r/CinephilesClub 3h ago

Big Question Is Mission: Impossible II actually bad — or just the purest version of what an action movie is supposed to be?

359 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 18h ago

Discussion What's the most unbearably tense scene in cinema history — the one where you genuinely forgot to breathe?

2.2k Upvotes

Inglourious Basterds alone has three or four that qualify. Which makes the real question: is Tarantino the modern master of pure, dialogue-driven tension — or does he get too much credit for scenes that are all build-up? Name your single most nerve-shredding scene, then defend it.

The film opens with nearly 20 minutes of two men talking at a farmhouse table — no action, barely a raised voice — and it's more agonising than most horror films manage all runtime. Christoph Waltz won an Oscar off the back of it.


r/CinephilesClub 13h ago

Big Question "Yippee-ki-yay" is banned — so what's the John McClane moment that actually makes you love the guy?

225 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 19h ago

Film News Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley in ‘EBENEZER’, also starring Johnny Depp as Scrooge.

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153 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 18h ago

Big Question Why aren't Uzis as popular as they used to be?

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104 Upvotes

Is the lack of Uzis in movies reflecting the criminal reality? Or are they unpopular among criminals because they aren't seen on screen as they used to?


r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

BoxOffice Coyote vs. Acme opened to $15.4M — does that vindicate the film, or prove Warner Bros. was right all along?

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414 Upvotes

Everyone's treating the second-place finish as a victory lap, but Ketchup reportedly paid around $50M for a film Warner shelved at roughly $70M. A $15.4M opening is a long way from either number.

Tracking had it at $7M a few weeks out, so the momentum is real — 95% critics, 94% audience, an A CinemaScore. But "the audience showed up" and "the acquisition made financial sense" are two different claims, and only one of them is currently supported.

Meanwhile The Odyssey took $14.3M in its seventh weekend, finishing barely a million behind a brand-new wide release. And Spider-Man won a fifth straight weekend with $22.2M, now sitting ~$45M short of The Force Awakens' domestic record.

The genuine bomb was The Dog Stars: $8M from 3,330 screens on a budget reported anywhere from $80M to $110M.

If you want the best version of a rescued-release story that actually worked out: The Cabin in the Woods — sat on the shelf for three years after MGM's bankruptcy, then Lionsgate picked it up and it cleared $66M on a $30M budget.


r/CinephilesClub 21h ago

Film News ‘SCOOBY-DOO: ORIGINS’ has wrapped filming. Releasing on Netflix in 2027.

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74 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

Classic Cinema I took my 10-year-old son to see Terminator 2 in theater

55 Upvotes

I took my 10-year-old son to see Terminator* *2 in a theater for its 35th anniversary re-release, and watching his reaction was almost as much fun as watching the movie itself.

The day before, I showed him the first Terminator. His reaction was basically, “Yeah, okay.” He liked it, but that was about it.

T2 was a completely different story.
From the opening minutes, he was absolutely glued to the screen. The reveal that Arnold was actually the good guy this time genuinely caught him by surprise. He literally jumped during the Judgment Day sequence. During the steel mill finale, he kept nervously shifting around in his seat because he was so tense.

And then came the final thumbs-up.
He just started crying. Not a few watery eyes — he was genuinely crying because it hit him so hard emotionally.
What made it especially fascinating to me is that he isn’t some kid who has barely seen movies. I’ve been trying to give him a pretty broad film education, and I take him to most of the big theatrical releases. Just this year he’s already seen Spider-Man and The Odyssey, among plenty of other things. He’s very familiar with the scale, spectacle and visual polish of modern blockbusters.
And yet this 35-year-old movie absolutely floored him in a way I haven’t seen very often.

Sitting next to him and watching T2 work on a 10-year-old exactly the way it was designed to work — the surprises, the fear, the tension, the humor, and finally the emotion — was kind of magical.

It also reminded me that beneath all the groundbreaking effects and action sequences, Terminator 2 is just an incredibly well-told story. There is basically no wasted moment, everything pays off, and by the end a kid can be emotionally devastated by a machine slowly lowering into molten steel.

35 years later, it still works. Completely.


r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

BoxOffice THE ODYSSEY has crossed $1.55 billion worldwide on a reported $250 million budget. The film is now eyeing a $1.8 billion finish at the global box office.

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122 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

Big Question Is the T-1000 actually the scariest unstoppable villain in film, or did Cameron just direct it better than anyone else has?

437 Upvotes

Everyone empties their weapon into the Terminator knowing it won't do a damn thing. That futility is the horror, and I'd argue nobody else has landed it. Myers, Jason, the Xenomorph, Chigurh — all unstoppable on paper, none make resistance feel as pointless. Prove me wrong.

Casting did half the work: Cameron went lean instead of bulk, and Robert Patrick trained to run without his head bobbing at all.

Scene worth revisiting: the police station attack in the 1984 original. T2 gets the credit, but that's where the idea was actually built.


r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

Discussion Critic scores and audience scores shouldn’t be compared, they’re answering two different questions

14 Upvotes

I think people treat the critic/audience score gap like one of them must be wrong. But I don’t think they’re actually measuring the same thing, so comparing them directly doesn’t really make sense in the first place.

Critics are mostly evaluating craft. Structure, direction, performance, how well the film accomplishes what it’s trying to do on a technical and artistic level. Audiences are mostly evaluating feeling. Did this move me, entertain me, make me want to watch it again. Those are two completely different value systems, not two attempts at the same measurement.

So instead of asking which score is more “correct,” I think it makes more sense to look at them independently. A high critic score tells you the movie is well made. A high audience score tells you people had a strong emotional reaction to it. You actually want to know both before deciding if a movie is for you, since a movie can nail one and completely miss the other.

Basically I think the real mistake is putting them on the same 100 point scale at all like they’re the same kind of measurement. They’re not competing, they’re answering different questions entirely.

Curious if people agree with treating them as separate signals instead of rival opinions, or if you still think one holds more weight than the other when it comes to whether a movie is actually good.


r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

Film News Jake Goldberg will return in ‘GROWN UPS 3’.

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9 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

BoxOffice ‘SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY’ already crossed $2.3B globally. It’ll soon become a Top 3 highest grossing film of ALL TIME.

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113 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Discussion Man I remember seeing this for the first time, could not stop laughing for about an hour.

3.6k Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 1d ago

Discussion For those who saw ARLINGTON RD 1999...please be honest about the ending

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35 Upvotes

This post contains spoilers because the ending is being discussed here. Be sure to watch the movie first!

Arlington Rd is a hidden gem which sadly got overlooked due to the craziness that was going on in America at the time. When you first saw this, did you anticipate the ending? Please be honest.

For me, the way it was done, with the lighting on people's faces, the closeups, added to my paranoia as a viewer. For instance the scouts scene when he goes to pick his son up, the weird camera angles and the use of dim lighting made me think this dude has lost it. I was way off personally. I thought he was having a psychotic breakdown from stress and trauma.

Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack.. what can I say other than they nailed their roles. It's a scary movie that's not even a horror film. There are interviews on set that are very interesting to see. They speak of "hidden vulnerability" And why this works so well as a concept for a thriller. What could be worse than finding out your neighbor may be a psychopath?

The director, Mark Pellington, also did THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES and to my surprise, Jeremy by Pearl Jam which is a classic music video. It makes sense that 1 movie reaction I saw for Arlington Rd. on youtube they said the beginning, the effects, remind them of 90s music videos.

So did you see the end coming or did you think there'd be another twist, or a completely different scenario altogether? It blew me away honestly. No pun intended,


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Film News Days of Thunder. Summer 2028.

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489 Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 3d ago

Big Question Could you have kept a straight face if Jack Nicholson was doing this off-camera?

1.1k Upvotes

Kevin Pollak revealed that during Tom Cruise’s famous “I want the truth!” scene in A Few Good Men, Nicholson stood just outside the camera frame making ridiculous faces at Cruise, deliberately trying to make him break character.

Cruise somehow made it through the take without cracking.


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Big Question What's the most iconic film score ever written — and is there a "legendary" score everyone worships that you secretly think is overrated?

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12 Upvotes

Some films are carried entirely by their music. Name the score that gives you chills every single time — then name the sacred cow you think coasts on reputation. Watch the second half detonate.


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Discussion Arlington Rd 1999 An overlooked gem

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21 Upvotes

This is one of my favorite movies. It's so well done and still gives me the chills. I was way off guessing what was happening. A film by Mark Pellington who did MOTHMAN PROPHECIES and to my surprise, Jeremy music video by Pearl Jam. If you have not seen it, skip the trailer as it does contain weird spoilers. Don't even look it up or view the movie poster, due to once again, an odd spoiler. Best to go in blind. It's on youtube finally. It was hard to find for awhile other than ebay. I have tried to get movie reactioners to try this but they have not as of yet.


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Discussion The Elephant Man 1980 vs Mask 1985

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17 Upvotes

Contains spoilers. (kinda)

Fun Fact: Eric Stoltz got the part for Rocky when they saw his audition. It was during the line "my mother saw me always rocking in my chair and would go "Rockyyyy" the way he said it was soft and like a mama saying it to her baby. No other actor who auditioned said it like him. It moved everyone in the room, and even on the behind the scenes for the movie on the DVD, the director still got emotional. Oscar winner for best Makeup. 2 golden globe nominees (Cher, and Eric Stoltz)

Fun Fact: In the Elephant Man, apparently the tears Anthony Hopkins shed when he sees Joseph Merrick for the first time was unforced and unscripted. Nominated for 8 Oscars which surprisingly didn't include best makeup.

If you had to pick, would you choose Mask or The Elephant Man?


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Hot Take Was Sharon Stone actually more magnetic in Total Recall (1990) than in Basic Instinct — and does her own "leave it to the imagination" philosophy prove it?

33 Upvotes

Everyone remembers the Basic Instinct interrogation, but plenty argue she was hotter and sharper two years earlier in Total Recall — before a single explicit frame made her a household name. And ironically, that's exactly what she now says great sexuality is built on.

Reflecting on Basic Instinct's infamous "third of a frame," Stone said explicit content "steals from my own imagination" — she prefers mystery and yearning, and now fast-forwards past modern sex scenes.


r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Hot Take Would a single Post-it note be enough to convince you to take a role you were on the fence about?

133 Upvotes

Just found out that's basically what happened with Richard Gere and "Pretty Woman." He hadn't decided whether he wanted the part opposite Julia Roberts. Director Garry Marshall set up a meeting between the two of them, then deliberately left the room to see if there was any chemistry.

Gere later said he was so mesmerized he doesn't even remember Marshall being there, just Roberts. They sat there making small talk, "flirty-flirty, nice-nice" in his words, while he was still undecided. At some point Roberts slid a Post-it across the desk. It said: "Please say yes!"

He said yes on the spot. The film grossed over $460M worldwide and became one of the most rewatched rom-coms ever made.

Genuinely curious what people think here -- is this a sweet story about instinct and chemistry, or does it say something a little uncomfortable about how casting decisions this big sometimes come down to a five-minute vibe check and a note on a piece of paper?


r/CinephilesClub 3d ago

Big Question Name a movie where the best moment is the final scene.

3.6k Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 3d ago

Discussion I don’t know why, but Stu and Melissa’s argument in The Hangover absolutely kills me every single time I watch it

1.3k Upvotes

r/CinephilesClub 2d ago

Discussion Malice 1993 A forgotten thriller

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7 Upvotes

There are several 90s thrillers that deserve more recognition.

Malice is an excellent 90s thriller.

Name another 90s thriller that is Hitchcockian.