Yes, That's the Plot
by ElMaruecan82 | created - 25 Oct 2020 | updated - 1 week ago | PublicConsider a film like "Jaws: The Revenge," where a shark seeks revenge against the Brody family because Chief Brody killed the first shark and then the second. The entire plot hinges on the notion that "it became personal." However, questions arise: How could the shark identify its target? Where had it been all that time, and how does defeating it ensure that no one else will take it even more personally?
While acknowledging that we're discussing a movie with a rather absurd premise, the focus here is not on the movie's inherent silliness. Instead, the point is that some films, despite aspiring to seriousness, often rely on peculiar and hardly comprehensible premises that, when condensed into a single sentence, don't hold up well under scrutiny.
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1. The Reader (2008)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain
Votes: 259,844 | Gross: $34.19M
An innocent woman who'd rather die in Nazi infamy than live in illiteracy.
2. The Life of David Gale (2003)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Cleo King
Votes: 126,076 | Gross: $19.59M
A strong opponent of the death penalty makes a profound sacrifice by allowing himself to be wrongly executed, aiming to demonstrate the severe repercussions of false accusations. However it is revealed that he had indeed played a role in the crime, thereby undermining the very cause he was championing.
3. Up for Love (2016)
TV-14 | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
A lawyer dating a dashing, wealthy architect four and a half feet tall gets ribbed by her family, employees and jealous ex about his stature.
Director: Laurent Tirard | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Virginie Efira, Cédric Kahn, Stéphanie Papanian
Votes: 9,160
The movie positions itself as a critique of heightism and a compelling love story that transcends societal barriers. However, it opts to employ a CGI-miniature version of a six-foot-tall actor instead of casting a real short actor who could have been provided with an opportunity to portray a role typically not offered to individuals of shorter stature.
4. Rules of Engagement (2000)
R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller, War
An attorney defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a Middle Eastern country.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 50,316 | Gross: $61.34M
A committed Marine faces allegations of orchestrating the deaths of 83 civilians, including women and children. The trial unfolds to reveal that his actions were justified, prompting viewers to potentially accept the tragic loss of innocent lives, especially children.
5. The Sheik (1921)
Passed | 86 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert.
Director: George Melford | Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ruth Miller, George Waggner
Votes: 3,661
Starting as a interracial love story unfolds between an Englishwoman and an Arab sheikh, challenging cultural norms of its time, the narrative takes an unexpected turn (unrelated to the plot) when it is disclosed that the sheikh is not half-Arab, as initially portrayed, but rather half English and half Spanish – an entirely European background.
6. Back to the Future Part II (1989)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Tom Wilson
Votes: 572,520 | Gross: $118.50M
Doc and Marty step in to prevent a future disaster, but a simple warning could have sufficed. Interfering with the kid's choice doesn't address his underlying personality traits, and the ensuing events aim to fix the situation, though the full consequences weren't anticipated at the time.
7. The Iron Lady (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Biography, Drama
An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
Director: Phyllida Lloyd | Stars: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Susan Brown
Votes: 113,617 | Gross: $30.02M
A historical figure, considered one of the most powerful women, is portrayed grappling with a debilitating illness and haunted by hallucinations of her deceased husband. The question arises: why opt for depicting her in this vulnerable state when her moments of vitality and strength could have provided a more compelling storyline?
8. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,634 | Gross: $108.77M
The film tackles racism, securing an acquittal by prompting the jury to envision the victim as white. The outcome raises complex questions: if this argument doesn't sway the jury, it suggests potential racial bias, and if it does, it highlights the persistence of prejudices, challenging the notion of improvement. The paradox lies in exposing racism, inadvertently emphasizing its enduring presence.
9. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,145,287 | Gross: $23.34M
Given that the film unfolds from an unreliable perspective, it suggests that the mastermind crafted an intricate plan to eliminate a potential suspect capable of identifying him. This involved orchestrating a sequence of events that drew in various witnesses, including members of the police force, thereby exposing him and associating a name with his face.
10. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
R | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar
Votes: 273,044 | Gross: $50.00M
A guy whose life was so full of chaos going behind bars was the best thing that could ever happen to him.
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