longbough

Opening credits and closing credits can be an artform unto themselves in the movies. Here are examples off the top of my head that I'll never forget:

Opening credits:

Once Upon a Time in the West - probably the best opening credits in move history IMO - beautiful exposition and perfect use of cinematography and sound. Just perfect.

Face Off - the opening credits can be an entire action movie with the rest of the film being the sequel. John Woo was much influenced by Sergio Leone and it shows

Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) - smashingly kinetic blend of animation and live action. Love it!

Fight Club - convincingly real CG electron microscopic view of neurons firing in the brain and a protracted pull back until emerging from a single pore on Edward Norton's forehead over a terrific soundtrack. The relevance of the scene becomes more evident with subsequent viewing.

Kiki's Delivery Service - I can't explain it, but when the credits start up as she's leaving home for the first time triggers a huge emotional swell for me. Miyazaki has a knack for hitting my emotional buttons when I least expect it.

Closing credits:

Almost every Jackie Chan film - the outtakes keep everyone from leaving the theater. I was disappointed that Around the World in 80 Days didn't have them (but I can understand since it's a Disney movie and they don't want to lose that signature).

The Incredibles - just really terrific graphics. And the way the credits had this 3d angle was so simple I wondered why nobody thought of doing it that way before.


... oops I'm out of time for now. To be continued.....

Charlatan

Once Upon a Time in the West... good call. I can still hear the squeak of the rusty windmill in my head.

Delicatessen... spings to mind.


Closing credits

Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- Rooney in the back of the bus with the girl and the gummie bears and the finale of Ferris telling everyone to "go home" is classic.

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Redlemon

Nah, Animal from The Muppet Movie did "go home" much better, and did it before Ferris.

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Salomon

Chinatown - the music sets the mood beautifully.

quadro2000

I loved the opening to the Austin Powers flicks. I wouldn't call it art, but at least it was memorable (to me).

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mrklixx

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Bond flicks for creating their own style.

Monsters Inc.

Catch Me if You Can

And the Shrek 1&2 ones are fun.

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Derwood

Doesn't the pull back in Fight Club come out through his mouth, through the barrel of the gun, and out the chamber that way?

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Derwood

Doesn't the pull back in Fight Club come out through his mouth, through the barrel of the gun, and out the chamber that way?

The openings to the Matrix movies are cool.

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Redjake

Probably the best opening credits ever is The Blues Brothers. Jake Blues being released from prison, the whole "She Caught the Katy" song playing in the background when the gates open to release Jake with the sun beaming all around him. Then immediately cut to the Blues Brothers cruising in the 1974 Dodge Sedan with Illinois plates.

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Grasshopper Green

I honestly have a hard time remembering opening/closing credits...but here are two that stick out to me.

Ace Ventura - Jim Carrey smashing the hell out of the delivery box before he takes it to the guy who kidnapped the dog. Hilarious. However, I don't remember if this is the opening scene, or the credits.

Gone With the Wind - Ok, so I'm biased. It's my favorite movie ever. The opening song is classic, and it gets me choked up.

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Daknjak

Opening Credits:
Seven- It is not the exact opening scene (at least I don't think so) but the ending credits are done in the beginning and they go up instead of down - great remix of closer by NIN also. I remember thinking "Oh my god what is this?" This would also get a vote from me as best movie ending as well.

Star Wars all of them. That simple sentence, and then BAM! your hit with that music. I still get goosebumps when I hear it. This has to be the most creative beginning IMO that there ever was. And it started back from the very first film.

Closing credits:
Cannonball Run - The outtakes at the end are hilarious

The Lord of the Rings- At the end of the credits, they list all the fan club members. (there are at least a million of them it seems) The music is excellent also. Best movie ever IMO.

Most of the disney/Pixar films because of the outtakes they make up at the end for the characters.

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MPower

Opening:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Also probably the longest opening.

God of Thunder

The cartoon opening for City Slickers was pretty good.


And why has no one mentioned the opening crawls for "Star Wars" yet? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?????

Oh, was I yelling? Sorry, my inner nerd got a little out of control

The beginning of "Chasing Amy" with the comic books was pretty cool as well.

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Redlemon

*cough*Post 11*cough*

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Yakk

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", opening credits.

More timing than content. =)

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Daknjak

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Pulp Fiction, begins in the resturant and ends in the resturant.

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aberkok

At least a few of the Zucker brothers films, examples being Naked Gun or Top Secret, had ridiculous jobs interspersed with the regular ones in the closing credits. I did a quick search and found a groaner in the end credits of Top Secret:

Hey Diddle Diddle…………………………………………..…….The Cat and the Fiddle
Foreez……………………………………………………………..…A Jolly Good Fellow

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onodrim

Irreversible - The mood is set perfectly from the first moment with the distorted text and camera work. And the strobe light at the very end is the perfect way to close it off as well (However, I believe you only see it in certain versions due to cutting it out for those with epilepsy, etc).

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FngKestrel

Memento's intro is pretty cool, with the flicking of the polaroid pic.

God of Thunder

OK, so my inner geek needs glasses too

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Kostya

We were somewhere outside of Barstow in the desert, when the drugs began to take effect...

FailedEagle

For some reason the opening credits in Panic Room really stuck out in my head. Maybe that's just me, seeing as I can't even really remember why.

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Catdaddy33

Ending : Ferris Bueller's Day Off, at the end where he comes back on screen after the credits and says "Are you still here? Go Home....Go!!"

irateplatypus

opening: spiderman w/all the CG webs

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aKula

The opening of Dr. Strangelove had me mesmerised with the background image of the B-52 refueling.

captobvious

The outtakes during the end credits of A Bug's Life ... just knowing that they had to intentionally create the outtakes since it's an animated film.

FngKestrel

I remember when I saw that in a theater. And older couple was sitting to the front of me and when the outtakes came on, the wife was like, "What's the big deal, lots of movies have outtakes." Her husband had to explain to her that it was an animated film and didn't normally have outtakes.

ElwoodBlues

I love that intro. I love that entire movie. I'm always surprised when someone else has seen it

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longbough

Nah. The pull back comes out through a pore of his forehead then down his nose over the top of the S&W 4506 pistol which is in his mouth.

Someone mentioned Panic Room - those credits were really cool. It was CG words that went across city buildings. It's hard to describe but it was really beautiful. Kinda reminded me of the credits in Hitchock's North by Northwest.

Master_Shake

I don't think Star Wars qualifies as having opening credits, since the text scrawl does not relate information as to director, actors, etc, but only to the story of the film itself.

I think we should differentiate between films with good credit sequences and films with good openings.

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El Pollo

Just saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and it had a pretty neat ending credits sequence. It was all animated with just the kids running around while a giant Count Olaf haunts them whereever they go. It had a neat style to it and definitely kept my interest.

Poppinjay

I loved the closing credits of "A Bug's Life" with the fake bloopers. I'll add my vote to captobvious.

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Matt Arden

I thought the opening credits of Panic Room were pretty neat. They made the actors names part of the scenery of New York or whatever city the movie took place in.

NoSoup

I agree with many of the posts here... but I'd have to make a mention for Closing Credits, if it qualifies.

I love the credits for "Dawn of the Dead" - the new one - with the snippets from the video camera they find on the boat.... and use it to record their last days.

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shesus

El Pollo beat me to the ending credit of Series of Unfortunate Events. I enjoyed those almost more than the movie.

Opening credits...the only thing coming to mind is Charade with Audrey Hepburn. The swirls were pretty cool. Oh and I think Rear Window where it sets up the scene. Kill Bill vol 2 had a good beginning too. Napoleom Dynamite is my favorite I think for opening credits. The cafeteria food and school supplies...very creative.

I also love the opening credits where the letters appear differently than they should appear but somehow end up making the names. I can't think of an example right now though.

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ratbastid

I thought the opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite were very clever, and very in keeping with the rest of the film.

You know the best opening credit sequence I've seen lately is for the HBO original series Carnivale. BRILLIANT mood-setting and era-setting, totally establishes this hidden, mysterious world playing itself out just behind the backdrop of the depression-era dustbowl.

Ganggreen

This was the first one that came to mind to me also, Best opening and ending. Was very original and quite creepy. Really stuck with ya' and totally set the tone for the whole film.

Ganggreen

Just thought of another clever one...."Momento"...VERY good beginning.

shesus

I completely forgot about that. I loved the beginning music too. The visuals were incredible. I'm very disappointed this show isn't coming back.

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