Movies that do a terrific job showing off a city

[Teakwood]

Sorry Philly folk, I know it is cliché, but Rocky really summarizes the spirit of this town more than any other movie that I can think of.

InVINCEible would be another in the same vain.

The Sixth Sense, Philadelphia and Trading Places also cover a lot of aspects of our great city.

As for the worst, Twelve Monkeys has to take the cake. But The Happening is a close second. Why exactly did M. Night re-arrange the entire skyline?

[rockyi]

Originally Posted by Okstate

Goonies captures the north coast feel of Oregon for sure. Mainly Astoria.

Wierd, just as I read your post I flipped through the channels on TV just in time to catch the end of The Goonies. (ABC Family Channel)

[Mr Downtown]

On the Town. Some soundstage recreations, but the whole film is a love letter to New York.

[dktshb]

LA has always felt a little strange in a good way so Pulp Fiction (already mentioned) and True Romance with the Tarantino vibe and a few David Lynch movies like Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire feel like LA to me. Fast and Furious, Boogie Nights, Crash and Colors come to mind too. 500 Days of Summer showcased Downtown well but didn't feel like Los Angeles...

I am sure many more movies will come to mind later.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by novawolverine

How about Four Brothers?

For DC, I'd say State of Play does a better job than most, which is fairly new.

Four Brothers was way off, IMO. The setting of the story wasn't even accurate, as the movie referred to Highland Park as a neighborhood, when in reality it's a separate, enclave city (that is completely surrounded by Detroit).

My vote for representing Detroit would be Dreamgirls. Beverly Hills Cop would be second.

As for New York, my city of residence, I think Spike Lee does a great job in portraying Brooklyn in both Crooklyn and Do the Right Thing.

[cabasse]

tyler perry's movies seem to do a good job at using atlanta as an integral part of the storyline. (thought madea goes to jail was pretty funny myself. )

road trip was also mostly filmed on gatech's campus in midtown.

[Boquillas]

Originally Posted by dktshb

LA has always felt a little strange in a good way so Pulp Fiction (already mentioned) and True Romance with the Tarantino vibe and a few David Lynch movies like Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire feel like LA to me. Fast and Furious, Boogie Nights, Crash and Colors come to mind too. 500 Days of Summer showcased Downtown well but didn't feel like Los Angeles...

I am sure many more movies will come to mind later.

For my money, The Big Lebowski is the ultimate LA film-- it pays tribute to the noir-era detective stuff but it also covers the art scene (Maude), the Bel Air-types and their trampy trophy wives, the porn industry, In-n-Out, old TV Hollwood (Arthur Digby Sellers, writer of "Branded"), and, of course, LA's unmistakable burnout culture, at the center of which is Jeff Bridges' brilliant portrayal of "the Dude." Pure LA, right in that performance.

[Thundertubs]

Originally Posted by rockyi

Most of the movies shot in the Quad Cities are made by an Italian movie company (Avati Brothers) and weren't released in the US, so I've only seen one of them.
Others were some low-budget made-for-TV flicks not worth a mention.

The indy movie, below, doesn't show off my city very much but it does showcase our minor league ballpark quite nicely.




http://www.croxton.net/ballparks/mwp/

That ballpark rules! Is it in Davenport?

Originally Posted by Okstate

Goonies captures the north coast feel of Oregon for sure. Mainly Astoria.

Don't forget Kindergarten Cop!

[Policy Wonk]

Well, all mine have already been posted so all I can offer is one I am pretty sure nobody here has seen.

Harry and the Hendersons: Seattle

[Buckeye Native 001]

To Live and Die in LA = LA in the 1980s in a nutshell.

Even though most of it was filmed in Long Beach...

[seaskyfan]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Well, all mine have already been posted so all I can offer is one I am pretty sure nobody here has seen.

Harry and the Hendersons: Seattle

I used to live two doors down from the house they used in that movie. It's in the Wallingford neighborhood.

[mongoXZ]

the Hangover= Las Vegas at its finest

[Quixote]

Speed, Crash, The Fast and the Furious, Beverly Hills Cop, City of Angels, Pretty Woman, Father of the Bride (my neck of the woods), Die Hard, The Italian Job, etc.

For Las Vegas -- Ocean's Eleven, Pay It Forward, Showgirls, Vegas Vacation, Rain Man, etc.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

To Live and Die in LA = LA in the 1980s in a nutshell.

Even though most of it was filmed in Long Beach...

LA story

[Buckeye Native 001]

Any of the Angelenos here heard of or actually seen Los Angeles Plays Itself or know how to obtain a copy of it?

[KevinFromTexas]

For me, Ghostbusters 1 & 2 and Home Alone 2 Lost in New York.

Originally Posted by PA Pride

Robocop - Futuristic Detroit!

Filmed in Dallas though.

[pico44]

As a cinephile, there is no way I could come up with just a few New York movies, so i came up with an exhaustive list by category. This is only a tiny fraction of the movies made or set here, but these are the must-see masterpieces that capture a sliver of Gotham's essence.

Current-
25th hour
Devil Wears Prada (not a masterpiece I know, but it is fun and very NYC)
Royal Tennenbaums

Mobster-
The Godfather
Goodfellas
The Professional
Sopranos (not a movie, but c'mon)
Once Upon a Time in America

Period-
The Age of Innocence
Gangs of New York

Showbiz/TV-
Tootsie
Network

Murder-
Manhattan Murder Mystery
A Perfect Murder
Rear Window (probably the best movie ever made)

Musical-
On the Town
West side story
How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying

Early 60s cool-
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Mad Men (another TV show, but c'mon)

Corporate/Finance
Wall Street

Lonely in the city-
The Apartment
Marty

Giant Apes-
King Kong

Art-
Basquiat

Funny-
Seven Year Itch
Ghostbusters

Woody Allen Masterpieces-
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Hannah and her Sisters

Cops-
Serpico
The French Connection

Horror-
Rosemarys Baby
Jacobs Ladder

Ghetto Life-
Clockers
Do the Right Thing
She Gotta Have It

Romance-
When Harry met Sally
Moonstruck

Superhero-
Hellboy II
Spiderman II
Watchmen

SciFi/fantasy-
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Escape from New York
Being John Malkovich

Bank Robber-
Inside Man
Quick Change
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Dog Day Afternoon

NYC grit-
The Warriors
Taxi Driver
The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (original)
Midnight Cowboy

Going Mad in NYC-
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Lost Weekend
Pi
Requiem for a Dream

Disco-
Saturday Night Fever

Kids in New York
Searching for Bobby Fischer
KIDS
Fresh

The immigrant experience-
Before Night Falls
In America
Godfather II

Fun and Cheesey 80s movies-
Three Men and a Baby
Splash
Big
Crocodile Dundee

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by Teakwood

Sorry Philly folk, I know it is cliché, but Rocky really summarizes the spirit of this town more than any other movie that I can think of.

InVINCEible would be another in the same vain.

The Sixth Sense, Philadelphia and Trading Places also cover a lot of aspects of our great city.

As for the worst, Twelve Monkeys has to take the cake. But The Happening is a close second. Why exactly did M. Night re-arrange the entire skyline?

The movie "Philadelphia" had many great Philly shots as well. The filmed in the law office scenes in an actual law office in the Mellon Bank Center.

The first "Rocky" movie really captured the Philadelphia of the 1970's. The second one captured the sporting spirit of the city. The play the scene at the sports complex venues all the time where Adrian tells Rocky to go "win".

[novawolverine]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Four Brothers was way off, IMO. The setting of the story wasn't even accurate, as the movie referred to Highland Park as a neighborhood, when in reality it's a separate, enclave city (that is completely surrounded by Detroit).

My vote for representing Detroit would be Dreamgirls. Beverly Hills Cop would be second.

As for New York, my city of residence, I think Spike Lee does a great job in portraying Brooklyn in both Crooklyn and Do the Right Thing.

Gran Torino was in Highland Park too I believe. Funny how that enclave has had a couple pretty decent/big name films.

Dreamgirls was a great Detroit movie, I forgot about that.

My favorite NY movie is probably Die Hard With a Vengeance and for Philly, Trading Places. Spike Lee does do a great job too like you said. NYC has had so many films showing different aspects, it hard to pick just one. That's a nice recap of a bunch of good ones by pico44.

My favorite LA movie I think is Money Talks, but it's another city that's been the setting for a lot of films. LA Confidential is another one of my favorites. The Big Lebowski and The Fast and the Furious are very LA movies. Swingers was also very LA.

[urbanactivist]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

my favorite "chicago" movies:

1. the blues brothers
2. cooley high
3. ferris bueller's day off
4. the untouchables
5. my bodyguard

the above movies are all about chicago as a city. the dark knight is good, but it's not really a chicago movie, it was just a movie which had a lot of its scenes filmed in chicago, but it says nothing at all about the city as a living, breathing place, chicago merely serves as a backdrop for the film. TDK didn't capture the soul of chicago because it wasn't set in chicago, rather the events of the film took place in the fictional gotham city.

looking at my list, all of my favorite chicago films are from the 70s & 80s. it's about damn time that someone makes another definitive "chicago" film, but i can't think of any chicago films from the past 20 years or so that can stand up to those classics.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding had some choice scenes of the Chicago landscape as well. It's not necessarily "about the city", but definitely does a good job of showing it off.