Jumping the Shark, Nuking the Fridge...

Capt Quirk

Capt Quirk

Veteran
Ok, so everyone agrees that Fonzie jumping the Shark was the pretty much the last straw for Happy Days. Most will also compare Indy in the Fridge to that moment, although I felt it was a pretty much last ditch effort. Either way, there are plenty of other scenes that have to be on Par with those two, including Indy riding the rubber raft out of the plane. Watching Die Hard II, I found one- when Maclaine was in the tunnel, and Gruber blows the dam. The resulting flood carries the dump truck, with Maclaine surfing on top of it.

What other ones come to mind?
 
I'm getting weary of 'Jumping the Shark' as the term has been abused and overused, but I think The Matrix series jumped it during the schoolyard brawl with the multiple Mr. Smiths in Reloaded. At one point that scene ceased to be suspenseful and just became a swirl of imagery, and to top it off, Neo just flies away at the end, which he could've done in the first place.
 
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I felt that way about quite a bit of the Matrix films. I'm in the minority of people that didn't care much for them.
 
The Alien series jumped the shark at the beginning of Alien3 when they killed Hicks and Newt, off-screen no less!
 
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How dare you even question him...
 
How about Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles? That whole film was a jump the shark, or in this case a jump the croc. I haven't seen the second one in such a long time I can't remember if it was good or not.

Another one, Terminator 3 when Arnold was leaving the male strip club that he got his clothes from, and he does the "talk to the hand" line.

As for Indy 4, the second that prairie dog mound formed out of the Paramount logo, I subconsciously knew something was wrong, even though I denied it until later in the film when it was impossible to not admit that it had completely gone off the tracks. When I was exiting the theatre, I heard two people behind me berating the film, one guy actually said "I fu**ing hate George Lucas".

Batutta said:
I'm getting weary of 'Jumping the Shark' as the term has been abused and overused, but I think The Matrix series jumped it during the schoolyard brawl with the multiple Mr. Smiths in Reloaded. At one point that scene ceased to be suspenseful and just became a swirl of imagery, and to top it off, Neo just flies away at the end, which he could've done in the first place.
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Even though it looked cool, I agree about the Smith vs. Neo fight. They should've saved it for the end right before Neo goes in to see the Architect. They could have had an interesting fight in that endless hallway of doors. Maybe Neo would have to fight through different agent Smiths as they pop out of the doors, all to get to the Architect's door. Or the fight could've moved from the hallway to different locations within the Matrix by having them go in and out the doors. If Smith was keeping Neo from getting to the Architect there would be no reason for Neo to run away and he would also have some motivation to fight, because he really needs to see the Architect.

Batutta said:
The Alien series jumped the shark at the beginning of Alien3 when they killed Hicks and Newt, off-screen no less!
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Then they jumped a fully nude triple flip while slow-motion kissing the shark on the nose and landing on a line of barbed wire with Alien Resurrection. Don't even get me started on Alien vs. Predator. Plus, making Ripley bald in the Alien 3 just seems silly now. Another thing that was annoying was that Alien 3 was originally supposed to take place on Earth. They even mentioned it in an early teaser trailer.
 
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Nektonic said:
Or the fight could've moved from the hallway to different locations within the Matrix by having them go in and out the doors.
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This runs a serious risk of turning into the Monkees/Beatles/Family Guy/Simpsons/etc crazy chase with people pursuing each other back and forth through the endless hallway of doors gag...

Han Solo stepping on Jabba's tail in the re-jiggered Star Wars was a shark-jump. Or maybe Greedo shooting first. Episodes I, II and III were basically heavily-produced shark-jumping from start to finish.
 
Sad Max said:
This runs a serious risk of turning into the Monkees/Beatles/Family Guy/Simpsons/etc crazy chase with people pursuing each other back and forth through the endless hallway of doors gag...
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My problem wasn't with the placing of the fight, just what it represented. The Wachowski's felt they had to top the action from the previous film, so they turned the volume up to the point that the events happening ceased to have any purpose. The fighters became CGI cartoons. Their actions stopped having dramatic function and just became an excuse to showcase technology. It was like watching an XBOX 360 game that someone else was playing.
 
Sad Max said:
This runs a serious risk of turning into the Monkees/Beatles/Family Guy/Simpsons/etc crazy chase with people pursuing each other back and forth through the endless hallway of doors gag...
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You forgot Scooby Doo?

Sad Max said:
Han Solo stepping on Jabba's tail in the re-jiggered Star Wars was a shark-jump. Or maybe Greedo shooting first. Episodes I, II and III were basically heavily-produced shark-jumping from start to finish.
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The Original I, II, and III, or the prequels that took their place? Or the retouched originals that were remade as 4, 5, and 6? Lucas is making my head hurt...
 
Capt Quirk said:
The Original I, II, and III, or the prequels that took their place? Or the retouched originals that were remade as 4, 5, and 6? Lucas is making my head hurt...
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The original I, II and III, which of course were actually the original IV, V and VI before the newer I, II and III came along.

Lucas' actions over the last ten years are making my soul hurt.
 
Batutta said:
My problem wasn't with the placing of the fight, just what it represented. The Wachowski's felt they had to top the action from the previous film, so they turned the volume up to the point that the events happening ceased to have any purpose. The fighters became CGI cartoons. Their actions stopped having dramatic function and just became an excuse to showcase technology. It was like watching an XBOX 360 game that someone else was playing.
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Agreed, it went on too long and did feel a bit like a video game. That's what I mean by having it happen later. If all the Smiths were keeping Neo from his goal (the Architect) then it would have had dramatic weight.

I also think that the Smith vs. Neo fight in Reloaded dampened the impact of the final fight in the rain at the end of Revolutions. It would've been much more dramatically pleasing to have saved it all for last fight.
 
Nektonic said:
Another one, Terminator 3 when Arnold was leaving the male strip club that he got his clothes from, and he does the "talk to the hand" line.
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Uh-huh. But when he puts on those stupid sunglasses, I still think it's funny. That whole scene is just a parody of the biker bar scene in T2. "You forgot to say please."
 
Deepfocus88 said:
Uh-huh. But when he puts on those stupid sunglasses, I still think it's funny. That whole scene is just a parody of the biker bar scene in T2. "You forgot to say please."
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Yes, but the biker bar scene in T2 still worked for me despite being silly. I think because Arnold actually had to rough up the bar patrons and the big biker dude, so the scene still felt like it fit in a terminator film.

I'm hoping there is none of that humor in Terminator Salvation. It just doesn't have a place in there.
 
Captain Pierce said:
Does that mean that "jumping the shark" as a concept has, in essence, jumped the shark? :D
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I think it is pretty tired out, now that we have "nuked the fridge" to use.

How about some other ones:

Highlander 2, when we are told that the immortals are aliens and when Connery's character is resurrected by a lightning bolt whilst in the middle of a theatrical performance.
 
Nektonic said:
Highlander 2, when we are told that the immortals are aliens and when Connery's character is resurrected by a lightning bolt whilst in the middle of a theatrical performance.
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Ugh. This one is hard to top. Never has a promising series ever had such a precipitous fall. Horrible.
 
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