5 Settings That Automatically Make a Movie Cooler
Have you ever watched a movie that was kind of so-so but really liked it anyway? You rack your brain for reasons and have a tough time even understand why you liked it in the first place. Then it hits you. There’s just some cool elements in the film that you just have to like. Don’t get me wrong, even great films will have these elements too.
The point is that despite mediocrity a movie can still be a success if given the proper treatment and setting. I have chosen five particular settings that I think automatically makes a movie cool.
Prison
Unless we’re talking about some kind of lame ass “Women in Heat” B-movie kind of a film, most movies that contain prison wind up being kind of cool in my book. Shawshank is probably the greatest prison movie of all time but even The Rock which is a Bruckheimer creation was awesome simply because of the prison factor. It’s just cool to be behind bars. Hell even Undisputed which was a horrible movie wound up being cool just because it was set in jail.
The Future
There’s just something cool about the future no matter how positive or grim it is portrayed as. Anything having to do with a time period we don’t know or understand always seems to end up being interesting. Whether it’s Children of Men or Gattaca I love the fact that I’m taken into a world that we can only dream of in film.
Other Planets/Space
From serious action films like Star Wars to joke movies like Spaceballs, other planets are just awesome. Even if they look like Earth they’re still cool. I just love the Alien factor and the “life out there” stuff. Look at Alien. Look at stuff like Event Horizon. Even bad space movies are good in some respects for the mere fact that space is explored.
“One Location”
12 Angry Men takes place in a jury room. Phone Booth takes place all from a phone booth. I highly respect the ability and courage a filmmaker has to attempt a movie like this. It’s very risky but rarely have I seen a film with a setting like this that I didn’t at least find intriguing.
Ancient Rome/Greece
When you see love affair movies or “period pieces” they always seem to take place in wussy times or locations like England or France or something. But when you see badass action films with wars, blood, and absolute manliness they seem to point to Ancient Greece or Rome. Case in point? Gladiator, 300, Troy. And I think moving forward there will be more of these.
My girlfriend’s major is history and we were watching spartacus blood & sand with our roommates & she’ll occasionally let us in on random facts about the Roman Empire/Republic. To be honest the more I hear about it, the more I want to live there….now.
Apparently Spartacus is pretty spot on, with only a few exceptions.
Spartucus is so shitty. And its like a blatant 300 knockoff.
The whole time I was watching it, I was like, “He just threw his cape back like Leonidas”…
“He just did an action kill like Leonidas”…
“They just made love like leonidas and his queen”.
SUCKY!
The guy is pretty hot though. I will say that.
@chrystani
I can’t tell if your joking, are you?
@ Chrystani
I thought the same thing, and it really is a knockoff of 300’s use of mainly red & tan coloring & slow motion during fight scenes, but if you sit there & go “Oh that’s like 300, oh that’s like 300, wait this is like 300!” Chances are you’ll never actually watch the show.
Oh and the episode where Spartacus has to fight in “The Pits” against a guy wearing the cut off face of a friend? Badass. At that point I stopped comparing & just watching the insanity of it all.
@ Chris,
Idk I guess you are being facetious, but I’m not joking.
Like I had to change the channel it was pissing me off so much. I couldn’t stop yelling at the screen in anger.
And no Im not joking. That dude is FINE. 🙂
@J5,
But…. when you say something like “wearing the cut off face of a friend”, it makes me want to give it another chance.
hmm..
@Chrystani
If you can get past (passed?) the whole 300 look alike thing, seriously, the show is awesome. Not only does the scene mentioned above happen, but the kill scenes in this show are brutal, the sex scenes are pretty awesome as well as the storyline’s back & forth with have you loving then hating the characters again & again….
Definitely worth another watch.
Oh…..and if your looking for hot dudes (I’m more in it for the blood & chesticles)) there’s a dude on there for one episode with a package the size of an elephant’s trunk. Seriously, the dude could’ve just fought in the arena with his dick in hand and probably won.
@J5,
Now I am sold. I think I will order the series on NetFlix.
I wil try to fast forward all the crap I watched and made me mad.
Violence, Awesome sex, and men with elephant trunk packages…
Sign me up.
@ chrystani
My bad, thought you meant the sparticus film. Was gonna say that they were a few years apart lol. I genuinely thought you were joking.
The one place thing is one of the coolest in my opinion. Panic Room, Paranormal Activity….
@ Levi
Phone Booth?
I’ve seen it if thats what you mean… it was listed already. I liked it quite a bit. The acting could have been a tad better, but the writing and directing were brilliant.
Two things that invariably appeal to me are time travel and metafiction, but I guess these aren’t exactly settings.