"Oh HELL No!" Movie Moments That Anger Up the Blood

[Spartan Girl]

This particular one has had me stewing from a while.  It's from Everything Must Go, a serious film Will Ferrell did, where he plays an alcoholic whose soon-to-be-ex wife chucks him and his stuff out of the house, and he's forced to have an impromptu yard sale out on the lawn.  Throughout the movie, he gets support from his sponsor/cop friend, played by Michael Pena.  Towards the end of the film, Will finds out that his ex is currently staying with his sponsor, and the two of them are pretty much in a relationship.  He confronts him about it and the two of them get into the fight, culminating with Michael Pena giving him a self-righteous lecture about how the marriage was bound to fail anyway (since the wife was also a former alcoholic and the statistics of divorce between recovering alcoholics being very high) and how he was basically was a crappy husband in general.

That moment just infuriated me.  Yes, Will was a crappy husband.  Yes, his wife had every right to want out if she wasn't happy.  But that didn't make Michael Pena any less of an asshole.  I've got zero patience for so-called friends that use a failing marriage as an excuse to hook up with their friend's spouses behind their backs, and even less for the ones that still have the NERVE to pretend to be their friends while doing it.  Plus, the fact that he was their sponsor just makes it even sleazier.

[Crs97]

I can't remember if I have mentioned this one before, but Stepmom is already a bad film and this scene makes me want to punch something.  Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon are finally bonding over their love for the dying Susan's children when Julia says that she is scared she will be getting the daughter ready for her wedding and the daughter will be thinking about Susan's character.  Susan's response is that her fear is the same scene, but that her daughter won't be thinking about her.

I am sure that the writers patted themselves on the back for their brilliant writing, but seriously?  Did they just have Julia tell Susan that she would be disappointed if her stepdaughter missed her dead mother at her wedding?  How selfish and narcissistic can you be?  How Susan didn't punch her I don't know.

[Spartan Girl]

Yeah, that was just so cringeworthy.

Another moment from Stepmom that pissed me off was how Julia, in a sincere attempt to try to bond with the stepdaughter, asked Susan for permission to take her to a Pearl Jam concert.  Susan shoots her down on the basis that it would be on a school night.  But several scenes later, Susan winds up taking the daughter to that exact same Pearl Jam concert, meaning that the school night excuse was just a bullshit way to ensure that Julia wouldn't impede on her territory.  That was just mean.

[Bastet]

Oh my god, that "And my fear is, she won't" scene in Stepmom!  Yeah, it's been discussed here before, but it sucks so hard we can do it regularly.

I know Sarandon and Roberts had been wanting to work together for a long time, so I really wanted to like the film.  And I didn't hate it, but that scene!  Ugh! 

That fucking twit of a woman, standing there talking to the woman who is dying young -- as if anything she could be worried about could compare to the fears Jackie has for herself and the kids she'll leave behind, but what she comes up with as her biggest fear is some future scenario where the daughter is getting ready to walk down the aisle, the trophy wife stepmom is helping her, and the poor young woman will be wishing her mom was there?!  Of course she'll be wishing her mom was there.  Whatever her relationship with Isabel is by then, she'll be wishing that; if she thinks Isabel is the greatest thing since sliced bread and is so happy her dad left her mom and married her, she will be wishing her mom was there alongside her.

Also, that stupid revenge plot Isabel concocts for the daughter to get back at her little boyfriend is beneath everyone involved, and a pathetic example of how ill- equipped she is to actually parent these kids, not some shining example of how cool she is and how well off the kids will be in her hands. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Bastet

[Spartan Girl]

This Is Where I Leave You: Every single scene with Quinn and Wade pissed me off.  Particularly the scene where Judd rushes to the hospital because Quinn thinks she's having a miscarriage and right when they've gotten the news that their baby is fine, Wade moseys on in and proceeds to start slobbering all over Quinn, right in front of Judd.  At least Quinn had the grace to look ashamed and embarrassed, since that kind of PDA isn't very appropriate for a hospital exam room, especially right in front of your ex with the same guy you cheated on him with.

And I hated how Wade acted all indignant when Judd justifiably refused his smug, halfhearted "peace offerings", and proceeded to rub it in his face that Quinn was the one that went after him.  So yeah, I enjoyed Judd's sister (Tina Fey) suckerpunching him immensely.  

[DollEyes]

Another movie moment that pisses me off is from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when the film's villain Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, son of Han Solo and General Leia Organa, called ex-Stormtrooper Finn a "traitor." This from the arrogant, sociopathic asshole who not only turned to the Dark Side, he betrayed his own family to do it. "Kylo Ben's," (as I call him) betraying the uncle who trained him was bad enough, but his choices also destroyed his parents' relationship, but not their love for each other and for him, only to have it used against them in the worst way possible. Han tried to help Kylo Ben the best he could, but he not only rejected Han, he murdered him in cold blood-a crime so vicious that even Leia felt it. Kylo Ren broke his family's hearts, in every way.

  Then there's Finn, who would have loved to have been raised by a family like Kylo Ben's, whom the latter has both taken for granted and treated like shit for years. Han, Leia and Luke may not have been "perfect," but I believe they raised Ben to know much better than to be the Dark Side's bitch. Any regime that encourages mass genocide, mind-rape and cold-blooded murder deserves to be betrayed.  Finn didn't choose the Dark Side, but he still managed to learn how to think for/free himself, which makes him a much better man than Kylo Ben could ever be.  

[Spartan Girl]

Ragtime was full of anger-inducing, disgusting moments of racism, especially with the firemen trashing Coalhouse's car.

But oddly enough, it was Father's patronizing, condescending attitude that made me even more angry. Maybe he wasn't outwardly racist, but it definitely showed in the scenes where Coalhouse came to see Sarah (i.e. Asking him to wait in the back, telling him not to touch the piano, acting like he had cooties). Not to mention that  while the rest of the family (especially Mother and Younger Brother) was genuinely warm to the couple, he was only willing to be kind when it was convenient for him. Yet when Coalhouse was trying to file a complaint against the firemen, he didn't help, complaining that he "already wasted enough time and money" housing Sarah. Even worse was how he pressured Sarah to do something about it -- what the hell COULD she do?! -- which inadvertently put her on the path to going to that rally and getting beaten to death by those cops.

I'll be generous and note that he showed some guilt over his inaction after Coalhouse got gunned down by the police. Still, I wasn't too sad at the end when his wife leaves him for Mandy Patinkin.

[Spartan Girl]

The part in Kramer vs Kramer that really pissed me off was when Joanna blabbed to her lawyer about Billy getting hurt that day in the playground and they used it against Ted at the custody hearing. And I don't buy Joanna's story that she "only just mentioned it casually" without thinking. Maybe it was just a case of her bring thoughtless and stupid, but the way she nervously kept looking away in the courtroom when the story came out spoke VOLUMES.

So I rather enjoyed how Ted just walked away and ignored Joanna when she tried to blather a half-assed apology for it afterward.

[UYI]

Yeah, that was a low blow on Joanna's part. I understand that the movie was trying to get across that dads are just as important as moms are for their kids (and how many women felt like they were jettisoning their own personalities to be seen as somebody's wife/mother and nothing else), and Meryl Streep did the best she could with what she had (and got her first Oscar for her trouble), but there was only so much even she could do to make Joanna seem sympathetic. 

Edited January 3, 2017 by UYI

[Spartan Girl]

Not to mention that her being his mother (as she said over and over) doesn't mean she has the right to whisk him off to California or wherever, and by doing so completely uproot him from his father and his friends, just do that it's more convenient for her. It's amazing how even the most loving parents can treat their children like chattel.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

16 hours ago, UYI said:

Meryl Streep did the best she could with what she had (and got her first Oscar for her trouble), but there was only so much even she could do to make Joanna seem sympathetic. 

The year Kramer Vs. Kramer came out (God, I'm old), Mad Magazine did a parody of the movie, and in the court scene where Joanna was going on about how she was the boy's mom, her husband's lawyer asked her why exactly she was such a good mother, and there's teary Meryl weepily saying, "I'm a great crier!"

[ChelseaNH]

14 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

doesn't mean she has the right to whisk him off to California or wherever, and by doing so completely uproot him from his father and his friends, just do that it's more convenient for her

This is starting to sound like it's wrong for parents to take jobs in other parts of the country and relocate the family.

[Spartan Girl]

School Ties: How everyone treated Brendan Fraser's character when they found out he was Jewish. Made. Me. Sick.

[Splash]

I just finished watching A Walk in the Clouds and the ending was just way to WTF for me to handle.  

Spoiler

 

Keanu Reeves is fighting with his "wife's" dad in the vineyard and dad flings his oil lamp, which breaks near one of the grape vines.  The grapevine, which is completely alive and full of leaves and grapes, proceeds to go up like a tinderbox in one second (no, really.  I ended up rewinding and timing it on my phone).  Within 5 seconds, half that row and part of the next are up in flames, and in two minutes flat, the entire countryside is just a flaming ball of fire.  

I realize they had to take some artistic license here to speed things along, but they basically had the entire vineyard be a total loss the second that lamp hit the ground.  Yet, near the beginning on the movie, they ran bells to alert everyone to a frost that would destroy the crop and in order to try and save it, they set up tall fire pits, complete with open flames, down the middle of the rows.

So, are these things an insane fire risk or not, movie?  

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Splash

[afterbite]

Although Pitch Black is obviously the best film of the Riddick-verse, I even enjoy the ridiculous tonal shift that was Chronicles of Riddick. Then, though, they made Riddick and ruined the character for me completely. Riddick (the character) was always doing his creepy bit where he was a lot closer to the naive characters who could be his prey if he was interested, but he didn't come off as a sexual predator. Just, you know, a predator. Poor Katee Sackhoff in the third film, though. Riddick goes full-on sexual predator with her, and they pull the grossly uncomfortable 'lesbian who can be cured by the right dick' trope out and lean on it, hard. (Whether she was a lesbian or only saying she was so that the [non-Riddick] bad guy merc would quit sexually harassing her doesn't really matter.) They also leaned heavily on the bad-guy merc being relentlessly sexist, homophobic, and racist, which was completely unnecessary. I mean, he was a merc. We already know that he wasn't a nice guy. They didn't have to provide additional ammo in our 'not a nice guy' armory of facts. Instead, it just made the movie painful to watch. Who wants to watch someone be needlessly offensive? Why needlessly alienate a substantial proportion of the audience?

I say needlessly offensive here because there was literally no need for the bad guy merc character to be that way. It didn't further the plot. It wasn't key to setting the scene. It wasn't an artifact of the time/place the movie was set in. No - it was just another way for us to know he wasn't a nice guy. We already knew that. Bashing us over the head with unnecessary awfulness made the movie unpleasant to watch and served. no. purpose.

[Bruinsfan]

On 3/5/2017 at 8:01 PM, Splash said:

I just finished watching A Walk in the Clouds and the ending was just way to WTF for me to handle.  

  Hide contents

Keanu Reeves is fighting with his "wife's" dad in the vineyard and dad flings his oil lamp, which breaks near one of the grape vines.  The grapevine, which is completely alive and full of leaves and grapes, proceeds to go up like a tinderbox in one second (no, really.  I ended up rewinding and timing it on my phone).  Within 5 seconds, half that row and part of the next are up in flames, and in two minutes flat, the entire countryside is just a flaming ball of fire. 

Those must have been the grapes they squeeze to get Everclear!

[DisneyBoy]

Interesting how much hate there is for Stepmom.

I have to admit I didn't give that scene much of my attention, because I felt like things were just sort of pouring out of Julia Robert's character in a way that didn't make too much sense, logically speaking. She's blubbering and opening up to a woman who was basically her enemy for a time. It's obviously just written that way so that Susan Sarandon can say what she says and we can all feel like it's a clever moment of bonding. But I agree it doesn't make much sense for Isabel to act as though the bride wanting her actual mother there is some failure on her part.

I guess you could kind of see it as Isabel feeling terribly about the fact that she will essentially be a stand-in for the real thing and that she doesn't want to be a stand-in and would much rather her actual mother also still be alive. I haven't watched this scene in a while...does that reading work?

It's kind of hard for me to name this one as an example of a scene I hate because I don't hate it - I just think that it's a kind of cheesy way to end what could have been a really good movie. Have any of you seen Saved! ? It is a great premise - a devoutly Catholic girl (Jena Malone) from a very religious high school tries to help her gay boyfriend go straight by sleeping with him only to end up pregnant and hiding it while he is off at one of those infamous pray-the-gay-away camps. The film has plenty of humor and tongue-in-cheek moments but by the end of the story they seem to opt for every cliche happy ending in the book (not that this was based on a book as far as I know). The gay couple shows up defiantly at prom, the pregnant girl goes into labor at prom, the bad girl gets embarrassed at prom and then we all end in the hospital with all of the characters taking a group photo.

Here's my beef: I honestly don't believe that the gay couple who have been together for a couple of weeks/months in secret at a camp are going to be together forever. Not realistic in the least which I point out because even if you have a bunch of really nice people in the hospital room after you've given birth, you probably aren't going to want a group photo like it's some kind of field trip with your baby's daddy and his then-boyfriend hanging off of you smiling because there's a big possibility that his first boyfriend is not going to continue to be his boyfriend years down the line when you finally show this picture to the kid when they're full grown. Come on!

And then there's the mother of the Jenna Malone character, who spent most the movie completely unaware that her daughter was pregnant. She finally has a bit of a change of heart (not that she was ever a bad mother mind you) and seems super happy, as though there's nothing awkward about being in the hospital and seeing your teenage daughter become a Mom when you've barely had a couple of months to mentally prepare yourself for it. Riiiight. And look - there's her gay baby daddy! Yay! Group hug! 

And then there's the Patrick Fugit character, who falls in love with the pregnant girl and is super cool and chill and laid back and not at all thrown by the fact that his girlfriend will now be playing Mommy for the rest of her life. Seriously? He's ready for diaper dates? Power to him.

It's like they wanted some super happy PC ending but that undercut some of the cleverness earlier in the movie, where they acknowledge that the world is complicated and imperfect and twisted and kind of make fun of that. They basically could have put a big sign at the end that said "And they all lived Happily Ever After!" and it would have felt about as satisfying.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe the movie was corny enough to pull off that ending. I'm not saying they have to go with something sad but they didn't have to make it seem like everyone was super great and life was amazing and now everything was better. Especially by pulling out such trite resolutions that can easily be seen in any other teenage Coming of Age movie.

On another note, I realize they were taking a different approach in the Nolan Batman movies, but I get super irritated by the fact that they felt they had to explain how the fabric in his cape allowed him to glide. For one thing, he's never really done that in the comics and for another it's one of those things that can't be explained away. It just doesn't make sense and actually diminishes our appreciation for the fantasy world they're trying to immerse us in. I had a similar reaction to the sonic bat vision that they used in the sequel. Some things just don't need explanations. How is it they got that right in the intro for The Animated Series but the big budget movies had to explain it all?

I also got really really angry in The Dark Knight at the moment when I realized they were going to make that silly disposable love interest Rachel the reason why Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face. She was very poorly developed and felt so forced into the franchise I was thrilled they were getting rid of her but I definitely didn't want to see he  as the motivation for poor old Harvey to become a criminal. And then on top of that they CGI him to look like a burn victim who hasn't received any treatment. How are we supposed to believe this character would have lived for more than 24 hours with his veins and eyeball and stuff exposed like that?!

And then I just completely threw my hands up in the air when "Two-Face" fell what looked to be two-and-a-half stories and apparently died, after earlier in the movie Batman fell off a 40-story skyscraper and was completely fine, as was Rachel. I actually sat there for the rest of the movie scratching my head and looking around and basically asking silently "...so he survived that, right?" Because there's no way that the laws of gravity would suddenly apply in that particular situation when they never seemed to otherwise.

In short, I'm not a big fan of the Nolan franchise.

Edited April 10, 2017 by DisneyBoy

[Wiendish Fitch]

I may be alone in this, but in X-Men: Apocalypse (yes, it's a dumb movie, humor me), when Raven drops by the Xavier mansion (because she wants to help Erik, the man who tried to kill her twice, 'cause...reasons). Charles warmly says "Welcome home," and what does Raven who, in this universe, grew up as Charles's foster sister and they once shared a close bond before their conflicting ideologies tore them apart, say to this? "This isn't my home. I just lived here."

Wow. Just... fucking, wow. The depth, breadth, height, and scope of Raven's ingratitude steals my breath. Where the hell do you get off, Misty Blue?!?! Charles is far from perfect and, yes, he did say some less than admirable things in X-Men: First Class, but you know what? He took you in when you were little, hungry and alone, was a brother, protector, and best friend (and, when you think about, her only real friend), forgave you when you left him bleeding and crippled on the beach, saved you from screwing up history assassinating Bolivar Trask, didn't rub it in your face that it took you 20 damn years to pay him a damn visit at his home, and this is what you say to him?! You're little better than Erik, you ungrateful, short-sighted, joyless loser! The Xavier mansion was your home, and probably the only home you ever had, or ever will have! Yeah, forget Charles, why don't you get back together with the man who tried to kill you twice?!

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I may be alone in this, but in X-Men: Apocalypse (yes, it's a dumb movie, humor me), when Raven drops by the Xavier mansion (because she wants to help Erik, the man who tried to kill her twice, 'cause...reasons). Charles warmly says "Welcome home," and what does Raven who, in this universe, grew up as Charles's foster sister and they once shared a close bond before their conflicting ideologies tore them apart, say to this? "This isn't my home. I just lived here."

Wow. Just... fucking, wow. The depth, breadth, height, and scope of Raven's ingratitude steals my breath. Where the hell do you get off, Misty Blue?!?! Charles is far from perfect and, yes, he did say some less than admirable things in X-Men: First Class, but you know what? He took you in when you were little, hungry and alone, was a brother, protector, and best friend (and, when you think about, her only real friend), forgave you when you left him bleeding and crippled on the beach, saved you from screwing up history assassinating Bolivar Trask, didn't rub it in your face that it took you 20 damn years to pay him a damn visit at his home, and this is what you say to him?! You're little better than Erik, you ungrateful, short-sighted, joyless loser! The Xavier mansion was your home, and probably the only home you ever had, or ever will have! Yeah, forget Charles, why don't you get back together with the man who tried to kill you twice?!

But Erik is such a complex, fascinating[ character! Plus, he's so hawt! Totally makes up for anything that resembles, y'know, morality.

[DisneyBoy]

Was anybody else incensed that Riker and Troi's marriage in the last Star Trek movie for the Next Generation crew featured them standing there in clothing? I mean, I get it - the actors aren't in their twenties anymore and probably don't want to appear nude even if it lines up with continuity but that was one of the most memorable bits of Star Trek trivia I retained since watching the original series. They were supposed to be naked and her wonderful mother was also supposed to be in attendance. I don't think she appeared in the movie, did she? Major bummer.

[dusang]

7 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

Was anybody else incensed that Riker and Troi's marriage in the last Star Trek movie for the Next Generation crew featured them standing there in clothing? I mean, I get it - the actors aren't in their twenties anymore and probably don't want to appear nude even if it lines up with continuity but that was one of the most memorable bits of Star Trek trivia I retained since watching the original series. They were supposed to be naked and her wonderful mother was also supposed to be in attendance. I don't think she appeared in the movie, did she? Major bummer.

Majel Barrett (who played Troi's mom, Lwaxana) was Gene Roddenberry's widow and the voice of the Enterprise computer. I'm pretty sure she was no longer doing on screen roles by the time Nemesis came out. Also, Riker mentions that there will be a naked ceremony on Betazed.

[DisneyBoy]

She was married to Gene Roddenberry! I never knew that. How cool. She was always one of my favorite Trek characters.

[Morrigan2575]

On 4/11/2017 at 0:08 PM, DisneyBoy said:

She was married to Gene Roddenberry! I never knew that. How cool. She was always one of my favorite Trek characters.

She was also Nurse Chappel in the original series and Captain Pike's first Officer in the original Pilot (The Cage) that later became The Menagerie. 

Quote

Was anybody else incensed that Riker and Troi's marriage in the last Star Trek movie for the Next Generation crew featured them standing there in clothing? I mean, I get it - the actors aren't in their twenties anymore and probably don't want to appear nude even if it lines up with continuity but that was one of the most memorable bits of Star Trek trivia I retained since watching the original series. They were supposed to be naked and her wonderful mother was also supposed to be in attendance. I don't think she appeared in the movie, did she? Major bummer.

I barley remember Nemesis but, wasn't there some discussion during the on-screen Celebration that Riker/Troi were going to do a traditional Betazoid wedding once the reached Betazed?

Edited April 15, 2017 by Morrigan2575

[DisneyBoy]

Still a cop-out, if you ask me. Reminds me of Luke and Lorelai standing beneath the chuppah on Gilmore Girls, but never actually, you know, getting to marry under it.

 

No payoff.

[Ambrosefolly]

On 4/11/2017 at 0:08 PM, DisneyBoy said:

She was married to Gene Roddenberry! I never knew that. How cool. She was always one of my favorite Trek characters.

Be cooler if Gene didn't cheat on his first wife with her (among others).

[magicdog]

1 hour ago, Ambrosefolly said:

Be cooler if Gene didn't cheat on his first wife with her (among others).

IIRC, actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) was one of them!!

[Spartan Girl]

The way Isabel treated Tom in The Light Between Oceans. I don't care how many miscarriages she had or how desperately she wanted to be a mother. It doesn't excuse almost letting Tom take the rap for a murder he didn't commit just because he returned the child they never should have kept to begin with.

Even worse, people on the IMDB boards actually defend her actions and say that the whole thing was Tom's fault for not keeping his mouth shut. Un-fucking-believable.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Spartan Girl

[Crs97]

I refuse to see that movie, Spartan Girl, because it was one of my most hated books ever for that very reason!  

[UYI]

On 4/19/2015 at 4:03 PM, Bastet said:

 

She knows her body can't handle pregnancy, and doctor after doctor has told her not to have a baby as it may very well kill her, but what does she do -- get knocked up to try and save her failing marriage to an asshole (this only gets hinted at in the film, but it's still there) and fulfill her "but I want to be a 'real' mom" desire.  And then, oh look, her mom has to give up a kidney to try to save her, and ultimately she dies anyway.  So she barely gets to be a mom (they didn't show the fact she spent much of those two years in hospital, where the kid couldn't visit), and now her family has lost her, and her son gets to not only grow up without her, but with the guilt of having been "responsible" for her death.

 

 

This is really late, but I was going through this thread again (and your posts in particular are some of my favorites, Bastet), but since yesterday was Easter and this movie is an Easter tradition for my mom and me (the movie begins and ends at Easter), I wanted to comment on this part in particular:

I can't help but wonder if Shelby really knew for sure or not that she couldn't adopt because "no judge is gonna give me a baby to someone with my medical record." I mean, I can SEE that being possible, given that she's diabetic (and her husband being a lawyer would have some idea about this), but does she know that for sure? I wouldn't be surprised if she used that as an excuse to justify her already being pregnant, and even if she did "fill out all the applications", as M'Lynn said, I could see her (either alone or with Jackson) quietly letting them sit, without ever seriously considering giving them over and continuing the process from there. 

Edited April 17, 2017 by UYI

[magicdog]

Quote

  I can't help but wonder if Shelby really knew for sure or not that she couldn't adopt because "no judge is gonna give me a baby to someone with my medical record." I mean, I can SEE that being possible, given that she's diabetic (and her husband being a lawyer would have some idea about this), but does she know that for sure?

As far as I know - that's a BS excuse.  There are private adoptions arranged by lawyers who specialize in that.  Chances are nothing would have prevented her adopting through private channels - or even a foreign adoption.  

[NUguy514]

Regarding The Family Stone, I won't dispute that the entire Stone family is self-righteous and obnoxiously quirky, but I hated Meredith for the dinner scene alone.  There is no excusing that.

Regarding A League of Their Own, I always believed that Dottie intentionally dropped the ball because I don't believe for one second that Kit could possibly have forced her to.  I don't care how hard she ran into Dottie; she's half Dottie's size.  I hated that moment so much because Kit is the worst and didn't earn the win as a character.  Barf.

Regarding Stepmom, the aforementioned Isabel/Jackie scene talking about Anna's wedding is a total groaner, but I was otherwise Team Isabel for the most part.  Jackie was a judgmental bitch the entire time to Isabel, and Anna and Ben were fucking awful.  I can't lie, though: the end of the movie still gets me.

On the first page, ChelseaNH talked about how dumb it was that Denethor sent Faramir to Osgiliath in The Return of the King, and I have to disagree with that.  Denethor was only too happy to send Faramir to his death because 1) he thought Faramir should have been the one who died instead of Boromir (his favorite, by faaaaaar) and 2) he was 100% sure Sauron was going to win anyway, so who fucking cares.  This is because he had been playing with his palantír and had his mind poisoned by Sauron with visions of a possible future in which Sauron did emerge victorious.  So, it's really that Denethor resented Faramir's existence, had no hope of a win (especially without the Ring, which Faramir chose not to bring back to Minas Tirith), and didn't give a fuck anymore.  I just reread all of The Lord of the Rings (favorite book and movie – hi, I'm a nerd!), so I know of what I speak.  That scene always gets me, though.

[ChelseaNH]

Ahem.  Denethor always knew he had no hope of a win.  And regardless of what he thought of Faramir, what about all the other knights who were sacrificed?  If Denethor was really just throwing in the towel, why not just open the city gates and let Sauron's army walk right in?  Why resist one place but not the other?

Basically, the movie defined Denethor by a single characteristic -- bad dad -- rather than letting him be a flawed human being.  In the book, Denethor was still a crappy dad, but he took pride in being a good king.

[NUguy514]

I wasn't trying to be snarky; if I came across that way, I'm sorry.

What happened in the movie is exactly what happened in the book, though.  The exchange between them when Denethor sends Faramir back to Osgiliath is taken almost verbatim from the book.  ("Since you were robbed of Boromir, I will do what I can in his stead.  If I should return, think better of me, Father."  "That will depend on the manner of your return.")

Maybe I see it as an "Oh, hell no!" moment that's designed by the movie to make the blood boil, as opposed to an "Oh, hell no!" moment that was unintentional.  I don't see much difference between the book's Denethor and the film's Denethor, as I also saw glimpses of the man who was proud of being the Steward of Gondor in the film, but, obviously, mileage can vary on that.

[ChelseaNH]

The dialog is the same, but the military situation was different.  In the book, Faramir was ordered to reinforce Osgiliath -- to shore up the defenses.  Osgiliath would eventually fall, but the survivors were able to retreat to the city in good order.  In the movie, he was ordered to retake Osgiliath -- to assail an entrenched opposition.  The attack had no hope of retaking Osgiliath, but worse, it had no hope of inflicting significant damages on the enemy, certainly nothing that would come close to the losses Isengard would suffer.  It wasn't just suicide, it was pointless suicide.

In other words, Denethor's orders in the book had a military purpose; his orders in the movie were just stupid and cruel.

[NUguy514]

I think it's just as pointless, stupid, and cruel in the book, but I also think that was Tolkien's intention.  YMMV.

[Spartan Girl]

On April 20, 2017 at 3:18 PM, NUguy514 said:

Regarding The Family Stone, I won't dispute that the entire Stone family is self-righteous and obnoxiously quirky, but I hated Meredith for the dinner scene alone.  There is no excusing that.

That was bad. However, I honestly felt like the family had spent every waking moment before that scene trying to provoke her into making some kind of statement, especially the bitchy Rachel McAdams character. The second it became obvious she was a conservative, they jumped on every little thing she said -- the charades scene, everyone? Meredith was doing her best to be polite, she even made a casserole for those assholes! And the family just went all out in making her feel as unwanted and uncomfortable as possible.

And keep in mind, I have VERY liberal views.

[NUguy514]

Yeah, I thought they were all dickheads.

[Sandman]

On 2015-02-26 at 9:24 PM, scarynikki12 said:

Regarding Father of the Bride, I was irritated that George didn't get to enjoy the wedding.  Yes, him helping park cars and dealing with every other last minute issue was part of the wacky hijinks that were necessary for the comedy aspect but they could have pulled a lot of that off without ignoring the wedding staples. 

I saw part of this again recently, and I was even more struck at how unfairly George is treated by everyone -- except for Matty. Yes, George gets short-tempered and grouchy, and his crabbing about the expense gets old really quickly. But he's more or less ignored or treated like he's in the way through the whole enterprise, and he has to put up with Fraaaaaannnckhchk's stupid arriviste snideness (what? No one else could have pointed out that the damned tux was navy blue? Go fuuuuuuckchkhk yerself, wedding planner.) No father-daughter dance -- hell, his daughter doesn't even think to say goodbye! I mostly like the Annie character (she's far less spoiled and whiny than Elizabeth's Taylor's bride in the original) but that was pretty cruel. George is treated as the moneybag, but is otherwise dismissed, gets no say in anything, and no respect from anyone else.

I think Nancy Meyers' movies are mostly awful.

Edited to add that I don't think the difference between the Denethor of the book and the movie version is that stark: Denethor is driven mad by despair because of Sauron's manipulations of the palantir. It's fairly explicit in the book that Denethor's pride and his refusal to believe that anything can be done to save Gondor are linked. Tolkien says elsewhere that his despair, his refusal of constructive action, his condemning Faramir to death, and his own suicide are a species of sin, connected to the deadly sin of pride. Denethor's not being dumb -- he's fallen into evil.

Edited May 12, 2017 by Sandman

[Spartan Girl]

Tuck Everlasting: Miles' wife accusing him and the Tucks of selling their souls for immortality, and breaking Miles' heart by leaving and taking his children.  As if that wasn't bad enough, her accusations got them shunned by the other townspeople, forcing them to be in hiding for all eternity.  Was I supposed to feel sorry that Miles' wife later died old and alone in an asylum after what she did?  

[Spartan Girl]

The montage in Unfaithful with Richard Gere is sitting desolately in his hotel room, while Diane Lane is gleefully preparing herself for another tryst.

It was that part that summed up how much I hated her character. It wasn't so much the cheating as it was the fact that she kept going back for more. She went back even after the first time clearly filled her with guilt. She went back even after her husband, sensing that something was wrong, plaintively asked if she loved him. She kept doing it even when her friend told her about how her own affair destroyed her life. You'd think either of those occasions would shame her enough to try and break off the affair sooner, but it didn't. Like Dan in Fatal Attraction, (whom I also loathed with a passion) she didn't have a single reason to cheat. it was just pure lust.

Not to mention the "beautiful Frenchman" was a real POS himself, seeing other women on the side and keeping a wife and child of his own. Of course, Diane didn't find out until later, but still.

[kitmerlot1213]

On 1/3/2015 at 8:56 AM, SlovakPrincess said:

Every year I watch It's a Wonderful Life and every year I get more and more pissed off by two things:

1. Potter gets away with stealing $8000.

2. Harry sexually harasses the Bailey's housekeeper and everyone laughs it off. I hope Annie actually did beat him with a broom offscreen. Like, seriously beat him up.

SpartanGirl, I hate the family in the Family Stone so much it's not even funny. Especially the Rachel McAdams character. I'm genuinely pissed that she gets a nice boyfriend at the end of the movie.

Now that it's almost Christmas time and this lovely movies will be shown again, I just need to point out that it's the drunken idiot Uncle Billy who starts all of the drama off by literally handing over the money to Potter and he never gets called on it.  In fact, Uncle Billy comes walking into George's house like a god-damn hero.  Instead of being applauded, he needed to be punched in the throat.

 

In La La Land, which is one of the crappiest films ever made, the scene where Emma Stone's Mia roles her eyes when the beautiful woman walks out of the casting office--we were just "treated" to the previous scene where she complains about all of the other girls being prettier then her and getting the good roles--and you know that the movie expects us to be cheering on the self-involved twit with a "No Mia, YOU'RE the prettiest!"  The entire movie was obnoxious but that scene was especially annoying.

[SlovakPrincess]

In Uncle Billy's (extremely limited) defense, he clearly had a drinking problem and memory issues, and the other Baileys never should have trusted him to do the bank runs anyway.

I think on some level George knows this.  Which is why (even though he claims "one of us is going to jail - well, it's not going to be me!") George is pretty much prepared to take the blame for everything.  George was in charge, and he never dealt with the fact that lovable old Uncle Billy is actually too messed up to be working at the Building and Loan.  George does blame himself for everything that goes wrong that day. 

Potter, on the other hand, knows goddamn well that that was not his $8000!!

Edited November 25, 2017 by SlovakPrincess

[DollEyes]

From Justice League, the scene when 

Spoiler

the JL argued about Bruce's plans to stop Steppenwolf and Diana had reservations (for good reason), Bruce dared to mention Steve Trevor's name, prompting Diana to shove him.  After that cheap shot, if Diana had knocked Bruce the fuck out, I wouldn't have blamed her one bit. Loved when Cyborg called Bruce an asshole & Flash said that if Diana had killed Bruce, they would all cover for her.

[Spartan Girl]

The ending to Cry Freedom, not only depicting the horrifying massacre of protesting schoolchildren by the South African police, but also the showing the list of anti apartheid activists that died under "siuspicious circumstances" in prisons. 

No words.

[Wiendish Fitch]

On 4/17/2017 at 6:37 AM, Spartan Girl said:

The way Isabel treated Tom in The Light Between Oceans. I don't care how many miscarriages she had or how desperately she wanted to be a mother. It doesn't excuse almost letting Tom take the rap for a murder he didn't commit just because he returned the child they never should have kept to begin with.

Even worse, people on the IMDB boards actually defend her actions and say that the whole thing was Tom's fault for not keeping his mouth shut. Un-fucking-believable.

 

What pissed me off about the movie is that Hannah

Spoiler

isn't even mentioned by Lucy at the end when Lucy's reunited with Tom. So poor, blameless Hannah gets the shaft either fucking way, while Isabel is framed as a secular saint. Fuck that noise.

 

Moving along, my hatred of Grease and Sandy's highly unnecessary makeover is well-trod ground, so I will share another thing that pisses me off about Grease. During the third act when Rizzo has her pregnancy scare, word gets out and she's a temporary pariah; even dorky Patty Simcox, the Pink Ladies' favorite target of ridicule, sneers and turns her nose up at Rizzo. The way this is set up and framed, we're meant to think, "Oh, Patty's showing her true colors, she was really a mean, judgmental, hypocritical bitch all along!"

Okay, if this were a different story with different characters, I'd agree with this sentiment completely. Don't get me wrong; Patty was kind of annoying, and I'm not saying the Pink Ladies had to like her (hey, I believe you're free to dislike whoever the hell you want), but Patty never deserved the shabby treatment they doled out to her, and she certainly did NOT deserve to be cruelly humiliated at the dance by Kenickie (while they stood idly by and laughed). Even though Patty was wrong to judge Rizzo towards the end, she doesn't owe Rizzo a damned thing, least of all niceness. 

The fact that Sandy not only forgave Rizzo's contempt for her, but dared to show her kindness during the whole mess, just makes the makeover at the end even more frustrating!

[Spartan Girl]

On February 16, 2018 at 5:36 AM, Wiendish Fitch said:

 

What pissed me off about the movie is that Hannah

  Reveal hidden contents

isn't even mentioned by Lucy at the end when Lucy's reunited with Tom. So poor, blameless Hannah gets the shaft either fucking way, while Isabel is framed as a secular saint. Fuck that noise.

 

My sentiments exactly. Isabel shouldn't have gotten special brownie points at the end for finally telling the truth (which is what she SHOULD have done from the very beginning). The fact that everyone coddled her infuriated me. NOBODY looked her right in the eye and flat out said, "What you did was wrong and what you're doing to Tom is even worse. A man could die, you will burn in hell for this."

The book is even worse: "Tom betrayed me, I wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me..." SHUT UP. He did no such thing. He loved you enough to take the full weight of the "kidnapping" and kept silent when you tried to frame him for murder. That's Gatsby level of devoted stupidity, but he sure as hell didn't deserve to hang for it.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Wiendish Fitch]

11 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

 

The book is even worse: "Tom betrayed me, I wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me..." SHUT UP. He did no such thing. He loved you enough to take the full weight of the "kidnapping" and kept silent when you tried to frame him for murder. That's Gatsby level of devoted stupidity, but he sure as hell didn't deserve to hang for it.

 

It absolutely was kidnapping. Lucy wasn't a doorstep baby with a regretful note pinned to her blanket, she was washed ashore under bizarre circumstances. Tom and Isabel should have taken her back to mainland right then and there to at least make sure she had no family looking for her. Instead, it was "finders keepers, losers weepers", and poor Hannah (I know I shouldn't keep referring to her as that, but can you blame me?) had her life ruined twofold by losing her husband and her baby. I swear it's as if the screenwriters didn't give a tinker's cuss for Hannah simply because Alicia Vikander was the hot "It Girl" of the moment while Rachel Weistz wasn't. At least in the book, you get the sense that the author empathized with Isabel and Hannah equally.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Wiendish Fitch

[Crs97]

Where were all of you when my book club discussed this book, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy for thinking Hannah was the true victim in this story?!?!  One person said that she just wished Hannah could have disappeared to give Isabel her happy ending because Lucy was so clearly better off with Isabel.  OH HELL NO! Hate, Hate, HATE this story!!!

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

It absolutely was kidnapping. Lucy wasn't a doorstep baby with a regretful note pinned to her blanket, she was washed ashore under bizarre circumstances. Tom and Isabel should have taken her back to mainland right then and there to at least make sure she had no family looking for her. Instead, it was "finders keepers, losers weepers", and poor Hannah (I know I shouldn't keep referring to her as that, but can you blame me?) had her life ruined twofold by losing her husband and her baby. I swear it's as if the screenwriters didn't give a tinker's cuss for Hannah simply because Alicia Vikander was the hot "It Girl" of the moment while Rachel Weistz wasn't. At least in the book, you get the sense that the author empathized with Isabel and Hannah equally.

 

Didn't mean to imply that it wasn't kidnapping, but let's not forget Tom DID want to take her back to the mainland the second they found her. Isabel was the one that basicaly wheedled him into keeping her. And after they both found out about Hannah, Tom again tried to talk her into coming clean -- and everything might have been easier for everyone involved if they had -- and once again Isabel's warped, greedy need for a child wouldn't budge. Tom might have been guilty of accessory, but he didn't deserve the shitstorm Isabel hurled him into. 

Both in the book and movie, Isabel lost the right to any empathy when she threw Tom to the wolves. And her telling the truth to save him should not have been hailed as a selfless sacrifice. I really wish she wound up with no one at the end, because that's what she deserved.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Wiendish Fitch]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Didn't mean to imply that it wasn't kidnapping, but let's not forget Tom DID want to take her back to the mainland the second they found her. Isabel was the one that basicaly wheedled him into keeping her. And after they both found out about Hannah, Tom again tried to talk her into coming clean -- and everything might have been easier for everyone involved if they had -- and once again Isabel's warped, greedy need for a child wouldn't budge. Tom might have been guilty of accessory, but he didn't deserve the shitstorm Isabel hurled him into. 

Both in the book and movie, Isabel lost the right to any empathy when she threw Tom to the wolves. And her telling the truth to save him should not have been hailed as a selfless sacrifice. I really wish she wound up with no one at the end, because that's what she deserved.

I swear I didn't mean to sound snippy; I was just passionately agreeing with you. My fault, no offense meant, honest.

But yeah, I dislike The Light Between Oceans more and more in hindsight. I now wish M.L. Stedman would write a sequel (I'll also settle for a fanfic by some rando) about Lucy and Hannah bonding and having an awesome life.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?