The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions.
What are some movies that you felt were almost perfect or classics, but because of one flaw you could not put in your best of all time list? The flaw does not have to ruin the movie completely, but just frustrating enough you cannot get over it.
One example for me was Gladiator. By all measure it should be one of the greatest films ever made. Flawless cast, acting, action, etc. Now you might think the flaw was the fake CGI tigers, but no, i didnt mind that much since it was a small part in the movie. The thing that bothered me a lot more was how the ending and everything was resolved. So Commodus was kind of dumb to put himself in the situation where Maximus can kill him, no matter how weakened he was. But the kicker was that when he was about to lose, he asked the soldiers to help him. They did not. Even the same dude who ordered Maximus family be slaughtered was there and he did nothing to stop the fight. I guess you can infer they were bound by the honor of the gladiators or respect for Maximus but i felt the movie never made this clear and therefore the ending just felt cheap and unearned. By all rights the villain Commodus should have won but hey its a movie so he has to lose.
The praetorian guard participated in the assassination of at least 4 emperors, so them standing by allowing commodus to get killed would've been right on brand for them.
For Commodus, the Praetorian Guard betraying him was the most shocking day in his life. For them, it was Tuesday.
The Praetorian Guard were also members of the Roman army.
In the story, Commodus killed their emperor and it turns out he tried to kill one of their top Generals as well.
I don't see them having any loyalty to Commodus this early in his reign.
If you watch the extended edition he (Commodus) also has Quintus kill some of his own people, even though Quintus says they're good, loyal soldiers
The info dump at the end of Us. In explaining the Tethered's origin, it takes what feels like a metaphor made real and tries to make it fully litersl, which just opens up a bunch of logistic questions about how they lived, where thrir clothes came from, etc. These questions were irrelevant when they are a pure mystery, but when you begin to ground them more, you can't have it both ways.
The explanation doesn't even really change your understanding of the movie in any way. It could have been easily cut IMO. I do wonder if it was a studio note situation.
Yeah, either you make an airtight explanation or you explain nothing. They should have explained nothing
I wonder if US would have worked better if the format was like a fairytale. I think of the recent movie Cobwebs that approaches the whole thing like a scary story to tell children rather than taking place in the “real world”. I don’t need every story to have a twist or reveal. Would be cool to hear the story of this other world then watch it come to life.
Info dump at the end of Saltburn too
Baffling! It wasn't a twist that he was a monster.
totally agree, I thought it was a fun contemporary fantastic mr. ripley riff until they just laid everything on the table
I still don't get how travel worked. If you go on an international trip, does the Tethered just hop the next flight? The info dump really opened up too many questions
Don't worry. There's nothing to get. It wasn't well thought-out and introduced a billion plot holes once they tried to explain it.
I bet that was added in after testing screenings left people with too many questions.
Agreed. The climax would’ve been much better if they never went to the tethered world.
I was fine with seeing the underground. It led to some really cool visuals. Just don't try to justify it. Leave it a mystery.
Us was so terribly flawed in so many ways. It had flashes of greatness and it was well cast, but it was a complete mess
I think Peele tried to one up himself too much after the success of Get Out. Get Out was rightfully praised for its depth and social commentary but it still felt natural within the flow and context of the story. It didn’t feel like the messaging was forced. Us just felt like he was trying too hard to be super deep and complex with it to the point where it took over just making a cohesive story. I think Us had a good concept that had a lot of potential but it was too consumed with being super deep to actually focus on the story.
The moment I heard Lupita’s character had gone underground I immediately knew she had been replaced.
“Twist” endings like that, to support a whole movie, are such a risk and this one did not at all payoff.
Yeah the end ruined that movie for me. When you have to spend 10 minute explaining the entire movie to me it’s not good
The Dark Knight Rises.
So a criminal takes over “Wall Street” and ruins Bruce Wayne’s financial life, and that is ok with everyone? Everyone just accepts it? Everyone around the world and the media just think it’s valid and doesn’t care?
Back then, trades took three days to settle. There's no way those trades wouldn't have been invalidated the minute the SEC found out a bunch of terrorists broke in.
Comment deleted by user
It changed to two days in 2017 and will shorten to one starting May 28th.
I’m more bothered that Ra’s ghost gave vital plot information that Batman/Alfred took as fact.
A billionaire like Bruce Wayne would have such a diverse portfolio that a single place couldn't bankrupt him. He'd at least have other assets and investments in different places and probably different countries to protect him from going broke. Batman is supposed to have near genius level intellect, I'm pretty sure he can avoid going bankrupt.
And isn’t he doing business globally?
Literally sending Fox out to delegate with Hong Kong is a major plot point lmao
Also, you bet your ass that he would have stashed some a bunch of securities bonds, gold bars and diamonds and whatever down in the batcave...
Didn't he have the whole city hostage with a nuke?
Yes
Which makes the whole "Bruce Wayne is poor now" thing irrelevant. Like, it had zero effect on Bruce, or the evil plot, or etc. It was like Nolan saw the whole "Occupy Wallstreet" movement at the time and felt compelled to jam this whole sideplot in to show he was "one of the good ones".
I believe it was an effort to sideline Bruce (who they knew was Batman) from being able to really do much and make him need Talia since he didn’t want the reactor to go to the wrong people.
How come no one listens to Lucius Fox?
He literally explains that fraud will be proven but it will take time.
Then Bane takes over Gotham the next day and Bruce Wayne disappears. So no one cares about clearing up fraudulent trades made right before that.
I think people are annoyed because they start taking his furniture and board up his house.
Yeah it'll take time but no one's going to repo your stuff that quick if you're that rich.
It's like an episode of punked.
He loses his money from an obvious criminal act that won’t stand, and they shut off his lights within hours.
TDKR is the quintessential “the more I think about it, the angrier I get” movie, which is so heartbreaking given how much I absolutely LOVE the first two.
It’s even funnier because they foreclose in Wayne manor like a day later (wouldn’t that have been paid off for decades? wouldn't there be notices for months?) and also apparently Bruce has absolutely zero assets outside of stocks?
Good one. But that had so many "wtf"s you just stopped caring altogether.
There’s something about Interstellar that’s been bothering me. Why did they go to the time dilation planet first? They knew very well that Earth was running out of time, so the logical decision was to waste the least amount of time by going to all the other planets before the time dilation one.
Or they could have done 5 minutes of math and realize that the dude on that planet would have just gotten there.
I came here to say this. I absolutely love this movie, but that part always bothers me. They have a whole scene discussing whether they should go check out that planet or not and stop JUST SHORT of 'oh, so our guy has only been here for like an hour and a half? We should probably skip this planet.'
And meanwhile our Physicist spends 20 something years figuring out everything about black holes, and somehow he hasn't eaten the whole food supply.
He went into stasis many times to both pass time and avoid this issue. When they come back, he had given up and resigned himself to death, thinking they wouldn't come back, so he no longer cared about using up the rest of the reserves. He didn't spend all the 20 years studying the black hole, he said that he learned all he could from it a long time ago
This is also one of the many reasons Cooper drops himself in the black hole, both weight and food, so that Amelia can make it longer on her own
This always bothered me. They would know that the signal that the planet was good was only on for an hour or whatever before turning off. Should have clued them in that something was wrong.
Also all of his descendents are there at the end and they ignore him. Not to mention people laughing at him for assuming the station was named after him. Why was everyone such a dick to him at the end?
Yes, that bit gets me too. Wouldn’t all those people’s minds be blown that her Dad, their great, (great) grandfather, presumed dead but miraculously returns at the same age, was there, and give him a hug or at least shake his hand and have a bit of a chit-chat?
And they'd be able to see the big waves from orbit. And a planet in the dilation zone of a black hole doesn't seem that smart of a place to bet the future of the human race.
wouldn't the waves be moving really slowly from orbit?
It's not the speed of the wave you'd worry about but the size. Fast or slow that thing makes the planet an obvious no fucking thank you.
Yeah, but the fact that they exist at all really should have ruled that planet out
My issue with that planet is I don't know how a radio transmission suggesting the planet is viable got sent. Wouldn't the signal be red shifted beyond recognition of viability?
Comment deleted by user
I've always been fascinated at how this movie is woefully historically inaccurate, and yet the portrayal of Commodus could not be better.
“It’s a nice movie, but Gladiator is very historically inaccurate.” “Yeah, as if an emperor would fight with gladiators!” “No, actually that’s the historically accurate part.”
The original script also had the gladiators doing product promotion before the fights. It was cut because it was deemed too modern to be believable despite the fact that that sort of thing did in fact happen.
History Buffs did an excellent video on it on YouTube. The thing that stuck out to me is that the gladiatorial games were actually kinda toned down in the movie compared to real life. Irl they'd flood the entire stadium and reenact naval battles.
Apparently something like that is going to happen in Gladiator 2. There’s some kind of scene with shark infested waters
Naumachia! iirc Augustus also built a stadium by the Tiber just for those battles. They were probably uncommon (compared to "normal" gladiator fights) simply because of the logistics of it all, but they definitely happened and were a huge spectacle.
I mean it’s not billed as a historical movie despite there being some real people in it
"Commodus killed a camelopardalis or giraffe...the most useless of the quadrupeds."
Damn, that's adding giraffe insult to giraffe injury :( you're useful for eating leaves too high for everyone else, don't listen to Commodus
Exactly. The term "fall on your sword" comes from the Romans, who would literally do that to save their family honour, obviously such a powerful thing to value your honour above your own life.
There is also a code amongst soldiers that goes back through the ages, where even if you despised a fellow soldier, you still loved them like a brother. For someone who is liked by their fellow soldiers, such as a general, a soldier would give their life for them - that is why nobody offered to help Commodius. He was too far removed from society to be despised, and everyone liked Maxiumus.
Hot Rod had the fatal flaw of coming out in 2007. It is so funny and better than most comedies but it came out in a super year of comedies.
One of my most quoted films
Babe
Wait
Babe nooo
Wwwwwhhat, whhhhaaatt are you saying?
Cool beeeeeaaannnnsss
You can't join the crew Richardson, you don't do anything
Oh, don't I?
My nickname growing up, and now username, came from when Rod calls his brother Kevbot in a random scene in Hot Rod
My name is Rod and I like to party.
Hospital?
Such an underrated movie!!!
Cool beans
The Dude never got due compensation for his rug after it was micturated upon and that's a travesty, man.
That interesting man, that’s fucking interesting
Certain shit had come to light.
The aggression stood after all.
The rug really tied the room together.
Yes he did, he took a rug from the Big Lebowski who never asked for it back.