"WOW!" Moments, 2004 edition (1 Viewer)

[NickSo]

Eternal Sunshine - The scene where he's running through the library through the door... The scene in the street where both left and right are the same place...

Collateral - The overhead 'GTA-style' shots... The scenes in the office building where you see the city lights and just the silhouettes of the characters

 

[Nick C.]

Also in COLLATERAL, more of a scene, but in the Korean club, when Vincent fires several consecutive rounds as he rolls and rises from the ground.

The beautiful endings in BEFORE SUNSET--Jesse's final two words--and in SIDEWAYS--the final door knocking.

many more to think of as I finally complete that top 10 list

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Troy - Achilles and Hector duel.

Collateral - The brief shot of the fox/wolf on the freeway. Also, when Foxx throws Cruise's briefcase out on the overhead freeway.

The Incredibles - So many moments, one more on Elastigirl..where she stretches out to shield her kids on the monorail or something like that.

 

[Carl_G]

Collateral...

"Yo homeys..."

Block... double tap... double tap... goodnight kiss...


awesome

 

[Holadem]

Before tonight, Farenheit 911 - 9/11

But after tonight, by far The Aviator - The Crash. The most amazing minute I have had in the theater this year.

--
H

 

[Seth Paxton]

I'll just copy half of Quentin's since I agree (we seem to agree about 80% of the time at least)


Aviator -
Well, his choice was pretty good, but that LA crash was truly a WOW moment. So effectively real, powerful and visually impressive.

Incredibles -
I have to go with the "whole damn thing" view here.

Kill Bill Vol 2 -
Elle vs. Bea. AWESOME!!!! I agree But that moment of her digging out of the grave is pretty great too.


Man on Fire
"What're you gonna do?" "Kill 'em all" cue badass music! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Some people hated the film but I thought it was pretty artful and interestingly intense, especially during the middle section.

Finding Neverland -
Opening night...the kids first reactions in the audience.

Bringing the play to the ailing Kate at home..."This is Neverland." yep, one of several tearing up moments for me

Dawn of the Dead -
Opening sequence quickly descending into chaos, punctuated by Johnny Cash singin' "The Man Comes Around". I was IN.
Yeah, I'd call this my most WOW moment of the year Just thinking about it revs me up again. This and the Richard Cheese cover of Down with the Sickness scene made the film brilliant IMO.

Eternal Sunshine -
There were so many great effects scenes of memories being altered and everyone of them captured my imagination completely.

Before Sunset -
Yeah, great final words. Great car moment.

I Heart Huckabees -
When they have dinner with the family.

Closer -
The strip club scene, and no not just for Portman's hotness (but it doesn't hurt). The dialog of that scene is so powerful and the power play back and forth between them is intense.

Dogville -
Kidman's final decision and the discussion between her and Caan leading up to it.

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

The Incredibles - the resolution of the scene where Elastigirl is stuck between multiple doors

 

[AlexCremers]

- La Meglio Gioventù: The breakdown of Adriana Carati when she left her son's apartment.

- Hero: Visuals.

- I, Claudius (I know, 1976, sorry): The close-up (a freeze, I presume) of Augustus lying dead in his bed while his wife Livia keeps on bitching for minutes.



------------
Alex Cremers

 

[John_Lee]

That's the scene, right there. Perfect illustration of the "when your back's against the wall, lean on what you know" theme. Very inspiring. Perfect music.

 

[Quentin]

Seth...

I love it!! I know we often agree, but DotD is not one I would have normally guessed. Ton 'o fun.

Good call on the dinner from Huckabee's. That was dang funny.

I want to add:

Anchorman -

The jazz flute scene. This was more of a "Huh?? Are you kidding me?" moment. But, I laughed out loud. This scene and the "rumble" encapsulate the oddness of this film for me.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I assume you can include dvd's that came out in 04?

LOTR: The Return of the King The battle of Pellanore fields. The most spectacular, and relentless, display of technical wizardry ever created for a film. Frodo and Sam's final push up Mount Doom and their close call at the Crack of Doom. The final shot of the one ring sinking into the molton lava and dissolving away followed by the destruction of the eye of Saraun. Eat your heart out George Lucas.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Ditto the scene when he decides to hang onto that one memory. It's so sad when it's stolen away.

Dawn of the Dead Damn right, that opening! And yes, the use of that Johnny Cash song was so pitch perfect for the opening titles. The whole escape from the mall in the fortified buses and the ensuing chaos in the streets followed by the zombies chasing after the bus. The lighting and filtering of the camera lense in those scenes are awesome.

Master and Commander the Far Side of the World All of the battle scenes, and the storm sequence. A completely immersive HT experience.

Spider-man 2 The train sequence. One the best comic book rescue sequences ever filmed.

The Day After Tomorrow The big wave hitting NY and the tornado's hitting LA. In light of recent tragedies, I am almost reluctant to mention this one, but it was one of my WOW moments.

The Matrix Revolutions The attack on Zion by thousands of sentinals and the struggle to keep them at bay by the use of the big gun robot machines piloted by the rebels (forgot their name).

I' Robot Every major visual in the film! Particularly the tunnel attack on Will Smiths car.

The Grudge Never jumped out of my seat so many times during one film in my life, and I love it for it!

 

[Matt Butler]

Can people please use spoiler tags? Sorry to bitch but sometimes you cant help seeing info whether you want to or not.

My picks:
Incredibles: Too many moments

Dawn of Dead: Opening 10 min.

Finding Neverland: Last 15 min

Shaun of Dead: The scene in the backyard when they think the zombie is drunk and then they run inside and there is another zombie. Their reaction is priceless. Also when they act like zombies to get across the street to the bar. Hilarious!!

Collateral: The really touching scene with Jada Pinkett and Foxx in his cab at the beginning. Also his reaction to seeing that she is one of his targets

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Another WOW film, The Exorcist: The Beginning. WOW, I can't believe how much this film sucked!

 

[Rhoq]

I saw The Woodsman last night. That could very well be the most uncomfortable scene I've ever seen in a film - even more so than 'Delores Claiborne' (where the father has the young JJL character touch him - probably because it was so melodramtic that you just didn't care).

I had heard that The Woodsman was a very disturbing film and that "bench" scene solidifies that. Kevin Bacon's performance is outstanding and makes the character very believable. It's intense.

 

[Nick C.]

beyond the CLOSER moments mentioned, the rather brutal scene with Owens' and Roberts' characters when he returns from his doctors conference and he confronts her (although her acting dropped the intensity down a few pegs), and of course, the internet chatting scene, which drew grimacing on my face from discomfort

GARDEN STATE, when Largeman and Sam are bidding farewell to Sarsgaard's Mark, and Mark returns the game/necklace to Largeman, then finally Mark's touching little explanation about the day's journey

THE AVIATOR, the dinner scene between Hughes and the Senator, with the fish meal and Hughes' compulsive fascination with the llama painting

HERO, Maggie's Flying Snow stabbing Tony's Broken Sword to prevent him for taking her place

THE LIFE AQUATIC, which was just a series of little moments, including towards the end when Goldblum's Hennessey discovers the stolen property in Zissou's ship, or when Wilson's Ned confronts Steve in the ship tower

also, in THE WOODSMAN, besides the bench scene, the first evening/late afternoon Walter spends with Vickie, his long awaited emotional/physical release since leaving prison

THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI, when the widower samurai enters the courtyard and defends the separated/divorced woman from her drunken ex

SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, FALL...AND SPRING, when, as a young boy, the monk ties a rock to the fish, then finds it reciprocated onto himself

MARIA, FULL OF GRACE, in the tense motel scene when the 3 women first arrive and must remove all the drug packets

PRIMER, when we find out Aaron and Abe both have created additional copies of their invention, as 'back-ups', and also in the car, when they first discover something's amiss when a mysterious bearded man keeps trailing them

KINSEY, when Kinsey and Sarsgaard's Clyde are chatting about innate homosexual tendencies in the hotel and the scale used to measure it, to be followed by Clyde and Mac scene together while Kinsey anxiously waits downstairs, flummoxed by their 'interaction'

TARNATION, when Caouette uses one of his home videos acting out parts as a young teenager, including the Southern belle and black woman, amongst other female parts... all those impersonations were so dead on!

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, Kenji's various interrupted suicide attempts, especially the hanging and the bridge-jumping. Also when he finds how much of a pigsty Noi's home is and decides to start cleaning

THE TERMINAL, when Hanks' Viktor in an attempt to make money tries to apply for a job at the airport's various shops, only to wait for the phone calls at the pay phone, only a few feet away from the storefronts

 

[John Garcia]

So many scenes in Spottless mind were great.

Hero was kind of not so involving, I was expecting more of it, but visually stunning. I really enjoyed it.

I think Garden State was my favorite underdog this year.

The Grudge Not the best flic, but it definitely has it's moments. I had a lot of fun watching this.

 

[Jesse Blough]

Dawn of the Dead - The first 10 minutes.

Kill Bill vol. 2 - What the Bride does to Elle Driver.

 

[Tim Glover]

Thought it would be good to revive this thread. The old thread was perhaps the greatest of all threads in HTF history.

I'll edit this later on but for now here's my latest.

All of these are from Revenge Of The Sith

1. Opening shot after the crawl. I hate to overuse the word, Wow. But Holy Wow. That was a breathtaking view.

2. The Opera Scene. Captivating. Intoxicating. Almost hypnotic hearing and seeing Palpatine tell the story of Darth Plaguies the Wise. Hell, almost made me want that power. Fantastic acting by both Ian and Hayden.

3. "Padme's Ruminations". Not sure what that scene is actually called but it's one of the best in ROTS and one of the most powerful. It's at that moment when Sith never lets go.

4. Seeing Palpy get disfigured. I wasn't expecting that it would be that way. But it works.

5. Anakin & The Younglings. Restrained and yet it's obvious. Great decision from Lucas. The score used there added to that moment.

5. Yoda falling down in agony...grabbing his heart. Wow. With all the Force Power Yoda possesses, however it's that moment that I remember the most of him from ROTS.

6. The cross cutting to Obi Wan & Yoda perusing the Temple after the massacre then to Anakin's Dark Deeds.

7. Obi Wan and Padme. One of the saddest moments and I LOVE the score used there when OBW says, "Anakin's the Father isn't he?...I'm so sorry." That cue is my favorite of the PT and comes close to the legendary Binary Sunset theme.

8. Anakin & Obi Wan after Anakin chokes Padme. Again, the score there is dead on. The intensity, the passion, and the regret you see in Obi Wan's eyes. True Power.

9. Yoda taking out the Royal Guards. Gets a huge laugh each time. And a needed funny release at that moment.

10. Yoda and Sidious fighting while the senate chair is rising. Just a cool moment.

11. Anakin's "I hate You!"....followed by Obi Wan's "You were my brother Anakin...I loved you!". Wow. That one gets me lumped up in my throat each time.

12. Seeing the twins being born. Finally, Luke and Leia make their presence known in this prequel trilogy.

13. Obi Wan giving Luke to Owen & Beru Lars. The way he looks at them with that gentle pleasing look, and yet he scratches his beard as if to say, "I'll be here watching over you young Luke".

14. The Lars family holding baby Luke watching the Sunrise to a new world...and older trilogy.

So many powerful, non-action moments in ROTS. This thing will live forever.
:b

 

[Jordan_E]

You touched upon most of the WOW moments for me in ROTS, Tim. Absolutely a WOW-worthy movie, and I expect many more moments later this summer with other releases.

 

[Tim Glover]

We share common "Wows" Jordan.