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  • Wild Rides: Top Three Most Outlandish Movie Scenes We Love

    Wild Rides: Top Three Most Outlandish Movie Scenes We Love

    Wild Rides: Top Three Most Outlandish Movie Scenes We Love

    Great movies always make us feel something. Be it tears, laughter, wonder, or joy, the most memorable scenes must elicit some sort of emotional reaction. So, what about the scenes that make us scratch our heads? Well, we love them, too. 

    Read on to discover our top picks for the most outlandish movie scenes out there and consider watching them to get a healthy dose of wild rides and unreality along with your next movie night.

    Casino Royale: Final Poker Scene Leaves Some Reality to be Desired

    There’s no doubt that Casino Royale is among the best 007 films of all time. This movie has action, intrigue, beautiful women, and a suave hero who just so happens to be an absolute fox at the poker table. That’s a good thing, as it all comes down to the cards during Bond’s final showdown with criminal mastermind banker Le Chiffre. The movie wraps up with their high-stakes game of Texas Hold ‘em, featuring a total of four players sitting around a pot of over $100 million. 

    So, what exactly makes this scene so outlandish? If you want to appreciate it to the fullest, consider brushing up on card rankings and poker hands before you start watching. That way, you’ll be able to calculate the odds of all four card combinations and realize just how unlikely that particular set of hands would be. 

    Each player holds a hand of extremely high value. The two extra millionaires hold a flush and a full house, while Le Chiffre holds a higher full house—but Bond’s straight flush manages to beat them all out in the end. The likelihood of this occurring in real life is so minuscule it makes the scene almost laughable. While we adore Casino Royale, this particular poker game misses the mark of realism by several miles.  

    Fast & Furious 6: No One Needs Physics with their Highway Chase

    No list of the most outlandish movie scenes would be complete without mentioning Fast and Furious. While many moments in this franchise deliver jaw-dropping ridiculousness, none defies physics more than the final chase scene in Fast & Furious 6

    Here we see our colorful cast of characters flying down the highway at a few million miles an hour, with Luke Evans operating an actual military tank to add a bit of extra oomph to the scene. The objective of the chase is pretty unimportant, and you’ll probably forget what it is as you watch the action play out.

    The pièce de résistance is when Vin Diesel leaps out the window of the car he is currently driving to catch Michelle Rodriguez as she is thrown from the said tank, catching her in midair and propelling her to safety with what we can only assume is the momentum of his sheer bravado. Somehow, nobody dies, even when the duo land on the windshield of another car traveling at a few million miles an hour. 

    The Room: Things Get Weird on the Roof with Spectacularly Bad Acting

    Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, chances are you’ve seen Tommy Wiseau’s broken brainchild, The Room. Because this cringe-fest of a film features so many outlandish scenes, it’s truly difficult to just pick one—but since we have to choose, we’ll go with the roof scene. While the preposterous nature of this scene is a bit more subtle, it’s because of bad writing and even worse acting rather than an unrealistic plotline. 

    Here, Wiseau and Sestero sit on a balmy San Francisco rooftop made entirely of false angles, scrambled green-screens, and misplaced hope. Sestero is trying to subtly convey to Wiseau that his girlfriend is cheating on him, using the classic technique of telling a roundabout story of a different girl cheating on a different man. 

    Anyone who has seen this movie knows just how ridiculous the entire scene is. As Wiseau’s personality changes at the drop of a hat, he displays a complete lack of any understanding of human emotions. It’s hilarious to watch, and it may be the exact scene that caused this movie to become a cult classic in the first place. 

    Ready to get watching? While this list is by no means exhaustive, it is a great start to any tongue-in-cheek movie marathon. Now that you’ve got a handle on some of the most outlandish movie scenes ever recorded, you can break out the popcorn and settle in for a night of smirking at your screen.

    Wild Rides: Top Three Most Outlandish Movie Scenes We Love

  • Book Of Monsters: Review

    Book Of Monsters: Review

    When Sophie (Lyndsay Craine) was a child, her mother (Samantha Mesagno) loved reading her stories about the monsters that lurk in the dark and the variety of ways they would terrorise people. Sophie loved it too and had a real bond with her mother because knowing that she was there to protect her made her feel safe. Until one night when Sophie’s mum was taken away by the monster that lived under her bed.

    Now Eighteen and Sophie still feels a close bond to her mum, but with only her dad, Jonas (Nicholas Vince) to raise her, she feels something is missing. Although her dad tries to do the best by her, he doesn’t really understand how she’s changed.

    Then on the night of her 18th birthday, Sophie brings over her friends, Mona (Michaela Longden) and Beth (Lizzie Stanton) and when her dad has left, the party really gets started. Unfortunately, due to an heirloom passed down to Sophie from her mother, it unleashes demonic entities that only Sophie can defeat – using the Book of Monsters.

    Book of Monsters is a Kickstarter horror comedy which owes more than a little to The Evil Dead. The set up harkens back to slasher monster movies of the 80’s and is unashamedly proud of knowing where it came from.

    With an array of rather impressive monsters that are all done with practical effects, Book of Monsters feels like a British version of The Cabin in The Woods and its variety of monsters are often hilarious and highly inventive.

    Among the cast are many different types of people such as an inept male stripper and a German exchange student which adds to the flavour of the movie and all feels very British. The creativity behind the characters, dialogue and the monsters that stalk Sophie will also make the audience either laugh out loud or wonder how such impressive character designs were achieved on a low budget.

    Everything from a shape shifting succubus to zombified garden gnomes are thrown at the party and although it may not be highly original, Book of Monsters is a fun horror comedy that does a lot of things right.

  • Black Pumpkin: Review

    Black Pumpkin: Review

    Judd (Ryan Poole) and Lawrence “Pork Chop” Chubbs (Grayson Thorne Kilpatrick) are best friends. They’re just like any other kids their age and get up to just as much trouble. With their teenage years looming, certain things are changing and Pork Chop loves to come over to see Judd so that he can stare at his big sister, Laurie (Ellie Patrikios).

    Then one day they find out about an urban legend of a kid nicknamed Bloody Bobby that went on a murderous rampage one Halloween night. Then when they investigate this notorious killer a little further, they unwillingly release Bloody Bobby back into the world and have to fight for their lives.

    Black Pumpkin is a lovingly recreated homage to slashers of the 1980’s with the most obvious influence being Halloween. Set in an ordinary, quiet and peaceful neighbourhood with a cast of mostly wholesome and down to Earth characters, the audience would feel like they were transported back to a simpler time of cinema if it weren’t for the laptops, mobile phones and flatscreen TVs.

    Black Pumpkin does 80’s nostalgia just right and still sets it during the modern day so it doesn’t feel like the enforced rose-tinted glasses that other movies and TV shows have done to emulate Stranger Things.

    Poole and Kilpatrick are well cast and have a good chemistry, they really feel like they may have been friends for a long time and thanks to the script they even get a few funny one liners between them. Also, the addition of Judd’s little sister, Regan (Gemma Brooke Allen) adds another layer of cuteness and her performance really helps with the family dynamic.

    It’s difficult when paying homage to a certain era and genre of cinema to do something different that makes it stand out and is not just a carbon copy of another villain that everybody knows.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFEqF4NcZh8

    Thankfully Bloody Bobby does make for an interesting villain and something altogether original that manages to make a character that’s under 5 feet tall menacing without being too comical.

    Not just an easy cash grab at those who crave nostalgia for an era of cinema that may not be as good as they remember. Black Pumpkin’s story has legs and a sequel would be welcomed.

  • Archenemy: The BRWC Review

    Archenemy: The BRWC Review

    Tackling the grandiose superhero genre with a micro-sized budget appears to be a tall task, but thoughtful filmmakers have thrived under these rigid conditions. Whether it’s James Gunn’s darkly comedic venture Super or Julia Hart’s wildly overlooked feature Fast Color, directors have shown that there’s no ceiling even with limited assets. Daniel Isn’t Real director Adam Egypt Mortimer continues this spirited trend with Archenemy, a viscerally bold subversion of superheroes’ normative appeals. Simply put, Mortimer’s electrifying vision reaches soaring new heights for the beloved genre.

    Archenemy follows Max Fist (Joe Manganiello), an outsider who claims to be a superhero from another dimension. Without his powers, no one believes his stories except for an upcoming journalist Hamster (Skylan Brooks). Together, they take to the streets to wipe out the local drug syndicate and its vicious crime boss known as The Manager (Glenn Howerton).

    Max’s fish-out-of-water presence isn’t played with your typically hokey presentation. Instead, Mortimer utilizes Max’s super-powered origins to juxtapose Earth’s dog-eat-dog setting. The dual worlds mesh into one uniquely drawn landscape, as Mortimer creates a sonically surreal visual dynamic with arresting animated sequences (the blending of cosmic colors and dreamy imagery is a joy to consume).

    I love how Mortimer blends the two styles simultaneously, with the animation highlighting the ways pulp storytelling embellishes real-world dynamics (it also creates an intriguing psycho-drama conflict, with Max’s human form still seeing himself as a super-powered entity). The marriage between comic serial and gritty realism works through the director’s keen eye. His creative visual verve enhances narrative beats into alluring, sensory-drawing experiences. What Mortimer accomplishes on a shoestring budget is far more impressive than the bombastic scale of major blockbusters.

    Archenemy also builds a colorful world for audiences to indulge in. Mortimer walks a finite tonal line with relative ease, conveying our protagonists’ dire straights while understanding the genre’s vibrant appeals. The personable cast also helps solidify this balance. Joe Manganiello offers some of his best work to date as the gruff Max Fist, delving beneath the character’s rigid exterior to explore his hidden pains. Max’s straight-man persona is a fitting contrast to Skylan Brooks’ cheerful delivery. As Hamster, Brooks brightens the screen with his effortless charisma, while Glenn Howerton and Paul Scheer make great additions as hilariously unhinged antagonists.

    There’s so much to like about Archenemy, but that bounty of appeals becomes a problem. Mortimer spins so many plates throughout the tight 90-minute run time, leaving several facets somewhat untapped in the process (a third act twist offers an interesting switcharoo, but its dramatic impact becomes somewhat limited). It’s like a beautiful sketch that isn’t quite shaded in. Perhaps a larger budget could’ve allowed Mortimer more time to explore his character dynamics and intriguing thematic conceits, but his offering still impresses as stands.

    I’ve always had an affinity for spirited, low-budget offerings, but Archenemy is one of the few that’s never burdened by its financial limitations. I was enamored by Mortimer’s bright world from jump street, and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming filmmaker has up his sleeves going forward.

  • Banging Lanie: Review

    Banging Lanie: Review

    Lanie Burroughs (Allison Powell) is an introverted and somewhat abrasive teenage girl. She thinks that her studies are the only thing that’s important so that she can have a good future, and while that’s commendable, it also means that she doesn’t really have any friends.

    Lanie also has no interest in sex, she sees it as an unnecessary distraction from what matters to her and doesn’t see the appeal – until she meets Jordan (Damien Alonso). From that moment on she feels that she has to have the full teenage experience. Meaning she wants to have sex with Jordan, but the only person that she can talk to is Steven (George Whitaker) who pays her to teach him maths. However, an insider’s view on what teenage boys like may be just what she needs.

    Banging Lanie is a teenage romantic comedy written, directed by and starring Allison Powell. With comparisons in its premise to movies such as Easy A and Booksmart, Banging Lanie similarly shows a teenage romance from the perspective of an outcast teenager. Although it can be a little uneven when talking to its audience.

    Powell manages to deliver a performance that’s likeable, funny and like many movies that have come before, may strike a chord with many of its intended audience. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much of a plot that would open up the movie to a wider audience beyond a teenage girl exploring her sexuality for the first time.

    There are many moments that audiences come to expect from a movie such as Banging Lanie and while it mostly delivers, there are times that it feels little forced.

    With moments where the movie feels a bit too self-aware with dialogue that seems to directly speak to the audience and a final act that adds a little enforced drama, it may not work for everyone.

    However, Banging Lanie may be the type of movie that’s good for teenage girls to watch as they get to an age where they feel like they want more. Also, despite its tendency to oversell its message at times, Banging Lanie may still be a strong enough experience for its target audience.