Tag Archives: Fight Club

Top 10: Movie Quitting Scenes

As critical as employment is, most of us have an epic quitting plan on file.  Most of us will never use it, but we’d be lying if we said during hour two of an awful meeting we didn’t take it out, carefully review it, think of the perfect musical accompaniment, and refile it in our brain’s sanity file.  Some people truly love their work, and the rest of us…well, we hate you.  It’s not personal (it might be, I’m trying to soften it), but the majority of us are stabbing minutes trying to get to the small slice of the day that’s actually ours.  That’s why WatchMojo’s Top 10 List of Movie Quitting Scenes is probably not a good idea for work.  Both in content and inspiration, you should probably enjoy this shot of vicarious glee on the weekend.  Unless you have to work on the weekend, in which case you absolutely hate your job and should watch this immediately (I am not responsible for what ensues).  I sometimes have quibbles with WM’s lists, but I think they did a pretty good job here.  I’d have swapped Road House for Burn After Reading off the Honorable Mention Lists, but epic quitting scenes from American Beauty, Fight Club, The Truman Show, Wanted, Office Space, and others are the kind of thing that will give you a case of the Mondays any day of the week.


Fight Club

 

Top 10: Movie Fistfights

 

WatchMojo’s back with another movie list: this time featuring the Top 10 Movie Fistfights of all-time.  Bit of a violence warning on this, but if you hadn’t figured that out from the category title, then the warning probably won’t be read until after the video.  The guidelines for the list were that the fight had to be fist-intensive so too much kicking got it tossed, and fights could not take place within the confines of sports, so no boxing matches (but then they include bare knuckles brawling from Sherlock Holmes, which smacks of self-rule breaking….ANARCHY!).  I’m not exactly sure when WM put this out, but I think it’s at least three years old, but it does have some great selections….and a few that I think could easily be improved upon.  Die Hard, Fight Club, The Winter Solider, and The Dark Knight Rises?  Absolutely.  Picking a Rowdy Roddy Piper movie over the fight on the tarmac from Raiders of the Lost Ark?  That seems a bit dodgy to me.  CineFix is the king of movie lists as far as I’m concerned, and WatchMojo’s are always entertaining, but seem to have always room for improvement.  I think Raiders is a clear inclusion.  What do you think needs to go on this list?Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving in The Matrix

My Favorite Scene: Fight Club (1999) “Welcome to Fight Club”


“How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never really been in a fight?” Brad Pitt asks it of Edward Norton shortly after they meet, and people (particularly men) have been asking each other the question ever since David Fincher’s 1999 anarchic masterpiece was released.  Based on the equally (and oddly quite wise) novel by Chuck Palahniuk.  Fincher’s film is a unique and insightful look at the societal neutering of the American male.  I’m going to write this from the standpoint of one…since that’s what I happen to be.  Men are hard-wired for aggression.  We want to punch stuff.  We like to see things blow up, destroyed, and laid low.  We’re hunter-gatherers at our core.  Now we spend 40 hours a week in a sea of grey cubicles, and our weekends at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  There’s something missing.  We’re missing a key part of ourselves and it manifests in bottles of whiskey and Prozac.  We don’t know ourselves, because most of us haven’t been in a fight.  That’s why Fight Club (which didn’t do well in theaters) became a cult sensation.  It touched a nerve with men.  It was a revelation.
Continue reading My Favorite Scene: Fight Club (1999) “Welcome to Fight Club”

Top 10: Airplane Crashes in Movies

WatchMojo is back with another great film list, this time putting their back into making sure you never feel safe on an airplane ever again.  It’s a safe bet you’ll never be seeing any of these as your in-flight film.  While I’m usually lock-step with WM in most of their list, I think they made some serious missteps.  To be honest, I haven’t even seen their #1 pick (Fearless), but I don’t think it would beat either of my top two, Flight and Cast Away, which-to be fair-ARE their #2 and #3.  However, several of their honorable mentions (The Dark Knight Rises, Superman Returns, and COME ON, United 93) definitely belong on the list proper.  And where’s Sully???  It’s an ENTIRE FILM ABOUT A PLANE CRASH!!!  Well, the get a mulligan on that one, because they actually made this list three years ago, but I have some serious issues.  Also, I know it’s TV, but the plane crash in Lost’s pilot is as good as anything the movies have done.  What about you?  What’s your pick for the greatest plane crash in film history?  Let me know in the comments below!
Tom Hanks in Cast Away

Helena Bonham Carter’s 10 Best Movies

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter is connected by blood to the aristocracy and democracy of England, being the great-granddaughter of a British Prime Minister and the first cousin of a Baroness.  Early in her career, she became known for embodying works of English fiction such as A Room with a View, Lady Jane, Howard’s End, and her pinnacle in those roles in The Wings of the Dove.  She’s excelled in TV, starring opposite Sam Neil in the underrated 1990s miniseries Merlin, opposite Michael Keaton in HBO’s excellent Live from Baghdad, and most recently playing Elizabeth Taylor in Burton & TaylorFight Club, The King’s Speech, Harry Potter, and her relationship with director Tim Burton (with whom she’s made seven films) catapulted her into the top rungs of Hollywood actresses where she remains. Continue reading Helena Bonham Carter’s 10 Best Movies