10 scenes that ruined otherwise great movies
Making a great movie is no easy task. Just ask the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Greta Gerwig and Barry Jenkins; every feature film is created with blood, sweat and tears. Indeed, just one slip-up is enough to invite disaster, and when a filmmaker’s finger isn’t constantly on the pulse, mistakes can slip through the cracks in the form of scenes that damage the reputation of the whole movie.
There’s surely nothing more annoying than when you’re watching a perfectly great movie, only for it to insist on pursuing an idiotic plot point or diverting into nonsensical indulgence. There are certainly a few filmmakers that come to mind when it comes to consistent inconsistency, with the likes of The Whale’s Darren Aronofsky, Danish provocateur Lars von Trier and the Argentine experimenter Gaspar Noé being regular culprits.
In the list below, we’re not looking at movies which were consistently poor, with one bad scene after another. Instead, we’re focusing on those films that were chugging along nicely, only to be derailed by a moment of madness. As a result, you won’t see the likes of Indiana Jones and Crystal Skull’s disastrous fridge scene, nor The Rise of Skywalker’s cop-out introduction, as both scenes were part of respective dumpster fires.
Take a look at our list of ten film scenes that ruined otherwise brilliant movies below.
10 scenes that ruined brilliant movies:
10. Everyone makes up – Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, 2011)
It comes with a heavy heart to include Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s rather great 2011 movie Crazy, Stupid, Love on our list, especially considering that most of the movie is an utter delight (with a perfect twist halfway through). Unfortunately, though, the film’s schmaltzy ending undoes a lot of its hard work, giving a dreamy fairytale ending to a movie that had done well to treat reality with the perfect dose of cynicism.
The movie is still very much worth the watch, however, with Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell and Julianne Moore elevating it into something more special than the regular Hollywood rom-com fodder.
9. Julia Roberts is Julia Roberts – Ocean’s Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004)
The sequel to Steven Soderbergh’s celebrated heist movie Ocean’s Eleven contains one of the most incredulous scenes ever put to cinema, one which genuinely ruins a large majority of the film. In a gimmicky and plain silly twist, the team of crooks decide to enlist the help of Danny Ocean’s wife, Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts), getting her onboard so that she can act as a decoy for the gang, posing as a lookalike of the celebrity, Julia Roberts.
It’s a meta move from Soderbergh, but also something of a ridiculous one, immediately taking the audience out of the movie, plonking them straight back into the real world.
8. The Mandarin fraud – Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013)
Director Shane Black took a bold risk in the third film of Marvel’s Iron Man trilogy, deciding to undress the titular character’s iconic comic-book villain and make him into a punchline. It’s fair to say that this decision didn’t go down particularly well with fans, who were excited to see the celebrated character actor Ben Kingsley take a crack at the iconic role, only to see a lazy joke being carried out instead.
Kingsley is still great as the villain, but this red herring isn’t all that satisfying. In fact, we probably think that the film would be better off if the villain were taken more seriously.
7. Batman survives – The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
Speaking of comic book movies, at number seven, we’re looking at the follow-up to Christopher Nolan’s iconic 2008 film The Dark Knight, wherein Christian Bale enjoys one last outing as Batman. Touted as a significant movie event, The Dark Knight Rises was a success amongst fans, even if many would agree that the caped crusader probably should’ve died at the end, having bafflingly escaped a nuclear blast.
We could’ve easily included Talia al Ghul’s pathetic death scene, but the silly conclusion to the 2012 movie still leaves a bitter taste in our mouths a decade later.
6. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em – 30 Days of Night (David Slade, 2007)
If we were collating a list of the greatest vampire flicks of the 21st century, 30 Days of Night would make the cut simply for the terrifying atmosphere it creates in 90 minutes. It would be prevented from hitting the number one spot because of its silly final 20 minutes, however, in which the protagonist Eben (Josh Hartnett) decides to defeat the horde of vampires plaguing his Alaskan snow-topped town by turning himself into one.
It’s a curious decision for the lead character to make, especially in a movie that had relied on its sinister authenticity up to this point. To make matters worse, he somehow manages to defeat every single one of these blood-suckers too.
5. Princess Leia’s spacewalk – The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017)
The stupidity of this scene was highly publicised at the time of The Last Jedi’s release, with fans of the sci-fi franchise baying for Rian Johnson’s blood after Princess Leia used the force to escape the darkness of space and return to her ship. Nonsensical and unnecessary for a number of reasons, Leia’s spacewalk is simply not needed in Johnson’s film, adding literally nothing to the drama apart from a moment of unintended comedy for audiences worldwide.
Sure, it makes sense for her character, considering she is a ‘force user’, but with this being the first time we ever see her using her powers, Johnson missed a trick and ridiculed Leia’s big moment.
4. Nonsensical twist – High Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003)
There’s no doubt that a bad twist can ruin any movie, and whilst this somewhat niche French slasher movie may not be widely known, its ending is so utterly poor that anyone who has seen the film will know that it deserves its place on this list. The plot is simple enough, telling the story of two girls who find themselves victims to a brutal serial killer, but the twist is so complicated it defies basic logic, revealing that the killer is one of the main characters themselves.
We’ll let the great Roger Ebert’s words explain this one’s hilarity, with the American critic explaining back in 2003 that the twist is “not possible, given our current understanding of the laws of physics”.
3. The Dancing clown – Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)
This one might be a little contentious, especially considering that we’re largely fond of Todd Phillips’ 2019 reinvention of Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker, but his dancing scene in front of the mirror is evidence of the film’s innately pretentious nature. Is Joker a good film, yes. Should it be considered a masterpiece of modern cinema, absolutely not. Yet, this moment, when Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker jerks his body in a performative dance in front of a bathroom mirror, seems to suggest that the film is far more complicated than it really is.
Joker is a good movie, but the dance scene tarnishes its legacy, breaking the consistency of the character, and prompting sniggers whilst it shoots for the stars.
2. Flagrant racism – Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961)
Social attitudes are changing by the week in the contemporary 21st century, and, as a result, several ‘classic’ movies of the past have been re-analysed under a new lens. One such movie is the Audrey Hepburn flick Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Whilst the romantic plot at the heart of the film is sweet enough, it’s truly difficult not to ignore the supporting performance of Mickey Rooney, who imitates an Asian landlord named Mr. Yunioshi.
Whilst casting a white actor as an Asian character is most definitely racist, the filmmakers made matters worse by giving Rooney a wig and buck teeth as part of a shocking stereotype. Revisiting the movie isn’t all that easy anymore, with each scene with Mr. Yunioshi casting a bleak shadow over proceedings.
1. Lars von Trier’s ego – The House that Jack Built (Lars von Trier, 2018)
Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier is one of the biggest provocateurs in all of cinema, meddling with the form, structure and narrative of filmmaking to pester the audience and drive home his own self-inflated ego. Such is clearest in his horrific 2018 drama The House that Jack Built, which follows the life of Jack (Matt Dillon), a psychopath and a serial killer who commits a number of murders over 12 years, all in the name of ‘art’.
Discussing the role of violence in cinema whilst making a case for morbid topics to be seen as artistically fascinating, in one scene, Lars von Trier goes too far, putting on an eye-rolling explanation of his own divisive filmography. It just makes the entire film seem like an ego flex.
