# Movies that insult your intelligence. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2002, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499 "2002-12-29T13:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/201 "2003-01-04T07:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PublicBlast \* > \*\* > > On another note, add **Hollow Man** to the list. The three most ridiculous things i can think of off-hand:Uggghhh… \*\* What bugged me about this, that you didn’t mention, is that somehow the fomula makes Kevin Bacon into superman it seems. I didn’t recall anything about that serum giving near invicibilty and super-strength to those who have been injected with it, and they did test it enough that they should have noticed before now. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/202 "2003-01-04T07:53:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\ ***Shallow** fucking **Hal**. \*\* Exactly what bugged you about it other then the fact that Hal is so incredibly dense that he doesn’t realize the real deal with Rosemary until the “Spell” is broken? But then again, character stupidity isn’t a nitpick, particulary when it’s already established said character isn’t the brightest bulb out there. The only other thing I can think of is Hal getting into the Peace Core that fast, but that didn’t really bug me. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_The\_Bold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dale\_The\_Bold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_The_Bold)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/203 "2003-01-04T09:28:09Z")
I have a “sort of” explanation for the **Independence Day** computer virus flaw. Early in the movie, Jeff Goldblum’s character discovered the diminishing numeric countdown. If we assume that he can break this down to binary code, he could create a basic program that would generate random numbers into the cycles throwing off the much more intricate program. This would probably shut down everything on the alien ship unless he could isolate the shield program (but why?). Also, we don’t know about the history of these aliens. They may have only fought against primitive lifeforms and never saw a need for complex programs or needing to take precautions against viruses. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/204 "2003-01-04T13:56:23Z")
I just saw **Independence Day** and when they did the coke can thing, Jeff asked for the can, put it on the ship, cut to shot of jeff fiddling with a control panel behind a few military types, saying ‘now, i’ll demonstrate something’, then says to shoot it. It looked to me like he was turning on the shield with the control panel. ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/205 "2003-01-04T15:02:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > **Too bad MST3k was cancelled years ago.** Oh, sad. I don’t ‘get it’ on my limited satellite selections anymore, but I didn’t know it was canceled. Waaaah. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/206 "2003-01-04T15:27:02Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by ratty_ > **And why does she then kill the doctor, with whom she was in cahoots?** She was trying to get one of the others to kill Price for her. She faked her death to get them to think he was responsible, or at least crazy by accusing everyone else of it. When that didn’t work (they locked him in the crazy spinning room instead of killing him), she decided that she needed to make them think Price had definitely killed someone. The doc made a good choice for the victim for a bunch of reasons - he knew all about her plan, he was already by himself and didn’t have to be isolated like one of the others would, he was the one who agreed to stay and guard Price, and he trusted her, whereas the others would be suspicious if they saw her alive. It did result in the blonde girl shooting Price, so her plan would have worked if not for the mysterious bullet-proof vest Price had. Of course, all those other things still don’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/207 "2003-01-04T15:47:46Z")
> [@](#): > > _ **Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch** _ > This goes back to may last post, somewhat: if you’re going to accept that a giant radioactive mutant iguana can exist at all, I don’t see how you can reasonably criticize its diet. It is, after all, a giant radioactive mutant iguana. And they’re not like other iguanas. Well, here’s the thing…I could walk into a monster movie flick and readily accept that he’s a … well, a _monster_. It’s similar to what another poster mentioned regarding _ **Reign of Fire** _. It’s kind of a given walking into a Godzilla/dragon movie that you have to suspend reality enough to accept the existence of Godzilla/dragons. But when they feebly attempt to explain how he came into being, contorting real scientific facts around their purposes, it just became absurd. Hell, even if they said he’s a product of radiation I’d have been able to go along with it. But an iguana?? Why not just irradiate the Pillsbury Dough Boy (ala the Stay Pufft Marshmallow Man) and have _him_ come tearing through town? There were 12 other points to my hatred of this movie. Fortunately, I don’t remember the movie well enough to remember them. (I do recall a couple of things about the babies irked me, but again…no need to go back there.) ---
**Author:** ![Jukeball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@Jukeball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jukeball)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/208 "2003-01-04T16:36:17Z")
If any of u’ll have come to India or are going to come any time soon or later, stop over at some shady cinema with half working fans and people talking all over the place during the movie . People flying around magically with the props holding them clearly being seen. Most of the movies in those kind of cinemas are like that. It’s almost funny There was this really old Hindi movie in which the star(someone called Mithunda) shoots from this toy gun which can be clearly seen and the 2 bad guys standing opposite him atleast 10 feet apart die together. They actually show the bullet splitting in mid air and hitting each of the bad guys. It’s beyong the unthinkable. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/209 "2003-01-04T20:11:13Z")
> [@](#): > > **Darwin’s Finch** : This goes back to may last post, somewhat: if you’re going to accept that a giant radioactive mutant iguana can exist at all, I don’t see how you can reasonably criticize its diet. There’s a convention in writing that it’s okay to ask the reader to accept the impossible, but not the improbable. (I get the feeling that it started life as Holmes’ Maxim, and then passed through the hands of a few screenwriters.) People don’t seem to mind it when a plot depends on something that is _clearly_ impossible— but once we engage the willing-suspension-of-disbelief as far as it’s necessary to allow the story to take place at all, we like to see _everything else_ in the story conform to our expectations of how the world works. One or two “Get-out-of-reality-free cards,” used imaginatively, can give a story-teller a wider pallete to work with, and make for a much more interesting story. When they turn up more frequently than is necessary, we end up feeling like we’ve lost a hand of poker to someone who somehow has more wild cards than there should even _be_ in a single deck – cheated. With regard to Godzilla’s diet, I can understand the irritation. It’s one thing to be asked to accept the initial conceit that makes the story _possible_, but it’s not unreasonable to expect a degree of internal consistency within the story once that’s done. When I’m wearing my Ontological Hall-Monitor arm-band, lapses in reason that _serve_ the story by being there get amnesty, (if the movie doesn’t have pretentions to realism.) Lapses that aren’t strictly necessary, on the other hand, come across as either laziness on the writers’ part, or contempt for the viewers’ intelligence. Some scribbler’s gonna get detention for sure. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/210 "2003-01-04T21:08:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ratty \* > \*\* > But what about the complete ridiculousness of Geoffrey Rush getting shot about eight times from about ten feet away, and every single bullet either missing him completely or hitting him square in the chest, where he just happens to be wearing a bullet proof vest? And why was he wearing the bullet proof vest in the first place, since he states earlier that he himself loaded the guns with blanks? \*\* He has also stated before that he believes his wife will try to kill him. And even before that, isn’t there a scene in which she is actually trying to kill him? Point is, he doesn’t trust his wife, therefore he puts on all the protection he can have. > [@](#): > > \*\* > > Why would a giant cauldron of blood not have completely coagulated in the intervening 70 years? \*\* Considering the other things the house is capable of doing, just keeping a giant cauldron of blood intact seems no big deal. > [@](#): > > \*\* > > If the whole place was on fire, and the metal plates were over every single exit point, then how did the five staff members escape in the first place? And why do all of the later guests have the same last name? Did none of the women marry? Did they just have kids and pass along their maiden names? \*\* They may have been with their free day, or they may have escaped just before the metal plates were covered…or they found someplace that didn’t burn nor got full with gases. They say they survived, not that they were uninjured. It is possible the women were already married and took their husband’s names. That part is confusing, and they should have explained it better. > [@](#): > > \*\*And if the ghosts made the guest list, and neither rice nor his wife knew who was on it, then how the hell did the doctor end up at the house anyway, since they mention earlier that he’s not related to any of the original five esacped staff members? > \*\* Yea, that part I don’t understand either. Unless he wasn’t using his real name, or maybe he was personally invited by the wife. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/211 "2003-01-05T00:55:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cmkeller \* > \*\*Larry Mudd: > Not quite. Hypothermia isn’t a problem unless you’re immersed in freezing water for a while. Running through freezing water isn’t confortable, but it sure won’t cause you to freeze to death. \*\* Au Contraire darling!!! Hypothermia can happen in temperatures as high as the 50s and does NOT need water. And it CAN and DOES happen to the victim while he/she is still moving. Spending too long, even moving about as they were, in freezing water could very WELL have brought on hypothermia, and probably did for a lot of the victims unfortunate enough to be trapped behind the locking gates. Though actually the people who succumbed to hypothermia as opposed to drowning were the lucky ones, as it basically disorients and then puts the victim into a coma like state before death, but I digress… We have a very active public service training element regarding frostbite, hypothermia, earthquakes, bears, etc, here in Alaska. In addition, part of my duties at my job are to research and author Health and Safety Plans for remote sight work in,well, REMOTE,areas, read: NORTH,and COLD…lol. So I do a LOT of research into those areas. thanx, ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/212 "2003-01-05T01:18:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Greg Charles \* > \*\*Really, entirely true? If they didn’t make it back, then who was there to tell it? It seems to me that everything between, “they went out,” and, “they didn’t return,” must have been pure speculation. \*\* Not only were they in touch by radio, other boats were nearby and one or two (can’t remember this very minute) just about suffered the same fate as they did. I haven’t seen the movie, but saw all the news when it happened and their “true story” on the history channel. Not, of course that we can completely believe the media either, but well there it is… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/213 "2003-01-05T01:24:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Greg Charles \* > \*\*Really, entirely true? If they didn’t make it back, then who was there to tell it? It seems to me that everything between, “they went out,” and, “they didn’t return,” must have been pure speculation. \*\* Read the book. I haven’t seen the movie, but in the book, it’s all explained. Junger pieced it all together from a variety of evidence. IIRC, he never describes exactly what happens when the boat goes down because he doesn’t know. Perhaps the film dramatized that part? But they know a lot of what happened after they went out. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/214 "2003-01-05T01:29:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HPL \* > \*\*What bugged me about this, that you didn’t mention, is that somehow the fomula makes Kevin Bacon into superman it seems. I didn’t recall anything about that serum giving near invicibilty and super-strength to those who have been injected with it, and they did test it enough that they should have noticed before now. \*\* They _did_ notice. Remember how upset everyone got when the invisible gorilla goes ape-shit and is much stronger than she’s supposed to be? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/215 "2003-01-05T01:32:13Z")
On Deadly Ground… Actually this one was SOOOOOOO insulting and ridiculous that it was almost a comedy, I watched it when I was still working on “the slope” (in Prudhoe Bay Alaska). I don’t even know where to start. Okay FIRST of all, sled dogs do NOT bark when they are running hard on the trail. The producers of this movie, which WAS at least filmed partly in Alaska, were TOLD by their dog team Expert, winner of the iditarod, that sled dogs don’t bark. But they INSISTED on dubbing in barking dogs anyway, after they found out that no, they couldn’t get the sled dogs to bark. That was bad enough, what they dubbed in sounded like great danes, not sled dogs which have high pitched barks. Secondly, Alaskan natives aren’t called “injun” by prejudiced white Valdez residents (there are racial derogatory terms for natives but that has never been one). Third, it takes a LOT longer than the time it takes to smoke a ciggarette, to get from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay. Pump Station One is a HUGE bustling part of the pipeline located IN Prudhoe Bay proper, NOT a teensy shack loaded with piping out on the tundra somewhere. There are NO trees in Prudhoe, NONE. Alaskan Natives do NOT live in Old west style “indian villages” and ride horses, But, the number ONE most ridiculous thing was the premise of the movie itself “evil oil company uses inferior parts and causes spills”. LMAO, um I WORKED on the Spill Prevention Team up there. The oil companies paid us THOUSANDS in bonus money to PROTECT the environment, including upwards of 10s of thousands of dollars in reward money to people creating devices to prevent spills etc. WHY would the company balk on a simple couple hundred dollar part??? Oh, and “As Good As It Gets”. PUTRID PUTRID movie. Why, WHY would I care about a movie, in which there are characters from whom I would RUN!!! in real life? These people were strange, and boring, and pathetic, the only NICE guy was the gay guy, and he was nearly helpless. I was both bored and disgusted. But the part that insulted my intelligence was the scene where helen hunt’s character is gonna have sex with only a thin curtain separating her from her mom and son. COME ON!!! No one is THAT tacky and hasTHAT much lack of respect for themselves? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/216 "2003-01-05T01:44:11Z")
**Canvasshoes** you may like [this](http://www.jabootu.com/ondeadlyground.htm) “review” of _On Deadly Ground_. Warning: long. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/217 "2003-01-05T02:10:35Z")
> [@](#): > > _ **Orginally posted by CanvasShoes** _ > Okay FIRST of all, sled dogs do NOT bark when they are running hard on the trail. The producers of this movie, which WAS at least filmed partly in Alaska, were TOLD by their dog team Expert, winner of the iditarod, that sled dogs don’t bark. But they INSISTED on dubbing in barking dogs anyway, after they found out that no, they couldn’t get the sled dogs to bark. This just seems to me a Hollywood tradition. The audience can’t really tell it’s a dog, you see, unless it barks. The same holds true for cats–if there’s one onscreen, then the audience MUST hear a meow to confirm that ah yes, it IS a cat! And, most annoying to this equestrienne, if a horse is onscreen…it has to whinny. Has to. Horses only whinny for very particular reasons, and none of the horses I ever see…excuse me, _hear_…whinnying on screen are either separated from their herd or about to be fed. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The audience, that is…at least according to the dumbsh\*t producers/directors who demand such cheap effects. ---
**Author:** ![LoN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@LoN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoN)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/218 "2003-01-05T02:30:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\* > But the part that insulted my intelligence was the scene where helen hunt’s character is gonna have sex with only a thin curtain separating her from her mom and son. > > COME ON!!! No one is THAT tacky and hasTHAT much lack of respect for themselves? \*\* I’m bored enough to sometimes watch _Jerry Springer_. Trust me-- there are people who are worse. Much worse. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/219 "2003-01-05T07:08:07Z")
XXX This movie was so fucking bad it made me want to murder. ---
**Author:** ![skaterboarder87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@skaterboarder87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaterboarder87)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499/220 "2003-01-05T07:58:07Z")
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was ridiculous as well, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-insult-your-intelligence/145499.md?page=12)