My favorites stories (movies, tv, comics) never leave me thinking "why didn't this happen, if other things happen". And the characters react in believable ways. Basically, I love seeing an odd situation taken to its extremes, and logical conclusion. So I'm thinking "holy crap, that's cool/heatbreaking/awesome/totally disturbing" without feeling something was missing, which takes me out of the story and stops me from relating to the characters. I wish I could phrase this better...

Successes: Empire Strikes Back, Fight Club, American Beauty, Raising Arizona, anything by Charlie Kaufman, and yes dammit, The Wizard of Oz.

Pretty good, but ringing false or missing that certain something: Unbreakable, Superman Returns, The Phantom Menace, all David Lynch films except Blue Velvet, the last few Spielberg films, Mallrats

No failures... that's too easy. Oh okay, one: Howard the Duck
 

Of course most of the "Near Misses" have one thing in common -- They were all made by people who had done great work in the past, and tried to repeat their success by copying the wrong elements of thie previous work.
 

static electricity... this is what dreams are made of
 

damnit.. i forgot to put:

j9 said...