# Little mistakes that take you out of the movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969 "2009-02-22T19:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/201 "2009-05-04T03:10:26Z")
**drachillix** , I think it has already been mentioned that the common mistake is to show two circles. I was pointing out someone that got it right. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/202 "2009-05-04T04:41:17Z")
After all the love on page 1 about Jurassic Park, I’m surprised no one else chimed in. I’ve mentioned in another thread that this is one of the movies I don’t think hold up on multiple viewings (although I will concede the CGI dinos are still pretty great). However, the one moment that really bugs me is when Dr. Grant, in order to test the fence to see if it’s live, throws a wooden stick at it. Brilliant, Dr. Grant. :rolleyes: Next time, stick your tongue on it, you bozo. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/203 "2009-05-04T05:32:18Z")
> [@dujo](#): > > None of this puzzles me nearly as much as their use of octagonal paper. OK? Every time I see the amount of wasted labor and paper that one little design affectation would cost, the monumental inefficiency of such a design, it costs me a moment of concentration. Whoever came up with that should be fired. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/204 "2009-05-04T15:30:08Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Well aren’t alligators and tortoises and iguanas basically left over and pretty much unchanged from those times? Yes, but birds are genetically closer to dinosaurs than alligators or iguanas are. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/205 "2009-05-04T16:25:43Z")
> [@Henjin](#): > > ‘Fanwank.’ Heheh. I dunno if I’d say that. Just saw the movie once several years ago… > I really can’t remember what the pronunciation was like, but you’re right that there’s no real established English pronunciation for it. I guess my main point was the plurals. There can be fanwanking without being a fan–“nice-person-trying-to-give the-director-the-benefit-of-the-doubt-ing” doesn’t quite flow off the tongue (nor the fingers, on the keyboard). So my apologies for any unintended connotations that went along with using the best word I could find. 😉 The pronunciation was “yuh-KOOZE-uh,” definitely with the stress on the second syllable. And I’m pretty sure about the schwas in the first and third. Maybe the dialect coach just did a really bad job of explaining pitch-accent… ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/206 "2009-05-04T23:54:45Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > I could be wrong, but has it been a couple of years since you had occasion to take a pregnancy test? These days, a lot of them can be used at any time of the day. And some are pretty accurate up to four days before your period’s even due. > > Last time I took one, I did it in the evening of the day I was due. Seven and a half months later, I’m in a position to state definitively that it was accurate. Well, it worked _once_. That’s hardly scientific. You need to be able to repeat the experiment. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/207 "2009-05-05T00:32:40Z")
> [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](#): > > … Somehow, in this amazingly dangerous moment facing her imminent demise, she gathers her modesty and pushes her dress back down, as if her bare backside will be more harmful to her than being crushed by tons of iron and brick. > > Sheesh. > > Of course, Spidey saves the day, but the whole moment is now ruined. After that, the rest of the movie just got sappy. At least there were only 10 minutes left. Like I said, not really drew me totally out of the movie, but it was another instance of the actor coming out of character and remembering she’s an actress. But at least it makes sense that she has panties. In _Clash of the Titans_, once a goddess is enraged by Cassiopeia’s comparison of her daughter Andromeda to said goddess, we see some really, really bad weather. I don’t know if most people realized this, even those who watched it multiple times, but as the crowd of people gets knocked about by the fierce wind, you see one dude with bright blue underwear under his robe. 😛 But as someone pointed out in an apa called Interlac, the same person who drew my attention to the undies when I next saw the movie, the real problem is that all the mythology is royally ucked fup. :eek: Except for a few characters being the same, it in no way resembles the “real” story. _ **- Jack** _ ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/208 "2009-05-05T02:09:33Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Just watched the director’s cut of the first Star Trek movie. Haven’t seen it in a long time. I found a perfect example. > > Kirk gives an order when they enter the wormhole (fire phasers), which Decker countermands. When the situation is resolved, Kirk tells Decker “we have to talk” _and McCoy comes along_. What? When the Captain is preparing to chew out (or at least question) the first officer, the doctor doesn’t join in. That’s private, unless it’s specifically being done on the record. > > Of course, there were 397-1/2 other examples in that movie, but this is the one that caught my attention. I just watched The Motion Picture on Thursday, and I could have sworn Kirk tells McCoy to come along- he isn’t randomly following them. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/209 "2009-05-05T14:12:50Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Well, it worked _once_. That’s hardly scientific. You need to be able to repeat the experiment. 😃 Citizens demand wild orgy. **For science!** ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/210 "2009-05-05T16:22:45Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > I just watched The Motion Picture on Thursday, and I could have sworn Kirk tells McCoy to come along- he isn’t randomly following them. We already sent it back, so I can’t check, but my recollection is that McCoy said something to the effect of, “mind if I come along?” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/211 "2009-05-05T16:26:23Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > We already sent it back, so I can’t check, but my recollection is that McCoy said something to the effect of, “mind if I come along?” That’s also my memory, from both movie and novelization. I also seem to recall from the latter that Kirk is annoyed at McCoy’s coming along and wants him to stay out of it, but can’t think of a reason to keep him away–because, as he knows McCoy’s purpose is to evaluate his mental state, complaining about the doctor DOING HIS JOB just gives the doctor more ammo. It’s pretty clear that McCoy only _asks_ to come along because he’s being polite. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/212 "2009-05-05T17:02:32Z")
When you explain it that way, **Skald** , it makes sense. I withdraw my objection. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/213 "2009-05-05T17:10:06Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > When you explain it that way, **Skald** , it makes sense. I withdraw my objection. :: strokes beard :: Wait.. are you saying that **I’M** making sense? 'Cause even I think that’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/214 "2009-06-08T22:46:55Z")
> [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](#): > > Somehow, in this amazingly dangerous moment facing her imminent demise, she gathers her modesty and pushes her dress back down, as if her bare backside will be more harmful to her than being crushed by tons of iron and brick. Supposedly, one of the women who jumped from the WTC on 9/11 was holding her skirt down with one hand, midair. I didn’t see it myself, but there’s an essay about the jumpers that makes quite a point of it. Modesty is just that deeply ingrained in American women. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/215 "2009-06-08T23:12:37Z")
**King Ralph** was on cable this weekend and I was thinking of this thread. These aren’t really “little” mistakes, and I know it was a farce, and the movie was mostly mediocre with a couple of funny moments. (I figure one of Peter O’Toole’s kids must have wanted an Audi since it’s the only reason I can figure him doing the role.) The movie begins with the entire British royal family being accidentally electrocuted. The throne passes to Ralph (John Goodman), a third rate Vegas casino singer and slob who’s the illegitimate grandson of a British prince and thus next in line to the throne. Keep in mind that _I know they weren’t going for believable_, but… 1- There’s no way the entire English royal family could be killed at one time by anything short of an asteroid that wipes out Europe, in which case who the next king would be would be low pri. There are professional genealogists who do nothing but track the births and deaths and lineages of the royals, and legitimate royal family members would number in the tens of thousands. (Victoria’s legitimate descendants alone could probably fill a small stadium.) 2- Illegitimacy automatically excludes one from succession. (The “princes in the tower” were born of King Edward IV’s wife but were excluded from succession because the marriage’s validity was in question; Queen Victoria’s father was a fourth son of George III and her uncle William IV had 10 acknowledged children by his long time mistress to whom he granted titles and bequeathed his personal property, and his brothers George IV and Frederick had illegitimate children as well, but Victoria inherited because she was the only legitimate heir after her uncles and their legitimate children were all dead.) 3- I would seriously doubt that if they _did_ bend the rules to include illegitimate offspring (and their offspring) in the line of succession that they’d give it to an American when royal bastards and their progeny are actually kept tabs of by the genealogists. Portuguese and Spanish and other monarchs occasionally came to the throne from the wrong side of the bedsheets, but the only illegitimate claimants to the English throne had to take it with an army. I think the movie would have worked much better if he’d inherited the throne of a fictitious country, perhaps an English equivalent of Monaco (independent principality), OR if it was discovered that somehow enemies of the crown had switched him and Prince Charles at birth, with the reigning king discovered to be the son of American tourists and the true king Ralph. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/216 "2009-06-09T01:01:48Z")
I’m with ya Sampiro. Wikipedia has a list of [1599 people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_line_of_succession) currently in the line of succession. Even if the current British family were killed off in some freak accident, there are plenty of people eligible from all over Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sealemon2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/217 "2009-06-09T05:20:34Z")
Jurassic Park 2 was a great big steaming turd of a movie. Terrible plot, lame characters (Especially Vince Vuaghn (sp) who’s character is reprehensable but he’s supposed to be the hero). However, the little thing that took me out of the movie was when the giant tractor trailor lab vehicle fell mostly off the side of the cliff, yet didn’t fall all the way off, even though most fo the weight was over the edge of the cliff. And it was muddy. And then the lady (Can’t even remember the character, don’t care enough to look it up) falls from the back of the Suburban Lab to the front windsheild (hanging off the cliff, remember), and she’s on the glass, looking through it to the long drop below, and the glass starts to crack just like sheet glass beneath her fingers. Becuase this vehicle apparently didn’t have safety glass. Worst scene in a VERY bad movie. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/218 "2009-06-09T12:42:53Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I was watching an otherwise forgettable move on the Sci-Fi channel which got this one _right_ the other day. > > Seeing the view through the binocs as just a single circle was so unexpected…that it took me out of the movie! Ever seen Top Secret (early 80’s comedy, Val Kilmer)? There’s a binocs scene in there, but you don’t realize that the black surround is actually part of the scene until a cow hops over the edge of it and stands in FRONT of it. 😃 What takes me out of a movie? Scenes with CGI fighter planes that have a thrust-to-weight ratio of 10, and can execute a 25-G turn. I don’t understand this at all. Flight simulators are pretty damn good these days: it should be easy to have a pilot fly a sim to generate a realistic flight path/attitude sequence, and then use the big computers to render the visual details. Movies with good flying sequences? Top Gun, Outbreak. Bad? Independence Day, Air Force One. want more bad movies? Check out [Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics.](http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Raven\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@The\_Raven\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven_1)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969/219 "2009-06-09T13:19:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > As I remember that movie, SGI provided real computers, but one scene required a notebook computer, which SGI or the production company had to fake, because no such thng existed in reality. (I don’t have a cite, but I think I remember an article about the movie in the SGI in-house magazine at the time.) I thought they used a Connection Machine, although I could be wrong… To contribute, as much as I hate technical silliness, what really boils my shrimp is the “alternate personality/universe” plot device. When the good guy starts blowing people away, or something that defies all logic and common sense happens, and then later it’s revealed that it took place in an alternate reality, or some such nonsense. Just a cheap cop-out to get a great visual for the trailer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-mistakes-that-take-you-out-of-the-movie/486969.md?page=10)