The Mike
In the Pixels
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2006
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From Yahoo:
Sometimes while watching a flick, there's a moment that is so jarringly stupid, so breathtakingly ridiculous that it throws you out of the movie, leaving you either befuddled or chortling like a lunatic. This year, a term was coined for such a moment -- "Nuking the Fridge" -- in honor of Indiana Jones' utterly implausible escape from an atomic bomb through the crafty use of a lead-lined kitchen appliance. We've compiled a few more thoroughly silly movie moments from '08.
AUSTRALIA -- NULLAH, THE CATTLE WHISPERER
Oh no. Nicole Kidman 's prized herd of cattle is about to make a flying leap off a cliff. Cue dramatic music. But in the nick of time, Kidman's favorite aboriginal moppet -- Nullah -- sweeps in to save the day with a song and some mysterious cattle Jedi mind tricks. Right.
EAGLE EYE -- SNAPPING POWER LINES OF DEATH
So, Shia LaBeouf has been ensnared in a scheme so preposterously complicated that it might just cause a migraine if explained, but it involves the president of the United States of America, crystal explosives, and menacing phone calls from a GPS guidance system. Yet even if you're willing to go along with much of the film's silliness, the suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so far. That snapping point comes when the cyber-villain, a defense computer run amok, somehow fries some poor guy in the middle of a field with falling high tension power lines. Trying to suss out how a computer can actually do that might just make your head explode.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH -- UNBELIEVABLE CELL PHONE RECEPTION
Most people lose cell phone reception when they go into an underground garage, but not the Anderson family. They must have the best plan around, because they get coverage at the center of the freakin' planet. Sure, there might be dinosaurs and vast underground oceans at the Earth's core, but calls from mom? Please.
HANCOCK -- THAT STUPID TWIST
Hancock creaks along affably -- detailing the life and redemption of a cranky, drunken superhero -- until it hits a big fat steaming plot twist and jumps the rails. So, housewife Charlize Theron is also a superhero. OK. And for some reason, she and Hancock have a completely unmotivated fight, trashing most of Hollywood in the process. And then, the spat ends, sputtering into tears and kisses RIGHT IN FRONT of her husband. Ooh, superhero melodrama.
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR -- YETI FIELD GOAL
Swashbuckling Rick O'Connell is knee-deep in Himalayan snow, battling the evil General Yang -- never mind why -- when he gets unexpected help of a bunch of yetis. Yes, Yetis. Abominable Snowmen. In their free time, yetis apparently like little more than to kick back and watch American football, because, at one point in the film, a yeti punts a Chinese soldier over a gate that looks suspiciously like goal posts. As he pumps his fist in victory, a second snowman raises his arms in the international symbol of a field goal.
WANTED -- THE LOOM OF DESTINY
So James McAvoy is an action hero? Ok. And he can bend the path of flying bullets if he tries really hard? Sure. There's an ancient band of assassins who kill bad guys? Why not? These assassin take their orders from a mysterious loom that dictates who gets killed? Oh, c'mon.
STREET KINGS -- HABLO ESPANOL, DUDE?
While it might be possible to swallow Keanu Reeves as a thuggish, amoral cop with a nasty drinking problem, it's much harder to watch the flick with a straight face when he busts out with Spanish in a perfect surfer accent.
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS -- CAPOTE THE HUTT
George Lucas not only seems to enjoy murdering precious childhood memories, but also seems to relish jumping up and down on their corpses. That was abundantly clear half way through his animated yarn "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" when Ziro the Hutt -- Jabba's uncle -- appears. Looking like Dame Edna at Burning Man, Ziro jarringly speaks in such a fabulously affected manner that it would set off the gaydar of a coma patient. Lucas reportedly demanded that Ziro's voice be modeled on Truman Capote, and, for better or worse, that's exactly who Ziro sounds like.
TWILIGHT -- VAMPIRE BASEBALL/WESTSIDE STORY MOMENT
Going into "Twilight," you'd expect to see some teen angst, a little blood sucking, and a lot of moony-eyed swooning. Yet the baseball game might be a surprise. Apparently, vampires love to don uniforms popular during the Black Sox scandal and play ball in thunder storms. Apparently, Edward can bolt after any fly ball with lightning speed, even if the special effects used makes him look more like Speedy Gonzales than an undead dreamboat. And apparently when two rival bands of vampires meet, they face off Broadway-style, like the Sharks and the Jets in "West Side Story."
THE HAPPENING -- THE WHOLE FREAKIN' MOVIE
M. Night Shyamalan's overly earnest pile of eco-twaddle is this year's best unintentional comedy. From its central conceit -- tree pollen provoking people to performing laughably spectacular acts of suicide -- to Mark Wahlberg's wildly over-the-top acting, the whole freakin' movie was ridiculous, soup to nuts.
Photo Evidence needed?
https://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/1328/nuking-the-fridge/fp#info
Sometimes while watching a flick, there's a moment that is so jarringly stupid, so breathtakingly ridiculous that it throws you out of the movie, leaving you either befuddled or chortling like a lunatic. This year, a term was coined for such a moment -- "Nuking the Fridge" -- in honor of Indiana Jones' utterly implausible escape from an atomic bomb through the crafty use of a lead-lined kitchen appliance. We've compiled a few more thoroughly silly movie moments from '08.
AUSTRALIA -- NULLAH, THE CATTLE WHISPERER
Oh no. Nicole Kidman 's prized herd of cattle is about to make a flying leap off a cliff. Cue dramatic music. But in the nick of time, Kidman's favorite aboriginal moppet -- Nullah -- sweeps in to save the day with a song and some mysterious cattle Jedi mind tricks. Right.
EAGLE EYE -- SNAPPING POWER LINES OF DEATH
So, Shia LaBeouf has been ensnared in a scheme so preposterously complicated that it might just cause a migraine if explained, but it involves the president of the United States of America, crystal explosives, and menacing phone calls from a GPS guidance system. Yet even if you're willing to go along with much of the film's silliness, the suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so far. That snapping point comes when the cyber-villain, a defense computer run amok, somehow fries some poor guy in the middle of a field with falling high tension power lines. Trying to suss out how a computer can actually do that might just make your head explode.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH -- UNBELIEVABLE CELL PHONE RECEPTION
Most people lose cell phone reception when they go into an underground garage, but not the Anderson family. They must have the best plan around, because they get coverage at the center of the freakin' planet. Sure, there might be dinosaurs and vast underground oceans at the Earth's core, but calls from mom? Please.
HANCOCK -- THAT STUPID TWIST
Hancock creaks along affably -- detailing the life and redemption of a cranky, drunken superhero -- until it hits a big fat steaming plot twist and jumps the rails. So, housewife Charlize Theron is also a superhero. OK. And for some reason, she and Hancock have a completely unmotivated fight, trashing most of Hollywood in the process. And then, the spat ends, sputtering into tears and kisses RIGHT IN FRONT of her husband. Ooh, superhero melodrama.
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR -- YETI FIELD GOAL
Swashbuckling Rick O'Connell is knee-deep in Himalayan snow, battling the evil General Yang -- never mind why -- when he gets unexpected help of a bunch of yetis. Yes, Yetis. Abominable Snowmen. In their free time, yetis apparently like little more than to kick back and watch American football, because, at one point in the film, a yeti punts a Chinese soldier over a gate that looks suspiciously like goal posts. As he pumps his fist in victory, a second snowman raises his arms in the international symbol of a field goal.
WANTED -- THE LOOM OF DESTINY
So James McAvoy is an action hero? Ok. And he can bend the path of flying bullets if he tries really hard? Sure. There's an ancient band of assassins who kill bad guys? Why not? These assassin take their orders from a mysterious loom that dictates who gets killed? Oh, c'mon.
STREET KINGS -- HABLO ESPANOL, DUDE?
While it might be possible to swallow Keanu Reeves as a thuggish, amoral cop with a nasty drinking problem, it's much harder to watch the flick with a straight face when he busts out with Spanish in a perfect surfer accent.
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS -- CAPOTE THE HUTT
George Lucas not only seems to enjoy murdering precious childhood memories, but also seems to relish jumping up and down on their corpses. That was abundantly clear half way through his animated yarn "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" when Ziro the Hutt -- Jabba's uncle -- appears. Looking like Dame Edna at Burning Man, Ziro jarringly speaks in such a fabulously affected manner that it would set off the gaydar of a coma patient. Lucas reportedly demanded that Ziro's voice be modeled on Truman Capote, and, for better or worse, that's exactly who Ziro sounds like.
TWILIGHT -- VAMPIRE BASEBALL/WESTSIDE STORY MOMENT
Going into "Twilight," you'd expect to see some teen angst, a little blood sucking, and a lot of moony-eyed swooning. Yet the baseball game might be a surprise. Apparently, vampires love to don uniforms popular during the Black Sox scandal and play ball in thunder storms. Apparently, Edward can bolt after any fly ball with lightning speed, even if the special effects used makes him look more like Speedy Gonzales than an undead dreamboat. And apparently when two rival bands of vampires meet, they face off Broadway-style, like the Sharks and the Jets in "West Side Story."
THE HAPPENING -- THE WHOLE FREAKIN' MOVIE
M. Night Shyamalan's overly earnest pile of eco-twaddle is this year's best unintentional comedy. From its central conceit -- tree pollen provoking people to performing laughably spectacular acts of suicide -- to Mark Wahlberg's wildly over-the-top acting, the whole freakin' movie was ridiculous, soup to nuts.
Photo Evidence needed?
https://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/1328/nuking-the-fridge/fp#info
I'll have to wait to read that twist until after I see it.
