God bless Mr. Cranky!

[Greg_Charles]

From Mr. Cranky’s review of Paycheck

… at one point Uma Thurman’s character says something like: “He’s after you and I.” It’s really hard to imagine there wasn’t ONE PERSON on the set that couldn’t recognize and correct this grammatical error. Oh sure, it’s made so often now that one could just assume Uma’s character is stupid, but given how many rewrites and double-checks this script endured, it’s nothing short of amazing that NOT ONE PERSON could get this right. Just so everybody knows, “he” is the subject of that sentence. “I” is the subjective form of that pronoun. “Me” is the objective form. Since Uma’s “I” is the object of that sentence, the proper thing to say is: “He’s after you and me.” You wouldn’t say, “He’s after I,” would you? So you wouldn’t say “He’s after you and I” either. Don’t you think if a giant penis walked across the middle of a scene during a key moment, the filmmakers would catch that? This grammatical error is no less glaring.

Bless you Mr. Cranky. Bless you! You will figure prominently in my prayers the next time I get around to making them.

[_ceQueen]

Haha, was just reading that.

[scout1222]

Well, by the time the thread loaded I knew really who you were talking about, but…

…I wondered what CrankyAsAnOldMan’s husband had done for you!

[sub]Hey Mr. Cranky - if you ever see a movie with a giant penis walking across the scene, you’ll let us know, right???[/sub]

[lieu]

“He’s after you and a giant glaring penis.”

Hmmm… yeah, I guess he’s right.

[Homebrew]

I wondered the same thing, scout1222; and I didn’t get it until it did load. As to the OP, that is one of my biggest language pet peeves.

[ShibbOleth]

I’ve heard of a penis referred to as a “one-eyed trouser snake”, but really wasn’t aware that they could “glare”. Now that’s as frightening an image as I’ve had all day.

[scout1222]

Shibb, that’s okay. You probably haven’t spent much of your life in the position to notice one glaring.

[friedo]

Mr. Cranky read my mind. That line pissed me off so much, it totally kept me from enjoying the rest of the movie. Not that the movie was any good anyway.

[Peanuthead]

Well, somebody ought to tell Mr. Cranky that

• It’s really hard to imagine there wasn’t ONE PERSON on the set that couldn’t recognize and correct this grammatical error.*

should be:

• It’s really hard to imagine there wasn’t ONE PERSON on the set who couldn’t recognize and correct this grammatical error.*

It’s people who, damn it, not people that.

[BobLibDem]

Mr. Cranky is awesome. Here’s my favorite Cranky quote, regarding Picture Perfect starring Jennifer Aniston:
“Unfortunately, this plot has more contrivances than the front page of the Weekly World News, so director Glenn Gordon Caron is forced to turn to the preferred fallback plot of most overweight slag directors: Make your lead actress wear increasingly smaller dresses in the hope of seeing her breasts shoot out of the top like a pair of runaway armadillos.”

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

Peanuthead, you’re wrong:

Some grammarians have argued that only who and not that should be used to introduce a restrictive relative clause that identifies a person. This restriction has no basis either in logic or in the usage of the best writers; it is entirely acceptable to write either the woman that wanted to talk to you or the woman who wanted to talk to you.

Secondly, I’m glad Mr. Cranky pointed this out: writers should be forbidden from ever writing dialogue in which characters use less-than-perfect grammar. Not only is it unrealistic for characters to use improper grammar, it also encourages moral turpitude amongst the younger generation.

I do hope he’ll rant and rave at every “ain’t” and double negative that comes out of any character’s mouth from here on out.

A little grammar knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Daniel

[Homebrew]

“Ain’t” is in the dictionary

Main Entry: ain’t
Pronunciation: 'Ant
Etymology: contraction of are not
Date: 1778
1 : am not : are not : is not
2 : have not : has not
3 : do not : does not : did not – used in some varieties of Black English
usage Although widely disapproved as nonstandard and more common in the habitual speech of the less educated, ain’t in senses 1 and 2 is flourishing in American English.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

Why, in that case, I suppose characters in film ought to be allowed to say “ain’t”: if it’s in the dictionary, it ain’t unrealistic for characters to say it.

I stand by my main point, however, that Mr. Cranky is right to be infuriated by imperfect grammar emerging from characters’ lips, and is right to assume that only a writer who doesn’t understand grammar could commit such a dialogical travesty.

Daniel

[Greg_Charles]

CrankyAsAnOldMan has a husband? That brings up two obvious questions:

1. Is he the basis for the “old man” comparison?

2. Is he the reason she is cranky?
   For some reason, “ain’t” doesn’t bother me. I guess it’s because people using it usually realize it’s not grammatical and are just being colorful, or making fun of Southerners. Ain’t nothing wrong with that!

[Doomtrain]

*Originally posted by scout1222 *
**[sub]Hey Mr. Cranky - if you ever see a movie with a giant penis walking across the scene, you’ll let us know, right???[/sub] **

I believe that happened in one of Troma’s fine flicks. I want to say Tromeo and Juliet, but I’m not sure.