From Von Trier to the Fassboner, the Top 9 OMG Movie Moments of 2011
With 2011 drawing to a close, your faithful Movieline editors are taking a look back at the year that was, starting with a catalog of the 9 biggest OMG moments in movies and moviedom. Celebrate the batshit-insane happenings, most shocking screen scenes, death-defying stunts, crazier-than-fiction episodes, and nuclear-level meltdowns of the year... and add your own favorites to the pile. Ah, memories!
9. The Human Centipede II
Let's kick things off with the moment at the end of The Human Centipede II when I glanced over and realized the woman next to me had passed out from the onslaught of depravity being committed onscreen and was in need of medical attention. Lucky her - she fainted right before the very worst of Tom Six's uncensored director's cut. I wasn't quite so lucky.
8. Bridesmaids' pooping
Never go cheap on Brazilian BBQ, ladies.
7. The making of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's Burj Khalifa scene - or, confirmation that Tom Cruise is insane
What's a multi-millionaire celebrity to do when normal people kicks just don't deliver enough excitement anymore? Why, run around the outside of a skyscraper a mile up from the ground because your stuntman is too afraid of heights to do it himself. In. Sane. cue golf clap
6. Drive's brutal, gorgeous facestomping
It's the most delicately moving and gorgeous moment in Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive: Ryan Gosling delicately moves Carey Mulligan into the corner of an elevator for a sweet, tender kiss - one so pure, so spiritual, that a heavenly glow emanates around them with the pulsing of true love. And then, in a flash - IT'S FACESTOMPING TIME! Few scenes this year left me this breathless, in more ways than one.
5. Madonna and hydrangeas
The erstwhile Material Girl did nothing for her reputation, or her film's PR profile, when she was caught on camera heartlessly rejecting a fan's bouquet of flowers at the Venice press conference for W.E. (I mean, obviously. Didn't that guy know she loathes fucking hydrangeas? What was he thinking?!) Even better: Madonna's response to the media brouhaha that ensued. She's not sorry! Let that be inspiration for us all in 2012 - do something insane in the new year and don't apologize for it.
4. The Skin I Live In reveal
If you've seen the new Almodovar then you know what I'm talking about here, and if you haven't? GO WATCH NOW.
3. The fearless skydiving in Transformers 3
Michael Bay's Transformers series may be built on extensive CG robots and action, but Dark of the Moon featured the realest, most impressive stunt of the year: Stunt performers wearing special wingsuits diving through the airspace above Chicago like flying squirrels, coasting on the wind at high speeds without a safety net, and in formation.
2. Lars von Trier
The recipient of 2011's Mel Gibson Award would be Danish firebrand Lars von Trier if Gibson himself wasn't still so cray cray himself, but good ol' Lars came close enough with his ill-advised Cannes Nazi jokes. Foot, lodge inextricably in mouth. The difference, of course, is that poor Lars wasn't serious in his transgressions (see: Madonna above) but he was condemned - and actually hounded by authorities - nonetheless.
1. The unveiling of the Fassboner
Acclaimed British thespian Michael Fassbender is one of the finest actors of his generation, and he delivers one of the best, gloomiest, tortured-est performances of the year in Steve McQueen's Shame. But oh, that Fassboner. Worn so cavalierly like a trophy, a mark of prowess, so confident is Fassbender that he need not even be at full attention to be duly impressive. He may yet be a shower and not a grower, but what a show! And thematically appropriate still; imagine the fictional Brandon of Shame, so terribly damaged and yet so well-endowed, can't help but work with what he's been given.
Phew. Is it getting hot in here? Drop your favorite OMG moments in the comments below and let's hope for even bigger ZOMG happenings in the new year.
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Comments
Wow Jen, really coming on strong with that Fassbender. Personally, I thought the biggest OMG moment from Drive was when Albert Brooks repeatedly rams a butchers knife into an unlucky henchmen, nothing is left to the imagination as blood spills out of the gentleman's neck onto Brooks's bowling shirt. OMG.
I mean technically it's not a Fass*boner* -- but still. It's earned its own cult, I'm just paying homage in my own small way... 🙂
Definitely the elevator scene from"Drive" for me. The violence that follows the kiss is unbelievably shocking -- so much so that a couple of days later, when I read a review mentioning the tender moment in the elevator, I momentarily had no idea what the critic was talking about.
He wasn't erect, he was Fassid. 😉
Or Flassid, if you prefer.
Nice list. I've not seen too many of these films, but I did enjoy "Drive." I found the sound effects to be the most brutal part of it, frankly. Looking forward to Bridesmaids and possibly the Almodovar.
I know I'm being pedantic, Jen, but Michael Fassbender was born in Germany and raised in the southwest of Ireland; neither of these places are in Britain.
Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't Fassbending
**SPOILER ALERT**
I can't believe it took me this long to remember the following: Another big OMG moment was the scene in "The Debt" in which Jessica Chastain clamped her legs around the gynecologist's body and stabbed him in the neck with a syringe. I had read about it beforehand and still it was a huge shocker.
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