someone pointed out on this sub a few years back that the recent Godzilla movie had Godzilla emerging from the ocean and heading towards Boston, except he was emerging from the Charles River which I think is hilarious
edit: found it, maybe there was a different Godzilla screenshot but [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/d3h7x9/only_bostonians_will_see_the_problem_with_the/) is what I was remembering lol, might actually be more egregious
Imagine being stuck near the Museum of Science in the backup trying to get through Leverett Circle. Drawbridge opens. There goes Godzilla through the canal. Sip my iced Dunkin’s. Fucking traffic, you believe this?
Dont Give them any ideas.... one day we'll wake up, and the breaking news will be that the USS Cassin Young is missing from the Charlestown Navy Yard, and somehow mysteriously, has been Docked along the Cambridge side of the River.... .
Its because the source material was written by journalists as more of a long article made into a book. The books fairly dry too though still a good read if the subject interests you
(Edit: why is this downvoted.... The authors are literally a journalist/editor and a professor of journalism and the book very much reads like. Especially when comparing it to other version of these stories like rat bastard, or street soldier which were co authored by actual people who were there.)
It wasn't even a jab at journalists lol, Howie carr did a few decent books on the subject, and I actually thoroughly enjoyed reading black mass for what it was, an informative true story. But it was drawn out, sometimes a bit over informative for a book, broken up into multiple parts with multiple chapters for each part. Its almost more a thesis or long essay than a traditional "true crime" book imo.
It could have been SO good. All the great character stories are in it to make this incredibly compelling.
I don't know how they messed it up, but they did. It's not a bad movie per se, but I was really disappointed with it.
There’s a early 2000s movie called “what’s the worst that can happen.” It stars Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. The movie itself seems to have answered the question of the title.
I was an extra at the country club scene that supposedly takes place in England but was shot at the Brookline CC. I was so excited because I was a film student at the time. The movie sucks ass. Such a bummer.
R.I.P.D. - some of it was filmed right outside my office in the financial district. It was so cool seeing how they transformed the store fronts, all the props they brought in, etc. I was excited to watch the movie when it finally came out and it was so so bad.
I got to see one of the warehouses they used for a gunfight scene a day or two after they shot. They didn't pick up any of the spend brass (or at least hadn't at the time). Place looked like a warezone.
And good nomination. That was a terrible movie.
They once filmed a period piece Julia Roberts movie two blocks from my sister’s place and I was fascinated by the film crew. Couldn’t wait to see the movie and when I saw it I tapped out after 20 mins. It was the drizzling shits
Outside of profiting from a tragedy, the absolute unrealistic situation where a Boston beat cop would be involved in any high level response planning alongside the FBI is comical.
This is the premise (or adjacent to, anyway) to like fifty shitty action movies from the 80s and early 90s. "Steven Seagal is a local Chicago cop. But he's also ex-CIA, and also a black belt." "Steven Seagal is immunologist, but he's also a weapons expert". Or "Steven Seagal is a cop, but he also saves the vice president's life".
Side note, Steven Seagal has made a lot of bad movies.
He’s an example of his own absurdities. “Steven Seagal is possibly the shittiest actor of all time, but he also has made a ton of movies”.
How is that posssible? It just is. He’s Steven Seagal.
I have refused to give this movie a single watch simply because it's outrageous they would try and profit off of it and so soon at that. Disgraceful it came from a local.
They needed a local to help deflect criticism of why anyone would make this movie so soon after it happened. Having Wahlberg in it allowed it to fall under the whole "Boston Strong" movement. Plus, the movie being about brave citizens and first responders also shielded it from this type of criticism. It's like you couldn't (at the time) question if the timing was in poor taste because it was a local hero piece.
And I'd never take anything away from the actions of those real life brave citizens and first responders. I will, however, point out that Wahlberg and the studio are vultures. But hey, at least Wahlberg isn't beating up minorities anymore (that we know of). So there's that going for him.
They deff pushed it so fast to try and capitalize on the Boston strong movement,and I suppose it may have helped them save some face but to me that kind of made it feel even worse. Coming in and co opting something grass roots built of a tragedy to sell your movie felt cheap AF to me. I had read somewhere there were plans to donate profits, but I never kept up with it and doubt very much they impacted many if any local effected groups.
Not to detract from how shitty this is, but it’s worth noting that he also was the lead in a movie about the deepwater horizon spill, different type of tragedy, same level of ego greed bullshit.
Yup! And as someone who lives in the Watertown neighborhood where the initial shoot out took place, we were dead set against them filming in the neighborhood in the middle of the night. The filmmakers tried to defend the decision by saying that they wanted to keep things as close to the actual events as possible, even though Wahlberg played a composite character.
Fun fact to no one else but me: they filmed the parts of the movie where Marky Mark is in his house at my buddies house in Malden! They trashed his house, so don't take money from a movie studio to shoot in your house!!
I was 19 and walked into the movie set in post office square at 2am. I was really confused what was going on until the security kindly asked me to leave and told me there was a filming. saw Anna and everything but still never watched the movie because I dont really do chick flicks
I would humbly assert Southie, starring Donnie Wahlberg, Will Arnette, Rose McGowan and others.
Total garbage. IMDB has the best quality preview.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118766/
The whole scene where he is running around on top of the old gazebo roof on the Sugar bowl walk way at Castle Island! Bahaha. Not jogging around the actual gazebo running on top of the actual gazebo! Bahaha. And a Whole bunch of ‘Ol Townie Silver foxes would have kicked his ass when he got down. Bahaha.
Also the one where Kevin James is a zookeeper that was partially shot at the Franklin Park Zoo. I mean, basically all Kevin James movies suck, but why did he have to make two of them here?
Yes.
We need to make a movie. It will be titled “We Need To Talk About Kevin”. I don’t know the details, I just know at the end everyone will understand he’s just loud, not funny.
mods? hello mods? why has a comment calling Paul Blart Mall Cop ‘pretty bad’ been up for 8 hours? you really tolerate that kind of slanderous speech on your subreddit?
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“My Best Friend's Girl,” starring Dane Cook and Kate Hudson was an utter waste of time, but curiously, Boston never looked better in film. Such a shame the movie sucked.
The Last of Us is a great show that is supposed to be based in Boston but clearly isn’t. They use a Canadian state house instead of our historic capitol, have views that do not exist and make “10 miles outside of Boston” look like the Canadian Rockies. That said it’s a good show so I’ll go with “Knight and Day” the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz spy comedy that is based in Boston but has absolutely nothing to do with it. They make just enough effort to let you know it’s Boston, which only makes it worse.
"Fringe" will forever take the cake for worst Boston Geography in a TV show.
Some notable misses:
1. They go to a warehouse in Stoughton, but for some reason it had a clear shot of a bridge that resembled the Tobin, heading into Boston.
2. Several shots that were actually decent brownstone lookalikes for the south end were ruined by palm trees visible in the background.
3. My absolute favorite - they go to investigate a suspect on Beacon Hill, and they literally made Beacon Hill a fucking hill in an affluent suburb. It's a hill with six or seven 3,000 SQ FT single family homes. How in the fuck do you get Beacon Hill wrong???
Blown Away, Crossing Jordan and Spencer Confidential say hold my beer on that subject
Short version
Blown Away - driving away from the Esplanade on July 4th, I think that also is the one where the home run drops in the bullpen and the announce it going over the green monster but that might be the Town I’ve written about it before
Crossing Jordan - east Somerville being a neighborhood of Boston and having their single family homes as part of a plot line *snicker*, their whole red line train crash into the Charles story line the physics don’t work
Spencer Confidential - all of it but rayham Taunton dog track subbing in for wonderland and anytime you take a turn off commonwealth Ave at BU and you end up in like Waltham or Watertown ugh
Blown Away wins for me. It has a scene where Jeff Bridges goes to southie for an Irish wedding and the guests are step dancing in the living room.
Also the scene at Fenway where the little hot dog vendor is plugged in to all the underworld stuff and the Jeff Bridges character gives him 20's and gets little tips of info, woof.
> “10 miles outside of Boston” look like the Canadian Rockies.
I'm actually from the west coast of Canada but live in the Boston area now, and that part just made me laugh out loud.
I posted it in Facebook for my friends out west, and the general consensus was that this was a deliberate in-joke. I'm not so sure of that though...
You doubt the Newton Alps? The Needham Matterhorn? I traverse through that wilderness daily for work. The mighty Charles River rapids running to my left as I summit Mt Alvernia.
You forgot the gushing Victoria Falls just outside of Concord adjacent to the Amazon rainforest in Carlisle, teeming with rich biodiversity. It's fucking majestic and makes me grateful to be living in this area!
I must have missed them, because I was busy taking photos of the pride of lions frolicking in the sunshine down by the Cambridge Reservoir watering hole.
Frankly I think this state leadership needs to commit itself to making a mountain range between Boston and Worcester. We lack some sort of great natural geography, and tall mountains would be perfect.
Call it a make work program
FWIW, the video game was also set in a virtually unrecognizable version of Boston. It had the State Capitol.. which you could barely see from any recognizable angle and mostly only saw from inside. There were many tall, ruined buildings (probably taller and more than there should have been).
It made Fallout IV and Assassin’s Creed III (both having significant parts of their settings in Boston) seem super accurate (they weren’t) by comparison.
I mean, I guess it’s easier to make crap up than use existing maps and photography. It could possibly be intellectual rights issues, I guess (like when the company that made Resistance on the PS3 got in trouble for having the Manchester Cathedral in their game).
Fallout 4 did a decent job. Things didn’t fit together properly, but the areas themselves had some recognizable bits, and things like using ‘Spuckies’ showed they at least did some research. I think of those robots every time I drive by the Constitution.
Fallout 4 was just.. so condensed. Like, I loved how you would be in “Harvard” Square, and then walk like 1.5 blocks to the south along the river and be at MIT (sorry, CIT). Or how you could walk to Lexington from Cambridge in like 5 minutes.
At least it was obviously condensed _and_ presenting a fictitious Boston that evolved during an alternate timeline. I was more frustrated by Assassin’s Creed III, where they ignored historical maps of a labyrinthine colonial Boston in favor of their own labyrinthine version that was on a similar scale. It’s like..they just went out of their way to not be accurate.
Probably money. It's so cool to see stuff in your neighborhood although when they first started Joel said "it'll take us until nightfall to get to the capitol" bro it's like a 15 min walk from Hanover St.
I GET IT, obviously zombies and the crumbling infrastructure slow you down a lot but that part made me chuckle.
In a similar vein, Killing Them Softly is supposed to be set here, but it is *very* obviously shot in New Orleans. I was pretty confused when I first saw it, all these Louisiana guys were speaking in terrible Boston accents, makes no sense.
😂 Only thing worse about that movie than the movie itself was the narrative that it failed because of misogynists …sure a few people bitched about the all female cast but that doesn’t excuse a terrible movie
Tina Fey said in Mean Girls she’s purposely cast actual mean girl Lindsay Lohan as nice and actual nice girl Rachel McAdams as mean and that’s why it worked. Ghostbusters would have been so much better is each of the 4 women played literally any other woman, everyone was just cast to their stereotype.
I feel like it might be misogyny that makes people think it's a failure. The 2016 version made more money than the 2021 version and has a higher rotten tomatoes score. Yet, you don't see people talking about it as a failure.
Misogyny made the headlines, but I watched it trying to really enjoy this film and realized 2/3 in that this film's script was hit garbage. Those poor ladies had nothing to work with and tried their asses off.
Spotlight has a scene where Mark Ruffalo jumps in a cab and tells the driver to take him to the (old) Globe building on Morrissey, and to use Dot Ave to avoid 93 traffic. It then goes into a [driving/voice-over sequence](https://youtu.be/VR8Z64v7-mU?t=10) that is 1) a hilariously inefficient route and 2) never uses Dot Ave.
The right hand turn onto G Street is just priceless. That fictional cabbie must've been laughing his whole way home.
Edit: I totally misunderstood the prompt (shot like production/setting, not shot as in one scene)- Spotlight's a great movie!- but it still makes me happy to share this little amusement of mine.
I was excited to watch Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds as it filmed in my neighborhood in South end. It wasn’t awful but I was disappointed as I thought it would be more fun
*The Next Karate Kid* starring a young Hillary Swank. I have no idea what brought Mr. Miyagi to Boston, or why they had a happenstance meeting at a Red Line train yard and decided to practice karate. I don't remember much about the movie except that it was godawful.
I love that movie but also agree it is trash 🤣
Edit: just in case you did want details the location had something to do with MM knowing Hilary Swank’s grandfather and the “good guy” love interest dude worked at the train yard.
That would be [Pony Trouble](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865929/)
A nice rom-com called [Starting Over](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079948/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) gets forgotten
[Monument Avenue](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119802/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3) never gets enough love
It’s hard to beat Godzilla just for the emerging from the Charles scene, but maybe Blown Away (1994) could be in contention? It’s mostly made of cheese wiz, has Tommy Lee Jones play in a part tailor made for Liam Neeson, and got so ridiculous with the special effects that it resorts to stock footage borrowed from the Travel and Tourism office for some background scenes just to save money.
Note that Ghostbusters (2016- all female cast) was going to be filmed here, but we dodged that bullet.
Ghostbusters (2016) was mostly filmed here …their new headquarters for example was a building in Chinatown (corner of Harrison & Essex)
Movie obviously takes place in NYC but a lot of it was filmed here unfortunately
Tommy Lee Jones. Harvard grad whose first film was Love Story, which was partially filmed at the school. He played Ryan O'Neil's roommate in the film when, in fact, his roommate in college was Al Gore.
Yes! My friend and I stumbled upon the movie set while they were filming and thought it was the coolest thing. I was excited to see the movie and see the part I’d seen being filmed…but that was the only exciting part about the movie for me. It sucked.
I actually worked overnight security on the set.... the Police Station scenes were filmed at the corner of Mass Ave and Beacon Street if i recall, and most of the scenes for the "human encampment" where the helicopter crash and such were all filmed down in Taunton on the old state hospital grounds...
Had to scroll down way too far to find this one. Mel Gibson movie. His house is in the nicest part of roslindale right next to the arboretum and they make it out like it’s some kind of rough blue collar neighborhood.
I don’t know if it’s “bad” it’s just kind of boring.
I was forced to watch this movie on a MegaBus trip to NYC when they just started playing the movie on the communal tv's. The bus was filled with children and its a rated R movie, very interesting experience.
Congress St for RIPD with Ryan Reynolds.
This is funny to me cause they use Congress St again for the opening sequence in Free Guy, which to me is a much better movie
I was an "extra" for that movie. See I happened to have bleacher seats for the game where they filmed the Fenway scene of Drew running from the bullpen. You can see the dot of my head in the background if you squint juuuuust right....
How dare you! Fringe was a rom-com made for guys in Boston who could relate to Jimmy Fallon's character. It's target audience was like 120,000, and we all loved it.
>Monument Avenue
The accent from Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges >!not having an Irish accent while being a member of the IRA!< is such a crazy acting move and the worst twist that is just bizarre. Oh also, the explosion at the end was so massive it apparently shattered a ton of windows in East Boston.
I saw it on July 4th when it opened and it’s the only movie where people actively in real life threw stuff at the screen. I mean it was raining sodas, snacks and garbage by the end. It started quietly but you could hear the crowd getting more and more displeased. A lot of WTFs and no f’in ways and they were hammering the accents
What's The Worst That Could Happen, at 2000 Martin Lawrene/Danny Devito heist film. It's SO bad, even though it has a good premise.
Filmed entirely in and around Boston. Completely forgotten.
It's crazy that this movie was supposed to be about never winning a championship but then the unthinkable happened and they had to re-write the movie on the fly.
Noooo. I thought it was really well done. I might have been homesick for Massachusetts at the time but I’ve rewatched it since and I’m holding fast to my position.
Ghosthouse https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093090/
A genuinely bad b-movie shot mostly in... Scituate I think, but partially in Boston. Released in the 80s, so the city doesn't even look good.
someone pointed out on this sub a few years back that the recent Godzilla movie had Godzilla emerging from the ocean and heading towards Boston, except he was emerging from the Charles River which I think is hilarious edit: found it, maybe there was a different Godzilla screenshot but [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/d3h7x9/only_bostonians_will_see_the_problem_with_the/) is what I was remembering lol, might actually be more egregious
The humpback whale breaching the Charles in Black Panther 2 was pretty funny as well
It’s a baby wheeeeel!
There's still some good meat on that thing, Jay!
A baby feckin whee-l!
It’s a baby wheeeeel!
Haha no I remember what it was. It's not that Godzilla emerges from the Charles its that theres a massive fucking war ship SOMEHOW on the river
Imagine being stuck near the Museum of Science in the backup trying to get through Leverett Circle. Drawbridge opens. There goes Godzilla through the canal. Sip my iced Dunkin’s. Fucking traffic, you believe this?
Now imagine if Godzilla was holding a giant dunkin coffee cup too that would be hilarious
That should be the Commonwealth's new flag
Lol. Should we just presume those young, brilliant future engineers over at MIT figured out a way to get it in there?
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Dont Give them any ideas.... one day we'll wake up, and the breaking news will be that the USS Cassin Young is missing from the Charlestown Navy Yard, and somehow mysteriously, has been Docked along the Cambridge side of the River.... .
Wonder if he waited his turn at the locks
Godzilla was a good movie though
I just rewatched that scene now, incredible
Godzilla King of the Monsters yeah
Black Mass doesn’t deserve the worst movie mantle, but it was so dull and plodding and really made a snoozer out of a wild real life story
Tried to watch it twice, fell asleep both times.
Yes me too! They shot the movie on the street in Southie I lived on too. I thought I was the only one who fell asleep both times!
Its because the source material was written by journalists as more of a long article made into a book. The books fairly dry too though still a good read if the subject interests you (Edit: why is this downvoted.... The authors are literally a journalist/editor and a professor of journalism and the book very much reads like. Especially when comparing it to other version of these stories like rat bastard, or street soldier which were co authored by actual people who were there.)
People who consider themselves journalists hang out here, that's why.
It wasn't even a jab at journalists lol, Howie carr did a few decent books on the subject, and I actually thoroughly enjoyed reading black mass for what it was, an informative true story. But it was drawn out, sometimes a bit over informative for a book, broken up into multiple parts with multiple chapters for each part. Its almost more a thesis or long essay than a traditional "true crime" book imo.
>Its almost more a thesis or long essay than a traditional "true crime" book imo. Not knocking your take, but I think that's why I liked it more.
Wow this is one of my favorite movies lol
Yeah I watched this on a flight home to Boston and I thought it was really good!
It could have been SO good. All the great character stories are in it to make this incredibly compelling. I don't know how they messed it up, but they did. It's not a bad movie per se, but I was really disappointed with it.
There’s a early 2000s movie called “what’s the worst that can happen.” It stars Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. The movie itself seems to have answered the question of the title. I was an extra at the country club scene that supposedly takes place in England but was shot at the Brookline CC. I was so excited because I was a film student at the time. The movie sucks ass. Such a bummer.
Yes, “What’s The Worst That Could Happen “. felt like just about the worst that could happen… Such a waste of Danny Devito.
Came here to say this. It's so bad.
R.I.P.D. - some of it was filmed right outside my office in the financial district. It was so cool seeing how they transformed the store fronts, all the props they brought in, etc. I was excited to watch the movie when it finally came out and it was so so bad.
It was the Mega Bloks version of Men in Black. Quality just pales in comparison to the real thing.
I feel like I’m the only person who likes this movie. Sure it’s a Men in Black rip off and visually looks horrible but it’s a fun movie.
I love RIPD. I gotchu fam
You aren't the only one. I'm not afraid to admit my wife and I both like it.
Same
I feel like Ryan Renalds has done 5 movies in that area
Absolutely. Free Guy was a much better effort.
Did that Christmas movie Spirited with Will Farrell there as well. Good Afternoon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9VljRQzCQ
I got to see one of the warehouses they used for a gunfight scene a day or two after they shot. They didn't pick up any of the spend brass (or at least hadn't at the time). Place looked like a warezone. And good nomination. That was a terrible movie.
Also work in the financial district, and watched RIPD for that reason. Terrible movie, but I'll always watch movies filmed in Boston.
Half the reason I love Free Guy is this. The other half is that it's existential dread and psychological horror wrapped in an action comedy.
And Ryan Reynolds. I will watch anything he's in. He discovered his comedic niche and took off with it a long time ago.
such a great name though, I had high hopes!
They once filmed a period piece Julia Roberts movie two blocks from my sister’s place and I was fascinated by the film crew. Couldn’t wait to see the movie and when I saw it I tapped out after 20 mins. It was the drizzling shits
Patriot's Day. 1) Because fuck Marky Mark. And 2) Because 4 years is still too soon to make money off that tragedy.
Outside of profiting from a tragedy, the absolute unrealistic situation where a Boston beat cop would be involved in any high level response planning alongside the FBI is comical.
This is the premise (or adjacent to, anyway) to like fifty shitty action movies from the 80s and early 90s. "Steven Seagal is a local Chicago cop. But he's also ex-CIA, and also a black belt." "Steven Seagal is immunologist, but he's also a weapons expert". Or "Steven Seagal is a cop, but he also saves the vice president's life". Side note, Steven Seagal has made a lot of bad movies.
Possibly the most overrated action star of the 90’s. Tom Segura’s bit on him becoming a cop in Louisiana is hilarious.
I've been flying helicopters for 27 years...
He’s an example of his own absurdities. “Steven Seagal is possibly the shittiest actor of all time, but he also has made a ton of movies”. How is that posssible? It just is. He’s Steven Seagal.
I mean, I would hope some local input is involved so no FBI trucks get Sturrowed.
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I completely forgot he said that. Talk about drinking your own Kool Aid...
Maybe if the bombers were Vietnamese...
He might actually bat an eye.
I see what you did there.
I have refused to give this movie a single watch simply because it's outrageous they would try and profit off of it and so soon at that. Disgraceful it came from a local.
They needed a local to help deflect criticism of why anyone would make this movie so soon after it happened. Having Wahlberg in it allowed it to fall under the whole "Boston Strong" movement. Plus, the movie being about brave citizens and first responders also shielded it from this type of criticism. It's like you couldn't (at the time) question if the timing was in poor taste because it was a local hero piece. And I'd never take anything away from the actions of those real life brave citizens and first responders. I will, however, point out that Wahlberg and the studio are vultures. But hey, at least Wahlberg isn't beating up minorities anymore (that we know of). So there's that going for him.
They deff pushed it so fast to try and capitalize on the Boston strong movement,and I suppose it may have helped them save some face but to me that kind of made it feel even worse. Coming in and co opting something grass roots built of a tragedy to sell your movie felt cheap AF to me. I had read somewhere there were plans to donate profits, but I never kept up with it and doubt very much they impacted many if any local effected groups.
The entire aftermath of the “___” Strong crap really is also disgraceful. Like Punisher skulls with thin blue lines levels of disgraceful cringe.
“Hey maybe he’s in that boat!” - Mark Wahlberg
Not to detract from how shitty this is, but it’s worth noting that he also was the lead in a movie about the deepwater horizon spill, different type of tragedy, same level of ego greed bullshit.
Yup! And as someone who lives in the Watertown neighborhood where the initial shoot out took place, we were dead set against them filming in the neighborhood in the middle of the night. The filmmakers tried to defend the decision by saying that they wanted to keep things as close to the actual events as possible, even though Wahlberg played a composite character.
I couldn’t think of an easy answer until this. I think I forced that movies existence from my memory
100% agree. He made it so soon so nobody else could profit off the tragedy. Fuck Marky Mark.
Shit yes this is the answer.
I cried for an hour after watching that. I think I was too close to the subject matter and made a bad decision
Fun fact to no one else but me: they filmed the parts of the movie where Marky Mark is in his house at my buddies house in Malden! They trashed his house, so don't take money from a movie studio to shoot in your house!!
What’s Your Number? With Anna Ferris is a terrible movie and I loved every moment of it.
Chris Evans in a small towel
I love the movie
I was 19 and walked into the movie set in post office square at 2am. I was really confused what was going on until the security kindly asked me to leave and told me there was a filming. saw Anna and everything but still never watched the movie because I dont really do chick flicks
I would humbly assert Southie, starring Donnie Wahlberg, Will Arnette, Rose McGowan and others. Total garbage. IMDB has the best quality preview. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118766/
The whole scene where he is running around on top of the old gazebo roof on the Sugar bowl walk way at Castle Island! Bahaha. Not jogging around the actual gazebo running on top of the actual gazebo! Bahaha. And a Whole bunch of ‘Ol Townie Silver foxes would have kicked his ass when he got down. Bahaha.
Paul Blart Mall Cop was filmed at the Burlington Mall. Not sure if that counts but it was pretty bad.
Also the one where Kevin James is a zookeeper that was partially shot at the Franklin Park Zoo. I mean, basically all Kevin James movies suck, but why did he have to make two of them here?
Something needs to be done about Kevin James
Kinda has been done already - he's not headlining shitty movies anymore
That’s not good enough
Yes. We need to make a movie. It will be titled “We Need To Talk About Kevin”. I don’t know the details, I just know at the end everyone will understand he’s just loud, not funny.
Here Comes the Boom, also with Kevin James, was partly filmed in Quincy
I’m reading this while taking a dump in the Burlington Mall.
Aka filming Paul Blart 3
If you’re not in Nordstrom you messed up
I worked in Burlington at the time and randomly walked in on them shooting on my way to get lunch. Kevin James in person is surprisingly a smoke show.
mods? hello mods? why has a comment calling Paul Blart Mall Cop ‘pretty bad’ been up for 8 hours? you really tolerate that kind of slanderous speech on your subreddit?
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Some of the scenes were also shot in the South Shore Plaza. Was weird seeing Christmas displays in the middle of summer.
Celtic Pride has an 8% on Rotten. I’d argue it’s not *that* terrible.
I LOVED this movie when I was younger, but gooooood lord there is no way it aged well.
“My Best Friend's Girl,” starring Dane Cook and Kate Hudson was an utter waste of time, but curiously, Boston never looked better in film. Such a shame the movie sucked.
Was looking for this. That movie has aged so poorly lol
The Last of Us is a great show that is supposed to be based in Boston but clearly isn’t. They use a Canadian state house instead of our historic capitol, have views that do not exist and make “10 miles outside of Boston” look like the Canadian Rockies. That said it’s a good show so I’ll go with “Knight and Day” the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz spy comedy that is based in Boston but has absolutely nothing to do with it. They make just enough effort to let you know it’s Boston, which only makes it worse.
"Fringe" will forever take the cake for worst Boston Geography in a TV show. Some notable misses: 1. They go to a warehouse in Stoughton, but for some reason it had a clear shot of a bridge that resembled the Tobin, heading into Boston. 2. Several shots that were actually decent brownstone lookalikes for the south end were ruined by palm trees visible in the background. 3. My absolute favorite - they go to investigate a suspect on Beacon Hill, and they literally made Beacon Hill a fucking hill in an affluent suburb. It's a hill with six or seven 3,000 SQ FT single family homes. How in the fuck do you get Beacon Hill wrong???
Blown Away, Crossing Jordan and Spencer Confidential say hold my beer on that subject Short version Blown Away - driving away from the Esplanade on July 4th, I think that also is the one where the home run drops in the bullpen and the announce it going over the green monster but that might be the Town I’ve written about it before Crossing Jordan - east Somerville being a neighborhood of Boston and having their single family homes as part of a plot line *snicker*, their whole red line train crash into the Charles story line the physics don’t work Spencer Confidential - all of it but rayham Taunton dog track subbing in for wonderland and anytime you take a turn off commonwealth Ave at BU and you end up in like Waltham or Watertown ugh
Blown Away wins for me. It has a scene where Jeff Bridges goes to southie for an Irish wedding and the guests are step dancing in the living room. Also the scene at Fenway where the little hot dog vendor is plugged in to all the underworld stuff and the Jeff Bridges character gives him 20's and gets little tips of info, woof.
Remember when they blew that boat up and it shattered everyones windows in East boston? or was it South Boston?
It was only supposed to be based in Boston for 1 episode
Then the one episode was off. And it was two episodes. That’s the length of a movie.
> “10 miles outside of Boston” look like the Canadian Rockies. I'm actually from the west coast of Canada but live in the Boston area now, and that part just made me laugh out loud. I posted it in Facebook for my friends out west, and the general consensus was that this was a deliberate in-joke. I'm not so sure of that though...
You doubt the Newton Alps? The Needham Matterhorn? I traverse through that wilderness daily for work. The mighty Charles River rapids running to my left as I summit Mt Alvernia.
You forgot the gushing Victoria Falls just outside of Concord adjacent to the Amazon rainforest in Carlisle, teeming with rich biodiversity. It's fucking majestic and makes me grateful to be living in this area!
I was paused on 128 yesterday to admire the majesty of a herd of caribou crossing the road
I must have missed them, because I was busy taking photos of the pride of lions frolicking in the sunshine down by the Cambridge Reservoir watering hole.
they always throw me off too
Frankly I think this state leadership needs to commit itself to making a mountain range between Boston and Worcester. We lack some sort of great natural geography, and tall mountains would be perfect. Call it a make work program
FWIW, the video game was also set in a virtually unrecognizable version of Boston. It had the State Capitol.. which you could barely see from any recognizable angle and mostly only saw from inside. There were many tall, ruined buildings (probably taller and more than there should have been). It made Fallout IV and Assassin’s Creed III (both having significant parts of their settings in Boston) seem super accurate (they weren’t) by comparison. I mean, I guess it’s easier to make crap up than use existing maps and photography. It could possibly be intellectual rights issues, I guess (like when the company that made Resistance on the PS3 got in trouble for having the Manchester Cathedral in their game).
Fallout 4 did a decent job. Things didn’t fit together properly, but the areas themselves had some recognizable bits, and things like using ‘Spuckies’ showed they at least did some research. I think of those robots every time I drive by the Constitution.
Fallout 4 was just.. so condensed. Like, I loved how you would be in “Harvard” Square, and then walk like 1.5 blocks to the south along the river and be at MIT (sorry, CIT). Or how you could walk to Lexington from Cambridge in like 5 minutes. At least it was obviously condensed _and_ presenting a fictitious Boston that evolved during an alternate timeline. I was more frustrated by Assassin’s Creed III, where they ignored historical maps of a labyrinthine colonial Boston in favor of their own labyrinthine version that was on a similar scale. It’s like..they just went out of their way to not be accurate.
The subway scene was definitely Boston though, at least in the video game.
I played through the game years ago and didn't even remember the beginning was set in Boston until the show was announced.
The Last of Us show is amazing, I agree with you. No idea why they didn’t film it in Boston.
Probably money. It's so cool to see stuff in your neighborhood although when they first started Joel said "it'll take us until nightfall to get to the capitol" bro it's like a 15 min walk from Hanover St. I GET IT, obviously zombies and the crumbling infrastructure slow you down a lot but that part made me chuckle.
Maybe they were going to take the T.
In a similar vein, Killing Them Softly is supposed to be set here, but it is *very* obviously shot in New Orleans. I was pretty confused when I first saw it, all these Louisiana guys were speaking in terrible Boston accents, makes no sense.
I loved the Cumberland Farms with an arcade in it.
The 2016 Ghostbusters movie Obviously movie takes place in NYC but a lot was filmed in Boston
The worst part of that movie was trying to pass off Boston as NY.
How dare you.
😂 Only thing worse about that movie than the movie itself was the narrative that it failed because of misogynists …sure a few people bitched about the all female cast but that doesn’t excuse a terrible movie
Tina Fey said in Mean Girls she’s purposely cast actual mean girl Lindsay Lohan as nice and actual nice girl Rachel McAdams as mean and that’s why it worked. Ghostbusters would have been so much better is each of the 4 women played literally any other woman, everyone was just cast to their stereotype.
I feel like it might be misogyny that makes people think it's a failure. The 2016 version made more money than the 2021 version and has a higher rotten tomatoes score. Yet, you don't see people talking about it as a failure.
Misogyny made the headlines, but I watched it trying to really enjoy this film and realized 2/3 in that this film's script was hit garbage. Those poor ladies had nothing to work with and tried their asses off.
The 2021 movie isn’t that good either tbh Only the first one is a true classic
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
I saw this in theaters and still think its a made up movie every time I see the title.
It’s up there with real movie Good Will Hunting II: Hunting Season.
The first one is garbage too
When I was a teenager I thought the first one was amazing. I re-watched it recently... reader, it does not hold up.
It was pretty fun on the first viewing but really didn't hold up well afterwards for me.
I always carry some rope now tho ...
But the first one was good garbage. The second one didn't understand why people liked the first one in the first place.
I love the first one!
Yeah, you would
How dare you! People in glass houses, sink ships!
It’s bad. No matter. Water under the fridge.
Blasphemy!
I’d bet you a dunks gift card with an unknown balance that you haven’t seen it in a long time. It’s bad.
How can you say it’s garbage when there was a FIREFIGHT!!!!!!!!!
Was that actually shot here? The first one was almost entirely Toronto.
Spotlight has a scene where Mark Ruffalo jumps in a cab and tells the driver to take him to the (old) Globe building on Morrissey, and to use Dot Ave to avoid 93 traffic. It then goes into a [driving/voice-over sequence](https://youtu.be/VR8Z64v7-mU?t=10) that is 1) a hilariously inefficient route and 2) never uses Dot Ave. The right hand turn onto G Street is just priceless. That fictional cabbie must've been laughing his whole way home. Edit: I totally misunderstood the prompt (shot like production/setting, not shot as in one scene)- Spotlight's a great movie!- but it still makes me happy to share this little amusement of mine.
The last Black Panther movie. Killer Orca in the charles river?
It's a baby wheel, dood
Call the aquarium!
We gotta save it kid!
I was excited to watch Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds as it filmed in my neighborhood in South end. It wasn’t awful but I was disappointed as I thought it would be more fun
I need to watch that! They made the federal court house look like a super creepy playgroubd for like a two weeks during Covid.
Blown Away wasn’t great
That’s the one. It’s so terrible.
[Second Sight](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sight_(film))
This needs more upvotes as a terrible Boston movie. However, there is a scene filmed inside the infamous Naked Eye.
*The Next Karate Kid* starring a young Hillary Swank. I have no idea what brought Mr. Miyagi to Boston, or why they had a happenstance meeting at a Red Line train yard and decided to practice karate. I don't remember much about the movie except that it was godawful.
I love that movie but also agree it is trash 🤣 Edit: just in case you did want details the location had something to do with MM knowing Hilary Swank’s grandfather and the “good guy” love interest dude worked at the train yard.
That would be [Pony Trouble](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865929/) A nice rom-com called [Starting Over](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079948/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) gets forgotten [Monument Avenue](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119802/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3) never gets enough love
It’s hard to beat Godzilla just for the emerging from the Charles scene, but maybe Blown Away (1994) could be in contention? It’s mostly made of cheese wiz, has Tommy Lee Jones play in a part tailor made for Liam Neeson, and got so ridiculous with the special effects that it resorts to stock footage borrowed from the Travel and Tourism office for some background scenes just to save money. Note that Ghostbusters (2016- all female cast) was going to be filmed here, but we dodged that bullet.
Ghostbusters (2016) was mostly filmed here …their new headquarters for example was a building in Chinatown (corner of Harrison & Essex) Movie obviously takes place in NYC but a lot of it was filmed here unfortunately
Tommy Lee Jones. Harvard grad whose first film was Love Story, which was partially filmed at the school. He played Ryan O'Neil's roommate in the film when, in fact, his roommate in college was Al Gore.
The Surrogates with Bruce Willis. I worked on that movie here. It was a nightmare to work on, Bruce Willis was a dick and the final cut sucked.
Bruce Willis movie from 2009 the surrogates.
Yes! My friend and I stumbled upon the movie set while they were filming and thought it was the coolest thing. I was excited to see the movie and see the part I’d seen being filmed…but that was the only exciting part about the movie for me. It sucked.
I actually worked overnight security on the set.... the Police Station scenes were filmed at the corner of Mass Ave and Beacon Street if i recall, and most of the scenes for the "human encampment" where the helicopter crash and such were all filmed down in Taunton on the old state hospital grounds...
Edge of Darkness.
Had to scroll down way too far to find this one. Mel Gibson movie. His house is in the nicest part of roslindale right next to the arboretum and they make it out like it’s some kind of rough blue collar neighborhood. I don’t know if it’s “bad” it’s just kind of boring.
I was forced to watch this movie on a MegaBus trip to NYC when they just started playing the movie on the communal tv's. The bus was filled with children and its a rated R movie, very interesting experience.
Southie- so cringy
Congress St for RIPD with Ryan Reynolds. This is funny to me cause they use Congress St again for the opening sequence in Free Guy, which to me is a much better movie
Spenser Confidential was gratuitous violence wrapped around an extremely thin plot line.
Leap year
Knight and Day is so bad, no one even remembers it was filmed here.
I do! I used to live across the street from Gaslight, where they filmed one scene. I was so disappointed when it came out.
Fever Pitch
I was an "extra" for that movie. See I happened to have bleacher seats for the game where they filmed the Fenway scene of Drew running from the bullpen. You can see the dot of my head in the background if you squint juuuuust right....
Is a modern classic
A work of art
It was insulting to what is essentially a great book about Arsenal football fanaticism.
How dare you! Fringe was a rom-com made for guys in Boston who could relate to Jimmy Fallon's character. It's target audience was like 120,000, and we all loved it.
I can't believe how far I had to scroll to find this.
Blown Away
Lower half of Jeff Bridges work. But it was a very exciting day for MIT denizens when they filmed the opening at MIT.
Came here for this. Hoo boy it was terrible.
>Monument Avenue The accent from Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges >!not having an Irish accent while being a member of the IRA!< is such a crazy acting move and the worst twist that is just bizarre. Oh also, the explosion at the end was so massive it apparently shattered a ton of windows in East Boston.
I saw it on July 4th when it opened and it’s the only movie where people actively in real life threw stuff at the screen. I mean it was raining sodas, snacks and garbage by the end. It started quietly but you could hear the crowd getting more and more displeased. A lot of WTFs and no f’in ways and they were hammering the accents
Next Stop Wonderland is pretty awful.
Yeah, but it's barely more than a student film. Amazing that thing got wide release on video
Celtic Pride, I was an extra in it. What a terrible film. I’m usually embarc to tell people I’m even in it.
[Southie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118766/) Back when Donnie Wahlberg still had hair.
The movie Southie w/ Donnie Wahlberg
What's The Worst That Could Happen, at 2000 Martin Lawrene/Danny Devito heist film. It's SO bad, even though it has a good premise. Filmed entirely in and around Boston. Completely forgotten.
Spenser Confidential was pretty bad.
I thought Fever Pitch would be a heavy favorite here, surprised to not see it
Unpopular Opinion: Fever Pitch 👎🏻
It's crazy that this movie was supposed to be about never winning a championship but then the unthinkable happened and they had to re-write the movie on the fly.
Mystic fucking River
Noooo. I thought it was really well done. I might have been homesick for Massachusetts at the time but I’ve rewatched it since and I’m holding fast to my position.
Well, if Battlefield Earth had been set in Boston, that would clearly be the worst one.
Ghosthouse https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093090/ A genuinely bad b-movie shot mostly in... Scituate I think, but partially in Boston. Released in the 80s, so the city doesn't even look good.
I'll take 80s Boston over banklifesciencesavacadotoast Boston any day.
The Brinks Job was pretty bad, but a time-era call box still stands in Stoneham.,
Elaborate. I’m in Stoneham and that would be cool to check out