I don't particularly find special effects impressive. Explosions, CGI, and Neo dodging bullets all have their appeal in terms of sheer entertainment, but it's not what puts my jaw on the floor after watching a film. I'm more interested in tangible feats. Jackie Chan jumping off of a roof onto a balcony, botching it and breaking bones, then doing it again is something worthy of my praise. But besides crazy stunts like those performed by Zoe Bell in Death Proof, one thing that never fails to get my attention is a long, extended take. As film has evolved, the "ASL" or average shot-length has gradually decreased to mere seconds. Some films, like Hitchcock's Rope, have artificially tried to create the facade of an extended take. In 2002, Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov accomplished this without camera trickery and editing voodoo, but with six months of intense rehearsing. Ultimately, his film Russian Ark is 96 minutes of one single take. In honor of Sokurov, these are the 5 best extended takes in movies...
5. Oldboy (2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnT0EgNZ7Kg In the South Korean film Oldboy, director Park Chan-wook continued his vengeance trilogy with the story of a man named Oh Dae-su who is kidnapped. When we first meet Oh Dae-su, he is a young, oafish and drunk man waiting to go back home to deliver a birthday present for his young daughter. But when Oh Dae-su is captured, he's thrown in a hotel room where he spends the next fifteen years in isolation. He does not know why, or by who. After the fifteen years are up, he is released. Within the next few days, he must find out who had abducted him and why. After he eats a live octopus and befriends a waitress, Oh Dae-su finds himself in situation after situation in which he's either beating people or being beaten. In the most impressive scene in the film, we follow the actor Choi Min-sik as he trudges down a long corridor. Like a sidescroller video-game, he takes on foe after foe, being beaten with sticks and midway through being stabbed in the back. It's over three minutes straight of a man walloping on two dozen men so adeptly that it sticks with the audience even after the movie's shocking final twist. No spoilers, but definitely not a movie you want to watch with your Grandma.