# Entertainment options: what's your absolute dealbreakers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821 "2006-07-17T05:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/81 "2006-07-18T20:24:50Z")
GAHHH! That was supposed to be a spoiler box, I got the codes screwed up! :smack: Mods, if you would? Oh heck - I’m gonna report that post… ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/82 "2006-07-18T20:34:12Z")
I have more respect for a movie that’s willing to actually snuff a kid rather than putting a kid (or baby or pregnant woman) in false danger just to manipulate the audience. Usually when Rock Dagger is trying to get his daughter/son/pregnant wife back from the terrorists/drug dealers/serial killer, you know there’s no chance anything will really happen to the hostage so there’s no genuine suspense. It’s all just a jerk-off. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/83 "2006-07-18T20:35:16Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I have more respect for a movie that’s willing to actually snuff a kid rather than putting a kid (or baby or pregnant woman) in false danger just to manipulate the audience. Usually when Rock Dagger is trying to get his daughter/son/pregnant wife back from the terrorists/drug dealers/serial killer, you know there’s no chance anything will really happen to the hostage so there’s no genuine suspense. It’s all just a jerk-off. [/QUOTE] This really ruined Fargo for me. I loved that movie but I knew there was no way they’d hurt the pregnant woman. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/84 "2006-07-18T20:49:27Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Outside of freaky anime, when does this ever happen? [/QUOTE] As **Big Bad Voodoo Lou** pointed out, women falling in love with their rapists - or enjoying the experience of being raped by an established love interest in situations where he forces her into sex after repeated refusals - are staples of romance novels. I don’t know whether the genre would ever have appealed to me, but the distressing regularity with which these types of scenes recur have turned me off entirely. Certainly not all romance novels contain this type of material, but based on my admittedly limited experiences, they’re startlingly common. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/85 "2006-07-18T20:53:51Z")
**Anaamika** , I’m confused… > [@](#): > > But i feel robbed when they take time to make me like/love a major character and then go kill her off. It’s a cheap play on my emotions and it infuriates me. > [@](#): > > This really ruined Fargo for me. I loved that movie but I knew there was no way they’d hurt the pregnant woman. Isn’t this hating a movie for not doing something you hate? ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/86 "2006-07-18T21:01:50Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] I dislike movies with rape or women who would rather stand and scream than run away… [/QUOTE] I agree with you. Also, I stopped watching the CSI television shows because of their fondness of rape. (I **HATE** the “strong character moving on with her life and not going to therapy.” Gee, make every rape survivor in the country feel like a weakling why don’t you?) ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/87 "2006-07-18T21:35:09Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] I dislike movies with _any_ violence against women. Or children. 95% of it is gratuitous anyway, designed to establish a character as a Gold Plated SOB. [/QUOTE] Yeah. We should just be able to tell the bad guys from the good guys by the way they look. > [@](#): > > I also am down on anything where you can tell the good guys from the bad by the way they look. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/88 "2006-07-18T21:58:40Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Outside of freaky anime, when does this ever happen? [/QUOTE] **The Piano** ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/89 "2006-07-18T22:44:25Z")
Snakes. Or at least movies that use them as a main plot point or overuse them etc. For example, I love the Indiana Jones movies, but there are parts of each of them that I simply can’t watch. I won’t be going to see Snakes on a Plane, if anyone was wondering. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/90 "2006-07-18T23:29:36Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] But i feel robbed when they take time to make me like/love a major character and then go kill her off. It’s a cheap play on my emotions and it infuriates me. [/QUOTE] It’s only a cheap play on emotions if it’s a cheap screenplay. In the right hands, such a ploy can be used to devastating effect - see _Psycho_. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/91 "2006-07-19T01:20:49Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] I dislike movies with rape or women who would rather stand and scream than run away… [/QUOTE] I have a hearty dislike for movies in which the victims do utterly nothing to save themselves, either waiting for rescue, or blubbering helplessly while being stalked and killed. I’m usually rooting for the killer when I see it. “Whiny bitch deserved to die!” What makes me shout at the screen (only at home, of course) is when a girl stands there, as helpless as a butterfly, while while her man fights the bad guy. She winces dramatically when he gets hurt and never thinks to pick up a fucking rock and hit the bad guy in the head with it. No, she stand there and gasp while the bad guy chokes the shit out of Our Hero. > [@burundi](#): > > Historical fiction in which the protagonist has the morals and worldview of a 21st person. It drives me insane. Ahab’s Wife is the first example that comes to mind. The heroine thinks like a late 20th century liberal feminist, not like a 19th century woman: “The Indians are our friends! It’s wrong to kill whales!” It’s like watching a movie set in the 1600s in which all the characters are wearing blue jeans. You just named my biggest gripe. Quite a few times, I’ve just had to stop reading because it’s so perposterous. It makes me think an author is lazy-- that their research consisted of getting a book with pictures of the period costumes and reading a few Did You Know? facts about the era. I’m a bit more of a stickler than most, I admit. I get irritated when I see words used incorrectly for the time period (like “nice”) or terms that hadn’t yet been coined. Sometimes, I see characters using items which hadn’t been invented or were so grossly expensive that only the ultra-wealthy could have had them. I’m also pretty pissed about the new trend of Inspirational books [masquerading](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=375338) as Historical Fiction. I’ve started making a list of the publishers so that I can avoid them. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/92 "2006-07-19T12:21:38Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Outside of freaky anime, when does this ever happen? [/QUOTE] _Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!_ ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/93 "2006-07-19T14:19:30Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Outside of freaky anime, when does this ever happen? [/QUOTE] GONE WITH THE WIND… kinda (Rhett to Scarlett) THE FOUNTAINHEAD…kinda (Howard to Dominique) Tho Ayn Rand said RE the latter- “If that was rape, it was rape by engraved invitation.” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/94 "2006-07-19T14:27:21Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] **Anaamika** , I’m confused… Isn’t this hating a movie for not doing something you hate? [/QUOTE] I think they shouldn’t have had a pregnant woman in that position, that’s all… I really liked Marge (that’s her name, right?) but I knew there was no chance anything would happen to her. I remember thinking that, too, “Ooo she’s going to meet the killer alone - but she’s preggers, so there’s no chance the directors would ever harm a hair on her head.” It just takes me out of the movie. **Hodge** , you’re right of course. Let me rephrase - I hate when they build up an emotional character and kill him/her/it needlessly. If it fits seamlessly into the plot, or even is vital to the plot, I may not like it but I understand where it fits. But if it’s just arbitrary…I can’t think of any examples off-hand, unfortunately. I am with Lissa, too on the cowardly screaming woman crap. Indian movies are all like this - the woman is being grabbed or whatever and all she can do is scream “Bachao!” (“Save me!”) There is a hell of a lot of criticism of Arnold movies (some of it justifiable) but if you look at his movies his women are never weak spineless things. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/95 "2006-07-19T14:46:27Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] **Hodge** , you’re right of course. Let me rephrase - I hate when they build up an emotional character and kill him/her/it needlessly. If it fits seamlessly into the plot, or even is vital to the plot, I may not like it but I understand where it fits. But if it’s just arbitrary…I can’t think of any examples off-hand, unfortunately. [/QUOTE] Wash in _Serenity_. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/96 "2006-07-19T14:58:14Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] Wash in _Serenity_. [/QUOTE] I haven’t seen Serenity. I eventually plan to see it, and have been planning to see it for a while, but the rabid fans are scaring me more than a bit. :eek: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/97 "2006-07-19T15:24:03Z")
Rabid, I’m not. I _just_ picked up and watched the DVD this weekend, so it was fresh in my mind. But I agree, rabid fans of any genre are annoying and do more to scare people away than to drum up interest in their niche. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/98 "2006-07-19T15:28:01Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] Rabid, I’m not. I _just_ picked up and watched the DVD this weekend, so it was fresh in my mind. But I agree, rabid fans of any genre are annoying and do more to scare people away than to drum up interest in their niche. [/QUOTE] Which is part of the reason I just can’t get into _Buffy, Firefly, Lost,_ or _Stargate_… ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/99 "2006-07-19T15:28:20Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] Rabid, I’m not. I _just_ picked up and watched the DVD this weekend, so it was fresh in my mind. But I agree, rabid fans of any genre are annoying and do more to scare people away than to drum up interest in their niche. [/QUOTE] Not you. I haven’t seen you doing it. But in every CS thread, there are Whedonites proclaiming the superiority of their god! “Greatest director of all time” - Whedon. “Greatest film of all time” - Serenity. “Who could have done this better?” Whedon. I am NOT saying he is not good. I’m just saying that he has to stand the test of time better than a couple of years before he can be considered “great” anything. I know people complain about the SW fanboys - and with good reason - but I can also say that SW is still being discussed over 20 years later. How many things get that fame (or notoriety )? If Whedon can manage that kind of staying power I shall be more impressed.. My little soapbox aside, I most certainly will watch Serenity. I’ve heard many good things about it, how it flouts the norm (Now I’ve got flout/flaunt all mixed up but I think that’s the right one), how it’s engaging and witty and brilliant. It sounds good to me. I just have to get myself to the movie rental place, and I go there once every 3-4 months, so it takes time. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821/100 "2006-07-19T15:36:52Z")
Throughout all of these, I’ve thought of examples of movies that had the “dealbreaker” in it and I’ve still enjoyed… but Rob Schneider is unforgivable. The Wayans brothers are on the fast track too. White Chicks? Little Man? To make it worse, there’s some stupid commercial where one of the Wayans calls some phone service to ask if the idea of Little Man is funny, and supposedly the computer says it’s going to be very funny. WHAT THE HELL?! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainment-options-whats-your-absolute-dealbreakers/364821.md?page=6)