Films/TV that were very cleverly written

Marcel

Marcel

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The other thread about what Films/TV you didn't understand got me thinking.
What have you seen that is really cleverly written?

Firstly, I thought Memento was brilliant. Took me a while to get my head round the order of things, but it was brill.
IIRC (and it's been many many years since I saw it) The Butterfly Effect was good too.
Shutter Island I thought was good, as was Fight Club. Once you've seen fight club twice ;) it does lose it's appeal somewhat though.
 
Pulp fiction because I'm feeling original.


I'd add magnolia to your list as well
 
American Psycho
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
 
Didn't feel Pulp Fiction was that good.

Fight Club was the first one that properly messed my head up about things.

Inception - maybe.
 
I loved Inception and mostly understood what it was, what I liked about it though was that it left it up to you to decide whether the whole film was a dream (does it keep spinning?) or not.

I also quite liked 'Minority Report', that was quite clever as it took a sci-fi short story (I have since read it_ and kept the essential plot elements but updated them to use todays technology and again it left you to your own interpretation of how it ended (did Anderton really escape the containment, confront Lamar, and free the precogs, or was it just what he wanted as like the guard said 'in containment all your dreams come true'?)
 
Usual Suspects for me - with the Verbal Kint/Keyser Soze twist...

Not sure about Inception. I felt it was a bit of a one trick pony - enjoyable though.
 
Spuff said:
Not sure about Inception. I felt it was a bit of a one trick pony - enjoyable though.
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To be honest I was just happy that it was something that showed some originality (which is very rare these days) and also something that you couldn't conceivably write a crap sequel to release the next year to cash in on it as it just wouldn't work again.
 
The whole Snape hates Harry in the Harry Potter books and films was really well done.
 
Hill Street Blues was not only well written, but also very different from any police series before it
 
tijuana taxi said:
Hill Street Blues was not only well written, but also very different from any police series before it
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And much imitated since....Laregely rather poorly.
 
CraigyBoy86 said:
Did anyone else really enjoy Due South? I recently got the remastered boxset (all 3 series), well written and fun to watch.
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I used to love the first two series but hated it when they replaced Ray with...er, Ray. I do feel it jumped the shark when Benton started talking to his father's ghost.

I started catching up with it on youtube. Although it was a lighthearted show, there were some serious moments and issues it tackled. Sometimes I feel if it hadn't become too jokey, it would have been a lot better.
 
best thing i have watched on telly.. really polished series... very well made so must be well written... the WIRE

theres one part early in the first series.. maybe ep 4 or 5 .. two of the main policeman go to a crime scene....they look around and suss out what happened.... my wife didnt spot this until i played the 4 or 5 mins back later.... every word they used was the f word... no other word.. but done in such a way it wasnt offensive.. and done in lots of different ways.. just about every way you could use the word..

so well done.. quite a few poeple i pointed it out to had missed it...
 
CraigyBoy86 said:
Did anyone else really enjoy Due South? I recently got the remastered boxset (all 3 series), well written and fun to watch.
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Yup, I've got them sat waiting to watch. I use to love watching that programme. It had humour, excitement, a wolfdog, a ghost, vechios sister for some eye candy. I didn't buy it when the new vechio took over cause the real one was undercover- can't wait to rewatch it though !
Edit : just read omens post after- same here ha
 
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Loved Due South, will have to check out the set now. Personally loved Arlington Road, very well done movie. Also really enjoyed Adjustment Bureau.
 
A film I thought was clever was matchstick men (Nicholas cage) I was sucked in hook line and sinker, then bam ! It was like someone grabbed my goolies, twisted em 180 degrees and then laughed- I should have saw the twist coming but had no idea.
Tv series has to be 'burn notice' im like an addict needing another fix when each episode ends. It leaves enough of a cliffhanger to keep you hooked but not so much that you're annoyed that you've got to wait till the next one. its got punch ups, bikinis,guns and quite a bit of humour- though it still keeps the important parts serious. - the main character was a spy, but someone in the company arranged for his departure. Its a bit like 'the ateam' - he does little jobs using his skills in between trying to find the miserable a holes who got him burned/sacked from his job.
 
I sort of gave up on US series for a while after getting into Flash Forward and then Rubicon and then the American networks dropping them both after one season!! Flash Forward in particular was just getting to the bit where they were going to do a bit of explaining and then poof....no more series.

But I thought I'd give them a chance again and started watching The Americans (Russian spies in suburbia) which I thought was pretty good and included a smattering of UK '80s music. As far as I can tell there is definitely going to be a second series.
 
Ooooh nearly forgot,

Life on Mars, brilliant show. Brilliant concept, superb writing, direction and casting.
Then Ashes to Ashes was highly anticipated...but OK.
Series 2 of Ashes was poor.
Series 3 was better, and the ending just had me sit back in my chair, smile at the screen with a big grin and start clapping :D
 
Due south was excellent.

Also re-discovered dead like me on netflix. I'm hoping they are going to have northern exposure as well.

Six feet under was another great series too.
 
A recent film for me is The Place Beyond The Pines, very well written and executes.

TV series - Firefly! Loved it and only made one series before it was cancelled. Refreshingly original sci fi. It now has a major cult following and they made a movie - Serenity.
 
Marcel said:
What have you seen that is really cleverly written?
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On TV : Twin peaks (lost its way a bit in season 2 I thought though). G.B.H. Shooting the past. Babylon 5.

Film : Rashomon. Chinatown. Trust. ( those are all original screenplays rather than adaptations )
 
omens said:
I used to love the first two series but hated it when they replaced Ray with...er, Ray. I do feel it jumped the shark when Benton started talking to his father's ghost.

I started catching up with it on youtube. Although it was a lighthearted show, there were some serious moments and issues it tackled. Sometimes I feel if it hadn't become too jokey, it would have been a lot better.
Click to expand...

I felt the same at first. I had never fully watched season 3 because I didn't think I liked the new Ray, but as the series develops I enjoyed it more having watched it just recently. The finale was good too, which is difficult to say about many recent tv shows, tied up most of the 'loose ends'. Give it a few episodes and I think you will find it's not as bad as you think. :)
 
Marcel said:
Ooooh nearly forgot,

Life on Mars, brilliant show. Brilliant concept, superb writing, direction and casting.
Then Ashes to Ashes was highly anticipated...but OK.
Series 2 of Ashes was poor.
Series 3 was better, and the ending just had me sit back in my chair, smile at the screen with a big grin and start clapping :D
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I loved those the finale on ashes was superb.Also thought American Beauty was a great film
 
Terminator 2: Judgement day - love the plot (John Connor/Arnie = son/father) and execution, shame T3 and T4 are let downs :(
Donnie Darko - confusing as heck but it can be interpreted how you like, saw it a couple of days ago for the first time, quite enjoyed it despite the confusing plot
 
CraigyBoy86 said:
The finale was good too, which is difficult to say about many recent tv shows, tied up most of the 'loose ends'. Give it a few episodes and I think you will find it's not as bad as you think. :)
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I remember watching the finale. It was midday as it was a repeat run of the series in maybe 1999-2000. First time I'd seen it and the ending was a bit of a tearjerker. They don't do much in the way of endings but they used to back in the olden days.
 
First blood....then it went down hill fast.
 
The Liam Neeson Film 'Unknown' is a great plot IMO and generally done really well.

For TV series I think that Arrested Development is hard to beat as there are so many clever throw away lines which are actually references to previous jokes.
 
TopBanana said:
The Liam Neeson Film 'Unknown' is a great plot IMO and generally done really well.

For TV series I think that Arrested Development is hard to beat as there are so many clever throw away lines which are actually references to previous jokes.
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The TV series "Jekyll" was totally outstanding and the best version of a modern Jekyll and Hyde I have ever seen.

And James Nesbitt was totally outstanding!!

Throw in lots of black humour and superb editing and it's a real joy to watch.

.
 
On TV Father Ted was excellent. Dexter is a must watch in our house, pity it's coming to an end in a few weeks.

Films, really enjoyed Signs a few years ago. Argo was good, Inception was ok but quite original.
Some of the best are kids films, Hoodwinked is very good along with Madagascar, Despicable Me +2 and the Harry Potter series is very well done.

There'll be loads more which will probably come to me in a about a minute after clicking submit....
 
Dexter has been my favourite series since it began. I don't want it to end. But there's only so far they can take it.
 
Just got season 1 of The West Wing, loving it, first 6 episodes watched today, such a great cast.

Clarke
 
I finished watching prison break and am looking for a decent series next. Dexter sounds ideal, although sounds like I'll have to wait a while for the complete box set to come out. I watched the first series so sounds like its done well/kept interesting to be on the 8. Are the 8 seasons consistently good, or has there been a few gap filling stinkers ?
 
I would say it's been consistently good over the 8 seasons. If anything, I think the latest, season 8, is the weakest. A few too many shallow characters introduced

Unlike say, House MD. which reached it's peak around season 4, and deteriorated slowly with each season after.
 
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