# Movies that just plain piss you off **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540 "2006-02-08T15:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/181 "2006-02-09T17:04:31Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > What’s the entire point of Asimov’s robot stores? The overriding theme? That robots aren’t inherently good or bad but, like toasters and fridges are tools to be used by the people that make and own them. He started writing them as a direct response to robots always turning evil in science fiction. > > What was the movie about? Evil robots. Which isn’t surprising really when it’s actually an original screenplay originally called _Hardwired_ with smatterings of Asimov’s characters and themes smeared across the top as Fox had aquired the rights to his work. Disagree that the movie was about evil robots. The movie was about the 3 laws not being enough to ensure safety from amoral robots. The movie was about Will Smith conquering his prejudice against robots - he’s the protagonist, and that’s the change he undergoes. I thought it was a wonderful twist on the sci-fi “robots are evil” crutch. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/182 "2006-02-09T17:08:47Z")
Okay, it’s been awhile since I saw **Super Size Me** , but I gotta step in and say: I seem to remember that the whole point of the experiment was that he was inspired by a lawsuit against McDonald’s which was thrown out of court, in part because of the statement by (someone…McDonald’s spokesperson, perhaps? Like I said, been awhile) that they indeed felt that McDonald’s food could be incorporated into a healthy diet of nothing but. So Morgan (? I think) decided to try it out, and consulted with nutritionists and doctors the whole time, and when they urged him to please try and choose healthier options like the salads, he did that and the results still ended up the same. I think it was a stupid thing to do, but only because it seriously just about friggin’ killed him. I also think it was important for people to see the physical ramifications of subsisting on nothing but crap for only 30 days. Once upon a time, a trip to McDonald’s was supposed to be a special treat. Now people eat there for one, two and three meals a day, every day, and then wonder why they feel like shite. (from NailBunny, who herself has a tremendous weak spot for the satanic sausage egg mcmuffin) ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/183 "2006-02-09T17:51:18Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > Except the supers are the only ones WITH talents, and they’re fighting to keep it that way. I haven’t seen the commentary, but if the real message is what you say it is then they did a pretty shit job of showing it. At the time of the movies main events, the supers are all in hiding and are actually forbidden to use their powers. Syndrome’s actions aren’t attributed to discrimination by supers but simply to his bitterness over his rejection by Mr. Incredible when he was a boy. He not only has “real talents”, but is extremely wealthy… he owns a private Island and has VERY cool toys on it. So, IMO, his actions are simply a very big tantrum over perceived slights… after all he earned his rejection by endangering the lives of the people on the train, at the very least. For once, I saw a villain that quite deservedly earned that name. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/184 "2006-02-09T17:56:23Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Bowling for Columbine_ (which I have seen) pissed me off because I just did not understand what the point of chasing Dick Clark was (the man has investments all over the country, I really don’t fault him for what happened at a store he owned in a mall that he’d probably forgotten he ever owned an interest in to begin with)… You do recall, don’t you, that the name of the restaurant in question was “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill”? I can think of a couple of reasons that that particular investment might stick in his mind. When a toddler brings a gun into preschool and shoots another toddler dead, one has to wonder, “Where are the parents?” In this case, the sole parent was working at DC’s ABG, through a welfare-to-work program. A very long commute from her house, she had to get up at the crack to ride the bus to work, which paid so little that she couldn’t afford to live anywhere excpet with the child’s uncle, who had a gun. I think it is quite fine for an interviewer to ask the man whose name is on the restaurant what he thinks about how the working arangements contricuted, if only in tiny part to this tragic situation (one can not be 100% sure that the parent’s availability could have averted it). I didn’t like that scene because Moore deliberately broadsided Clark in a parking lot, and then after Clark sped off, he did a laughably piss-poor job of acting like the Man was keeping him down, but I think suggesting that the restaurant’s most visible stakeholder is not a legitimate interview subject on this matter is ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/185 "2006-02-09T18:02:45Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > Except the supers are the only ones WITH talents, and they’re fighting to keep it that way. I haven’t seen the commentary, but if the real message is what you say it is then they did a pretty shit job of showing it. The only ones with talents. Didn’t you SEE Syndrome’s Island fortress-lab? I WANT one of those hover-copter-saucers! If he’d just sold them to me and everyone else who wanted one, along with all the other high-tech gadgets he knew how to build without a single super-power to his name, he’s be a celebrated billionaire, the next Bill Gates. Instead he uses it to pretend he’s a superhero. Granted, The Incredibles isn’t as cohesive a film as Pixar’s other recent features, so the message isn’t as well-woven into the narrative as it is elsewhere. It’s your basic villain-tries-to-kill-the-do-gooders plot, which is enough for movie. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/186 "2006-02-09T18:09:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It’s set a few decades in the future and Will Smith opens a package he’s ordered to reveal a pair of vintage (i.e. 2004) Converse running shoes. That was the most jaw dropping blatant sickening ridiculous ‘should be ashamed of themselves and forced to do community service and get some lashes’ product placement I’d ever seen. You mean apart from the scene a few minutes later where the camera lingers on the nameplate of the Sony stereo? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/187 "2006-02-09T18:11:50Z")
> [@drm](#): > > **Shaft** (the Sam Jackson version) > > When the hero has the villain dead to rights and then proceeds to kill him, I instantly lose any respect I had for the hero. This isn’t only the case in Shaft, but it’s the movie that initially came to mind. Something similar happened in **Cold Creek Manor**. > > It’s important for me to note that if the hero isn’t really on the side of the law and doesn’t pretend to be good then I don’t really mind. To be fair, in the 2000 version (as opposed to the 1971 version), Shaft is not “on the side of the law.” He’s an \*\*ex-\*\*cop turned PI. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/188 "2006-02-09T18:17:40Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > You mean apart from the scene a few minutes later where the camera lingers on the nameplate of the Sony stereo? The most blatant product placement ever was the extended commercial that was _Castaway (and I don’t just mean the FedEx stuff). THe funniest was Josie and the Pussycats and Double Team_–bwahahahahaha! the best moment in a fabulous movie. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/189 "2006-02-09T18:18:09Z")
> [@Yumblie](#): > > It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but I distinctly remember hating the movie **Air Heads**. The premise from what I remember was that this stupid band of idiots wants publicity so they forcefully take over a radio station and demand at gunpoint for them to play their songs. The worst part is that this uncouth band of youngsters are supposed to be the protagonists, and the evil radio station workers with their collared shirts and hair cuts are the villains. I really hate that sort of plot device, where people just _doing their jobs_ are the BAD GUYS. I agree entirely. OTOH, and just to keep it in perspective, real life is full of situations where people just doing their jobs are the bad guys. You don’t need to research the history of Nazi Germany to find that. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/190 "2006-02-09T18:19:38Z")
> [@NailBunny](#): > > Okay, it’s been awhile since I saw **Super Size Me** , but I gotta step in and say: I seem to remember that the whole point of the experiment was that he was inspired by a lawsuit against McDonald’s which was thrown out of court, in part because of the statement by (someone…McDonald’s spokesperson, perhaps? Like I said, been awhile) that they indeed felt that McDonald’s food could be incorporated into a healthy diet of nothing but. So Morgan (? I think) decided to try it out, and consulted with nutritionists and doctors the whole time, and when they urged him to please try and choose healthier options like the salads, he did that and the results still ended up the same. I think it was a stupid thing to do, but only because it seriously just about friggin’ killed him. I also think it was important for people to see the physical ramifications of subsisting on nothing but crap for only 30 days. Once upon a time, a trip to McDonald’s was supposed to be a special treat. Now people eat there for one, two and three meals a day, every day, and then wonder why they feel like shite. > > (from NailBunny, who herself has a tremendous weak spot for the satanic sausage egg mcmuffin) If you are a Super-Size Me fan, a great companion piece is the documentary McLibel, about a libel case the McDonald’s brought against a group of activists in Britain for distributing [this flier](http://www.mcspotlight.org/case/pretrial/factsheet.html) (I don’t recall if this is the case that inspired Spurlock). Most of the group backed down, but two didn’t, and the case dragged on for a few years. While the net judgement was in McDonald’s favor, one of the points on which McD’s lost was that the activists had libeled them by describing their food as unhealthy, despite their advertisements to the contrary. [Here](http://www.mcspotlight.org/campaigns/current/wwwmd-us.pdf)(PDF) is their post-trial flier, having removed only the portions the court felt they couldn’t disprove were libelous. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/191 "2006-02-09T18:21:59Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#): > > When a toddler brings a gun into preschool and shoots another toddler dead, one has to wonder, “Where are the parents?” In this case, the sole parent was working at DC’s ABG, through a welfare-to-work program. A very long commute from her house, she had to get up at the crack to ride the bus to work, which paid so little that she couldn’t afford to live anywhere excpet with the child’s uncle, who had a gun. So should Dick Clark have fired her? If Ed Zotti’s kid stabbed another student at school, should Moore go yell at the CEO of the Chicago Reader? ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/192 "2006-02-09T18:25:29Z")
> [@jali](#): > > I walked out on that Pierce Brosnan disaster movie, “Volcano” or something to that effect…whatever. You mean **Dante’s Peak**? It gets fun in the end though. Due to a collapsing heap of rocks, Pierce Brosnan gets stuck in his car. For 24 hours! And he couldn’t move a limb for all that time! I know _I_ laughed. As for **Super size me** , I don’t feel disappointed by the movie itself. I’ll gladly stand up for a man who makes an effort to give loud criticism to the fast food markets. What makes me disappointed is that people apparently _needed_ that documentary, you’d asumme it was well known and understood that global companies don’t have your personal best in mind. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/193 "2006-02-09T18:28:20Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yeah. You just took what I said, added 100 words, and ended up saying the same thing. > > Appreciate the “clarification”. Really. :rolleyes: Not true in the least, **JohnT.** Read **Dio’s** post again. Hell, read it ten times. It appears you need that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/194 "2006-02-09T18:31:11Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Despite the grief it’s getting in this thread, I’d say that _Bowling for Columbine_ shares this general theme. It surprised me that Moore, by pointing out that Canadians own more guns than Americans but have much less per-capita gun violence, ended up by emphasizing that it really _isn’t_ about the guns per se, but about something more subtle in American culture. (Not that this excuses his Heston or Clark stunts.) Agreed on all counts. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/195 "2006-02-09T18:41:20Z")
For reasons already mentioned: **The Cook, the thief, his wife and her lover** –it made me want to throw up, I fast-forwarded so I wouldn’t; **Moulin Rouge** –so irritating and obnoxious that I had to hit that ffw’d button again; **Dead Poets Society** –stupid story and characters; **the Life of David Gale** –total waste of time, unbelievable plot. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/196 "2006-02-09T18:42:19Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Disagree that the movie was about evil robots. The movie was about the 3 laws not being enough to ensure safety from amoral robots. I thought it was more about a robot taking the Three Laws a little too seriously and deciding it knew better than humans what is good for humans. An idea not central to Asimov’s robot fiction, but one he did explore (though reaching entirely different conclusions about its implications) – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws\_of\_robotics#Zeroth\_Law\_added](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_robotics#Zeroth_Law_added). ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/197 "2006-02-09T19:19:48Z")
_Stigmata_ was such a piece of shit that it inspired one of my favorite negative reviews from Roger Ebert. I was in high school at the time, and not Catholic, and even I could see how idiotic it was. Paraphrased: “The gospel of St. Thomas says that churchs are unnecessary! Think of what this means for the Church!” Omigod! People who don’t believe churches and pageantry and hierarchy are needed? What if they call themselves…Quakers? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/198 "2006-02-09T19:34:16Z")
> [@Fionn](#): > > _Stigmata_ was such a piece of shit that it inspired one of my favorite negative reviews from Roger Ebert. I was in high school at the time, and not Catholic, and even I could see how idiotic it was. > > Paraphrased: > > “The gospel of St. Thomas says that churchs are unnecessary! Think of what this means for the Church!” > > Omigod! People who don’t believe churches and pageantry and hierarchy are needed? What if they call themselves…Quakers? It’s almost as dumb as the episode of _Sliders_ where Our Heroes are in a world where America is a totalitarian state, turned into such by President J. Edgar Hoover. They happen to acquire, on CD-ROM, the only remaining copy of the U.S. Constitution, and use it to bargain with the FBI for the freedom of one of them, I forget which one. Like, the rulers are really going to be afraid it’ll undermine the regime if people can read the Constitution! ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/199 "2006-02-09T19:55:53Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > To be fair, your 12-second synopsis is indeed in the film; it takes up about . . . 12 seconds of it. There’s a WHOLE lot more going on. > > I’m sure you’re pretty smart, CandidGamera, but I’m not necessarily so sure that you’re the very smartest person evar. The fact that _Supersize Me_ was so hugely popular across such a wide variety of demographics and had a such an impact on the real world would suggest that, if your assumptions–without having seen the movie–were 100% correct, then NO ONE ELSE FIGURED THAT OUT. How likely is that? People love having information spoonfed to them, even when it’s things they should already know or if it’s entirely false. They particularly enjoy it when it reinforces their own biases. Some local folks here at the office share a Netflix account, and rented the thing, and I heard them talking about it - you know what they got from it? Perhaps the message that people need to take responsibility for their own eating? Nope. “McDonald’s Food is Deadly Dangerous.” “McDonalds = Bad.” Simplest concepts. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/200 "2006-02-09T20:09:10Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > People love having information spoonfed to them, even when it’s things they should already know or if it’s entirely false. They particularly enjoy it when it reinforces their own biases. Some local folks here at the office share a Netflix account, and rented the thing, and I heard them talking about it - you know what they got from it? > > Perhaps the message that people need to take responsibility for their own eating? Nope. > > “McDonald’s Food is Deadly Dangerous.” “McDonalds = Bad.” > > Simplest concepts. Dude, seriously, just because you know a couple of retards doesn’t mean that a movie they didn’t fully understand is not fully understandable. Who’s being spoonfed now? someone who actually sees a movie and makes up their own mind about it? or someone who absorbs the impressions overhead from a couple a retards and takes at as gospel? who’s just reinforcing their own biases now? Seriously dude. These threads always draw some “I haven’t seen it but I know it’s bad” kneejerker out of the woodwork, but it never goes well for them. It’s an indefensible position. Do yourself a favor and limit your condemnation to movies you’ve seen. It’s mildly interesting to hear you explain why you don’t want to see a movie, but it’s making nobody look bad but you to hear you try to convince others who’ve seen the movie of what it’s \*really \*about, and how you’re the only one in the room smart enough to be immune to its “spoonfeeding.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540.md?page=11)