# not a mistake but it takes you out of the movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629 "2009-01-23T13:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Dosipede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dosipede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dosipede)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/141 "2009-01-27T07:45:38Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Or brylcreem on buccaneers in 40’s & 50’s movies. Or clean-shaven men in the middle ages and earlier. It bugs the hell out of me when actors can’t commit themselves to a job enough to get their hair cut, but it bugs me even more when a director won’t commit himself enough to his art to make the actor get a haircut, or not get a haircut, or grow a beard, or just wash the grease out of their hair. The haircut thing got me in _Stripes._ You could see who was dedicated to their craft in the head-shaving scene. Judge Reinhold walks out, and his hair’s shorter, but he still has some locks up top. Harold Ramis – yep, those are curls up there. Bill Murray? Oh, you better believe he had the 'do going. Then John Candy walks out, buzzed to the scalp. Granted, there’s no shortage of picking points in that movie, but that scene always makes me stop and say, “Damn, John Candy was the man.” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/142 "2009-01-27T12:22:05Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > They gave The Daily Show to Craig Kilborn due to his work on ESPN. Keith Olbermann also got his gig due to ESPN. And Casey was based on Craig Kilborn so that part of his history was worked into Casey’s character. ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/143 "2009-01-27T12:44:50Z")
> [@zenith](#): > > Tom Hanks’ character in _Castaway_, supposedly a seasoned traveller, did not wear comfortable shoes aboard the plane. He took them off and kept them off even while going to the restroom. Who goes into a public can in their stocking feet? Me. I do. Always. At least on a plane. I take my shoes off when I board and they don’t go back on til landing, whether I go to the bog or not. I’ve found that most people show some restraint on planes and manage not to urinate all over the floor. That bed sheet thing that **YamatoTwinkie** mentioned really irritates me too. I’d love to see what people really do after sex. I suppose what’s really irritating is this: if you’ve just had naked sweaty sex with someone, why are you suddenly going to become modest? _It’s all already been seen_, probably very close up!! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/144 "2009-01-27T13:06:26Z")
There are certain camera inconsistencies that kinda bug me. A movie camera is supposed to be omniscient, able to go anywhere and see anything so that the audience can see the movie unfold. In **Rollerball** (the original, not the remake) there are scenes during the games where the camera is obviously out on the track with the skaters. That’s fine. But within the movie, characters are watching rollerball on television and seeing those same camera shots. There’s no way the camera could be there. At the very end of **Goldeneye** , James and Natalya have escaped from the evil villain’s lair and jumped from a helicopter into a field (in Cuba, don’t forget). Jimmy moves in for the kill and assures Nat that there’s no one around for miles. Then the CIA dude walks in, marines pop up from holes in the ground, and helicopters descend into the picture frame. Really? You couldn’t see the helicopters because they were hiding off the edge of the movie screen? Maybe it’s not fair to say these took me out of the movie. It was the second or third time watching the movies that I noticed them. They just struck me as a strange kind of error; using the techniqes of the movie itself to inform the characters within it. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/145 "2009-01-27T13:11:57Z")
Just about every time anybody drank beer in any '70s TV show, it was from a can that looked a bit like a Budweiser can, but simply said “BEER” in large capital letters in the center of the label. I always found that to be hilarious. And as a tangent to the “typing too fast” observation, I can’t stand it when a character is meant to be writing something on paper, but is clearly just scribbling a squiggly line. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/146 "2009-01-27T13:15:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > At the very end of **Goldeneye** , James and Natalya have escaped from the evil villain’s lair and jumped from a helicopter into a field (in Cuba, don’t forget). Jimmy moves in for the kill and assures Nat that there’s no one around for miles. Then the CIA dude walks in, marines pop up from holes in the ground, and helicopters descend into the picture frame. Really? You couldn’t see the helicopters because they were hiding off the edge of the movie screen? And the helicopters were in whisper mode. Not to mention the fact that Cuba tends to frown on US Marines flying around the island. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/147 "2009-01-27T13:30:05Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And the helicopters were in whisper mode. Not to mention the fact that Cuba tends to frown on US Marines flying around the island. And they happened to be hiding exactly where J and N wound up. AND they didn’t do a damn thing to help. There is a metric shitload of stupidity in that scene, I grant you. But most of it is Standard Movie Coincidence stuff. The hiding-by-being-outside-the-rectangle thing is the real headscratcher for me. Maybe I’d notice this more if I looked for it in other movies. There’s _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_ for one. (“I wonder what’s over here? Oh, look, it’s the Civil War.”) But I can usually justify keeping the illusion by believing that they’ve just come over a hill, or that people were sneaky. But helicopters (yes, more than one) out of a clear blue sky is just too damn much. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/148 "2009-01-27T13:55:05Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > A Also, bonus points if it takes me some time to recognize the actor, ie: Ioan Gruffdd (AKA Horatio Hornblower) playing an American officer in Blackhawk Down On the other hand, I was rather amused by Gruffdd showing up as one of the officers looking for survivors in “Titanic.” I couldn’t help but think “Hey, at least they sent the right guy!” 😃 Getting back to “Full Metal Jacket” the one scene that took me out was when the film-maker was there and all the soldiers was sitting against the wall and the film-maker pans down the line and they all have something to say in turn. It was too much a cinematic moment. And even though Kubrick used the excuse that it was a film maker doing a shot, it seemed like too much of a set-up to be real. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/149 "2009-01-27T14:00:03Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There are certain camera inconsistencies that kinda bug me. > > A movie camera is supposed to be omniscient, able to go anywhere and see anything so that the audience can see the movie unfold. In **Rollerball** (the original, not the remake) there are scenes during the games where the camera is obviously out on the track with the skaters. That’s fine. But within the movie, characters are watching rollerball on television and seeing those same camera shots. There’s no way the camera could be there. Such things weren’t available at the time that movie was made, but it was set in “the future.” We, today, have helmet cams, dash cams, sky cams, and (for all I know) ass cams. These regularly put the viewer “on the field” with players. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/150 "2009-01-27T14:02:05Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > And as a tangent to the “typing too fast” observation, I can’t stand it when a character is meant to be writing something on paper, but is clearly just scribbling a squiggly line. When Dennis Miller did Weekend Update on SNL, he mocked this convention by making a huge loopy squiggle on a piece of paper as his sign-off. (Ah, the days when Dennis Miller was still funny…) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/151 "2009-01-27T14:18:42Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Such things weren’t available at the time that movie was made, but it was set in “the future.” We, today, have helmet cams, dash cams, sky cams, and (for all I know) ass cams. These regularly put the viewer “on the field” with players. Yeah, but there are still limits. I’ll probably see this movie again someday, and I’ll watch for this. I remember the camera-within-the-movie setups being too steady, too well-framed, and too obtrusive to have really taken place. Besides which, I think it was an oversight on the part of the director. I don’t think he postulated future technology and trends in sportscasting; I think he needed characters in the movie to be watching rollerball on TV and used some of his own footage, without considering the logistics of creating it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/152 "2009-01-27T14:35:11Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And the helicopters were in whisper mode. Not to mention the fact that Cuba tends to frown on US Marines flying around the island. That drives me CRAZY all the time - dude, you cannot hide a helicopter on the wing. How many times have you heard one when you can’t even see one? (I mean, I live right by a military base, so maybe I hear more than you do, but still.) But that’s more of a mistake than what the OP is really looking for. With regards to _Battlestar Galactica_, “frak” doesn’t bother me as an all-purpose curse word - as “fuck” in the “fucking-A” or “John is doing all the fucking work” sense. It drives me nuts in the “I want to frak you” case where “fuck” would be used as an actual verb. Brings me right out of it. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/153 "2009-01-27T15:43:22Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Just about every time anybody drank beer in any '70s TV show, it was from a can that looked a bit like a Budweiser can, but simply said “BEER” in large capital letters in the center of the label. I always found that to be hilarious. Like when someone in a bar orders a beer and doesn’t specify the brand. If it’s a small bar, saying “Gimme a draft” is okay because it’s likely they’ll only have one brand on tap. But just saying “I’ll have a beer”? Related to that is when people are carrying a cup of coffee (or putting a half gallon of milk in the fridge) and the container is obviously empty. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/154 "2009-01-27T15:57:49Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yeah, but there are still limits. I’ll probably see this movie again someday, and I’ll watch for this. I remember the camera-within-the-movie setups being too steady, too well-framed, and too obtrusive to have really taken place. > > Besides which, I think it was an oversight on the part of the director. I don’t think he postulated future technology and trends in sportscasting; I think he needed characters in the movie to be watching rollerball on TV and used some of his own footage, without considering the logistics of creating it. I don’t think he was anticipating the development of tiny cameras, either. My point was that I am so accustomed to sports video now commonly being from the athlete’s POV, that it wouldn’t take me out of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/155 "2009-01-27T16:11:32Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > Fight Club is one of my favorite films. > > But in the opening scene, when Tyler takes the gun out of the narrator’s mouth he says “I can’t think of anything”. > > Later, we come back to the same scene and he says “I _still_ can’t think of anything”. And Tyler says “Ah, flashback humor”. > > Took me right out for a minute. But that film is full of instances of breaking the fourth wall??? Remember Tyler facing the camera saying “we are the all singing all dancing crap of the world”, as the camera blurred his appearance? > [@Morbo](#): > > RE: unnecessary nudity. The winner here has to be **Under Siege**. Bad guys have machine gunned everyone except Seagal… > > …and Erika Eleniak, who was waiting inside a cake the whole time. When Seagal comes into the room she rises out of the cake and takes her top off. Uh…she didn’t think anything was wrong? Didn’t look around first? How long was she going to sit in that cake? Was it a soundproof cake? That scene made that film, and should have won her an oscar 😉 > [@zenith](#): > > Tom Hanks’ character in _Castaway_, supposedly a seasoned traveller, did not wear comfortable shoes aboard the plane. He took them off and kept them off even while going to the restroom. Who goes into a public can in their stocking feet? Extensive traveller here, I ALWAYS take my shoes off when on long flights, regardless if they are comfortable or not. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/156 "2009-01-27T16:38:34Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > What other term could they have used? It’s not as they had Keira Knightley saying “We’re a parliamentary democracy akin to the United Kingdom.” The problem i had with the democracy stuff was that it seemed like a complete retcon. In the first movie she was a fourteen year old Queen, in the second shes a senator after serving two terms as Queen. We are supposed to believe a 14 year old got elected to lead an entire planet? It was no different than changing the guns in E.T. to walkie talkies because democracy = good and everything else = bad. > [@runcible\_spoon](#): > > Eh, there’s a difference between fantastic and just stupid. Superman flying is explained - it doesn’t make any goddamn sense in reality, but there’s an attempt to make it work, so I can suspend disbelief. With _300_, they just didn’t make the effort. Meet me halfway here, people. 300 was a tale told by someone specifically picked because they were good storytellers in order to inspire the troops. Whats the problem with having some fantasy elements? it was a tale not a historical account, it makes perfect sense in that context. What you see is what the one eyed survivor is telling the army, not what actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/157 "2009-01-27T16:41:51Z")
I agree re: no nudity where you would expect it. For me it was _Knocked Up_, where Katherine Heigel never once removes her bra during her handful of sex scenes with Seth Rogen. Totally took me out of the moment, particularly since there _is_ in that movie a realistic morning-after shot of Rogen naked in bed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/158 "2009-01-27T16:43:43Z")
> [@](#): > > In the begining of U-571, one guy asks, “what’s the op?” That sounds like what a 1990s sailor would ask, not a 1940s one. The biggest anachronism in this movie was the black sailor. The movie was set in WWII but this guy acted like he stepped off the set of _Shaft_. He was the second most anachronistic character in a movie I’ve seen (Donald Sutherland’s WWII hippie in _Kelly’s Heroes_ is still number one). Another one that totally lost me was _Iron Eagle_. It was a cold-war thriller where a bunch of American pilots were competing with a bunch of Soviets. Obviously they were not going to get the co-operation of the Soviet Air Force for the making of the film so they had to use American planes. But they used F-4 Phantom II’s to stand in for Soviet planes. And that was stupid - Phantoms are one of the most distinctive looking jets in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/159 "2009-01-27T17:26:21Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > They gave The Daily Show to Craig Kilborn due to his work on ESPN. Keith Olbermann also got his gig due to ESPN. That was \*after \* they became known. Casey’s backhistory did it at a spot when he was completely unknown. And a nothing show on basic cable is several fame levels down from Late Night on a major network. If they wanted to do a show about Casey’s leaving, it wouldn’t have been as much of a stretch. But nobody in the history of television has had to decide between headlining a network show or being sports anchor in Houston. Especially not at 25. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/160 "2009-01-27T17:33:55Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The problem i had with the democracy stuff was that it seemed like a complete retcon. In the first movie she was a fourteen year old Queen, in the second shes a senator after serving two terms as Queen. We are supposed to believe a 14 year old got elected to lead an entire planet? It was no different than changing the guns in E.T. to walkie talkies because democracy = good and everything else = bad. Dude, the entire trilogy is an exercise in retconning, each stupider than the last. > [@](#): > > 300 was a tale told by someone specifically picked because they were good storytellers in order to inspire the troops. Whats the problem with having some fantasy elements? it was a tale not a historical account, it makes perfect sense in that context. What you see is what the one eyed survivor is telling the army, not what actually happened. This is probably true, though I wonder about the rape of the queen in that context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629.md?page=9)