And by the fact that you actually called the number is proof that non-555 numbers would be a disaster. Actually, that is not the only thing that is changed in films. I worked for a film studio and they had people combing through scripts to make sure they were using generic company names, generic character names, etc. to avoid lawsuits. I have a name that is the same as a celebrity, and I get little kids calling me Sat nights (slumber party nights?) wondering if I am the “real” one…so you can imagine how thrilled all the ie. "Jane Dartmouth"s would be if that was the name of a terrorist traitor in a spy film.
(You could use the name, but make sure a real Jane Dartmouth doesn’t really work at the same place, live in the same town and look similar! Otherwise, your legal department will not be pleased.)
Back on the subject:
Who comes home and high-jumps over a couch from behind and lands on their back to watch tv?
The first time a character coughs in a film, you know they’re gonna be dead of cancer/leukemia/asthma by the end of the reel.
ALL scenes of parties with dancing guests evenly-spaced out in the background are so unrealistic…and most of those scenes have people doing the most godawful dancing you have ever seen…
Most of these things are a result of time constraints I guess. At least on TV.
People always pick up the phone on the first ring or less. Nobody gets put on hold. You hear a dial tone when the terrorist/bad guy hangs up on the hero, and they continue to say “Hello?? Hello?” and clicking the switch as if that will somehow bring back the connection.
Helicopters are used to mind-numbing stupidity routinely. They have a “hush” silent mode that the Pentagon would love to have, maybe Hollywood can help them out. Aircraft have an internal communications system (ICS) which is quite good, shouting just isn’t part of the plan in real life.
As a former military guy, seeing actors portray soldiers is pretty tough, what with grossly out of reg haircuts, trashed uniforms, pockets undone etc. Typically, they have high ranking officers ordering privates around in typical Drill Sergeant fashion, which just isn’t done.
I’ve spent a few years in a marching band. It’s hard work. Whenever a marching band is featured, it’s either a flawless performance, in which case it’s background, or so hideously inept as to be a laughingstock.
This one’s bugged me for a while, but finally gets vented (probably because I’ve been watching Star Trek too often lately). When the aliens send a hail to our heroes they usually take a minute to figure out what to do. “Who are they? What could they want? Any ideas?” When our heroes send a message, it’s always “::press button:: No response, Cap’n.” Maybe they’re wondering who the heck’s calling? Hmm?
Pregnant women must always go into labor and must always have the baby in an elevator, a speeding car, by the side of the road, etc., but never in the hospital. Labor takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.
Yes, bluethree, yes! The teeth drive me crazy, too. It was especially noticeable in From Hell. The British actors all had dingy teeth, and even Johnny Depp’s were crooked, but Heather Grahame must have had the whitest, straightest teeth of any whore in London. It was really jarring.
Movie Parking! In the movies, there is a parking space right in front of anywhere you want to go. The Drew Barrymore film NEVER BEEN KISSED was particularly egregious about this. Student Drew parks her car directly in front of the school. Gee, I guess the student parking lot in the back was full, so they let the kids park right in front, and there just happened to be a spot for her.
Re: ladies running in heels. I think it was an episode of REMINGTON STEEL where Rem asks Laura how she manages to run in those heels. Her reply: “Practice”
You don’t need to have a toll free number. Simply any number just to own it. You wouldn’t even hook a phone up to it. It would just exist. If someone called it, they’d get nothing.
I agree with many of the already mentioned items, especially “not saying ‘goodbye’ before hanging up the telephone.”
Here are some that I haven’t seen mentioned:
Streets are often wet during night time scenes (someone thinks it looks better that way, I guess!).
When a character is writing something down, it is obvious he is just scribbling. Why this bothers me, I don’t know, but it does!
(This thread was fun. Thanks for starting it!)
People who use firearms in movies that seem to have no idea how to properly use them. No, the gun doesn’t work better when you constantly rack/pump the slide. It only needs to be done once and it should have been done before you went into a dangerous area. (*Oh Brother, Where art thou? * got on my nerves with this when one character pulls out a tommy gun and starts shooting at cop cars, but then stops every few seconds to cock the gun again).
A collary to this is how there seems to be only one sound hollywood uses for this kind of thing, and it’s not possible that different guns make different noises.
A collary to this collary would be when people rack guns that can’t be racked (The sound of a pump action shotgun being racked while the character is holding a double barreled gun).
And one that seemed to piss off only me, and I still have no idea why. My friends are still sick of hearing me talk about it.
In the 1998 version of * Les Miserables *, has the main character stomping through the sewers of 1832 Paris to escape from the riots up above. However, the sewer is well lit and clean(Hell, it looked clean enough to out of without having to worry about getting sick or dying soon after). I would think that the sewer of a 19th century major city would be a lot darker and nastier.
Maybe it just bugged me because I was reading the book at the time and the author had taken several chapters to explain what a dirty nasty place the sewer really was(as well the description of the trek, where the main character nearly drowns in the muck).
Oh, and finally…for anyone who is still alive and reading… Once the bad guy is defeated, his fortress will explode for no reason whatsoever.
not to mention that the studio would have to buy the number in question in EVERY area code. Gah!
Yeah, besides, how many people dance at parties anyway? I can think of maybe one party that I’ve been to that had dancing, yet whenever the teenage kids go to a party at someone’s house, the living room is always PACKED with dancing teens. ???
Carrie Bradshaw’s character on Sex and The City is a columnist for a local newspaper. She never wears the same designer outfit twice (complete with matching handbag, jewelry, $300 shoes), eats out every meal, takes yoga and kick-boxing classes and lives alone in a great apartment in a nice part of Manhattan. How much are we to believe she gets paid for a column that many of her new acquaintances have never even heard of?
Why is it that no one in the movies has a normal house? You know, baskets full of folded clothes in the living room, a treadmill with clothes hanging all over it, Nintendo wires coming out of the t.v…? Does noboby in the movies have an actual “normal” life?
Even the poorest of characters in Hollywood have stepped-out-of-the-salon hair, pristine complexions, remarkable teeth, and sculpted arms with abs of steel. Poor Demi Moore was a struggling single mom in Strip Tease but she had time to do 3 hours of aerobics/weight training each day.
No one who is overweight in the movies has a sex life. If you are larger than a size 6, you will be cast as the best friend. And you will be funny. But you will be asexual.
sometimes they get it right - the assignment in ten things i hate about you (write your own version of one shakespeare’s sonnets) was a good assignment and very similar to one i did get in english class.
however (and although this was a tv show, the point stands), in gilmore girls, which is normally quite attentive to detail and accuracy, rory has to study for an english assignment on shakespeare (i think), but she only studies events and such in his life.
what? why would she be doing an assignment on shakespeare’s life history in a high school english class? you study the plays, not the guy!
didn’t the writers go to high school.
also, the way periods only last for a minute. students file into a room, sit down, make smartarse comments, the bell rings and the teacher yells out the homework while the class files out. all in the space of sixty seconds.
and finally, the way drunk people sober up quickly enough to have meaningful convertsations. such as in ten things i hate about you. julia stiles is almost passing out in one scene, and the next she’s seriously discussing her relationship with heath ledger. she couldn’t have sobered up that quickly!
whenever an embarrassing or notable or climatic situation comes up in a high school. EVERYBODY looks to see what is going on and everybody cares. in teen movies, the teenagers, especially the cool kids, are played by actors and actresses in their twenties. oh, and everybody’s white. the schools are in perfect condition. and everybody has nice clothes on, nobody looks poor in anyway. i mean everyone is driving nice cars too. oh, accept for the rebel kid. he has to walk to school.
Yup. Dirt. Pick your historical genre: old medieval knights-in-shining-armor, civil war movies, WWI or WWII flicks, you name it; everyone is always CLEAN. Faces, hands, clothes, you name it; it looks like they just stepped out of the shower and put on fresh dry-cleaned costumes. Hogwash.
It always bugs me when the hero acts heroic at the expense of common sense. He won’t shoot the bad guy in the back, won’t fight an unarmed man, won’t hit him when he’s down, ect. I realize that these are supposed to make him look more heroic, but come on. It’s unrealistic. “Even though this guy killed my partner, my family and my poodle named Snuffles, I will not shoot him or any of his henchmen in the back or take any kind of unfair advantage.” It doesn’t make him seem heroic, it makes him seem like an idiot, in my book anyway. I’m not saying the hero should do bad things to win, but he should use some practicality.
Sorry, just the idea of a “fair fight” annoys me, especially in movies where they don’t fit.