Major films marred by something small, but important
Mary Poppins – the kids’ mother is shown as flakey, and so consumed by a silly hobby, that she has no time for her children. Actually, she was a suffragette, and her “hobby” was “Votes for Women.” Not so silly.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Charlie is more than just good-hearted. He comes off as a Mary Sue. In particular, the sequence where Charlie moves Willy Wonka to reconcile with his father starts with Wonka meeting Charlie on the street and describing one’s family as an annoyance, who tell you what to do. To which Charlie humbly replies that they do that for your own good. Granted, Charlie didn’t know this, but Wonka’s father was an absolute dental fanatic, making his son wear a cage-like orthodontic aparatus and burning his trick-or-treat candy before his eyes while describing the supposedly noxious substances within. Such extreme parental behavior should not be justified.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Legolas surfs down a staircase on a shield, firing arrows as he goes. Oh, come on!
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - and all applicable sequels - the scene where Harry meets the Weasleys and learns how to get to Platform 9 3/4: how is it that they are in one of the busiest train stations in the country, yet no one else sees them running into a brick column and disappearing.
Kate & Leopold - Leopold has already returned to his time. Kate’s ex-boyfriend Stuart and brother Charlie find photographic proof that Kate was actually in the 19th century and made her way to Leopold’s party in which he was to announce his engagement at the beginning of the movie. But from her perspective, it hasn’t happened yet. So she has to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge at a specific point in the next few minutes to go through that crack in time. The problem we run into is that a cop sees her about to jump, and tried to talk her down. Stuart and Charlie protest and tell the cop it’s okay, and when the cop turns around, Kate has jumped. The cop assumes Kate has made a suicide attempt, and calls for ESU and Harbor Patrol. What happens to Stuart and Charlie?
Raiders of the Lost [Ark]: Leaving aside the colonialist cultural theft, and [wanton] destruction of important archeological sites, there is also the issue that Indiana Jones, didn’t actually do anything effective to stop the NAZIS. In fact they found the [Ark] because he led them right to it. If he had stayed home teaching his classes to doe-eyed co-eds, they still would have gotten their faces melted off. This is actually a recurring theme in his movies where Indy finds all the clues and solves all the puzzles for the bad guys leading them right to the treasure he was assigned [to] protect them from.
Notorious - I always worried the hero and heroine might suffer radiation poisoning after the movie’s otherwise-happy ending.
A Quiet Place - They were able to yell near the waterfall. Why not set up camp there?
The Shawshank Redemption - Andy didn’t pass out from the methane in the sewer? And his suit stayed clean and dry in that flimsy plastic package?
Iron Man 2. Rhodey, in the War Machine suit, fires what he believes to be a bunker-buster bomb at Whiplash, who’s standing only a few feet from him. Thankfully it was Hammer tech and therefore didn’t work. Yeah, it’s an action comedy, but the bunker buster bomb would have taken out Whiplash, Rhodes, Tony, the entire building, and about three city blocks had it worked. That’s not something you fire at point blank range.