Scenes We Hate Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Scenes We Hate: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Filed under: Romance », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom »
For starters, I just want to make it perfectly clear that I have nothing against Winona Ryder. Veronica Sawyer will remain as one of my favorite characters of all time, and her Bjork on Rock N' Roll Jeopardy has yet to be matched. But, let's be honest, period pieces were never her thing (maybe with one exception ... but that's a big maybe). In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola released Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I've never been able to look at her the same way again.
Dracula is hardly a perfect movie, and by no means am I dumping all the blame on Winona's doorstep. But all the beautiful costumes and references to La Belle et la Bête couldn't save what was once described as a "fruitcake of a movie"; and the cherry on that fruitcake is this scene between Gary Oldman (as the bloodsucking Prince of Wallachia) and Ryder as Mina Harker. What should have been romantic and emotional (not to mention hot) is for me the cinematic equivalent of watching an amateur lightweight get into the ring with Muhammad Ali (and can you guess who the lightweight is?). Ryder's delivery is stilted and awkward, Oldman is hamming it up for all it's worth, and I will forever be cringing in my seat.
Dracula Fun Facts (Courtesy of IMDB):
- In an attempt to elicit more emotion, director Francis Ford Coppola shouted "whore" and "slut" at Winona Ryder while filming the scene when Van Helsing catches Mina with Dracula.
- Prince Vlad's scream after he drives his sword into the cross is not the voice of Gary Oldman. Lux Interior, lead singer of punk band The Cramps, recorded the scream and it was dubbed in.
- Earnings from the film was enough to save Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola's studio) from bankruptcy after suffering from financial difficulties and liabilities of $27 million over the past 3 years.
Scenes We Hate: The Ring
Filed under: Trailers and Clips »
I've mentioned this before: I'm not a big fan of animal death in film. That being said, I'm fine with it when it's necessary (and not a 20-tissue family film). I love pit bulls, but the bodies in No Country for Old Men made chilling sense. As did the dog death in Watchmen, or rat devastation in Willard or Wanted, or the strange, horse-head humor of My Winnipeg. If I can give the death a point, it's a-ok.
But then there's The Ring -- a film that creeped the crap out of me in the best way, but became quickly tainted when the horse went nuts. I get the fact that Naomi Watts scared the horse into insanity. I even get it jumping overboard. But instead of being a chilling moment, it was made into a grotesque show -- the sound of the horse's legs cracking on the railing, the shots of it flailing in the water.
It's quite unfortunate, but it made me close the book on The Ring, rather than keeping it in my arsenal for random nights when a scare or two is needed. If it was at the beginning or end, I'd edit it out and keep my own movie (like how I almost never watch the ending of Doom Generation to avoid the switch from dark comedy to sadistic thriller). But as it stands, it's just a terrible spot in the middle that taints the whole finished product.
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Scenes We Hate: Kill Bill Vol. 2
Filed under: Action », Quentin Tarantino », NSFW », Trailers and Clips »
Erik Davis' puke-filled Scenes We Hate debut inspired my offering. I'm not a horror or gore connoisseur like my other co-editor, Scott Weinberg, but I can hold my own when it comes to blood and guts. There are a few exceptions ... and one of those is definitely anything to do with eyeballs.
When Elle Driver turned up in an eyepatch in Kill Bill Vol 1, I should have suspected we'd see some eye-oriented gore, but I was left unprepared and downright sick with what happened to her other eye. Actually, it was one of the only times I've heard an entire audience groan and retch along with me -- and it wasn't the plucking (although that was pretty bad), it was the squishing. Once was enough for me. I close my eyes every time she flings it down on the carpet.
Actually, I really do hate this entire fight scene -- it's depraved, disgusting, and unspeakably painful. Squirting limbs and gallons of blood are all well and good, but a can of tobacco spit and a visit to Budd's toliet bowl is just foul. Needless to say, this clip is not for the weak and it's definitely NSFW.
When Elle Driver turned up in an eyepatch in Kill Bill Vol 1, I should have suspected we'd see some eye-oriented gore, but I was left unprepared and downright sick with what happened to her other eye. Actually, it was one of the only times I've heard an entire audience groan and retch along with me -- and it wasn't the plucking (although that was pretty bad), it was the squishing. Once was enough for me. I close my eyes every time she flings it down on the carpet.
Actually, I really do hate this entire fight scene -- it's depraved, disgusting, and unspeakably painful. Squirting limbs and gallons of blood are all well and good, but a can of tobacco spit and a visit to Budd's toliet bowl is just foul. Needless to say, this clip is not for the weak and it's definitely NSFW.
Scenes We Hate: Pretty in Pink
Filed under: Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
For women of a certain age, Pretty in Pink is the film for any gal who ever felt a little left of center from the beautiful people. After this flick came out, Molly Ringwald was our patron saint, and Pink was our religion. But, as the story goes, after disastrous test screenings, John Hughes (and Ringwald) decided to scrap the first ending (with Andie and her best friend Duckie, played by Jon Cryer, falling in love and dancing to David Bowie's Heroes) and replace it with Andie (Ringwald) and the bland pretty boy Blane (Andrew McCarthy) reuniting at the prom (in front of his shiny BMW no less) -- and to this day it still ticks me off. To me that ending wasn't about overcoming labels about being rich or poor, it was about the popular and the truly cool, and to watch Andie wander off to the dark side with boring old Blane was not the emotional moment Hughes was probably hoping for (which is also why I liked Some Kind of Wonderful so much; at least Girl-Duckie wins in the end of that flick).
Maybe it was because I had a crush on Duckie, or maybe it's just because I don't like easy endings, but to this day, whenever I watch this movie, I turn it off right before the ending so I don't have to be disappointed all over again. Unfortunately, footage of the original ending has become the stuff of legend. But, just to show you I'm not alone on this one, take a look at a new edit provided by another Pink fan looking to right some wrongs...
Scenes We Hate: Stand By Me
Filed under: Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
Considering we've been shoveling out tons of posts featuring Scenes We Love, you knew it was only a matter of time before we flipped it over and began a series of posts on Scenes We Hate. And since I'm usually the one who goes first with this sort of stuff, the first scene I'm highlighting is from a film I very much adore: Stand By Me. You probably already know where I'm going with this -- as someone who grew up with an extreme phobia of not only throwing up, but throwing up in public, this classic scene from Stand By Me has (and always will) disgusted me beyond belief.
In fact, I've probably only watched the scene once in its entirety. I'm so creeped out by this part in the movie that whenever I take in a screening of Stand By Me, I leave the room when it comes on. It's gross, it's nasty -- just thinking about it makes me want to hurl. It's funny, too, because puking has definitely made its way back into all types of films as of late. Have you noticed that? There's been a whole lot of puking going on. Pay attention a little more and you'll see what I mean. Yuck. Watch at your own risk ...
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