10 Kick Ass Opening Credit Sequences
 

http://www.laboratory101.com/?p=38

List consists of:

10. Catch me if you Can
9. Island of Dr. Moreau
8. Snatch
7. Casino
6. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
5. Pulp Fiction
4. Fight Club
3. Reservoir Dogs
2. Raging Bull
1. Seven

All with video evidence.

Snatch's credits seemed very "Wild Bunch"y to me. And although I liked it, it seems odd to acknowledge it and not the original.

This list blows. Why the hell is Catch Me If You Can On There when it's a homage to the Saul Bass titles of the 50s and 60s? Yet, none of those Bass did are on there. :shrug:

No Commando? :mad:

I really liked Lord Of War.

I cant believe they left out these classic opening title sequences:

Superman
Terminator 2
Spider-man 2
Lord of War

<b>Casino</b> is, in fact, designed by Saul Bass.

John Carpenter's The Thing
Alien
Aliens

Should been on that list.

I'd have to agree with a lot of those. In the case of THE THING, the overall opening credits isn't anything special, but the title reveal is one of my all time favourites (a homage to the original film, and painstakingly done by melting the title through a black garbage bag. Today they could have just done it digitally, but they did a great job with it, using primative methods).

Can't believe they left off Boogie Nights.

And surprised Bond didn't get at least one nod.

I agree with Superman.

Yeah...not mentioning Superman's opening credit sequence in a credit sequence list is like not mentioning Citizen Kane when discussing the best films ever made. That's just crazy.

Although the opening credits in the Dawn of the Dead remake with Johnny Cash's "Man Comes Around" tune was inspired.

I thought the Hostage credits sequence was pretty cool

A bit too biased towards films made from 1990 onward, although they are all great credit sequences in their own right.

At least one of the Bond flicks should be on there. The problem is which one to pick.

Also, T2 had a great opening credits sequence.

And what about Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

True. But what happen to Spartacus, North to Northwest, and Vertigo among some of Bass' great works?? That is one bad list, for sure. -ohbfrank-

Aside from the music, I don't see what's so great about Superman's opening credits.

First two that popped into my head when I read this thread title were Catch Me If You Can and Seven. So I'm not surprised to see those on that list.

I'm glad movies have only been around since the 1990s. It makes the creation of these sorts of lists so much easier!

What, you don't like eight minutes of giant letters flying by your screen? Blasphemy! Never mind that after the first credit or two we "get" it, and that flying all of the remaining credits by our eyes.... one.... by.... one..... for an eternity you risk people falling asleep, just the fact that you've got a flying letter special effect that is exactly the same every time you use it each of the hundred or so times you choose to use it is an AMAZING FEAT and surely nominates your credits as one of the ten best ever.

As for me, I bump the DVD player up to 8x when the credits start so I can get the other seven minutes of my life back. But then again, I'm in the ignorant majority here.

Some of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet:

L'Argent De Poche- a bunch of kids running through a hilly French town. Total exuberance and sets the tone of the movie perfectly.

The Good the Bad and The Ugly- psychedelic photo-collages and that incredible Morricone score. The cannon blasting out Leone's name is the cherry on the cake.

Grand Prix: 1960's style split screen gone mad with tons of close-ups and LOUD revving engines. The title blasting out of an exhaust pipe is just plain cool.

Monster's Inc: looks like a tribute to the Pink Panther titles. Catchy little jazz number, perfectly timed computer animation that looks like paper cut-outs. The Incredibles has my second favorite (googie-mad) Pixar title sequence.

Alien- clean and slightly unnerving, the letters fading in one line at a time while the camera pans over a planet.

North by Northwest- my favorite Bass classic. The definitive "International Style" mid-century sequence. basically all of Hitchcock's title sequences are good, though.

Star Wars is still my favorite.

The music IS what's so great about the credits. That combined with the curtains opening and the whooshing titles sets a great tone for the epic story that's about to be told. I often pop in the DVD(now replaced with the HD-DVD version) just to watch the beginning of the movie.

I kinda liked Panic Room. It was.. different.

One recent opening I really enjoyed was Casino Royale.

I've always been fond of the Matrix films.

Jackass 2

Recently I really liked the opening credits for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and am in the proud minority of those loving the credits for Casino Royale.

And the list is right on about the SE7EN and Fight Club credits. After those two movies everyone and the baldheaded grandma opened their movies with the same schtick. (Except Air Bud, maybe. I'll never know. Anybody here see Air Bud? Did it have opening credits based on a Fincher movie?)

Watched this the other night, did think the opening was pretty sweet....I'm sure it was more the score than anything.

You could add at least 4 Peckinpah titles to that list:

1 - "The Getaway"
2 - "The Wild Bunch"
3 - "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"
4 - "Cross of Iron"

I could watch the opening credits for the Traci Lords version of "Not Of This Earth" over and over again. It's just a barage of clips from various Roger Corman flicks edited together in a great way with great music. None of it has anything to do with the movie to come!

I like American Gigolo. Awesome song with some great cheesy 80's cinematography.

Saxon

where's naked gun?

Conan the Barbarian. Poledouris's great score over Conan's father forging the sword. And giving him the speech about the riddle of steel, has always been one of my faves.

*Found it on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=goedL4v0eoo

A few slightly older ones that I really like:-

(1) Gone With the Wind - with the lettering sweeping left to right across the screen in a HUGE FONT. Unique for the time, great accompanying music and wonderful colour.

(2) Spartacus - A series of Roman style busts lit in deep blue with hard etched shadows, eventually crumbling as the titles reach their climax. Falling to pieces like the Roman Empire. I think this is a Saul Bass effort.

(3) Any of The Pink Panther animated titles sequences. They are all pretty good on the Blake Edward's originals and I seem to remember The Pink Panther Strikes Again having a particularly imaginative and dynamic one.

(4) Horror of Dracula - Simple but very effective with the great James Bernard score. The camera starts on a decaying stone eagle and then slowwly tracks across it before panning around and leading the viewer down into the crypt of a castle, up to a coffin with the name "DRACULA" inscribed in it and then pausing as a splatter of the reddest of red blood strikes the name.


Finally, no James Bond! They have to be freakin' kidding!

My personal favourites among the Bond titles would be The Spy Who Loved Me and Thunderball.

xXx is one I like just because of who is in the opening 5 minutes...

Another vote for T2 and Superman, it's all about the music and credits combination baby! ;)

LoW was a cool opening, but were there credits rolling during?

i know it had a good ending roll, but wasn't "Max Dugan Returns"
opening a cool little cartoon sequence as well? i don't remember, but i love this gem of an 80's movie!

What about HARDBODIES 2? ;)