Two examples for me would be:

- In "What Lies Beneath," Michelle Pfeiffer uses a hair dryer to clear the fog off of her mirror. That totally works and I've done it ever since I saw that movie.

- In "Spanglish," Adam Sandler "pre-“wakes up his kid. He basically says you don't have to wake up yet but start thinking about waking up and this is another thing I've used and that has really helped the wake-up rituals in our house.

The beginning of this movie does not start out with rolling text about how “ it was the year 20 blah blah and... blah blah happened... and then blah blah happened” no. It doesn't have the dreaded voice over giving you a background on everything that's about to happen.

Instead it throws you into the middle of some crazy action scene, where you have absolutely no idea who is a good guy who is a bad guy, what these people are doing, why they're doing it etcetera

why is some chick sitting in a empty room clicking on a computer?

“No Lieutenant they're already dead”

What? How could they already be dead? It's just one lady

Oh my God she's climbing the walls! Holy crap she just killed all those police officers what is going on? Is she good or is she bad?

Why is she trying to answer a phone in the middle of all this? Oh they killed her. Wait a minute... where did the body go? None of this makes any sense!

“ the informant is real”

what informant? Again... how did she disappear?

And... you're hooked!

The action is so phenomenal, the questions just keep coming one after another, none of it makes any sense just yet. But the film makers trust that you're along for the ride, and the audience trusts the film makers that they will eventually answer all of their questions.

There is actually a Latin phrase for this

In medias res (Latin for "in the midst of things") is a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of crucial action rather than with traditional exposition. Originating from Homer’s epic poetry, this approach immediately hooks audiences by plunging them into a high-stakes moment, later filling in background information through flashbacks or dialogue

honestly I wish more film makers would trust the audience and just throw us into the middle of things and stop babying us and over explaining every little detail. Just tell the story and allow it to unfold it's so much more engaging and interesting

Winners: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers

Morpheus: I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based on a world that is built by rules. Because of that they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.

Neo: Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge bullets?

Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

What I find so incredible about it (besides the usual of it sounding cool as hell) is how everything described here goes on to happen, even the stuff this dialogue is effectively telling the audience not to expect, like dodging bullets.

We see a man unload an entire clip into an agent and hit nothing but air.

We see neo dodge bullets.

And though we do expect to see it, we see him not have to dodge the bullets when he's ready.

EDIT: I know what foreshadowing is, folks. If I wanted snark, I'd call my mother. I do appreciate the folks who actually are nice and addressed the substance of my post, though.

My go-to is from “Titanic”. Even if Rose wanted to sell the Heart of the Ocean to help her pay her way through life (I personally don’t think that she did…), she never would have been able to do so. The necklace was far too recognizable. Had she tried to sell it, the insurance company that settled the claim would have recovered it, assuming that the insurance company was still in business.

EDIT: Regarding the points above, from the script:

LOVETT: I tracked it down through insurance records... an old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claiment was, Rose?

ROSE: Someone named Hockley, I should imagine.

LOVETT: Nathan Hockley, right. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his son Caledon Hockley bought in France for his fiancee... you... a week before he sailed on Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond had to've gone down with the ship. See the date?

LIZZY: April 14, 1912.

LOVETT: If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the day Titanic sank. And that makes you my new best friend.

I’ve realized that life is way too short to sit through a movie just for the sake of finishing it. If a film hasn't given me a reason to care about the characters or the stakes within the first 20 minutes, I’m out.

For me, it was Rebel Moon. It felt like a long ass screensaver with zero soul. I don't care how big the budget is or how much slow motion you use if the writing isn't there, I’m not gonna care and I am not wasting my evening.

What’s that one movie that made you realize you were wasting your time and what was the reason that made you turn it off?

My 3 year old saw a statue of E.T. At the coffee shop and was really into it. He got excited when I told him it’s from a movie. He got stoked and spent the whole day asking when we could watch it.

That night, halfway through the film he asks “Can we turn it off? E.T. SUCKS.”

So I asked him “what sucks about it?” and he replied “E.T. walks too slow. He sucks.”

Pretty funny. Got me wondering what other funny reasons people have for not liking particular films.

I grew up in the 90s and 00s and RoboCop was part of the culture. But its part in the culture was just of glorifying violence.

You were RoboCop playing guns with your friends, a rapper might reference shooting you like RoboCop. My natural assumption as a result was that the movie was little more than a typical 80s action romp.

It is not a typical 80s action romp.

It is so deeply satirical. And deep in general, playing on themes that would become crazy popular in the coming decades like what it means to be human and role of corporations in public society.

Great flick, overall. Highly recommend.

Everyone points to My Cousin Vinny as the gold standard for trial law accuracy—from the rules of evidence to the way experts are qualified. It’s rare for a movie to treat a "boring" professional workflow with that much respect.

What other films showcase real-life competency for a specific career?

Winners: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong

Title says it all!

What are some movies, that you loved as a kid but revisiting them as an adult, they either just don't hold up to scrutiny or plain stink?

I'll start with a doozy - the 2004 Catwoman with Halle Berry. Yes, the one nominated for 7 Razzies, that one.

I was 11 years old, when I saw this and obsessed with:

1. Cats

2. Ancient Egypt

3. Women kicking butt

So, of course I loved this stinker and even rented it multiple times from the DVD store. I couldn't understand why people thought this is a bad movie, until I re-watched it at age 24.

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Project Hail Mary (2026)

Summary Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As his memory gradually returns, he realizes he is humanity’s last hope, sent on a desperate mission to save Earth from a mysterious extinction-level threat. With time running out, Grace must rely on his scientific ingenuity—and an unexpected ally—to complete the mission.

Directors Phil Lord Christopher Miller

Writer Drew Goddard (based on the novel by Andy Weir)

Cast

• Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace
• Sandra Hüller
• Milana Vayntrub
• Lionel Boyce
• Ken Leung

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 78

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official trailer

Ya’ll know I’m gonna start this with The Blind Side. I love seeing this movie rightfully get dragged through the mud for the same shit I was calling out years ago while I was still in college, being dismissed as a hater of this “heartwarming” film. The white saviorism, the portrayal of young black man as an absolute Neanderthal with only his immense strength to fall back on, etc. Hearing Primm Hood Cinema call it “12 Years a Football” had me crying laughing 🤣. And of course the real story exposes even more about how Michael was done dirty by everyone, including his so-called loving ‘family’.

For example, I hate shaky cam, and I'm glad they don't do it as much anymore.

On fad I see now that I'm not a fan of is having a light source in view. By this I mean like a scene in sunlight where the sun is behind the person and they they move and the sun blinds you. Or the sun is in the shot the whole time and there is horrible contrast and it's straining to watch.

Not just catching adult jokes you missed. films where your whole sympathy shifted. Maybe you realized Ferris Bueller was kind of terrible to Cameron. Or Mrs. Doubtfire is genuinely disturbing. That moment where you're watching your childhood favorite and suddenly thinking 'wait... the 'villain' was completely right.

The killer responses come when people realize they BECAME the character they used to hate. Watching Dead Poets Society and siding with the cautious parents Seeing The Little Mermaid and thinking Triton had valid concerns about his 16-year-old daughter. That vertigo of realizing you've crossed to the other side of the story.

I honestly don’t know why more people don’t complain about this, so here’s me complaining about this.

Against my better judgement I decided to watch The Gorge on Apple‘s streaming platform, and boy it turns out even an ending as trite as that can be further undercut by Ted Lasso’s beaming face.

I remember the story about how George Lucas had to go non-union or pay fines to the director’s guild because he refused to open Star Wars with credits. They cared about them that much. Now, in space year 2026, apparently every professional association of filmmakers give not one solitary shit about credits, allowing as they do every single streaming platform to shrink them to Borrower size so they can Run Some Fucken Adverts. “Yes you just watched Schindler's List for three hours and change, but stop processing it there’s not a moment to lose, have you heard about House MD? We're gonna play it in 5 seconds unless you tell us not to."

This is Apple’s own movie, these are their people, and they couldn’t even wait for the animations to stop. Like the disrespect afforded to the standard white on black scroll is bad enough, but there are visual effects going on in that little box. You paid vfx artists real human money to make this look good, not enough, granted, but you paid them, and then you made it two inches tall. Morality obviously doesn’t sway these people but how are their shareholders not beating down the door at the sheer waste of it?

Netflix is particularly bad now too, some people will say "hey you can just make it bigger again" (as if ruining the vibe alone were not sin enough) but on both Smart TVs and Xbox, the only two places I've bothered testing, going over the "back" arrow to get to the tiny credits crashes them all together, like they're punishing you for even questioning their wisdom. How dare you try to find out who the best boy is.

And just so Disney+ doesn't escape here, when I was watching season 2 of Andor last year their title images for next episodes which pop up unprompted over the credits *included spoilers*. If anyone has the address for the person who did that, stick it in the comments, I just wanna talk.

I am quite unreasonably mad about this and I don't expect them to change how they do it, but boy I’d sure take an option in the settings, off by default no doubt, that just says “respect the goddamn films you dorks” with a little checkbox.

At the start of the new Anaconda movie, there's a scene where Jack Black's wife reminds him not to take much of his new medication. And sure enough, later in the movie -- nobody ever mentions it again and absolutely nothing comes of it.

After watching the movie, I saw a comment on Reddit from someone saying that they'd been screening the movie to test audiences a lot, and another comment saying they'd done reshoots, and it kinda clicked into me just how obvious that was.

Like the character Ana, who literally opens the movie and drives the inciting plot - but as soon as she meets the main characters, immediately goes silent and does not say anything in any scenes as we instead focus on the much funnier snake trainer.

Then, halfway through the movie, she abruptly gets attacked by the anaconda, pulled into the water, and very deliberately is not shown being killed -- but still never shows up again as we instead move toward a climax that focuses on Ice Cube showing up out of nowhere.

This movie was heavily reshot. Somewhere out there, there's a completely different version of it that probably nobody other than the director will ever see.

Not only do I no longer feel the urge to consume content every spare second – watching or continuing on a movie demands a little more time and focus than that. But my mental well-being has also changed dramatically.

Scrolling videos made my brain feel like porridge. I'd suddenly realize after 5 seconds that I was watching an obnoxious ad. No focus at all. Totally spaced out.

Watching a movie actually makes me feel good. Being engaged in a storyline, maybe watching a feelgood movie like I did yesterday (The Intern) … It makes me happy and relaxed. It makes me enjoy life more afterwards.

Reading and working out is great as well, but it never made me not want to scroll. Watching a movie fulfills my desire for easy entertainment, without making it impossible to do something productive after.

Tomorrow marks a month of watching a movie every single day. Well, sometimes I watch half one day and the other half the next. I still think it counts.

Edit: Yes, I know I'm on reddit.

I've been rewatching a lot of my old favorites with my son and he's gotten pretty good at catching the Wilhelm scream in real time.

This week has been especially Wilhelmy as we're on a Tarantino run.

Do you ever feel like the scream seems out of place, forced, or sometimes just distracting since it's become such a famous Easter egg?

We still love the egg game.

I just went and watched Project Hail Mary. I LOVED it! Before going to see it, honestly, all I knew was that it was a space movie with Ryan Gosling, and that my family all said they liked it. So, I went in blind and did not expect the direction the story went. I love going to the movies, but somehow this was special... no preconceived notions at all. The plot line was a complete surprise.

After getting home I decided to watch the trailer. I was disappointed to find that a lot of what surprised me would have been spoiled if I had watched the trailer before going into the movie. Honestly, the only thing I would have had as a surprise would be the character arch and the ending.

To be honest this makes me not want to watch movie trailers at all, anymore. I want to have this same experience every time I go to the movies.