Even if certain movies don’t live up to expectations, one outstanding scene can make them worth watching. This is often an action scene that can still be enjoyed without any context, but it’s even more intense when audiences watch the entire movie to understand the stakes.

A single scene can elevate a movie, turning a forgettable dud into something worth watching. Even if this can’t make a bad movie great, it can make it interesting, at the very least. Even some disappointing movies left audiences with a shining light to take away.

10

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Qui-Gon Jinn And Obi-Wan Kenobi Battle Darth Maul

The Phantom Menace was one of the most anticipated movies ever made, but it was met with mixed reviews. Although its reputation has been salvaged somewhat, it’s still far behind the very best Star Wars movies. It has a few saving graces though, including one of the franchise’s most exciting lightsaber duels.

The so-called “Duel of the Fates” is several levels above any of the fights in the original trilogy, thanks to the inventive design of Darth Maul’s lightsaber and the exciting choreography. The Phantom Menace was criticized for its excessive focus on politics and trade disputes, but the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul was one moment that lived up to the hype.

9

Grand Slam (1967)

The Silent Heist Scene

Grand Slam embodies the stylish approach of heist movies in the 1960s, making a clean break from the genre’s more violent film noir origins. Although it has a great cast including Janet Leigh and Klaus Kinski, it has largely been forgotten about. The heist scene is one shining light.

Grand Slam never does a great job of fleshing out its characters and setting the personal stakes of the drama, but the heist itself is brilliant to watch. After the film sets up the difficulties of the mission, it plays out with an excruciating level of tension. SH๏τ in silence, the visual storytelling and creative cinematography become vital.

8

The King’s Man (2021)

Conrad And Shola Fight Rasputin

The Kingsman franchise seems to have ground to a halt, and The King’s Man deserves a lot of the blame. The spinoff killed the franchise’s momentum, with a story featuring none of the previously established characters and a lack of memorable scenes. There were a few moments of brilliance, however.

While The King’s Man‘s fanciful retelling of history creates a lot of problems, it’s also responsible for the most exciting action scene, as Shola and Conrad fight a ferocious version of Rasputin. The fight scene has a balletic quality to it, showcasing Matthew Vaughn’s penchant for highly stylized action. On this occasion, it works wonderfully.

7

Mortal Engines (2018)

London Goes On The Hunt

The Mortal Engines adaptation probably came out a few years too late, and audiences seem to have had enough dystopian young adult sci-fi movies for a while. Aside from the film’s poor timing, it also struggled to live up to the quality of the book. It could have started an entire franchise, but mixed reviews and an awful box office performance ended such hopes.

The opening chase scene does show a glimpse of how good Mortal Engines could have been. It throws the audience in at the deep end, showing a mechanized London bearing down on a small Bavarian village, ready to swallow it up and harvest its resources. It’s an exciting action scene and a masterful piece of worldbuilding rolled into one, but the movie falters soon after.

6

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

Ace Exits Out The Back Of His Mechanical Rhinoceros

The first Ace Ventura movie wasn’t exactly a critical darling, but reviews for the sequel made it look much better in hindsight. Jim Carry’s second outing as the eccentric pet detective only has a few bright spots to liven up a relatively weak script. As usual, Carrey’s cartoonish performance is responsible for most of the laughs.

The scene in which Ace Ventura slowly extracts himself from a mechanical rhino is one of Jim Carrey’s funniest scenes of all time. It’s a miniature masterpiece of physical humor, pushing gross-out comedy to the limit. The perplexed family of tourists watching on in horror is the icing on the cake.

5

Now You See Me 2 (2016)

The Horsemen Smuggle A Card Through Security

The first Now You See Me movie certainly has its flaws, but its confident style and talented cast managed to paper over most of the cracks. It’s much harder to forgive the sequel for its faults, as the negatives start to outweigh the positives. Now You See Me 3 is set to revive the franchise after a long break.

Now You See Me 2 does have one scene that sums up the appeal of the franchise, as the Horsemen smuggle a microchip through тιԍнт security, concealed in a playing card. Although it plays on the idea of sleight of hand magic, the scene is an obviously exaggerated example, which demonstrates how the entire movie strains the limits of credibility.

4

The Producers (2005)

Springtime For Hitler

The Producers is a movie adaptation of a musical based on another movie. It has a few highlights, but it’s generally not as popular as the original, starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. The new songs add something different, but the funniest moment is arguably a scene that exists in the original movie too.

The “Springtime for Hitler” number is the culmination of Max and Leo’s mission to stage the worst musical in Broadway history, and it’s suitably jaw-dropping. Compared to the original movie, this version is much more extravagant and over-the-top, which heightens the absurdity of the whole joke.

3

The French Dispatch (2021)

The Animated Car Chase

The French Dispatch isn’t as popular as many other Wes Anderson movies, probably because its esoteric style is extremely self-referential. Each of the different segments has a different atmosphere, to reflect the voices of the various writers submitting their pieces. People will have their own favorite segments, but the animated car chase is a thrilling change of pace that draws the eye.

Jeffrey Wright manages to stand out amid a brilliant ensemble cast, and his James Baldwin-inspired writer is immediately captivating. Such a snappy, exciting car chase comes out of the blue, especially since it’s the only animated sequence of the movie. The French Dispatch isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely worth watching.

2

Spectre (2015)

Bond’s Mexico City Mission

Spectre was a bit of a let-down after the dizzying heights of Skyfall, but most James Bond movies offer something exciting, at the very least. For Spectre, the opening sequence is arguably the highlight of the entire movie. Bond movies have become famous for their cold opens, and Spectre understands this brief.

Sam Mendes films the Mexico City opening scene in one long take, which creates an immersive feeling of the carnival atmosphere. This is like a warm-up for the techniques he later used in 1917. If the rest of Spectre had met these standards, it could have been another classic Bond movie.

1

The Godfather Part III (1990)

The Operatic Finale

After the first two movies, The Godfather Part III had some impossible standards to meet, and it’s often cited as a huge disappointment. The plot meanders without the intensity or purpose of the first two movies, but Francis Ford Coppola pulls it all together for a remarkable finale.

While Michael and his family attend his son’s opera in Sicily, his rivals are murdered all over Italy, but he doesn’t know that he’s also in grave danger. This big finish calls back to the baptism scene at the end of the first movie, but with a few fresh, inventive twists. It’s worth watching the entire movie just to get the full impact of the drama on the opera house steps, even if the first two movies are superior.