6/01/2012

If You're Wondering Who The Best Boy Is, It's Somebody's Nephew

Here are ten more opening credit sequences I really like. In case you forgot its predecessor, go here.

Again, infer nothing from their ranking or representation over other films. These are just ten I like.

1) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

What better way to get a gaggle of kids to sit down and shut up then to barrage their eyes with a cavalcade of confectionery delights? I swear, one time as a kid, I watched just this opening credits sequence because I was so insanely jealous of all that chocolate.

2) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)


I could have filled this entire list with just David Fincher openings. This is his most recent, and I don't know what I like about it. It barely even fits with the rest of the film (assuming a scene exploring Lisbeth Salander's latex fetish wasn't just edited out), but it's intense, shocking, and Karen O's vocals do the Led Zeppelin classic some justice.

3) Reservoir Dogs (1992)


It's men. Walking down a street. In slow motion. Some are wearing suits, while others are not. And Stephen Wright is talking. It shouldn't be interesting, but it's the most iconic scene in the film, and arguably of the entire Tarantino filmography.

4) Superbad (2007)


Dance, white boys, dance!

5) The Third Man (1949)



While the music is only recognizable to film fanatics of the advanced tier, the score of The Third Man is thrust into prominence with an extreme close-up of a zither (a great Scrabble word, by the way). It wants your attention, and it grabs you by the lapels until it's finished.

6) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)



There was a period of time when Mike Meyers was considered an innovative comedian, and this movie was at the tail-end of that era. Already rehashing a series of joke that was featured not once, but twice in the first Austin Powers, Austin Powers 2 begins with a bawdy thrust that still evokes a smirk.

7-9) The Naked Gun (1988), The Naked Gun 2 1/2 (1991), The Naked Gun 33 1/3 (1994)




The three Naked Gun films all feature the same joke in their opening credits, but have the decency to reinvent and rework the gags for each installment. They're just as hilarious, off-the-wall and fast-paced as the rest of the movie.

10) Gattaca (1997)




Gattaca is not completely obtuse or misleading, but it does require your full attention. It's a tight-knit science fiction film, and rewards those who make the effort to watch it multiple times. Only those who have seen the film, know the plot, and understand the character can begin to recognize what's going on in this sequence. And for those watching for the first time, they just have to make sense as best they can.