Couples That Should Have Been

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, methodwriter85 said:

I enjoyed Begin Again. It was a light, fun story and I was disappointed to learn that John Carney was such a dick about Keira Knightley. I can't believe he was dumb enough to burn a bridge like that.

The way he spoke about her - that she was a supermodel who couldn't act, or something?  Was really creepy.  Beyond unprofessional.  Misogynistic.  He sounds like one of those people who hates beautiful women, or he wanted to sleep with her and was rejected.  Sorry not sorry.

https://variety.com/2016/film/news/john-carney-slams-keira-knightley-directors-defend-1201785800/

[Spartan Girl]

I watched The Purple Rose of Cairo for the first time and dammit, Cecilia should've picked Tom! *cries*

[memememe76]

I will always be confused why Holly Hunter would not choose Sam Niell in The Piano.

Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day. 
 

Although really a show but it does have a movie, but I always did love Tom and Mary in Downton Abbey.

Muriel and the swimmer in Muriel’s Wedding. 
 

I really enjoyed Andie Macdowell, but the chemistry between Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

 I still don’t understand why Naveen Andrews and Juliet Binoche broke up in The English Patient.

Finally, Sally Field and Danny Glover (or John Malkovich) in Places in the Heart.

[Danny Franks]

Any combination of Rey, Finn and Poe in the new Star Wars trilogy - straight couple, gay couple, polyamorous thruple, whatever.

They all had really nice chemistry (though Ridley and Isaac got barely any time to show it, they did have a cute bickering scene in The Rise of Skywalker).

Instead, Disney opted to go for the (thankful) non-consummation of Kylo Ren's creepy and toxic pursuit of Rey, while making sure everyone knew Poe was straight by giving him a random ex-girlfriend.

One I'd like to have seen, but understand that the movie wasn't about this, and it would have felt tacked on - Mark Watney and Mindy Park from The Martian. It's really all down to Mackenzie Davis coming across so strongly in a relatively thankless role as 'woman watching over the hero fretfully'. But she has a great sense of fun about her, which matches Watney well, and I'd have loved to see just one scene of them meeting in person

[Ohwell]

9 hours ago, memememe76 said:

Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day. 

I would agree with this, although there's one scene that I hated her in.  It was the scene where she prodded him to let her see what book he was reading and he finally gave in.  She was way too nosy and didn't respect his privacy.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Definitely Finn and Rey for me.  That's a good one.

[Spartan Girl]

47 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Definitely Finn and Rey for me.  That's a good one.

Ditto. I would have loved Finn with either Rey or Poe. I don't get the Reylo obsession. Finn was a great guy and clearly crushing hard on Rey, which was way better than the rapey stalker vibes Kylo gave out.

 

[Wiendish Fitch]

20 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Ditto. I would have loved Finn with either Rey or Poe. I don't get the Reylo obsession. Finn was a great guy and clearly crushing hard on Rey, which was way better than the rapey stalker vibes Kylo gave out.

 

Hell, I would ship Rey with BB8 before Sulky McPunchface!

[Ms Blue Jay]

I think Rey and BB8 are already in love.

I know that there are a lot of Poe/Finn shippers out there - I follow a bunch on Twitter - and that's fine, I have no issue with that. No issue with a gay relationship in SW whatsoever.  And the memes about it are great and I love that Oscar really really really seemed to want that/push that.   I just wasn't as enamoured with Oscar Isaac in the movies as everyone else I just think Daisy and John are sooooooo cute and I wish they weren't so separated in TLJ.

I actually love Daisy's chemistry with Adam Driver as well, but I know that that relationship was too abusive for people to accept, which I get.  Somebody suggested that they should just be in a traditional rom-com together.  I really do like their chemistry.  Frankly I thought it was kind of incredible.  I mean while we're suggesting that, Oscar and John could be in a traditional rom-com too.  I bet Oscar is already writing it in his head.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just now, Ms Blue Jay said:

I actually love Daisy's chemistry with Adam Driver as well, but I know that that relationship was too abusive for people to accept, which I get.  Somebody suggested that they should just be in a traditional rom-com together. 

That's fair. Just cast Adam Driver as the polar opposite of Kylo Ren, and I'd definitely give it a watch!

[methodwriter85]

On 1/12/2020 at 9:18 AM, Danny Franks said:

One I'd like to have seen, but understand that the movie wasn't about this, and it would have felt tacked on - Mark Watney and Mindy Park from The Martian. It's really all down to Mackenzie Davis coming across so strongly in a relatively thankless role as 'woman watching over the hero fretfully'. But she has a great sense of fun about her, which matches Watney well, and I'd have loved to see just one scene of them meeting in person

I would have at least liked to have seen a scene with them, but I did love that the movie didn't feel the need to make Mark "important" by giving him a love interest fretfully waiting for him at home. I was especially glad that the movie didn't feel the need to have Jessica Chastain so invested in getting him home because of some kind of romantic interest or something. It was just a pure friendship love for Watney and his team that accidentally left him behind.

 

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 2:09 AM, memememe76 said:

I will always be confused why Holly Hunter would not choose Sam Niell in The Piano.

Intellectually, I get why.  He was so uptight that she could barely breath around him.  But visually speaking, no way would I have picked Harvey Keitel over Sam Neill.  I still think Judy Davis' character in My Brilliant Career should've married his character.

 

[Ohwell]

I would have picked Harvey Keitel.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Re: The Piano

Didn't Sam Neill's character

Spoiler

cut off Ada's finger?!

And Harvey Keitel's character was an illiterate, Maori culture-appropriating dullard who just happened to be good in bed. I mean, good for him for not being an abusive asshat

Spoiler

who cuts off fingers

all willy-nilly, but he's still someone who's nowhere near Ada's league. Even worse, I don't get the feeling he's ever going to learn to read or play the piano or do anything to be worthy of her. Yay, a story where the man gets the girl without ever putting in effort! 'Cause those are always fun!

Ada, for all her faults, deserved better than either of those guys, IMO.

[Ohwell]

It's been a while since I've seen the movie but I don't remember Ada having much to choose from when it came to men.  So if she had to choose between the two of them, I think she made the right choice, especially for the reason mentioned in the spoiler.  Also, Harvey Keitel's character did deem willing to learn some things.  Not saying he would have ever been an intellectual but a nice, decent handyman who also happens to be good in bed ain't bad.  And finally, it's not like Ada was the hot, sexy Queen of Sheba.

[memememe76]

I am NOT advocating what Sam Niell did in the movie, but I didn’t love the movie, so I felt it was done to more clearly show who she belonged to. Maybe if he did what he did earlier in the movie, then I would better understand. 

[Ravenya003]

On 1/13/2020 at 3:18 AM, Danny Franks said:

Any combination of Rey, Finn and Poe in the new Star Wars trilogy - straight couple, gay couple, polyamorous thruple, whatever.

They all had really nice chemistry (though Ridley and Isaac got barely any time to show it, they did have a cute bickering scene in The Rise of Skywalker).

Instead, Disney opted to go for the (thankful) non-consummation of Kylo Ren's creepy and toxic pursuit of Rey, while making sure everyone knew Poe was straight by giving him a random ex-girlfriend.

Mercifully Kylo died immediately afterwards, and by the time Rey got back to Finn and Poe she seemed pretty much over him. I honestly read the kiss as less romantic and more of an acknowledgement of what he had just done - like Kiera Knightley kissing Andrew Lincoln after his declaration of love in Love Actually. It was a thank you and goodbye kiss, and I don't believe for a second she would have done it if she hadn't known he was about to die.

(But let's face it, this franchise is full of TERRIBLE kisses, whether it's a queen kissing her bodyguard after he drops the line "I hate sand", a twin brother and sister kissing in order to make a third party jealous, the vaguely non-consensual kiss between a smuggler and a princess who keeps saying "no",* a random chemistry-free kiss from a (probably) concussed girl and a baffled ex-Stormtrooper that got dropped like a hot potato in the next movie, and (if you watched Star Wars Rebels) a drugged-up pregnant woman and her baby-daddy seconds before he dies. Oof. Honestly, the best Star Wars kiss is the one that never happens between Jyn and Cassian). 

I was also in the Finn/Rey corner, as they were incredibly cute and clearly what the first movie was setting up. Unfortunately, I think by the time TROS rolled around there were too many ship-related balls in the air and Abrams was too afraid to commit to any of them. A part of me kinda liked the fact that all surviving characters were still single by the end of it, with an emphasis on friends and found family... but I'm going to hold out hope that we might one day see a Finn/Rey limited series on Disney+ that gives them the love story they deserve. Heck. if it takes another thirty years maybe the world will be ready for a polyamorous relationship between Finn/Rey/Poe. 

* I love Leia/Han, but that first kiss will always be just a TAD dodgy, which is infuriating since there WAS a cut line from Leia in which she verbally consents:

Edited January 16, 2020 by Ravenya003

[Ravenya003]

On 2/9/2016 at 3:24 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Part of me wishes that Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter had a chance to really be together. Their romance ended before it could really even begin.

Lol. You wrote this in 2016 and GUESS WHAT.

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, Ravenya003 said:

* I love Leia/Han, but that first kiss will always be just a TAD dodgy, which is infuriating since there WAS a cut line from Leia in which she verbally consents:

Wait, what? Why the hell did they cut Leia's line of consent? They couldn't handle 3 seconds of Leia having agency and giving consent, which would have made the scene better, not worse? My god, what were they smoking?!

 

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, Ravenya003 said:

Lol. You wrote this in 2016 and GUESS WHAT.

Ugh, yup but I sure as shit didn't want them to get together by Steve going back in time and creating an alternate past or changing the past or whatever he did. It was just wrong.

So where that romance is concerned, I changed my mind: he should have just moved on.

[shireenbamfatheon]

6 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Ugh, yup but I sure as shit didn't want them to get together by Steve going back in time and creating an alternate past or changing the past or whatever he did. It was just wrong.

So where that romance is concerned, I changed my mind: he should have just moved on.

Monkey's paw.

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, Ohwell said:

It's been a while since I've seen the movie but I don't remember Ada having much to choose from when it came to men.  So if she had to choose between the two of them, I think she made the right choice, especially for the reason mentioned in the spoiler.  Also, Harvey Keitel's character did deem willing to learn some things.  Not saying he would have ever been an intellectual but a nice, decent handyman who also happens to be good in bed ain't bad.  And finally, it's not like Ada was the hot, sexy Queen of Sheba.

Oh, I don't disagree.  I was solely judging on looks.

[krankydoodle]

Pam Grier and Robert Forster in Jackie Brown. I saw the movie when it first came out and never got around to rewatching it, but I still remember how great their chemistry was.

[tribeca]

Bridget Jones Mr. Dracey.  First of all she seemed more in love with Hugh Grants character even though he was a cad.  Second she was too good for both of them.  She should have gone Kelly Taylor and chosen herself.  
 

[GHScorpiosRule]

23 minutes ago, tribeca said:

 She should have gone Kelly Taylor and chosen herself.  
 

Except Kelly Taylor DIDN’T choose herself. The line was pretty good, but it was a lie.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Denzel & Julia in "The Pelican Brief".  (Edited @topanga mentioned this earlier in the thread.)

Will Smith & Tea Leoni in "Bad Boys".

Edited February 3, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Blergh]

Horace Giddens (Herbert Marshall) and Birdie Hubbard (Patricia Collinge) from The Little Foxes (1941). These in-laws had both gotten ruined by their scheming spouses eager to part them from their monies and paid the price (Horace with his heart, Birdie with her alcoholism)- yet they bonded via having raised Alexandra to be unlike her maternal side as much as possible despite overwhelming odds (Birdie not even being her blood relative) AND they seemed to have genuine affection for each other. However, unlike the Hubbards, they seemed to have been too honorable of their vows to their despicable spouses to ever have attempted to act upon their affection for each other- and one can easily imagine that Birdie being the only one of the Hubbards to sincerely mourn Horace's death while all the others merely saw it as a means to enrich their own coffers. 

[Danny Franks]

13 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Will Smith & Tea Leoni in "Bad Boys".

That was teased throughout the movie, and sort of set up at the end, when Lawrence handcuffed them together. When I heard there was a sequel, I fully expected Tea Leoni's character to return as Will Smith's girlfriend or ex. But... she didn't. Probably not a bad choice, because the sequel was not good.

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 minute ago, Danny Franks said:

That was teased throughout the movie, and sort of set up at the end, when Lawrence handcuffed them together. When I heard there was a sequel, I fully expected Tea Leoni's character to return as Will Smith's girlfriend or ex. But... she didn't. Probably not a bad choice, because the sequel was not good.

Tea was so sexy and beautiful and cool in "Bad Boys".

I wish she came back.

I've tried "Bad Boys 2" like 3 times and I've never been able to get through it.

[Danny Franks]

3 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Tea was so sexy and beautiful and cool in "Bad Boys".

I wish she came back.

I've tried "Bad Boys 2" like 3 times and I've never been able to get through it.

I'm not a fan of Michael Bay, by any means, but I think Bad Boys was him at his very best. The whole movie was fucking sexy - sun drenched Miami photography, beautiful cars and choreographed gun battles, Smith and Lawrence with their shirts off half the time, Leoni was all long legs and attitude, sizzling chemistry all over the place.

[Ms Blue Jay]

4 minutes ago, Danny Franks said:

I'm not a fan of Michael Bay, by any means, but I think Bad Boys was him at his very best. The whole movie was fucking sexy - sun drenched Miami photography, beautiful cars and choreographed gun battles, Smith and Lawrence with their shirts off half the time, Leoni was all long legs and attitude, sizzling chemistry all over the place.

I've been reading about this on Letterboxd and this was his first movie he directed.  It ended up being so loved that people kind of think he went crazy and over the top with his "Michael Bay style" and now he's the director he is now.  So "Bad Boys" is like Baby Michael Bay (only a $19 million budget) and so much more tolerable.

I saw "Bad Boys for Life" and while not directed by Michael Bay, they took his template and made it like 100x more violent than the first movie.  Totally unnecessary, because the violence is NOT why people liked the first movie.

Also Will sooooooooo did not want his shirt to be half off.  Michael wanted it to be 100% off, and their final compromise was to have Will have his shirt half off.  Pretty funny!

I agree with you -- I rewatched "Bad Boys" last night and I love every single frame of that movie.  It's one of my favourites.  Miami looks so beautiful.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Danny Franks]

6 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I've been reading about this on Letterboxd and this was his first movie he directed.  It ended up being so loved that people kind of think he went crazy and over the top with his "Michael Bay style" and now he's the director he is now.  So "Bad Boys" is like Baby Michael Bay (only a $19 million budget) and so much more tolerable.

I saw "Bad Boys for Life" and while not directed by Michael Bay, they took his template and made it like 100x more violent than the first movie.  Totally unnecessary, because the violence is NOT why people liked the first movie.

Also Will sooooooooo did not want his shirt to be half off.  Michael wanted it to be 100% off, and their final compromise was to have Will have his shirt half off.  Pretty funny!

I agree with you -- I rewatched "Bad Boys" last night and I love every single frame of that movie.  It's one of my favourites.  Miami looks so beautiful.

That makes sense. Giving Bay a smaller budget seems to have been the best way of getting quality work out of him. I haven't watched Bad Boys in years (though now I want to) but while I remember it being loud and brash, I don't remember any huge explosions or action set pieces.

I think this is might be Will Smith's defining role - he's effortlessly cool and charming, completely believable as the caddish womaniser who still manages to be on good terms with his conquests - Even more than Independence Day or Men in Black, and it's obviously Martin Lawrence's best as well (though I do love Nothing To Lose).

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 minute ago, Danny Franks said:

I think this is might be Will Smith's defining role - he's effortlessly cool and charming, completely believable as the caddish womaniser who still manages to be on good terms with his conquests - Even more than Independence Day or Men in Black, and it's obviously Martin Lawrence's best as well (though I do love Nothing To Lose).

Martin is so damn funny in it.  A pitch perfect comedic performance.  There are so many jokes and throwaway lines.

They continue this in Bad Boys For Life too.  It's really violent, but aside from that I enjoyed it.

[Luckylyn]

2 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

That was teased throughout the movie, and sort of set up at the end, when Lawrence handcuffed them together. When I heard there was a sequel, I fully expected Tea Leoni's character to return as Will Smith's girlfriend or ex. But... she didn't. Probably not a bad choice, because the sequel was not good.

I wasn’t surprised that Leoni didn’t return for the sequel.  She was miserable working with Michael Bay.  I think there was an incident where she was injured and they argued over whether or not to let her get medical treatment or continue shooting.  She ended up with a concussion. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

32 minutes ago, Luckylyn said:

I wasn’t surprised that Leoni didn’t return for the sequel.  She was miserable working with Michael Bay.  I think there was an incident where she was injured and they argued over whether or not to let her get medical treatment or continue shooting.  She ended up with a concussion. 

I didn't know.  I was combing through the Wikipedia entry for this movie trying to find information about her.  There is nothing!  It's very sad and believable, and I think Megan Fox had a similar experience with him.

I also just now Googled that Tea Leoni is 2 years older than Will Smith.  Another reason for me to LOVE this coupling.  I hate when the woman is always 15-40 years younger than the man.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Athena]

On 2/3/2020 at 5:35 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

 It's very sad and believable, and I think Megan Fox had a similar experience with him.

Michael Bay is a sexist and a misogynist on the accounts of many actresses. Kate Beckinsale has talked about how hurtful he was to her during Pearl Harbour and their promo. I don't like Bay's directorial style and the way he treats the actresses turns me off from ever seeing movies he makes.