Here are some of mine:
Shaky Cam - I know, the situation is frantic, but I want to see the action. That’s why it’s a movie and not real life.
Flashbacks - I just don’t like that storytelling method. Give me the here and now. Or there and then. But not both.
3D - More expensive tickets, dubious technology.
CGI-Fest - Just because you can do CGI doesn’t mean you have to.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a dream sequence that fealt like a real dream. I wish they would stop trying.
Pseudodrama in “reality” shows. I’m not even talking about the obvious stuff like those New Jersey people, I’m talking about things like home improvement shows where, just before the commercial break, it will be discovered that the breaker box is out of room for expansion … du-dum duhm.
And after the commercial, the electrician says, “So, we’ll need to replace it.”
Did you watch The Sopranos? Those were the best I’ve ever seen.
I’ll second the shaky cam - I really hate that shit (unless used VERY judiciously). It occurs to me that reality is not shaky like that - it might be, but your brain filters it and makes it look stable, and that’s what I want my movies to look like.
Characters saying dialogue that is completely unrealistic/cliched/trite. I understand that movie dialogue is not exactly like we talk in real life, but ham-handed dialogue really takes me out of a movie.
A 25 year old, 5’2", 90 lb. actress who looks like she can barely pick up a Cosmopolitan in her shaking hands to raise to her artificially inflated lips plays a kickass martial arts expert/killing machine/nuclear physicist/world-famous scientist, or________(fill in whatever ludicrous profession you are supposed to believe). I suppose it could be possible IRL, but such a creature just looks made to totter about on 6" heels on Rodeo Drive before doing a Starbucks run.
Yes.
Darkness,I want to see whats happening.
All the football action sequences in Any Given Sunday,got so irritating I never finished watching it.
Background music planted as if to say “in case you can’t tell by the acting or dialogue, this person is sad and wistful.” Top Gun played “Take My Breath Away” so much that I couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to mean anymore. Like, Tom Cruise is brushing his teeth–let’s play Berlin.
Also, the tormented man who contemplates his inner struggle while staring in the steamed-up bathroom mirror.
People who live in cities, own cars, and don’t spend half their day trying to find a parking space, but always manage to find street parking within a block of where they’re going.
My friend was the 2nd Unit D.P. on the film and did all the football stuff. You have him to blame. I’ll pass on the criticism to him. 
Played perfectly in Mr. Mom, btw.
I can understand this as a jokey little observation, but is it really a pet peeve? I mean, would you REALLY want to watch a film or tv show where the characters spent half the show driving around looking for a space, and then walking to where ever he/she had to go?
I hate when a movie shows the bad guy, who has looked human (or a well-done creature) all along, suddenly changes into a some ludicrously oversized, usually very fake-looking creature for the final showdown. These look like total crap, even in modern CGI movies, and aren’t convincing at all.
The slightly overlapping double hole/shadow thing for viewing through binoculars.
Cue Morbo Voice: “Binoculars do not work like that!”
I don’t mind CGI effects that would be difficult, expensive, or outright impossible to do with traditional effects, but CGI for things that aren’t difficult or complex just piss me off. I’m talking blood, mussel flashes, background objects things like that. I know the traditional effects may be more difficult or expensive, but if you’re going to put the effort in to make an actual film they look infinitely better, and opting to do it on the computer is not only distracting, but it reeks of laziness.
-Women/children in peril. Legitimate action movie plot device, but it’s been done to death, resurrected, and done again.
-Romantic comedy TV commercials with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen and the name of the movie in the black bar. At least I can tell at a glance that I won’t want to see the movie.
-Romantic interest. Unless it’s integral to the plot, you don’t have to put a romantic interest in the movie.
-Trailers that don’t represent the movie. Drive was the most egregious example.
-Trailers that essentially show you the plot of the entire movie. I often see a trailer and think to myself “Well I’ve seen the movie now, I just saved $11.”
Horror/suspense movies where the heroine hits the villain during a chase scene and knocks him out. Then she keeps running away and the bad guy comes after her again. If the bad guy that’s been chasing you is unconscious, that is the time to finish him off, not run away again.
When you only hear one side of a telephone conversation and that person has to parrot back everything from the other end of the conversation just so you know what’s going on.
“Sure. I can be home by 6:00. OK. I’ll make sure I pick up Timmy at soccer practice on the way. Yes, I know we have to be at the restaurant by 7:00. The Johnsons are meeting us at the restaurant, I know. OK. I love you too. Bye.”
Grrrrr…
I didn’t say I wouldn’t watch it, I’m just peeved that they don’t have any bearing on reality. If, say, once in a while somebody is 10 minutes late for an important meeting because they couldn’t find a parking space, that’d be fine; instead, whenever you see them arrive where they need to go, they find a parking space right out front.
Also, when an actor/actress OBVIOUSLY has a cold or a stuffed-up nose, and nobody says anything about it because it’s not in the script? Takes me completely outside the story.
When somebody’s being chased by the bad guy, and they’re running like their lives depend on it (well, they do…) and the bad guy’s just sort of moseying along? I hate when the bad guy catches up to them. Seriously, if I was chasing a teenager in a horror movie? I’d have some running to do.
contol-z mentioned one of mine: -Trailers that essentially show you the plot of the entire movie. I often see a trailer and think to myself “Well I’ve seen the movie now, I just saved $11.”
My other movie pet peeve is that all movies just seem to be too long. Just self-indulgently too long. Batman films - too long. Pirates - too long. King Kong - too long. even the last few rom-coms I saw at the theatre with my daughter, we wound up thinking - too long.
I agree. And no, I haven’t seen The Sopranos. But I’ve never had a dream that was any way relevant to the story of my waking life, so I’m skeptical when characters in movies/TV do.
Me too. Although you could replace “show you the plot of the entire movie” with “show you all the best gags” if it’s a comedy, or “show you all the best explosions” if it’s an action movie.