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What movie "broke the 4th wall" the best?

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What movie "broke the 4th wall" the best?

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Old 01-11-08, 11:07 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Meglos
Fight Club.

I just love the bit where Norton's character takes a moment to dab something off his chin while he explains to the audience what Tyler's hotel job was.
Tyler Durden: Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?
Narrator: mumbles...
Tyler Durden: I'm sorry...
Narrator: I still can't think of anything.
Tyler Durden: Ah... flashback humor.
Old 01-11-08, 11:08 AM
  #27  
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I thought High Fidelity did it best by keeping us face to face with the main character through the movie, but The Jerk did it in an interesting way as well, by having Navin begin and end the movie by telling us his life story.
Old 01-11-08, 11:09 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Palaver
Tyler Durden: Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?
Narrator: mumbles...
Tyler Durden: I'm sorry...
Narrator: I still can't think of anything.
Tyler Durden: Ah... flashback humor.

Fight Club as a whole is one big wink to the audience. God, I love the fuckin' movie.



-Doc
Old 01-11-08, 11:23 AM
  #29  
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Darryl in Coming to America. You know, after Lisa's sister finds him outside in the rain and invites him in, then she says "Let's get you out of these wet clothes." That look he gives is priceless.
Old 01-11-08, 11:28 AM
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"Ocean's 12"

Doesn't she look just like...
Old 01-11-08, 11:32 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by ScandalUMD
"Ocean's 12"

Doesn't she look just like...

Actually didn't like that one. I get what they were doing, trying to be cute. But it was one of those winks where, instead of letting me in on the joke, it just took me totally out of the movie.



-Doc
Old 01-11-08, 11:37 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by Doc MacGyver
Actually didn't like that one. I get what they were doing, trying to be cute. But it was one of those winks where, instead of letting me in on the joke, it just took me totally out of the movie.
I agree. It sealed the fate of what, for me, had been an already disappointing movie up to that point.

I think Ferris Bueller is going to be the overriding winner in this discussion. Most of the time, breaking the fourth wall just doesn't work.
Old 01-11-08, 11:48 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Doc MacGyver
Superman: The Movie

Superman saved the day, Lois is alive and well, and Superman flies off into the upper atmosphere. Just as John William's brilliant score is crescendoing and Superman flies up to the left and out of frame, he throws a smile to the audience.


-Doc

The other 4th wall moment in Superman:

Clark Kent shows the audience that he's caught the bullet that almost kills Lois.
Old 01-11-08, 11:51 AM
  #34  
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Bill Murray-Ghostbusters 1/2 has always been my favorite example of this.
Old 01-11-08, 11:57 AM
  #35  
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Hamlet
Old 01-11-08, 11:58 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by jeffkjoe
The other 4th wall moment in Superman:

Clark Kent shows the audience that he's caught the bullet that almost kills Lois.

Did he? I thought he looked down at his hand, all proud of himself like the cat that ate the canary. I didn't realize he was showing us (From a filmmaking standpoint he was, just as in any movie where there's a reveal, the character is "Showing us" what had just happened, but it wasn't like he looked at the camera and then opened his hand, was it?)


-Doc

Last edited by Doc MacGyver; 01-11-08 at 12:30 PM.
Old 01-11-08, 12:14 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by Doc MacGyver
Did he? I thought he looked down at all, all proud of himself like the cat that ate the canary. I didn't realize he was showing us (From a filmmaking standpoint he was, just as in any movie where there's a reveal, the character is "Showing us" what had just happened, but it wasn't like he looked at the camera and then opened his hand, was it?)


-Doc
Yeah, that was just an insert shot, not breaking the 4th wall.
Old 01-11-08, 12:27 PM
  #38  
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I don't know what my favorite one is, but I can tell you my least favorite.

Into the Wild, out of nowhere he just stares at the camera while he's eating an apple. I'm sure Sean Penn thought it was "cute", but it ruined the movie for me the rest of the time I watched it.

Last edited by project86; 01-11-08 at 12:30 PM.
Old 01-11-08, 12:28 PM
  #39  
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On a related note... Are there examples other than Blazing Saddles where the movie breaks the fourth wall almost literally, panning out to a soundstage and going fully meta?
Old 01-11-08, 12:29 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by adamblast
On a related note... Are there examples other than Blazing Saddles where the movie breaks the fourth wall almost literally, panning out to a soundstage and going fully meta?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

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Old 01-11-08, 12:35 PM
  #41  
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I guess we could also add the final shot of THE IRON GIANT--especially as I now see the connection between that and Superman's smile as referenced earlier.
Old 01-11-08, 12:45 PM
  #42  
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Eddie Murphy in Trading Places is the best for me. A lot of them just hit you over the head with it too much.
Old 01-11-08, 12:45 PM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by project86
I don't know what my favorite one is, but I can tell you my least favorite.
My least favorite is at the end of Scrooged, when Bill Murray talks to the audience. When I watch it on DVD, I always stop just before it gets to that.

Rob
Old 01-11-08, 12:58 PM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by RobCA
Return of the Killer Tomatoes (great product shilling scene, years before Wayne's World did it)
I'm glad someone else remembers this. I thought that scene was every bit as funny as the same one in Wayne's World.
Old 01-11-08, 01:35 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by veloce
I guess we could also add the final shot of THE IRON GIANT--especially as I now see the connection between that and Superman's smile as referenced earlier.
How is that breaking the 4th wall?
Old 01-11-08, 01:37 PM
  #46  
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When Peter O'Toole turns to the camera in "What's New Pussycat"and says, "As a man's life goes down the tubes, You Are There." He has 3 girlfriends hidden in his apartment unknown to each other just as his fiance knocks on the door.
Old 01-11-08, 01:52 PM
  #47  
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the end of 'the holy mountain'
Old 01-11-08, 02:08 PM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by riotinmyskull
the end of 'the holy mountain'
Old 01-11-08, 02:28 PM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by adamblast
On a related note... Are there examples other than Blazing Saddles where the movie breaks the fourth wall almost literally, panning out to a soundstage and going fully meta?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Henry V (Branagh)
Old 01-11-08, 02:33 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Doughboy
I'm glad someone else remembers this. I thought that scene was every bit as funny as the same one in Wayne's World.
I haven't seen this in at least a decade, but I still remember that scene.


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