Being an ex-pilot, and an aviation buff, two things frost my gourd.
Using a tricked out DeHaviland Tiger Moth to substitute for a WWI biplane. It is absolutely impossible to disguise the slightly sweptback wings of a Tiger Moth to look anything like an SE-5 or any other WWI plane. Even as good a movie as “Laurence of Arabia” tried to do this, without success.
Showing almost any WWI airplane using a radial engine instead of a rotary engine, which was almost invariably the source of power. When a rotary engine is running, because it is turning at the same speed as the propeller, the cylinders are just a blur.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie where they got those two things right.
BTW, I did actually see a movie that had a binocular view as a single round disk, instead of a double disk. It was years ago in a Clark Gable movie (costarring, I think, Marilyn Monroe). It really seemed a little strange.
You never see period films either with people walking about with great bloody tumors hanging from their faces…and everything is toooooo cleeean no matter how trashy they try and make it look.
Or people with scurvy, scrofula, or tertiary syphilis. I think Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that the last used to be quite common.
I laughed every time they showed nude women lounging around in The Tudors. They all had absolutely perfect bodies and glowing skin. Not a hairy leg or armpit on any of them.
Table stakes definitely, but tables typically don’t have a straight percentage rake - I’ve never seen one. They typically rake more than 4% up until a point where it is capped at between 4$ and 7$. And some tables have an hourly fee rather than a rake, which I’ve never seen but does happen occasionally as I’ve seen fee schedules for poker rooms which mention it.
If my experience yesterday is typical, people who have the Heimlich maneuver performed on them do not spit up a little piece of food and go on like nothing happened, with no after effects. They spit up everything they ate recently, along with some stomach acid, which burns their throat. Then they walk around with a painful throat and a hurting chest for a few hours.
That used to bother me, but what’s the alternative? If they go the realistic route then almost every civilian would behave similarly; dropping what they’re doing, and nervously trying to be as helpful as possible. The same response over and over would get old.
So it’s kinda nice to emphasize “This is the Gardener Guy; he’ll continue spraying plants while talking to police, and might throw in some floral anecdotes (that may even later prove useful)”.
I think even filmmakers are aware of this one by now but deliberately choose to ignore it and consider it an acceptable break from reality.
My own view is that we can imagine that the camera’s “ear” is pressed up against whichever object is making noise. After all, the camera’s ear is allowed to jump around even in regular non- sci-fi movies.
The filmmakers could even make this somewhat explicit by making the various sounds in space somewhat tinny and deep having the quality that sounds going through solid material have.
So many plotlines then run on the notion that if I raise X and you don’t have X, the only options are to fold or you’re obliged to offer your house / first born / faberge eggs.
Never seen a game played with these rules.
I only starting noticing this after reading someone else mention it last year, but now I see it everywhere: in period movies all the cars are pristine. Cars parked in the background, driving past the characters, etc look like they came right out of a showroom, because they have. You’ll only ever see a car with damage if it’s a plot point, every single other car on the road looks shiny and brand new.
Probably because they borrow them from the enthusiasts who’ve lovingly restored them to Concours levels and would strenuously object to dirt being applied, never mind a few dents.
In line with that, nobody takes keys out of ignition when leaving, they don’t put car in park, so apparently when they come out they never have to engage car into drive
Often it sets them up for a Quick Back-Away. At the end of a list of questions, the office worker, doctor, whatever, starts to back away, asking “And if there are no further questions?” The pair of cops waves them away. He turns and leaves while they turn and start evaluating his answers and planning who to talk to next. He can’t possibly be listening to them because if the camera is off of him and the cops aren’t looking at him, he can’t be there, right?
I saw that happen once when I was visiting Michigan. Is Michigan PNW? Before then I had only seen it in old horror movies.
*Red 2 *is on right now and the bad guy is aiming his mini-gun fire a foot above the ground. Same thing happens all the time in TV and movies. Ummm…I’ll fire a foot or two above the ground so the good guys can crawl away! I don’t remember where I saw it, but only one show or movie got it right. If you’re going to fire multiple shots through a door or building, fire low as so at least you’re likely to hit the person on the other side in the foot or shin, at least incapacitating them.
Sometimes it’s obviously a blanket with nothing inside it, so you just don’t see the baby’s face. Like you say, it is fair enough that they don’t have the baby on set, but it’s a little odd that they don’t even bother with a proper prop.
What makes that one worse is the way done of the actors hold the “baby” really carelessly, like it’s as delicate and important as a sack of potatoes. And sure, in reality it is, but it’s a bit of an acting failure if you can’t even get close to acting like you’re holding a baby.
The “I’ll hit you, then wait until you hit me before we continue.” or the gang fight where everyone waits their turn or battles one on one. Watch a prison riot or a gang fight and everyone is going at anyone within sight and if someone’s already being ganged up on, even better. Join in!
Edit: Also, not hitting or kicking in the groin. I talked about his in another thread. If I was in an all out fight for my life, I’d punch, kick, bite, grab the groin of the other person, male of female!
Another one from Red 2. Yeah, I know the entire movie is unrealistic, but ten’s of thousands of lives are at stake, and good guy (in this case gal), let’s the bad guy go because there’s someone in the way. If it’s one bystander versus tens or hundreds of thousands of lives at stake, SHOOT!!!
I’m pretty sure this is from a Hollywood movie since I can clearly hear the dialog in my mind. Woman being held in front the bad guy yelling “Shoot! Shoot!”. The good guy shoots her in the shoulder and kills the bad guy who’s shocked and may have said, “You shot me!?”. Woman says to the good guy. “You shot me!”. Good guy says, “You told me to!”.
I tried to watch *Armageddon * when it was on TV a long time ago and just could bear the: Oh, how tragic, they’re not going to be able to return home. cue sad music. So what! They’re going to save the Earth! What’s a few lives compared to the entire human population?
Not so much of a “gaffe” rather than just non-realistic, but in battle scenes, riders are almost always carefully plucked off of their horses, sparing the animal.
I realize this is done because #1 protecting the animals, and #2 it’s much easier to train an actor to fall off a horse than it is to train a horse to collapse onto the ground on cue, but in reality, of course you just kill the horse. It’s the much bigger target, and even if it doesn’t kill the rider, at the very least it puts the him on the ground.
That was from Speed, although it didn’t happen quite as you remember.
The "You shot me" "You told me to" is in a later scene, I couldn't find a clip, but [here's some quotes](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111257/characters/nm0001099?ref_=tt_cl_t5).