The Cannonball Run
I love this movie and totally forgive the orangutan and Captain Chaos.
The Game. The accurate prediction of every move Nicolas is going to make.
The Isaacs whistle in Hanna. Damm stuck in my head again.
Night of the Hunter
Totally outdated acting, lighting and pacing mixed with lots of (purposefully) artificial looking sets at the time that somehow is still pretty chilling.
There’s nothing silly about Night Of The Hunter. Well, maybe that look Mitchum gives in the basement after he’s bopped on the head.
This is a tough category, because for one thing silly is in the eye of the beholder. I think of something like Tremors, which is as silly of a concept as any movie probably ever, but which manages to rise above it by playing it believably straight.
That’s one way to rise above a silly idea. But the other way is to go whole hog and embrace it. Essentially, calling silly’s bluff. A great recent example - and I don’t know why I’m hung up on monster movies at the moment - is Piranha 3D, which took the original’s super daffy premise (evolution something something BITEY FISH ATTACK!!!) and kept doubling-down until you either went along with the silly or, I guess, left the theatre. Silly to the point of transcendence.
Running like Frankenstein is a bit silly, though I suppose none of it is unintended.
Am I alone in thinking that Zardoz kinda holds up?
‘The Penis is evil! The Penis shoots Seeds’ - Zardoz
Speaking of ridiculously silly outfits.
The Mad Max Series
Mad Max 3 is my favourite. No regrets.
Hard to argue, although I would point out the feral child scene in fast motion where he catches the metal boomerang as a very specific instance of extra-silly that is still overcome.
H.
The Mother in No Country for Old Men was very silly and out of place. It feels less like the movie triumphed over her than simply ignored the parts she was in though.
I’ve not seen it in years, so it might not hold up but The Daytrippers has a lot of silly aspects that it embraces.
I thought Night of the Hunter was doing the German Expressionism thing, and doing it quite well at that. So I do think it was intentional, the Frankenstein thing and all. I’d call it a misfire if you don’t like it, but not silly.
Yes I know, my whole point is that it isn’t a misfire and I love it despite it doing some very silly things (girl singing in the boat, Frankenstein running in one shot but no others, Lillian Gish floating in the cosmos). Most of that expressionist stuff is also very silly and fairly awkward but when it’s done right you go with it. Like how every superhero film is silly on the face of it but if you do it well it works.
Jeez guys!
Oh, this reminds me of a good one: The original D.O.A. The guy is poisoned, he’s going to die soon, he has to find his killer! Except every time an attractive woman walks by a wolf whistle sound effect is played. Loud.
Maybe it was like Night of the Hunter, it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen it.
All of Kick-Ass?
Is being a shit film silly? LolOLolOL :p
Tom,
Interesting and unique choices.
Dingus,
Yes!
Kelly,
Nothing triumphs over the silliness in Indy IV other than the fact that it ends.
I just love when there’s user interfaces discussed in the podcast. Emotional computing is a hot issue in HCI so I was interested to hear Xtien’s feelings about the robomoticons. Has there been a 3x3 on favorite user interfaces?
The whole wolf-whistle thing happens before he’d poisoned though. But yeah, it’s a silly and on the nose way of establishing his wandering eye and failure to commit to his Nice Smalltown Girl that nets him his disproportionate punishment.
This is a tough one but I’m just going to say Doomsday. That was fucking silly from start to finish, but so silly it came right out the other end.
It’s just so over-the-top to play it as a loud sound effect instead of just showing him ogling women, that’s what I found silly. It’s like Hitchcock inserting a “BOING!” effect in Vertigo.*
H.
*Somebody falls at some point in Vertigo, right?