

Jarlrmai, Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:15 (fifteen years ago)

I fucking loved the first hour of 'I Am Legend', loathed what proceeded.

Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:15 (fifteen years ago)

ferris's race is awesome u feeb

xpost

kind of a boring answer but it's true: 'one hour photo'

truff sqwad (history mayne), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:15 (fifteen years ago)

Running Scared, Fletch...

mandatory seersucker (Eazy), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:16 (fifteen years ago)

"Live And Let Die" is just about the only James Bond movie I can stand, yet there's this ginormously boring boat chase scene in the third act. Really dump.

village idiot (dog latin), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:16 (fifteen years ago)

Come on though it's pretty wtf when that guy pops like a balloon.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:17 (fifteen years ago)

balls, i like the boat chase

truff sqwad (history mayne), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:18 (fifteen years ago)

it's after, that, on the island, that dude blows op

diminuendo imo

the chase is the climax

truff sqwad (history mayne), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:19 (fifteen years ago)

Actually loved Casino Royale pretty much all the way through, but the final setpiece in the drowning house was one too far. Worth it for the closing shot, though.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:19 (fifteen years ago)

xpost to me, sorry I can't remember where it took place but I recall Bond fishing someone out.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:20 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, now you mentioned it CR would've been better served by a small-scale tense stand-off at the end.

xpost

rhythm fixated member (chap), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:21 (fifteen years ago)

Casino Royale goes to shit, pretty much, but I don't think there was any great swoop from great originality or anything, it just got really dumb and wtf in tone.

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:22 (fifteen years ago)

The Untouchables was supposed to have this, but they couldn't afford a steam train, so instead they shot the baby/stairs scene and it worked out better.

mandatory seersucker (Eazy), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:23 (fifteen years ago)

im not cray about the climax of 'collateral'. don't not like it (a doy) but i kind of h8 it that cruise ices the ruff.

truff sqwad (history mayne), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:23 (fifteen years ago)

All Marx Bros. (except "Duck Soup")

Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:24 (fifteen years ago)

up

circa1916, Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:25 (fifteen years ago)

wall-e too

May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:25 (fifteen years ago)

Will Toy Story 3 begin with a tear inducing near-silent ten minute montage? We shall see in a few weeks..

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:31 (fifteen years ago)

... with a reprise of "When She Loved Me" to undescore the whole thing. I'm bringing Kleenex.

I turn it up when I hear the banjo (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:35 (fifteen years ago)

up

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:36 (fifteen years ago)

Always found She Loved Me so syrupy and Toy Story 2 a few notches below the first fwiw. They've definitely figured out how to wring these big emotional beats say Ratatouille onward.

Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:37 (fifteen years ago)

lol, after the bitching on the thread about it I am surprised no one has said "Pineapple Express"

drop it like it's hot, Elena (HI DERE), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:41 (fifteen years ago)

yeah that went a bit big... kind of 'supposed to be unoriginal'

they pulled it together in the coda or whatever

truff sqwad (history mayne), Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:43 (fifteen years ago)

up

― circa1916, Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:25 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

canonical answer

sent from my neural lace (ledge), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:31 (fifteen years ago)

I just saw Splice (really liked it) and I gotta say the so-called chase that some reviewers have complained about toward the end isn't really much of one, and it works completely fine within the movie.

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:26 (fifteen years ago)

You know whenever I see any kind of genre movie with a monster in it I always wish they would just do something different than a chase or a fight. I mean, Jaws would have so much better if they had talked things over with the shark instead of blowing it up, ya know?

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:31 (fifteen years ago)

The Matrix was great and genuinely creepy before its descent into a beat-em-up video game.

^this, was really enjoying the matrix until it devolved, hate movies that waste the promise of a good premise

(e_3) (Edward III), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:36 (fifteen years ago)

See, the first two movies cited at the top of the thread, Sunshine and District 9, are really good examples of what the thread's about. Sunshine gets forced into being a slasher flick by the end, for no discernible reason. District 9 had the potential to be any kind of weirdo movie it wanted to be, but settles into an action-chase movie groove about halfway through (though It was done well enough it.

The Matrix pretty much sets itself up as an action movie from the start, so I wasn't particularly disappointed that it didn't really use its premise as anything but a fancy backdrop and an excuse to see its characters do impossible Hong Kong-style moves.

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:50 (fifteen years ago)

sorry that should read settles into an action-chase movie groove about halfway through (though It was done well enough)

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:51 (fifteen years ago)

yeah I have no problem with where The Matrix goes. never seeing the sequels. LALD boat-chase is awesome obv

Mark Ronson: "Led Zeppelin were responsible for hip-hop" (acoleuthic), Monday, 7 June 2010 20:59 (fifteen years ago)

The Descent X 1,000,000. I thought it was a genuinely good and unsettling 'real-life phobias' horror movie before the introduction to the albino cave oogy-boogies (although that idea could have been an interesting premise unto itself, if done well).

SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 7 June 2010 21:02 (fifteen years ago)

L.A. Confidential

Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 7 June 2010 21:58 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, definitely.

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:00 (fifteen years ago)

Iron Man

Gee, Officer (Gukbe), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:07 (fifteen years ago)

My Dinner With Andre

Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 June 2010 22:08 (fifteen years ago)

hitchcock said any third-act problem is actually a first-act problem. or maybe that was billy wilder. either way, it's kinda true.

NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:09 (fifteen years ago)

anyway. war of the worlds. minority report.

NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:09 (fifteen years ago)

la confidential for SURE.

NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:10 (fifteen years ago)

My Dinner With Andre

you gotta admit, though, Wallace Shawn looked pretty badass' in that mech suit

punperson (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:11 (fifteen years ago)

In Bruges

wmlynch, Monday, 7 June 2010 22:11 (fifteen years ago)

i have this problem with most comedies, but it's not "chase and fight antics" so much as "being serious and tying up the plot"

goole, Monday, 7 June 2010 22:12 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah in comedies 'lesson is learned' = 'evil fortress explodes'.

Blog is a concept by which we measure our pain (Jon Lewis), Monday, 7 June 2010 22:14 (fifteen years ago)

The Descent X 1,000,000. I thought it was a genuinely good and unsettling 'real-life phobias' horror movie before the introduction to the albino cave oogy-boogies (although that idea could have been an interesting premise unto itself, if done well).

― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 7 June 2010 21:02 (Yesterday) Bookmark

OTMFM

Tunnel collapsing / head almost getting stuck = Worst fears committed to celluloid. Chud-esque monsters = snorefest.

louiiiis jjjjagger (S-), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 03:05 (fifteen years ago)


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