What are some things in movies that you are a sucker for and will grade a movie higher just because of those things in that movie? I like movies with cool cars and great chase scenes in them. I am a huge fan of the Fast and Furious film franchise and other movies similar to it like Gone in 60 Seconds (both versions), XXX, The Transporter, Transformers, the Mad Max movies, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Smokey and the Bandit. I also loved Drive and it was one of my favorite movies of last year. Heck, I'll watch just about any movie if it has a cool musclecar in it. That's the only reason I watched that Drive Angry movie. I also like treasure hunting movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure. Another one I like is Greek mythology movies. I like to study and read about Greek mythology and I think it's really interesting. My favorite book series of all time is the Percy Jackson series and I've read each book about three times each. Even though the movie was almost nothing like the book and was pretty bad, there are still many other great Greek mythology movies like Jason and the Argonauts and the original Clash of the Titans movie. Wrath of the Titans was surprisingly good and while the Clash of the Titans remake was a bad movie, it was still highly entertaining. I also loved Disney's animated Hercules movie when I was a kid (it's nothing like the mythology, but I don't know how you could adapt that faithfully into a kids movie). I like the God of War games as well. Another one I like is science fiction movies with a rich universe. The best examples of this are Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Avatar, Tron, The Last Starfighter, and even Transformers. I am baffled by how much this has been screwed up lately. I liked John Carter and I would have liked to have seen the sequels and explore Mars/Barsoom more. This is the reason I like the Green Lantern comics and I think the movie needed to be on Oa just a little longer. For me to like this, the film has to create a world that I would want to visit again.
Ah, I've got kind of a list of "Movie Rules" that fits here. RULE #1!!! SPARKS MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER I first discovered this while watching Batman and Robin. Horrible movie. But during a motorcycle race between Dick and Barbara, I noticed 2 drum barrels simultaneously shoot sparks upwards for no reason as they raced by. It was then that I realized, sparks make everything better. Check it for yourself- car chases are more awesome with sparks. Sword fights are more awesome with sparks. Buttering toast is more awesome with sparks. It never fails! RULE #2!!! THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BAD SUBMARINE MOVIE Submarines are awesome. By extension, submarine movies are awesome. Boil them down to their basic elements, and you'll find that every sub movie out there has the exact same key scenes. There's the scene where the captain is looking through the periscope. The scene where they have to dive to avoid detection. The scene where everyone has to be super quiet and look at the ceiling. The scene where depth charges start rocking the sub. The scene where they've already taken the sub down further than it should go, but the depth charges send it plummeting even further OMG! The scene where bolts and rivets start popping like popcorn and leaks stream in like fire hoses. Every sub movie is the same. And every sub movie is good. I will say though, that Down Periscope with Kelsey Grammer really tested this rule, but even that was good for a few laughs. RULE #3!!! SECRET PASSAGES ARE MYSTERIOUS AND COOL Think of any movie that had a secret passage in it. The whole rest of the movie may have sucked, but that part with the secret passage was cool, wasn't it? Clue, based on the board game, is therefore the most mysterious and cool movie ever for having a mansion filled with secret passages. Tron Legacy is a solid contender for having its secret passage located directly behind the Tron arcade game. Now that's a secret passage with symbolism! Not very subtle, but plenty cool. I will say though, that there was a horrible made-for-TV movie called "Secret Passage" on the SyFy channel, that was not very good.
I may come up with some more later, but for now... Completely agree, Mako. I'm a fan of action scenes, and there's something about sparks that just adds that extra little visual 'oomph' to a shot. The hits in the Transformers films, as an example. Metal-on-metal and sparks. Love it. My bro.
I'm not really sure, when it comes to movies, I can be kind of picky although, I've always had a thing for movies with cyberpunk and/or steampunk settings. I know people are probably gonna' hate me for saying this but, female leads who are capable of holding herself up against her male counterparts without constantly reminding us that she's a woman, and especially without being automatically shoe-horned into the role of the male lead's love interest.
Mako Crab is spot on, Sparks, Submarines and secret passages. Preferably a fight in a secret passage, on a submarine, producing sparks WITH LIGHTSABERS! Seriously though I think sub films are always good because the constricted nature of the enviroment forces filmmakers to concentrate on the characters/story, honestly I can't name one bad submarine film. The worst that springs to mind is Crimson tide, yet thats still awesome. The thing I think makes movies better isn't 'more' but less exposition. Seriously you get a great film, and the director feels the need to kill it stone dead with 20 minutes of talking heads trying to explain whats going on. Really? Most of the time I don't care. Or, if you do feel the need to shove an infodump down my throat at least make it interesting. The worst offenders for shit exposition dump is the Wakowski Brothers, The Matrix Reloaded with the shole Merovingian 'choice' bollecks, or most offensively the Architect scene. Ugh. The complete opposite of that are The Wakowski Brothers, whose infodump in the Matrix was awesome, framed in an interesting way with jumping buildings, Kung Fu and hot girls in Red dresses.
Set design. Details. Makeup. The small things all come together to make one big thing that makes me feel like the people who made it actually gave a crap. And that always makes for a great movie for me.
Epic High Fantasy needs to make a come back. Things like Game of Thrones are awesome, and while The Hobbit does fit the mold it isn't quite what I mean. I'm talking huge towering spires, vast empires, schools of mages, magic knights and all manner of colourful locales and characters.
Brief nudity. Not graphic sexual situations or pervasive nudity throughout. Just BRIEF nudity. I've seen plenty of great movies without it, but I've never seen it not make a good movie better.
Oh and Paul Verhoeven, add him to any film and it becomes better automatically. Showgirls doesn't count, if some studio wants to pay you rediculous amounts of money to stand around looking at naked girls, who would say no? Not I. Not I.
Proper 18-rated action movie violence, largely because I loved that shit when I was growing up and its a rare sight thesedays. Special mention for Rambo 4 and Dredd as recent examples.
Practical Effects Big, loud, booming orchestral scores Legitimately funny one-liners Miniatures On-Location shots Swashbuckling Mexican Stand-offs or normal Stand-offs Weird, imaginative story concepts
Holy shit finally some one who agrees with me! I mean I like SF and futuristic cities and all but nothing will ever top giant medival Gothic castles, huge armies of kings in armours with swords and shields, wizards that use magic like it's their bitch and throw fireballs and lightning from their hands and summon demons and monster not like the sissy Harry Potter mages with their wands, dragons and gryphons and races OTHER than Elves and Orcs and Humans... I mean come on there is so much material there! Tolkien isn't the only one who ever wrote good high fantasy!
aside from all the above, I like films with CHARACTER. That's why I prefer the dark knight rises over the avengers and transformers. I also like PLOT, MUSIC, and MINDFUCKS. Cloud /\tlas is a winner for me this winter.
