10 Movies That Made You Watch Other Movies
6. Swordfish - Dog Day Afternoon
It's always a gamble for a film to reference a much, much better movie, and that's what 2001's tech-thriller Swordfish ended up doing in its opening moments.
The movie kicks off with a verbose monologue from villain Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) in which he criticises Hollywood for a lack of realism, before bringing up Sidney Lumet's classic 1975 crime drama Dog Day Afternoon.
Gabriel showers praise upon every aspect of the film from Al Pacino's central performance to Lumet's directing and all the technical achievements, though argues that it didn't take its premise far enough or "push the envelope," as he puts it.
Starting this guilty pleasure film with a glowing review of a vastly superior movie is pretty bold, honestly, and immediately points out you could be watching something else - something better.
Swordfish is fun and all, but nobody could blame you for just turning it off and watching Dog Day Afternoon instead, even if Gabriel did basically spoil the fact that Pacino's protagonist Sonny doesn't come out on top.