Entertainment
You-Know-Who in 'Interstellar' and the Worst Parts of Good Movies
Even the most well written, expertly performed, or immaculately directed piece of cinema is bound to have a setback or two. Sometimes, one of those flaws sticks with you long after seeing the movie, anchoring the whole project down just enough to remind you, upon any instance of thinking of the film altogether, “Man, that part was terrible.” Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has one of those major foul-ups… but the filmmaker isn’t trying to brush it under the table. Au contraire: he’s highlighting his flick’s biggest flaw in a new comic book.
The element I’m talking about (and, for those who have yet to see Interstellar, this is considered a pretty big spoiler) is the sequence involving surprise guest star Matt Damon. We stumble upon an isolate Damon late in the film only to hear him wax poetic on the tribulations of loneliness, and then go berserk and try to murder Matthew McConaughey “for the good of humanity.”
But Damon’s embarrassing Interstellar chapter is just one of many cringe-worthy elements in otherwise terrific films. Here are a few examples we’d probably be better off forgetting.
Image: Paramount Pictures
MICKEY ROONEY IN 'BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S'
This probably didn’t read as… terribly… back when Breakfast at Tiffany’s was released in 1961, but Mickey Rooney’s so-racist-it’s-nauseating character in the Audrey Hepburn classic almost tanks the delightful movie altogether.
Image: Paramount Pictures
THE DINNER SCENE IN 'BEFORE MIDNIGHT'
In a vacuum, the multi-generational dinner scene in Richard Linklater’s third Before film is not a poorly constructed sequence. The issue is that after spending a decade waiting for another go ‘round with Jesse and Celine, we’re forced to sit through a lengthy conversation with complete strangers at the expense of our desired time with the main characters. It can feel like a chore, and an anxiety-inducing one, the first time you watch the movie.
Image: Sony Pictures Classics
BUTCH AND FABIENNE IN 'PULP FICTION'
Midway through Quentin Tarantino’s colorful, energetic crime cartoon, the story stops dead in its tracks so we can spend a stale evening with a thick-headed boxer and his equally mentally vacant girlfriend. Butch had more chemistry with the psychotic cab driver than he does with his own significant other.
Image: Miramax Films
ETHAN HAWKE SINGING IN 'REALITY BITES'
It’s a minor issue, but one that really robs what otherwise might be a charming character of his flare. Ugh, that song about the kites.
Image: Universal Pictures
LUKE SKYWALKER IN 'STAR WARS'
Yes, he came into his own down the line, but that first movie really turned him in as quite the whiner. If he wasn’t moaning ingratitudes to his doting aunt and uncle, he was insulting Han Solo for his monetary motivations (bounty hunters’ gotta eat, Luke!), or lambasting his rather impressive spaceship as “a piece of junk.”
Image: 20th Century Fox
JAVIER BARDEM'S HAIRCUT IN 'NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN'
I’m sorry, were you saying something? Something about a coin flip? Hey, when did all these people die? It’s really hard to concentrate on anything you’re doing, Anton, when that chrome bob really commands all conceivable attention.
Image: Miramax Films/Paramount Village
SEAN CONNERY'S ACCENT IN 'THE UNTOUCHABLES'
He must come from the east side of Chicago. Way, way east.
Image: Paramount Pictures
JOHN CONNOR IN 'TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY'
Children don’t usually get the most flattering depictions in movies, especially when it comes to the action-adventure genre. But John Connor is in a different league of irritation, holding so much noxious screen time in what is otherwise the dutifully gripping Terminator 2.
Image: TriStar
THE WHOLE EMOTIONAL BACKSTORY OF 'INCEPTION'
As long as we’re talking about Nolan’s movies, let’s take a look at one of the worst elements of one of his best movies: the emotional grounding of Inception. Everything about Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard’s romantic backstory feels as lifelike as a plank of wood, and really stops the movie dead in its tracks when it demands the audience’s focus.
Image: Warner Bros.
