For those who are not familiar with the concept of F*@% Yeah, I invite you to turn your attention here. It’s a simple enough idea: a F*@% Yeah moment is something in a work of art that stuns you with its total coolness and wrenches the phrase “F*@% Yeah!” (or its equivelant) from your lips. Previously we’ve just discussed F*@% Yeah through the lens of the comic book, and we shall do so again, but for now let’s discuss the phenomenon as experienced through the magic of film.
Please note that this is not a comprehensive list – I’ve left out some of the more obvious F*@% Yeah moments that might immediately spring to mind, like the sword vs gun scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. Everybody knows that one. Hopefully I’ll have picked some of the lesser known F*@% Yeah moments, but we’ll start with what I would hope any geek would agree with.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
I’m going to just lay this on the table, and you may mock me if you will: The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite movies. Ever. It kicks ass on so many levels. Even my wife likes it. This was one of the most transformative movie experiences in Young Dave’s life – I was so excited when I first saw it that I skipped school and saw it again the next day. My love for this flawed masterpiece knows no bounds. It’s got everything you want in a movie – revenge, sacrifice, friendship, cunning ploys, space battles, mind controlling ear worms, massive reversals of fortune, and valor. Lots of valor. This movie has like, FIVE F*@% Yeah moments, but I’ll just pick one:
The famous communicator scene between the revenge crazed Khan (Ricardo Montalban) and his quarry Captain Kirk (The Shatner) needs no introduction, but introduce it I will. The madman Khan thinks he has won: he’s hijacked the all-powerful Genesis torpedo and stranded Kirk and company inside a presumably lifeless planetoid –Kirk tries to goad Khan into beaming down and facing him, but to no avail.
Khan says, “I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Buried aliiiive…”
All of Kirk’s frustration and rage bubbles up in the greatest scenery-chewing moment in The Shatner’s fabled career, as he screams into the communicator: “Khaaan!” His cry seemingly echoes through the planetoid and out into space while gooesebumps crawl up your arms.
Man, I loved that. It’s so operatic, so epic, so… so right.
F*@% Yeah!
My Favorite Year (1982)
A light comedy starring Peter O’Toole and that guy from Perfect Strangers, My Favorite Year is about a young production assistant named Benjy Stone who works on a comedy show loosely based on Sid Caeser’s Your Show of Shows, tasked with babysitting a drunken cinema idol (O’Toole) and making sure that he shows up for rehearsals and the show on time and sober. Set during the age of live television, My Favorite Year is a valentine to a bygone era, full of sweet humor and anchored by a fantastic performance by O’Toole as the aging lothario Alan Swann, who is clearly based on Errol Flynn.
SPOILER ALERT! I may ruin the end of the movie for you, so beware.
The climax comes on the night of the live show, when a bunch of mob thugs visit King Kaiser (Joeseph Bologna), the show’s hot-tempered star, to punish him for mocking their boss on TV. Simultaneously, Swann realizes that the show is - gasp! – actually live, and he freaks out five minutes before curtain and heads for his limo and a stiff drink. Benjy gets in a furious argument with his idol, and all seems lost. The curtain raises on Kaiser getting worked over by the thugs -
- and then the spotlights and cameras swivel up to the balcony. Alan Swann, in musketeer garb for a sketch, swings down over the audience and comes to Kaiser’s rescue, thrashing the thugs. The audience thinks it’s all part of the show and gives Swann a thunderous standing ovation.
The movie ends on that scene, that last moment of glory for a fading star.
I swear, I’m getting misty just typing this. My Favourite Year rules, and it’s due in no small part to O’Toole’s spot-on Oscar-nominated performance and this triumphant, wonderful ending.
Willem DaFoe, can I get a F*@% Yeah?
Let's do more tomorrow!
39 comments:
"Let's do more tomorrow!"
F*@% Yeah!!!
Of all the blogs I have encountered in my travels, yours is the most...
[snifle]
Airwolf.
How about at the end of Juwanna Mann when he has his NBA reinstatement hearing, but the WNBA team is playing for the championship and....
Never mind. I can't even bring myself to finish this joke.
"I'm not an actor. I'm a MOVIE STAR"
that, that right there.
that's my f*@% yeah moment. right there
Brokeback Mountain: Heath Ledger moistens his palm.
F*@% YEAH!!!
And I'm not even into that sort of thing, but yikes!
The way those two guys went at it was totally Airwolf.
Slap me some more F*@% Yeah, my brother!
My most recent F yeah moment came in watching Ong Bak where martial artist Tony Jaa, standing flat footed knees some guy in the face!
do yourself a favor and watch it.
If you would like to relive the F*@% Yeah!!! moment again and again...
http://www.khaaan.com/
What about a "fuck no" moment? Like at the end of "Infernal Affairs" where Tony Leung gets killed. Or when the Ferrari gets wrecked in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". or when the "Velvet Marauder" got cancelled. Sniff, they bring a tear to my motherfuckin eye every time.
Whenever anything cool is discussed on this blog you have to use that Willem Dafoe pic. The power of christ compels you.
That scene in that episode of Firefly where Mal kicks the guy into the engine.
F*@%.
Yeah.
Yeah, Kirk yelling was pretty bad-assed...
But I say the Enterprise rising up behind the Reliant like a shark, when they were playing tag in the nebula, was more worthy of a "F*@% YEAH!" Because Khan had been kicking their asses the whole movie, and that's when you knew Kirk was finally going to lay some smack down.
Favourite F*@% No movie moments
The Hulk movie (why did I think Ang Lee could make this work)
Tim Burtons Planet of The Apes
(I laughed out loud at the end)
Moulin Rouge
(I love Baz Lurhman but Nicole just couldn't cut it)
2001 (Booooring get to Hal. Kubrick you longwinded bastard)
corbiscide out-
Ong Bak had so many F*@% Yeah moments that I got hoarse. Flying elbow strikes? Jumping through rolls of barbed wire? The aforementioned knee + face? F*@% Yeah!
I just actually saw Infernal Affairs for the first time the other week - watched it at 2 AM while rocking my new baby to sleep. Loved it. That movie, Lord of War, and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla helped me survive the past two weeks.
Stephanie, you stole my Firefly F*@% Yeah moment! I spit milk out of my nose when I saw that scene the first time - and I wasn't even drinking milk! THAT is how bad-ass it was.
The F*@% Yeah! moment of ALL TIME can be found in Bakshi's Wizards, when Avatar says, "I'm glad you changed your last name, you son of a bitch," pulls a P.08 out of his sleeve, and double-taps his evil brother.
Also: Serenity, when the Alliance Operative learns that Mal doesn't have that particular nerve cluster any more.
Dave!
You completely missed the one true F*@% moment from 'khan'
'I CAN'T'
http://www.trekmania.net/wavs/iseeyourpoint.wav
Oh, I agree - that scene is money. This is what I'm saying: there are at least five F*@% Yeah moments in that film - is it any wonder I love it so much?
You missed the real F*@% Yeah! moment in Star Trek II. The "KHAAAN!" moment is cool, but remember, Kirk knows more than he lets on at that moment - it's not Shatner acting, but *Kirk* acting!
But the real moment, and one of the great F*@% Yeah! moments in movie history, begins with "Our shields are lowering!"
What makes that work so perfectly is how they *totally* sell the hopelessness of Kirk's situation. The first time I saw the movie, it really felt like Kirk was done for (*seeing* the unshielded Enterprise get mauled by phasers helps a lot, too.)
This sequence from True Grit:
Ned Pepper (a very, very creepy Robert Duvall): What's your intention?
Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne, aside from Searchers, never better): I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?
Ned Pepper: That's pretty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hands, you son of a bitch.
F%^& Yeah!
I love you, Dave Campbell.
Lar
Dave, you must be the white version of me. All of the same favorite comics and you picked two of my favorite movies for theF*@% Yeah Files! Awesome. I would like to add Tombstone to the list. It is just chock-a-full of F*@% Yeah moments! My favorite is when Kurt Russell and company are leaving town and declaring the war is over (but is really far from ending) and Powers Boothe just says "Well . . .Bye"
DeNiro in The Untouchables:
"Baseball!"
F*@% Yeah!
I gotta speak up for the first Blade. Forget the crappy sequels: the first Blade had two of the best "F*@% Yeah!!!" moments I've ever seen. The first is when we're first introduced to Blade, as we just see his boots walking slowly through the blood-soaked club while the Pump Panel mix of New Order's "Temptation" is playing, and then he starts busting shit up. But even better than that - the scene near the end, after he busts out of Stephen Dorff's weird blood machine, and goes after the guy who stole his sunglasses. You know what I'm talking about.
And even though it was about 80% ponderous bloat, the last fifteen minutes of X-Men 2 were extremely "F*@% Yeah!!!" worthy - especially the scene when they realize Jean's not in the Blackbird and is outside facing the massive wall of water from the broken dam. If only the whole movie had been that cool...
And that's my Geek-On for the day.
Dave, I don't even recall how I stumbled onto this blog, but it's become daily must-reading for me.
And now I realize I married the wrong person and we should be snuggling in a tent in Wyoming.
Of course Khan has about five "F*@% Yeah" moments--I'd say once it gets going, there's one every ten minutes or so. The Enterprise getting all lit up and pretty as that bad-ass James Horner music blares. That close-up on Kirk's mouth when he says "Fire." The disc of the Reliant exploding from a photon torpedo once its shields are down.
It's a goddamned meditation on aging and burn out/fade away with The Shat's best performance EVAR and Ricardo Fucking Montalban leaving teeth marks on every goddamned piece of scenery.
But the real OMG moment was your call on My Favorite Year. Brilliant. Also features one of the great movie lines in history, when Peter O'Toole is in the ladies restroom: "So is *this*, ma'am, but every now and then I have to run a little water through it." Not sure if it's "F*@% Yeah" worthy, but still awesome.
THANK you for mentioning that scene from "True Grit'!! That's one of the best F*%@ yeah moments ever that never gets respect. Another good one is in "Star Trek: First Contact" where Captain Picard stares down the Borg Queen. He's terrified, because he got Borged a few years before and never quite recovered from what they did to him, but the Queen's got Data, so Picard sets the self-destruct timer up on the Enterprise and goes to rescue him, even if it means facing the Borg again and probably being mutilated and brainwashed. And then Picard proceeds to open up a can.
Also, the scene in "Serenity" where Wash crash-lands the ship. Although that might be more of a "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" moment.
TWOK utterly rocks.
One could make a rather long list of F*@% Yeah moments from that one, and Rick is right: the whole "here it comes" sequence is fantastic.
The whole "his pattern indicates two dimensional thinking" and the "shark" attack that William G mentioned is a good one as well.
Not quite as dramatic, but one I loved nonetheless was the sequence in the Genesis Planet where Kirk states "I don't believe in the no-win scenario" and then pulls out his communicator and says "Kirk to Spock. It's two hours. Are you about ready?" and then ends the sequence with "I don't like to lose."
Man, what a great flick.
F*@% yeah, Dave's back. And he loves "My Favorite Year," too. It's not a F*@% YEAH moment, but I always loved the bit when Peter O'Toole breaks into a drunken version of the 1812 overture as he's strapped to a set of steamer trunks and being lugged up the stairs.
Some other F*@% YEAH moments.
- "I want my father back, you son of a bitch" from The Princess Bride
- The scene when Dash realizes he can run on water in The Incredibles. Also, "Not today!" near the end of the first Toy Story movie.
- "You can FLY!" from The Iron Giant. That scene shouldn't have been in the trailer, 'cuz it would have totally kicked ass if you didn't know it was coming eventually.
- Pick damn near any scene you want from The Natural. That movie should be called The Natural: F*@% Yeah.
- "YOOOOOOUUUUU!!!! SHALL NOT!!!! PAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!!!"
Related to the last one, that movie also has one of the great "F*@% YOU" moments in cinema history when the badass orc gets skewered and then PULLS THE SWORD DEEPER just so he can get in Aragorn's face before he buys it.
Stephanie, you stole my Firefly F*@% Yeah moment!
Oh man. I'm sorry. I swore I'd never use my power for evil!
For what it's worth, that scene sold at least five of my friends on the TV series. (Followed by the ultimate "F*@% NO!" moment of: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS CANCELED?")
Sadly, I've never seen Wrath of Khan. I'm a bad person.
Stephanie, I'm begging you: You MUST see it. You'll weep.
steven taylor has it right regarding the Kirk scene on the Genesis Asteroid. That whole "Kirk to Spock: it's been two hours, are you ready?" bit is awesome. When Spock's voice crackles out of the com, it's a F*@% Yeah moment fo the ages, just for the look on everyone else's face and a reminder of just why Kirk is the baddest MF in the galaxy.
There are any number of F*@% Yeah moments in "Big Trouble in Little China", but during the final confrontation Kurt Russell going "Jack Burton. Me!" is a classic.
They should have built a new Trek series around Sulu taking the legasy of Kirk learned on Enterprise out into the Federation.
"THANK you for mentioning that scene from "True Grit'!! That's one of the best F*%@ yeah moments ever that never gets respect."
John Wayne doesn't get nearly enough respect in general these days. He's one of those old time actors, like Lee Marvin and Bogart, that apparently can't help but have F@#% Yeah moments in their movies. You'd probably go "F*$# Yeah!" just seeing them buy groceries or something.
"What about a "fuck no" moment?"
I often think about The Thin Red Line, when Ben Chaplin gets the letter from Miranda Otto that he's been awaiting. The whole movie, the only thing that's kept him going through that hellish experience is the anticipation of reuniting with his beautiful, loving wife, and then he gets a letter from her explaining that she's taken up with some Air Force guy because being alone at home has just been "too hard". F@#% no, indeed.
The kicker is Chaplin's reaction: giggling like an idiot as the letter falls out of his hands and he wanders off.
For me the great F*@% YEAH moment in Toy Story is when Buzz Lightyear says "I'm not aiming for the truck." I started bawling right there in the theatre.
they SHOULD build a new Trek series around that brief scene between Christian Slater and George Takei in Star Trek VI, when Slater cameos by waking up Sulu in his bunk.
shitloads of homoerotic subtext there. and I thought that even before George came out of the closet.
Favorite moment from "My Favorite Year":
Peter O'Toole drunkenly wanders into the women's restroom and Selma Diamond rasps, "This is for ladies only!"
And O'Toole unzips and says, "So is this, M'um, but I must occasionaly run a little water through it."
my favourite f*@% yeah moment comes from a trailer. The trailer for 300 to be precise.
Two lines to be precise:
"Our arrows will blot out the sun."
"Then we shall fight in the shade."
Nuff said. Sign me up for a ticket.
my F*&% yeah moment is the end of Reservoir Dogs, one the greatest man-movies in history.
verif:
wvkdyhm-
The sound of White having to kill Orange in the end
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