Community Sound-Off!

Even I, the great and powerful Justin, cannot foresee everything. In my article on Supersweet Opening Credits, I knew that there was no way for me to remember or even know all of the really awesome movie title sequences that have been served on a celluloid platter to us over the years. Therefore, I put out a call to the MRFH community, and the MRFH community moaned and said, "Can't we do it tomorrow?"

Happily, cat 'o nine tails and threats of keelhauling got these boys and girls into action, and Mutant Reviewers From Hell is proud to present their responses! Also, from our legal department, we are advised to acknowledge our guilt in the untimely deaths of three MRFH readers who were nibbled to death by sea nibblers while being keelhauled. Our bad.

After reading your Super Sweet Opening Credits I have come upon a quandery. How could you leave Flash Gordon out of your credits cavalcade? Granted it's not a very popular movie, at least not anymore. But the opening credits to this moive captivated me from the moment Queen's first vocals accompanied a symphony of comic book panals and quick cuts. - Jon B.

Run Lola Run: the whole crazed animated sequence with the German footballer. It starts off in blackness, then there’s quotes relating to the film (always a good way to open a film, see also Pulp Fiction… which reminds me, that probably deserves a place on the list too, despite Justin’s feelings on it) then opening credits over black with a swinging pendulum as a transition. The camera then tracks up to the clock, a huge Gothic one topped with some kinda Gargoyle thing, and the camera tracks into its mouth then into a crowd of blurry, sped up extras. Narration covers the philosophical bases while pacy techno plays in the background. Occasionally the camera focuses on a minor character from the movie, and eventually it stops on whatshisname, the guy from the bank who has a quasi-mystical connection with Lola (and is, in reality, a well-known footballer) and he says, “The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes. All else is pure theory,” and he kicks the ball up into the air as the camera swoops up with it to an aerial of the crowd (who form the words “Lola Rennt”) before shooting back down into an animated tunnel. A running Lola come across various obstacles and yellow credits as noisy techno plays full blast. Then they use flickery police snapshots to introduce all the major players and the camera swings down on an apartment block and into the window of Lola’s apartment to a ringing phone. Beat that. - Judith A.

How about Footloose with all those goofy looking 80's style shoes... -Sandra C.

Hollow Man - Letters float about in some scientific alphabet soup to icy, beautiful Jerry Goldsmith music. Murder by Death - A treasure chest is opened, revealing caricatures of the cast drawn by Charles Addams. The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! - The American and Russian flags fight for prominence, while, in the background is a mix of "Yankee Doodle" and "The Volga Boat Song". Strangely, the sequence ends with an eye opening. Wild Wild West - It's like an old soundtrack album cover come to life. 101 Dalmations - The sequence from the original film shows dalmatian spots getting into everything; they bounce around the titles and, sometimes, feature the credits written on them. - Tor H.

I really liked the title sequence for School of Rock and (for some weird reason) Star Trek: First Contact where the titles are blurred, then eventually focus. - loulabelle

I really like the opening credits for Dude Where's My Car?, where you see all this weird stuff, but it turns out that it all comes together in the end. And the beginning credits for Drop Dead Fred are neat because they have weird little animation bits relating to whose credit is up. - PolyesterRage

The opening title of Tim Burton's first Batman movie is pretty cool. The camera swoops through this maze-looking thing, and then it pulls back to reveal that it's been flying through the Batman logo. Plus, Danny Elfman's kickass theme is playing during this time, so that only helps. One of the few things I actually enjoyed about the second Spider-Man film was the opening credits. I liked the comic-styled still from the first movie. Though the cynical part of me thinks that was just there so that the producers could remind everyone what exactly did happen in the first film. Lowest common denominator and all that. I can't believe I forgot to mention one of my new favorite movies, City of God. It starts with scenes of food preparation (including chicken butchering). You then see one of the chickens somehow untie itself and run through the slums of Rio. It has several close calls as it's being chased by some hoods. You then see a guy with a camera run into all of these heavily-armed guys. Then it flashes back a good 15 years or so and begins the story. Any non-Claymation movie that has you rooting for a chicken to escape within the first 90 seconds has got to be good. - Magill

I like the title sequence to Velvet Goldmine - it's just footage of young glamsters running down the street, with the credits in big chunky multi-colored letters, but I love how they put 'Toni' above 'Collette' so that the 'i' drops down to form one of the 'l's. - pythianlegume

I think the opening credits for Rat Race was a great sequence. Photo-cut-out-cartoons of the characters fiddling with the credits. And the clouds! ...there are clouds, right? House of 1000 Corpses has another of my fav opening credits because it teeters on the line between surreality and obscurity. Creepy, tainted footage of wicked, freaky stuff with Mr. Rob Zombie's country-ish song of the same name playing over the whole thing. If there were clouds here, they'd be shaped evil...ly. - oogieboogieman

The cartoons credits of Secondhand Lions are great and very enjoyable. And while Johnny English has some rather vanilla credits, Rowan Atkinson makes them a hoot. - BDC

Muahahaha. Bio-Dome. Epiplectic seizures. Justin, please correct my abysmal spelling of that word. I rest my case. I also like the opening credits to Benny & Joon, but that's mostly because of that wicked awesome song playing in the background. ("I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers). And I like the way it sets up some of the more important elements of the story. Yes indeedy, I forgot Big Fish. Time Burton is the man. Not that the opening credits were exceptional, but I just liked the way they were done with the water... and... stuff. So eloquent am I. - Ms. Jellybean

I also really like the opening credits to Sleepy Hollow, with the names floating out from the trees. Tim Burton seems to be the king at cool credits. - AJWARPED

I liked the opening credit's of the movie Freeway, starring Kiefer Sutherland. It's basically pictures of a really twisted version of little Red, Riding Hood. - nachoslayer32