Badmovies.org Forum

Movies => Bad Movies => Topic started by: WyreWizard on January 28, 2007, 09:34:15 PM



Title: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: WyreWizard on January 28, 2007, 09:34:15 PM
Its very rare for me to laugh at a comedic movie.  I get more laughs from watching a professional stand-up comic like Richard Jeni or George Carlin.  But the film that I am describing the flaws of stars neither of these guys.  This film stars Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn.  Yep, this film is 1995's Death Becomes Her.  I originally watched this film because it starred one of my favorite actresses, Goldie Hawn.  I've always had the hots for her during my teen years.

Now as for Death Becomes Her, I didn't find this move funny by any stretch of the imagination.  I found it so stupid and unrealistic, it was incredible.  Now lets get into the flaws of this film.

1.  Immortality potion.  Ah yes, a potion of immortality.  There have been many fantasy films that had these.  However, unlike those films, the imortality potion in Death Become Her has many problems.  For one despite being immortal, this potion seems to disable the body's ability to heal itself.  We see the two women who drank this potion suffer tremendous injuries that never heal and require the help of a mortician to cover up.

2.  Meryl's injuries.  Meryl's character is pushed down the stairs.  During her fall, her head gets dislocated and her neck is broken.  But by no surprise, she survives this fall because she took the potion.  Also by some miracle with her head twisted 180 degrees, she is not only able to stand up and walk, but is also able to speak!  This is impossible.  Even if you could survive having your neck twisted 180 degrees, you'd be paralyzed from the neck-down and be unable to speak.  Why?  Well with your head twisted like that, your spinal cord is broken.  Also if your head is twisted like that all the organs in your neck are crushed, including your trachea, esophagus and larynx.  With youe larynx crushed, you can't speak.

3.  Goldie's injuries.  Now this is classic.  We see Goldie get shot in the abdomen by a 12-gauge shotgun.  Not only does she get up from that blast, she has a massive hole in her abdomen and is even able to walk around.  Now after suffering such a traumatic junury, she shouldn't be able to do any of those things.  For one even if she could survive that, she wouldn't be able to walk or even stand.  She'd be paralyzed from the waist-down.  Also with that injury. a lot of vital organs would be seriously damaged or destroyed.


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Ash on January 28, 2007, 11:50:20 PM
I would comment...but I've never seen Death Becomes Her.
I've had plenty of chances to see it but it never looked interesting to me...so I skipped it.


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Dennis on January 29, 2007, 12:36:08 AM
I think that a movie about these two women who hate each other so much that each is willing to spend eternity animating (the only way to describe it) a severely injured, dying or even dead body that needs full time care from a mortician just to go out of the house is hilarious, and Bruce Willis as the helpless boob caught in the middle is a riot, but then that's just my opinion.  :smile:


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Jim H on January 29, 2007, 01:03:24 PM
Its very rare for me to laugh at a comedic movie.  I get more laughs from watching a professional stand-up comic like Richard Jeni or George Carlin.  But the film that I am describing the flaws of stars neither of these guys.  This film stars Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn.  Yep, this film is 1995's Death Becomes Her.  I originally watched this film because it starred one of my favorite actresses, Goldie Hawn.  I've always had the hots for her during my teen years.

Now as for Death Becomes Her, I didn't find this move funny by any stretch of the imagination.  I found it so stupid and unrealistic, it was incredible.  Now lets get into the flaws of this film.

1.  Immortality potion.  Ah yes, a potion of immortality.  There have been many fantasy films that had these.  However, unlike those films, the imortality potion in Death Become Her has many problems.  For one despite being immortal, this potion seems to disable the body's ability to heal itself.  We see the two women who drank this potion suffer tremendous injuries that never heal and require the help of a mortician to cover up.

2.  Meryl's injuries.  Meryl's character is pushed down the stairs.  During her fall, her head gets dislocated and her neck is broken.  But by no surprise, she survives this fall because she took the potion.  Also by some miracle with her head twisted 180 degrees, she is not only able to stand up and walk, but is also able to speak!  This is impossible.  Even if you could survive having your neck twisted 180 degrees, you'd be paralyzed from the neck-down and be unable to speak.  Why?  Well with your head twisted like that, your spinal cord is broken.  Also if your head is twisted like that all the organs in your neck are crushed, including your trachea, esophagus and larynx.  With youe larynx crushed, you can't speak.

3.  Goldie's injuries.  Now this is classic.  We see Goldie get shot in the abdomen by a 12-gauge shotgun.  Not only does she get up from that blast, she has a massive hole in her abdomen and is even able to walk around.  Now after suffering such a traumatic junury, she shouldn't be able to do any of those things.  For one even if she could survive that, she wouldn't be able to walk or even stand.  She'd be paralyzed from the waist-down.  Also with that injury. a lot of vital organs would be seriously damaged or destroyed.

It's called "magic".


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Poogie on January 29, 2007, 02:30:54 PM
    Are you serious ?  :buggedout: Look at Joan Rivers, she's been taking the potion for 20 years now..... :bouncegiggle:


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: The Burgomaster on January 29, 2007, 05:41:22 PM
I have attempted to watch DEATH BECOMES HER about 2 or 3 times.  But boredom became me after around 15 or 20 minutes.


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Yaddo 42 on January 30, 2007, 02:34:34 AM
Not a big fan of the movie, I like the idea better than the execution. I know it got some new fans when people found out that Catherine Bell was the body double for Isabella Rossellini. A lot of JAG fans hunting down copies of Death Becomes Her after that bit o' info got out.

Did any of Goldie's organs fall out after the shooting, I can't remember? Maybe they should have, but pushing the gore level might have turned off the mainstream audience.

Since the potion was meant to be a lesson in "be careful what you wish for" and the law of unintended consequences. If you can't accept the potion for what it is in the context of the movie, you can't accept anything else that happens. If your body can't heal or repair itself yet you live on no matter what, of course it will turn out badly.

Richard Jeni and George Carlin? So comedy stopped working in the mid-90s? Carlin stopped being funny nearly 20 years ago, and I even saw him in concert, but to each their own.

Maybe someone with no suspension of disbeliefwould prefer nonfiction books and documentary films.


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: zombie no.one on January 30, 2007, 03:38:33 AM
Its very rare for me to laugh at a comedic movie.  I get more laughs from watching a professional stand-up comic like Richard Jeni or George Carlin.  But the film that I am describing the flaws of stars neither of these guys.  This film stars Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn.  Yep, this film is 1995's Death Becomes Her.  I originally watched this film because it starred one of my favorite actresses, Goldie Hawn.  I've always had the hots for her during my teen years.

Now as for Death Becomes Her, I didn't find this move funny by any stretch of the imagination.  I found it so stupid and unrealistic, it was incredible.  Now lets get into the flaws of this film.

1.  Immortality potion.  Ah yes, a potion of immortality.  There have been many fantasy films that had these.  However, unlike those films, the imortality potion in Death Become Her has many problems.  For one despite being immortal, this potion seems to disable the body's ability to heal itself.  We see the two women who drank this potion suffer tremendous injuries that never heal and require the help of a mortician to cover up.

2.  Meryl's injuries.  Meryl's character is pushed down the stairs.  During her fall, her head gets dislocated and her neck is broken.  But by no surprise, she survives this fall because she took the potion.  Also by some miracle with her head twisted 180 degrees, she is not only able to stand up and walk, but is also able to speak!  This is impossible.  Even if you could survive having your neck twisted 180 degrees, you'd be paralyzed from the neck-down and be unable to speak.  Why?  Well with your head twisted like that, your spinal cord is broken.  Also if your head is twisted like that all the organs in your neck are crushed, including your trachea, esophagus and larynx.  With youe larynx crushed, you can't speak.

3.  Goldie's injuries.  Now this is classic.  We see Goldie get shot in the abdomen by a 12-gauge shotgun.  Not only does she get up from that blast, she has a massive hole in her abdomen and is even able to walk around.  Now after suffering such a traumatic junury, she shouldn't be able to do any of those things.  For one even if she could survive that, she wouldn't be able to walk or even stand.  She'd be paralyzed from the waist-down.  Also with that injury. a lot of vital organs would be seriously damaged or destroyed.

yeah....I kind of agree with what Yaddo42 said...the concept you're not quite grasping is that the makers of the film must allow a certain amount of leeway and artistic licence regarding the strict medical/biological procedures that would no doubt occur in these types of situations , were they to happen in real life , in order to facilitate and enhance what is essentially a work of supernatural fiction, i.e. one where the general sense of fantasy and disbelief is actually an essential ingredient rather than an unintentional lapse of concentration. Once you can get your head around this obstacle then I'm sure you'll find a lot more films less ridiculous. e.g. Police Academy III

see also: Police Academy IV


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Just Plain Horse on January 31, 2007, 10:40:31 AM
First off, I have to agree about what Yaddo said about George Carlin- I NEVER found him funny- rather insightful, for a "comedian", but never funny.

I only ran across Death Becomes Her because I happened to be visitng family and my stepmom rented it- I give her the benefit of the doubt despite she's also rented the Val Kilmer movie about The Doors and Thelma & Louise (urk!)- but I disgress...

I always found it curious how Goldie Hawn's character could even stand up after her midsection was all but desintegrated by that shotgun blast. Why didn't her torso collapse when she tried to stand up, or just tear off for that matter, due to the weight... Magic, huh?

While we're on the subject of flaws, I have a very generalized one for all those movies with disembodied hands crawling around by their fingers.... I could open a whole can of 'WTF' questions... but have you ever tried mimicing a crawling hand? Even without having to drag an arm, how long could a hand of any kind undergo that kind of strain before something just...  snapped?


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: RCMerchant on January 31, 2007, 03:55:31 PM
I dunno...I've seen a lot of disembodied hand movies,and,after careful study and long hours of anylasis,have come to the conclusion that they  travel very quickly,and can also somehow ,I have yet to figure out ,actually SEE(!) where they are going! Quite remarkable. I plan to write a scientific lecture  on the amazing quality's of Crawling Hands,with Dr.Herbert West as a guest speaker.


Title: Re: Flaws in a bad film
Post by: Bill C. on January 31, 2007, 10:48:49 PM
I kind of liked Death Becomes Her, though I agree that the execution was a little flawed.  (Didn't know about the Catherine Bell thing, though.)  Great idea, though...unfortunately, being 1991, I doubt anybody would have taken it further into black comedy than it went.