They should have made the movie about that

[Andrew]

Watching The Trial of Billy Jack, there is one part of the plot they just throw away.  The students create a machine that can, by the sound of a person's voice, determine if they are telling the truth or lying.  It is given about two minutes of screen time, just enough for them to "detect" that a politician (I think he is on TV) is lying.  That is the last time you see or hear of the machine, for the rest of a three hour movie. 

Now, you could make an entire film about a machine that detects lies like that.  Even if, in the end, it turned out the thing did not work.  There is so much to explore in the topic, from multiple angles, that it could be interesting. 

The Video Dead had the same thing jump out at me.  While watching the evil television, a character encounters "The Garbageman."  This guy actually lives inside the horrific world of monsters and fiction that exists in the television.  His job is to take care of the "garbage," vanquishing the monsters.  You could write an entire plot around the idea.  It only gets a minute or two of study in "The Video Dead."

So, how about movies you watched, noticed a single part of plot, and said "Why did they not write an entire script around that?"

[Scott]

Yep, there are a lot of those type films out there. Can think of any off the top of my head at the moment, but when I watch a movie I occasionally think about that to myself.

[Dennis]

In Piranah when Bradford Dillman breaks into the abandoned laboratory there is a little guy, looks sorta  like the small version of the Ymir, he can be seen running across the table tops and hiding behind the beakers and equipment, thats as far as it goes, always thought he should have at least been in the movie more than this or maybe had his own movie but this could also have been one of those insider jokes.

[peter johnson]

Oh, yeah --
The Billy Crystal character in "The Princess Bride" -- with Carol Kane --
Here has been this dwarvish, magical character living in the woods for eons, apparently, and he's given, oh, 3 minutes of screentime?
THAT would have been a story more interesting than the inexplicably popular movie was/is.
pe. . .jo/de . . cr . .

[Him]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

The selling point of that movie was the giant robots attacking New York City.  The robots are what got the film green lit. The robots are what were in the trailer, but when you watch the film, you discover the robots got what seemed like only 5 minutes of screen time. The rest of the film dealt with other crap that no one wanted to see. How about making an entire film about those giant robots?

Mission to Mars
The films starts with the first manned mission to Mars. The crew encounter a strange force on the red planet that kills all but one. Just when the film is getting good, the movie cuts away to a space station orbiting Earth where we have to listen to alot of extremely bad dialog. The film then cuts to another space ship traveling to Mars where we have to listen to more extremely bad dialog. Late in the film we finally get back to Mars to find out one of the astronauts survived there for a year in a Habitat he assembled. During that time he discovered what that strange force was.  We missed all the good stuff. How about make a movie about that guy who survived on Mars for a year?

[dean]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

The selling point of that movie was the giant robots attacking New York City.  The robots are what got the film green lit. The robots are what were in the trailer, but when you watch the film, you discover the robots got what seemed like only 5 minutes of screen time. The rest of the film dealt with other crap that no one wanted to see. How about making an entire film about those giant robots?

Don't forget Him the crappy storyline there anyways.  I just rented it again [yes that's right again] and it's always funny how for the first 20 minutes it's just meaningless crap and there was about a total of 2 minutes worth of dialogue.  Very frustrating to watch but the effects were nice. 

Anyways I'm babbling...

[Jack]

Komodo vs. Cobra.  Some obnoxious and completely unsympathetic characters arrive on an island and find that some genetic engineering experiments had been conducted, almost all the researchers are dead, and there are giant critters roaming around.  It would have been soooooo much more interesting if the movie had been about the researchers and their experiments and resulting problems, but instead we get the douchebags that we couldn't care less about running around and generally making asses of themselves. 

[zombiedudeman]

Neon Maniacs: They should have done more with the Neon Maniacs and explored their lives. I think the movie spent too much time on those high school kids. There never was an explanation as to why there was such a rich diveristy within the Neon Maniacs community..were they village people? argh, I must know the truth, someone make a prequel!

Day of the Dead: There was a clown zombie I think in this one. What was the deal with him? Seriously. How'd he become a zombie and how many people did he kill? There needs to be a movie devoted to answering these questions.

[Yaddo 42]

After seeing Serenity, I thought a good futuristic horror film, unrelated to the characters from Firefly, could be made about the experiment gone awry that creates the Reavers.

The earlier adventures of Mr. Shhh, from Things to do in Denver When Your Dead, bound to be better than the film itself.

The twisted saga and family ties of the evil Yagyu clan from the Lone Wolf and Cub films.

[Mr. DS]

I say pick just about any Star Wars character who wasn't the subject of the main plot and there you go.  Examples, Boba Fett, IG88 and just about any of the bounty hunters.  They should have done a gritty movie on them instead of the prequels.   As long as George Lucas didn't direct it that is.

Day of the Dead: There was a clown zombie I think in this one. What was the deal with him? Seriously. How'd he become a zombie and how many people did he kill? There needs to be a movie devoted to answering these questions.

Zombiedudeman, I would also like to see one on the nurse zombie from Dawn Of The Dead. 

[Andrew]

Komodo vs. Cobra.  Some obnoxious and completely unsympathetic characters arrive on an island and find that some genetic engineering experiments had been conducted, almost all the researchers are dead, and there are giant critters roaming around.  It would have been soooooo much more interesting if the movie had been about the researchers and their experiments and resulting problems, but instead we get the douchebags that we couldn't care less about running around and generally making asses of themselves. 

You know, I am working on formatting the reader review for "Island of Terror" tonight (it should be up tomorrow night, at the latest).  What happened in the mansion when the scientists first created the Silicates could be an entertaining monster movie.  Something along the lines of the first "Resident Evil" game, with everyone trapped in the mansion.  Maybe some foreshadowing, with one of the researchers injured by the creature.

[Shadow]

I always wanted to see the (ultimately futile) struggle between the colonists and the xenomorphs in Aliens. The theatrical cut only shows us the aftermath while the extended version teases us with a few moments before the aliens are unleashed (showing amongst other things, Newt's father finding the derelict ship and getting a facehugger stuck on his head).

[BeyondTheGrave]

I always wanted to see the (ultimately futile) struggle between the colonists and the xenomorphs in Aliens. The theatrical cut only shows us the aftermath while the extended version teases us with a few moments before the aliens are unleashed (showing amongst other things, Newt's father finding the derelict ship and getting a facehugger stuck on his head).

I would also like to see that too.

[dean]

I say pick just about any Star Wars character who wasn't the subject of the main plot and there you go.  Examples, Boba Fett, IG88 and just about any of the bounty hunters.  They should have done a gritty movie on them instead of the prequels.   As long as George Lucas didn't direct it that is.

I have a book at home called "Bounty Hunter Tales" which basically gave a storyline to each of the Bounty Hunters on the bridge in Empire Strikes Back.  Some of them were pretty interesting.

[Dennis]

I would like to see a movie about Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson & John Travolta) from Pulp Fiction, I found the interaction of the two characters quite funny, considering their line of work, would like to see what they did before the religious experience and Bruce's Uzi.