Awesome / Demo Reel

The Dark Knight Begins Rising

• Until she fails the high note, Rebecca's operatic singing of the National Anthem.
• Batman's sacrifice in The Dark Knight Begins Rising where he becomes Bat-Jesus.
• Tacoma's acting as the Joker and Alfred. While all Donnie and Rebecca do is ham, snark or just look bored, he puts in seriously good, almost poignant performances.
• Donnie being a firm enough boss, despite his doormat reputation, to stop Quinn from putting a knife to Tacoma.

Demo Reel Annoys Rob Paulsen

• The fact that ROB PAULSEN is in this video, and improvises is awesome!
  • And Doug is able to keep up with him with both staying absolutely straight-faced. If it wasn't for the video's title, you'd swear it was all scripted.

Transformers

• When Donnie refuses (out of well-intentioned ignorance) to change Rebecca's Megan Fox character from a "slut", she slams his head down on the table so hard it makes him dizzy.
• When Donnie accidentally slut shames Rebecca in an argument and brings up her love scene in Titanic, she goes all out and explains that she was reasserting her sexuality on her own terms. Good response anyway, but with everything we find out later about her issues? You Go, Girl!.
• And then there's Rebecca's successful attempt at getting Donnie completely on her side.
  Megan Fox!Rebecca: Oh sure, I may like fixing cars in the rainy mudpits of the California Spring Break, but there's more to me than that. My father always wanted a boy, but he died while on a mission in North Korea. Since then, I decided to dedicate my life to avenging his death. I may act like a tomboy, but I'm also a woman, with feelings and longing and regret. I'm more than just a object, I'm a human being."
  Sam Witwicky!Donnie: Wow. I actually listened to most of that. I actually kind of liked it. Oh look you just went inside changed outfits and came out here again!
  *Rebecca's head goes from being photo-shopped onto a bikini clad model to being photo-shopped onto a businesswoman wearing a suit*
  • Reality Subtext as well, as in To Boldly Flee Doug didn't understand why Lindsay was angry about the costume because he didn't think it was sexualized. Having Rebecca yell at Donnie for essentially the same reason seems to suggest he finally got it.

Wreck-It Ralph Vs Angry Birds

• Rebecca beating the evil turkey to death with a baseball bat.
  • "Hey Turkey! Gobble this!"
  • "Happy Thanksgiving, Motherclucker!"
    • Then she eats it alive, and then eats its eggs!
  • During Midwest Media Expo 2015, when asked their favorite moment of Rachel's, both Doug and Rob pick this beatdown as their first choice.
• Just before the above happened, Quinn is out of it, Tacoma is understandably terrified, and Carl, well:
  Carl (calmly): Welcome bird-demon. You have travelled far to collect a debt. But I will go down with my shipmates, a lifetime of killing all creatures, great and small finally atoned for. *Lights cigarette*
• For a prop on a show with a shoestring budget, that turkey was impressive.
• Give Donnie credit. Even though it exhausts him and he's worried sick over Tacoma, he finishes the movie and plays all the characters.
  • His Final Speech in the Wreck-It Ralph parody. He Really Can Act.

Lost in Translation (Bromance Version)

• For those pissed off by her Disposable Woman treatment in the original Skyfall, Rebecca-as-Severine bitch-slapping Donnie-as-Bond for being disrespectful to her.
  • Bonus points for Donnie finally coming through on the feminism he lied about in the pilot.
• How quickly Tacoma comes to Rebecca's aid; he doesn't even hesitate (remember, this is the guy who was intimidated by the turkey [a.k.a. bird-demon] in the last episode).
• Rebecca is alone, it's dark, she gets a creepy phone call and finds a guy in a mask at the window threatening her. Her reaction: calmly ask if his car is the one getting towed. Doubles as a Funny Moment.
• Bash Donnie's lack of manly all you like, but his perking out a "hi!" when he realized he'd been kidnapped was still cool.

The Blair Witch Hangover

• Femmy guy awesome: When his woods experience starts, Donnie taking time out to cry because he needs it, and feeling better afterwards. No bullshit about Manly Tears or Men Don't Cry here.
• Donnie’s survival attempts (some of them anyway) were pretty clever (even if they didn’t work): trapping the squirrel and using his hat as a rain catcher.
• Rebecca is impressively multi-talented: guitar, juggling, cartwheels, draws caricatures, and can do the splits.
• Rebecca's speech on how much it sucks to be an actress in Hollywood. Even better? Half of it was written by Doug and Rob, the other half was improvised by Rachel. Kudos to all three people.

Blue Patches

• In an effort to save Donnie from dwelling on his past for too long, Tacoma and Rebecca decide to use the Demo Reel name to make a sequel to Blue Patches, the film Donnie's late mother starred in, before he comes back. ... but this time, they take it seriously! This results in a full 4 to 5 minutes of the episode spent on scenes from a movie with no comedy! For the first time, Demo Reel makes something good! Doubles as a Heartwarming entry.
• Between the epic beatdown Rebecca, Donnie and Carl give the SWAG agent in succession, Donnie's epic rant about clinging to hard to past badness, and Tacoma's writing of the above, damn near the entire episode is awesome.
  • Donnie's "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  “Alright, S.W.A.G., you called down the thunder, well, now you got it. *Holds up video camera* You see that? It says that I’m a film maker. Take a good look at it S.W.A.G. because that’s the way you’ll never end up. The Swedes are finished; you understand me?! I see a Swedish flag, I kick the ass wearing it! So run, you cur! RUN! AND TELL ALL THE OTHER CURS THAT DONNIE DUPRE IS COMING!! YOU TELL THEM JIMMY BOYD IS COMING!! AND FILM’S COMING WITH ME, YOU HEAR!! FILM’S! COMING! WITH ME!!
• Donnie's attire after returning to the studio. The dude looks like he took on the Amazons and won.
• Donnie holding the family that was holding him captive at knife point and giving them a well done "Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • The beginning of the scene is particularly badass. The family rushes in after realizing they forgot to dope Donnie, only to find his bed missing. Then Donnie slowly shuts the door and rattles off the final line in a way that makes talking about a muscle relaxer come off as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
  Donnie: You people! You never mean anything by it when you really think about it; it’s when you don’t think about it that your inner dicks come out!
  • Hell, even the beginning is awesome, where he gives a Sarcasm Mode confession about how hard it is to act after a parent commits suicide, awesomely giving a Deconstruction of the shallowness of Accentuate the Negative. The family loudly brushes it off as him being funny, but in the process he makes a rather valid point to keep in mind.
  • Also the speech about people who obsess about something awful from the past and turn it into their lives, slamming not just the family, but the whole Accentuate the Negative fixation of Critic, the site and the fandom who craves that.
• Karl's Team Dad call-out of Tacoma and Rebecca prying into Donnie's personal life.
  Tacoma: Donnie... we're sorry about prying, we didn't mean to.
  Karl: Ja you did.

The Review Must Go On

• The Nostalgia Critic's theme song at the end. It makes his return even cooler.