this and shaky cam abuse. i can’t remember the name, but i walked out of a show that had shaky cam of a person sitting at his desk, SITTING AT A DESK!? drove me nuts - i do not walk out on shows! why won’t it die?! is there a place i can go to check if a movie has shaky cam before i spend money on it? or at least some kind of blacklist of fucked up directors too inept to do a proper action sequence?
I love good CGI effects, but I hate it when CGI objects or characters violate the laws of physics.
I know that King Kong falling off the Empire State Building seems equivalent to a man falling off, say, a five-story building, but the time it takes to reach the ground depends on the height not the weight of the object. Having him fall faster than he should makes it look like a guy in an ape suit falling off a model–which is exactly what CGI is there to avoid.
It’s not just falling, either. A 30 ft., 50,000 lb.Transformer[sup]TM[/sup] should take considerably longer to turn around than a 6 ft., 200 lb. man.
For Science’s sake, even the early Godzilla movies used slo-mo to create a fair simulation.
-Gore in horror films. It’s not scary, it’s just disgusting, and the only thing you’re doing is force-feeding us the actual “horror.” Let me use my imagination, please, I assure you it is quite effective.
-The “science is just people trying to play god and now we’re all going to die!” trope has been beaten to death. As has the “the skeptic is always wrong!” one. Can we have an example of genetic engineering, or something, doing something good for once?
You look like shit. Gets on my nerves now.
Thank you! I’d even go further and put in any needless camera changes. Shaky cam may be the worst, but it’s not the only offender.
No, but it’s something that can be played with without actually showing it. Seen in some movies/series: people getting in a bit late with a breathless “sorry, I should have taken the subway”, people dropping the family off at their destination and then driving away to look for a parking spot.
Another one for “can we see people’s whole heads from the front, please?”
Why do people, when fleeing danger, keep turning around while running? I’ve never had to run away from a crazed killer or a rolling boulder or a raging flood, but I’m pretty sure if I did, I’d be more interested in putting as much space between me and what was behind than to be constantly checking that distance.
I also hate hate hate when shows get military uniforms or protocol wrong. It’s not that hard to check it and do it right. Granted, if I hadn’t been in the Navy, I probably wouldn’t notice it, but still, it’s such an easy thing to do correctly.
When they show the opening credits for a movie and they go on, and on, and on…
Come on! We want to see the movie.
I had to turn off the movie “Last Exit” after only a few minutes because the shaky camera (handheld?) was actually making me physically nauseus.
Another vote for “driver keeps looking at the passenger” - the best one was on Grey’s Anatomy when Arizona Robbins did that and crashed the car, damn near killing Callie.
Our local TV news tried to be all hip and edgy a few years back by doing the “move the camera all over while filming” thing - they’d move the camera back and forth and around the subject - it gave me a headache.
Scenes with a pillar or something in the way - the camera pans across the scene, but goes behind a post or something that blocks the view for a second.
Ramdom flashing light reflections - very noticable in the recent Star Trek movie. It was like they were filming scenes through a window.
Women and children who are pretty much helpless in the face of danger and need to be rescued by the man-hero. Very common in old-timey movies.
If somebody has a pet dog in the movie you can bet your ass it’s going to eventually be killed.
Special effects (CGI) overkill and movies that are ALL ACTION with no freakin’ down time. Case in point: Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
I could go on all day…
Amen. I hated, absolutely hated the last Transformers movie. Garbage film making. A 2-1/2 hour barrage of 2 second clips vomited on the screen.
I second hating when a camera moves behind a post in the foreground. It’s even worse when they move to showing the back of another actor’s head, blocking the rest of the scene.
I HATE the ubiquitous “Go go go” shouted at the start of every chase or action scene - great writing there!
Someone pointed out to me that when characters are carrying suitcases, you can tell that they’re always empty–and now I can’t not see it!
you know those fancy coffee cups they drink on tv? they’re empty too. 
food that nobody eats. The Big Bang Theory is especially guilty of this, they hang around food all the time and all they do is poke, poke, poke.
That’s not all, either. Purses, coffee mugs, luggage of all kinds, usually. Notice when someone does pour coffee into a coffee mug how little they pour. It’s absurd.
Unless you’re Shia LaBeouf, and your word is “No”.
I’m glad you mentioned this. I omitted it last night, as I was running on fumes, caffeine and stress, but you reminded me of something else:
Shitty CPR. I’m an EMT, and any time that I see someone perform CPR, it drives me up the friggin’ wall.
Obligatory cracked.com article.
For the most part, there’s almost zero chance of using CPR the way it’s demonstrated in movies/on TV shows, and having it be effective.
Horses who are pristine after a chase through dust, brush, streams, etc. No sweat, no mud, no dust?
Fake whinny sounds when a horse is pulled up quickly, or kicked into action.
People on horseback who obviously don’t know how to ride.
People in chase scenes who are not hot, sweaty and out of breath. Not even a hair out of place.
Every single time a cat is in a scene there’s super-fake "MEOW"ing. EVERY TIME.
Someone makes someone else a delicious meal but the other person takes off without even having a bite. I always think “You selfish prick! Look at all the food you just wasted!!”
They don’t eat, or only pick at the food because after doing 18 takes, you just cannot sit there and eat another burger and fries! 
Yes! And that damned annoying close up of the horse with it’s mouth wide open! Stop it, stop it right now! If someone got on my horse and sawed on his mouth to make him do that, I’d beat them bloody
:mad:
Yup, and every dog sounds the same, regardless of what breed it is.
I hate the way someone always explains what the other person said. Dear gawd if I don’t understand something I can look it up!
Or when they tell you what they did before the commercial break on a TV show. “so, now we’ve come home from Dave’s house…”