Embarassing to admit but...
 

I was just reading the thread on best CGI/effects that impressed people, and I got thinking about how so many of my best movie moments aren't about beautiful craft or skill or CGI - or even script....

Instead, they are about the joy that comes from a moment when you know you shouldn't feel the hairs stand up on you neck, but you do anyway. Those moments that are cheesy in the extreme, or just plain soppy, but still they make you want to roar "YEAH!".

Basically, moments that are embarassing to admit to liking.

So lets do it now. Lets list all the bits we shouldn't love, but do anyway.

Here goes mine - the bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the evil Nazi's in their U-Boat have boarded the ship that Indie and his girl are on. They've taken the damzel in distress, but where's Indie?

Suddenly the Captain points and shouts "There he is!". Indie is on the U-Boat!! He swimmed to it and climbed aboard!!! The music starts and Indie (I seem to remember) even throws a salute!!

Please add to the list...

in indiana jones last crusade... when the tank hes in goes over the cliff... and everyone thinks hes dead... but hes clinging onto some roots and climbs back over.. wow.. i havent seen that in a while.. ill have to rewatch it agin tonite for like the 1000 time

That part at the end of Boogie Nights where he's checkin' himself in the mirror...oops, wrong thread....nevermind




lol
-Jon

im the man... is what i think he says

OUT OF SIGHT - George Clooney is conducting surveillance on the Jennifer Lopez character when she bends over to get something from the trunk of her car. Clooney: "Oh, mannn..."

RED DAWN - The rebels cheering: "Wolverinnnnneesss!"

GLORY - The black regiment marches out to the beach for their final battle. All the flags are fluttering in the wind. Cannons are firing overhead. White troops stand at attention on either side of the column. James Horner's music is swelling. One of the previously-bigotted white soldiers shouts out: "Give 'em hell 54th!" And I start bawling like a baby.

PULP FICTION - Travolta doing the Saturday Night Fever thing.

THE MATRIX - "I know kung fu!"

CONAN THE BARBARIAN - Conan does his practice routine with that huge sweeping sword.

APOCALYPSE NOW - All the lead up to the treeline napalm bombing.

ROCKY - Rocky racing up the steps and suddenly everyone appears to cheer him on.

SUPERMAN - Superman turns time back to save Lois.

I find these moments mostoften in films that you do not expect anything of any significance from. Last night I saw a neat little film called "Millions". It turned out to be a heart warming story about a young boy who had lost his mother and the fantasies and real things going on around him as he and his family established a new home in another community.

The same thing happened to me with Star Wars. For some reason, I had a couple of hours to kill before I went to work, and I decided to go to the movies. I had never heard of Star Wars, in fact it had just been released that Day. I remember sitting down in the theater and when the opening credits began, I was dumbfounded for the rest of the movie. It seems as if that battle cruiser came in right over my head.

Oh man was that really THIRTY YEARS ago???? I can VIVIDLY remember that scene. I was sitting towards the front row when that planet loomed up from the bottom and all hell broke loose shortly there after. And, bless him, Lucas hasn't been able to match that feeling since.

The other moment was watching that Death Star explode for the first time. Wow!

"Oh my God, it's filled with stars..."

And the final sequence as he ages into the star child... it seems cliched now, but man, it was amazing at the time. 2001 by Kubric still impresses the hell out of me, but bored the shit out of my son.

Yeah, that dates me.

I recall going to see Star Wars with a buddy. We were/are big SciFi fans, and I heard the ad on the radio. We got to the theatre in Houston, and walked right in at MATINEE PRICES. Sat in the front row.

Yeah, the battle cruiser sent a chill right up my spine. In fact, just about every reference I saw reminded me of some element of my favorite sci fi novels (armored suits from Heinlein, 'spice' from Herbert, ...) Yeah, he's never matched the raw feelings of wonder and awe since then.

Apollo 13. They finally hear from the crew and the shot goes to an emotional chief--played by Ed Harris. The music.....

Gets me every time.

The movies I've come to love are by Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick.

Both of them were masters of the camera. You don't see too much, or any(?), of that type of camera work lately. Everythings all fast cuts.

The stories they told were intriguing and kept you glued to your seats, hoping the movie would end soon so you can rush to the restroom and yet, wishing it would last longer...

Stanley Kubrick : Thanks for the memories or how I learned to love the atom bomb.
Clockwork Orange (I think still the best movie)
Lolita

Akira Kurosawa : Seven Samurai
Ran

Of course i'm gonna say this being a scot.....Braveheart at the end when Wallace sees his dead wife in the crowd and then shouts freedom, man I felt like grabbing a sword and heading down to England ;)...but then I turned off the dvd and went down the pub instead.

Andy.

I enjoyed Braveheart immensly, but it just doesn't seem as real as Rob Roy with Liam Neeson. I can't put my finger on it, but Rob Roy is the better film in my mind.

The movie TITUS, when Lavinia is found by her uncle in the swamp and she "calls out" to him with her tongue cut out.

Chills me to the bone.

Shakespeare in Love - When Romeo and Juliet has ended and there's that moment of absolute silence before the audience erupts with applause.

All Keiths are in agreement on this.

I think "Braveheart" is a triumph of production over content.

Both films are about personal heroism and honor in the face of overwhelming odds. But I found "Braveheart" cliched, many parts of it contrived and focused on egoistic image rather than a compelling personal story. There are similarities in their stories but the creative decisions made are telling. "Rob Roy" struck much more of a chord with me because it never felt like Rob was being funneled toward an inevitable triumph or tragic failure in the way that William Wallace in "Braveheart" felt. At any point Rob could have turned away from his path toward honour. He had an internal conflict that wasn't subsumed by the external conflict and it turned out that his internal conflict was more important to the story (and to his character) than the external conflict. An example of this is in his decision to meet Archie in the final duel. In less deft films this is a cliche. Of course the hero will meet the villain (and the audience demands it). But in "Rob Roy" this is a more telling decision because Rob can in fact walk away without any consequence because his external conflict has already been solved both negatively and positively. His cause is already hopeless and even his duel will not solve that. His family is already under the protection of his new patron. You get the feeling that he could work everything out politically. Yet, because of the terrible dishonour done to his wife (on which the entire story turns for his character) he returns for the duel. This returns to the central theme of honour being the whole thing for this man. All other characters (even his wife) are prepared to sacrifice their honour for reality or for moving on.

Compare this with William Wallace in "Braveheart". It is all about the external conflict. He IS the external conflict because he seems very little more than the rebel leadership figure. What is his character about? It's about the rebellion and how he is the heroic leader. What exactly is his internal conflict? He has a subsidiary romance with the Queen. He has identification with his cause. But beyond that, what is there but a messianic impulse that goes to martyrdom?

And Liam also sounded more Scottish than Mel... My favorite part, was where Rob's brother dies. Man he was a whiney little screw up!

Oh man... I have so many!
 

The interplay in the car between Gene Hackman and his movie ex-wife, Joanna Cassidy in "The Package":

Gene: So, are ya still seeing that swab jockey?
Joanna: If you mean Commander (&^%(*&^%$... sometimes.
Gene: You living alone?
Joanna: Sometimes.
Gene: What's that supposed to mean?
Joanna: It means sometimes I live alone and sometimes I don't.
Gene: Well you sound like you're jumping in and out men's beds!
Joanna: Mind you own P's and Q's!
Gene (Laughs) Oh that's a good one!
Joanna: You never ask me how my career's going!
Gene: How's your career?
Joanna: Or my health!
Gene: How's your health?

You have to see how Hackman delivers his lines. Cracks me up every time. He's unreal. And, of course, Steve McQueen in "The Towering Inferno":

One of his Firemen has acrophobia and is scared to repel down the elevator shaft. McQueen says to him: "Then you go first. That way if you get scared and fall, you won't take any of us with you."

Ahhh... the movies. If I have more that come to mind I will post 'em.

Stanley
 

"You can't fight in the war room!" President (If I remember correctly) Peter Sellers in Kubrick"s Dr. Strangelove or "How I learned to love the bomb."

I would say that in the case of braveheart extreme poetic lisence was used , there were basic truths like his wife was killed in the town of Lanark where they lived (which is where i was born and still live) ,that he was hung drawn and quartered and the victors of the battles stirling bridge falkirk and bannockburn

The ruins of the church where he married his wife in secret still stand today. And at the bottom of Lanark Highstreet there is a monument where his house stood. Its a nice little town, if you ever find yourself in Scotland you should go and see it.

My knowledge of the real Rob Roy isn't so good and I can't remember the film too well but I do remember not really liking it. I was only 14 when I saw it back in 95 so I should probably give it another go.

"Red October" the moment when the Russians realize they torpedoed themselves.

Hey, some of these scenes you guys are mentioning aren't all that embarassing! This is supposed to be "all the bits we shouldn't love, but do anyway." Kubrick and Kurosawa films don't exactly fall into that category -- love those without feeling embarassed! Marco was asking for cheesy moments to the extreme, that you can fess up to actually liking.

Kudos to Lorinda for tagging one of the schmaltziest Ron Howard moments ever to be printed on celluloid in recent history. If I were to admit to a favorite guilty pleasure, it would have to be the exact scene she described in Apollo 13. It's not as if we don't know how it'll turn out... everybody knows going in that our astros returned to Earth safe and sound. But that tense scene in Mission Control still gets to me anyway. "Will they make it? Can they make it? Oh, the suspense..."

Your right Chris, so I'll put in the scene at the end of the Goonies where one eyed Willy's pirate ship sails off into the sunset....lol got me every time as a kid and still does!

Andy.

Alright, who can't love a lovable robot.

Number 5, is alive. Short Circuit. Now, I'm embarrased.

More input!

Ok, how's this:

Florence Henderson in bed with Bobcat Goldthwait in the movie "Shakes the Clown".

Or the entire movie, "The Dark Backward"... I secretly love that movie and NEED it to come out on DVD. :(

oh god the shame
 

Oh dear God the shame...

As the originator of this thread I feel that I should really take this opportunity to get things back on 'embarrassing' track....

(please don't hate me for these...)

1) Speed - "There's a bomb on this bus!" (even though it is more wooden than Noah's Arc...)

2) Iron Eagle - when he puts Queen's 'One Vision' into his cassette player and bombs the hell outa the air strip (am I the only person who remembers this movie?)

3) When Harry met Sally - new years...darn it I'm welling up ;-)

If my girlfriend ever finds this thread she's gonna dump me faster than Michael Shumacher on a school run...

Okay, FINE! "You've Got Mail," when Tom Hank's dog comes bounding around the corner at the park and Meg Ryan (before collagen) suddenly realizes it was him all along she was getting the e-mails from.

Likewise, "Sleepless in Seattle," same scenario at the top of the Empire State Building.

Do we feel better now????

Adam Sandler dukes it out with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore.

"Dad wanna have a catch"-- Field of Dreams

Clockwork Orange- now that’s a cameraman's movie. The long shots, the wide shots- nothing like it. Stan, once a photojournalist for Look Magazine, knew how to use the lenses perspective

“One sentence is worth a minute of film- so write me 120 good sentences.” or close to it ... SK once said.

Ran is so pure...

Okay, pure shmaltz.

End of Princess Bride,

when Peter Falk turns to his grandson with "As you wish..."

The end of "The Natural" when the tumbling ball from the pennant game becomes the ball that ends up in the retired Robert Redford's glove. Everything is happy. They are on the farm. Glenn Close is there. So CHEESY but I LOVE IT.

Ok, another embarrasing movie that I truly love. The Last Dragon. Who's the master? Sho'nuff!

Anyone else think Busta Ryhme's looks a lot like the Shogun of Harlem played by Julius J. Carry III.

The master that can train Bruce Leroy turns out to be a computer that prints out the wise sayings in those fortune cookies...

Reno Williams. "In Korea, door handle don't break." by the master, who isn't Asian.

And lastly, I can't remember the name but it had Jennifer Connely and everyone's favorite singer Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie). The beginning computer animated owl and David Bowie actually performing that feat of amazement with the crystal ball that he just has moving around his hands like nothing. Is it just me, or is there a character in the movie that was from Star Wars? I mean it's Jim Hansen's puppet on the set...

The Bowie movie is Labrynth.

Pair that one up with Dark Crystal for three hours of deadly serious muppet cheese.

Cannery Row/KG Cop
 

"Its not a tumor " Kindergarden Cop. cracks me up everytime.

"You can only have so much fun" - Cannery Row love that flick. Even Winger is good (took over for R Welch). ANd it is a baseball movie too. What's not to like.

The Dark Crystal rocked sock!

Dude! Yes! I TOTALLY know what you're talking about!

The chills up my spine whenever James Bond says his catchphrase, About half of the stuff in the second and third matrix movies.

Lots of em in Spielberg's stuff. Like E.T. Whever that bike starts to fly, or anything like that, I'm like, "HECK YEAH!" then glance around.

Busta can definitely frown like him.

The Last Dragon was a total childhood favorite. Black people, kung fu and Vanity, what a trifecta! I still wanna cheer after the the whole "Catching bullets with his teeth" thing.

The scene in Spartacus when they all stand up saying:

"I'm Spartacus!"

This is terrible.. mine is the bit in Armageddon where Bruce Willis sacrifices himself and blows up the meteor. It's so lame but everytime I've seen it I felt like jumping up from my couch and shouting "Yay we're gonna live!"

Funniest moment (that I'm ashamed of) for me in the movies is in the best bad movie ever made. Ghostbusters 3 aka, Evolution. When Orlando Jones has the bug crawl inside of him and they have to go in rectally to get it out...

Nurse: I'll get the lubricant
Doctor: We haven't got time for lubricant!
Jones: THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICANT!

then the insuing patranization of jones by decovney and moore afterwards, it's priceless I laugh so hard I cry, everytime.

An emotional moment that I'm not super proud of is 1) the end of jimmy hollywood, when nothing happens. and 2) the end of three kings, when almost nothing happens (not quite as ashamed of that)