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great moments of bad films

There are many terrible films out there. There are many meh films. There are many underwhelming films. But most films have at least one or a handful of redeeming qualities about them. Let's focus this time on specific scenes thatare great in not-so-great films. Spoilers incoming. (also my favourite albums of the year so far)
1Slugdge
Esoteric Malacology

Red Lights (2012, Rodrigo Cortés) - the megachurch bust

This is an atmospherically rich film filled with suspense and some genuinely well directed moments, but all of that is overshadowed by the silliness of the subject at hand and the tapid substance that leaves you wondering "What is this film really for?" But at the very least the moment with exposing the Peter Popoff-esque megachurch faith healer was a damn ride to watch, seeing him fucking up time and time again at hands of the investigators.
2Conjurer
Mire

Bridge to Terabithia (2007, Gábor Csupó) - the logical finish line to life of that girl

This has been a well known 'bad-film-with-one-good-moment' kind of deal for a while. You know what am I talking about. The death thing. For a film so all-over-the-place and unfocused, this was quite a hard-hitting moment of sudden, unexpected sorrow. Kudos.
3Ought
Room Inside The World

The Myth (2005, Stanley Tong) - Jackie Chan against an entire army

Unfortunately, if you look through Jackie Chan's filmography it's more likely that you'll find pleiades of mediocre, one-off throwaway unnoteworthy flicks than actually great action films. Then again, Jackie Chan's action finesse can always guarantee at least a couple of fun scenes. And so is the case for The Myth. It's an incoherent and for the most part dull film that just doesn't seem to care to have an actually compelling story. Like what was it about? Some love and dynasty transcending generations and some temple of flying mumbo jumbo and some shit... It's weird is what I'm saying. All you'll end up remembering from this film is that it had Jackie Chan in it and that he was floating in aether; but also this: That scene, where he literally defeats a platoon of soldiers.
4Ought
Room Inside The World

[CON'D]
Picture this: Jackie Chan in a historic outfit against a myriad of enemies that are coming horde by horde at him. There is no usual comedic edge to it; there is no trademark Jackie Chan whackery, where he pushes one guy to the side, who falls on something that collapses and eventually demolishes all of Jackie's enemies. This is just Jackie Chan against a shitload of people. And he fights to death, until he builds a literal hill of corpses, on which he rises and defeats everyone coming his way. Talk about badass.
5L.A. Salami
The City Of Bootmakers

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007, Zach Helm) - Magorium's death

Okay, so I was babysitting my sister-in-law's two kids one time, but I am not good with them. I mean, what do you do? Get high and watch a film? Well, that sounds like a plan. So I asked them what film would they like to watch and they say this. I scour the internet until I eventually find a website with less pop-up porn-spam than usual, so it's safe to watch and we do that. The kids know it by heart now, so they fall asleep after about an hour. But I finish the bitch.
It's a silly film. It's about a magical toy shop, owned by Dustin Hoffman of all people, that employs Natalie Portman and some kid that just hangs around. The shop has financial problems, so they hire Jason Bateman to help them out. Simple enough, aye? There is nothing really godawful about this movie. It's just that it is somewhat underwhelming and, as I said before, childishly silly. But there was one scene heavy as fuck that I did not expect to see.
6L.A. Salami
The City Of Bootmakers

[CON'D]
See, it's not just financial problems that the shop has, it also seems like, since it is a "magical" place, the building is literally dying. We see the walls turn black and the toys decompose and such. And that all leads to the great reveal that Dustin Hoffman is dying. Sure enough, the reveal itself isn't all that outstanding, but the death scene that comes towards teh end of the film is what hit my guts. Mr. Magorium just accepts his fate. He sits down on the floor of the shop he worked in for, if I remember correctly, hundreds of years, and then as if the builfing devours him, as everything around is covered in more and more black treacle. It's a surprisingly mature way of dealing with death in a movie that is otherwise so immature.
7Amorphis
Queen of Time

Fred Claus (2007, David Dobkin) - the backstory

Vince Vaughn is an actual, millenia old brother of Paul Giamatti, the Santa Claus (and Vaughn is the older brother). That's the premise. The two brothers aren't really that friendly to one another and they have to sort their differences and what not, it's a stupid film. But the introductory montage of the brothers' childhood does have that slightly bittersweet vibe to it, showing their parents reserving all of their love primarily to Santa and none to Fred, with Santa often getting at Fred's bad side without really realising it. It shows a growing resentment and biting sadness of sorts that more or less makes the remainder of the film tolerable, given the fact that the dynamic between the brothers has been explained this well.
8mol
JORD

Loving (2016, Jeff Nichols) - "We've won!" phone call

I have a serious problem with Jeff Nichols' directing methods. He takes the show-don't-tell method a little too close to heart by literally not saying anything at all. Most of this film are silent scenes, where characters say at best a word or two, expecting the audience to already know what they are talking about, never actually presenting anything to hold on to. As a result of that this film (as well as Nichols' other work) ends up being soul-deadningly boring, here also spruced up with underacting Joel Edgerton and overacting Ruth Negga. But one scene more or less makes it all worth it (not really) in the end. After the final trial of legalisation of interracial marriages went through and the Supreme Court ruled 'yes', Lovings' lawyer calls to tell the great news.
9mol
JORD

[CON'D]
The look on Ruth Negga's face is a perfect encapsulation of everything this film was trying to convey. They went through hell for each other and suddenly it's all over with one phone call, all the turmoil and all the running. Her reaction is quiet and sophisticated, showing incredible relief and disbelief. Quite an impactful moment for such an messy unremarkable film.
10Parquet Courts
Wide Awake

Looper (2012, Rian Johnson) - the 12 Monkeys-isms

This film was nonsense. It was dragging nonsese with big names and little substance, self-contradicting at every turn. But there was still a certain unease I felt once all had concluded. Probably because it suddenly gave the fairly timid bad guy a whole range of depth. It certainly seemed like Bruce Willis made another 12 Monkeys, where at the end his character tries to stop a horrible thing in the future from happening by changing the past, only to fail and ruin all chance of improvement, essentially digging his own grave. He killed himself, but messed up the kids' psyche for life, which would later turn him into what he was.
11Spanish Love Songs
Schmaltz

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017, Yorgos Lanthimos) - the uncomfortable atmosphere

Yorgos What's-His-Name certainly established a directorial persona, which highly appeals to some and is absolutely repulsive to others. His films are incredibly intricately directed and he always cares for details. All in order to create the most uncomfortable, awkward and mind-numbingly substanceless films you've ever seen. The Killing... is such a brilliantly shot film from the technical standpoint and presents everything as obscured and unnatural. You feel as though the sterility of the hospital most of the film takes place in has translated itself into the rest of the thing, as everybody behaves robotically and with general disinterest for every occurence in their life. It is marvellously off-putting in the best sense possible. The film forces you to hate it and when you do, you don't feel as though you're somehow giving in to what the film wants you to give in to. Ugh.
12Giant Haystacks
This Is All There Is

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016, Zack Snyder)

This one is simple. I put Dawn of Justice here just because it is too easy to hate on it. So let's to the impossible and find some good in it. The fight between the two titular heroes under the influence of kryptonite was fairly decent, so was the atmosphere and so was the appearance of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Yeah, that's enough.
13Flying Horseman
Rooms/Ruins

Marvel's redeeming moments

Marvel has released a film I would enjoy all throughout only so many times, I could count it on one hand's fingers (3, it's 3 films). Each and every one of them are just inexcusably formulaic and dull. Sure, every now and then you get somethingmore-or-less out of the ordinary like Guardians of the Galaxy or Doctor Strange, but for the most part, they are all absolutely forgettable. I can go on and on about how much I hate Avengers, Iron Man 2 and 3 or how utterly bored I was by the Winter Soldier and Ant-Man. However, every single time there is a scene or a line or a performance that is more noteworthy than anything else in the film. And Instead of dissecting them all or nitpicking my favourite (trust me, some of them are not at all up to par with the others), I decided to make a quick rundown of all the redeeming moments in MCU films:
14Flying Horseman
Rooms/Ruins

Iron Man: The preparation of the first Iron Man
Iron Man 2: Mickey Rourke on the race tracks
Thor: Loki's "death" and his desperate motivation
The First Avenger: The ending (see my Unique Film Endings list)
The Avengers: Hulk fucks Loki up
Iron Man 3: The menacing Mandarin scenes (until the reveal)
The Dark World: Asgard
The Winter Soldier: Steve and Peggy's reunion
Guardians of the Galaxy: This one was actually fine
Age of Ultron: The interactions with Hawkeye's family. It was just sweet and interesting to see such a soulful moment amidst chaos. I could have just put Ultron here and be done with it...
Ant-Man: The train fight scene
Civil War: Zuma's motivation
Doctor Strange: The creative action and villain-defeat
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Yondu (cause fuck Baby Groot, the little annoying cunt)
Homecoming: The interactions between Peter and Tony
Ragnarok: the whole film is actually great
Black Panther: Killmonger's end
Infinity War: *snaps fingers*
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