Who are these people!? I’d include a link, but really, just pick any old movie/actor and read some of what is posted by users.
Wow, just wow shudder.
I think I know what you’re talking about but could you please give us one example? You don’t need to link to it.
They are undeniably horrible and close to useless. It’s odd, too, since the IMDb has become the go-to site for movie information (and even then, their trivia sections are full of errors). Occasionally, though, actors and directors will post funny or informative things, usually under pseudonyms. I think there’s still some stuff up from the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia from ‘before they made it’ (well, the three out of four original cast members who made it).
I used to occasionally read the IMDb boards, I guess for the same reason that one might lift a rock and look at the pathetic disgusting things squirming around underneath.
The main difference is that the life forms one finds under rocks are filling some sort of useful role in the ecosystem.
I did gain a new sympathy for Hollywood filmmakers, though. It’s no wonder they make so many stupid movies. If the audience is full of stupid people, it’s probably smart to make a stupid movie. There are people on the IMDb message boards who can’t follow the plots of children’s movies. There are also people who are patting themselves on the back for recognizing “plot holes” that don’t exist.
I’ll spoiler the following, because it’s an important part of the climax to the 2005 film Match Point. There’s a murder in the movie, and the killer tried to make it look like a robbery by stealing some jewelry. He tosses away a ring belonging to the victim.
[spoiler]The police suspect the actual killer, but the ring is later found on the body of a known petty criminal who’d been killed in IIRC a drug dispute. The police conclude that this dead petty criminal had committed the robbery/murder and been killed himself before he could pawn the ring. The viewer of course knows that the petty criminal just picked up the ring that the real killer had discarded.
There was a guy on the Match Point board who thought this was incredibly stupid, because he believed that in real life the police would have fingerprinted the ring and thus identified the true killer. But this makes no sense. First, a ring is too small to pick up much of a fingerprint. Second, the true killer had no criminal background and his prints would not have been on file. Third and most importantly, the true killer wasn’t the last person to handle the ring. Had the police been able to lift a complete print from the ring, it most likely would have belonged to the petty criminal who picked the ring up after the killer tossed it away.[/spoiler]
For the same movie, I remember another poster complaining that star Jonathan Rhys Meyers didn’t “look Irish” and so shouldn’t have been cast as an Irishman. But Rhys Meyers is Irish, so director Woody Allen might be forgiven for assuming he was qualified to play an Irish character.
I’ve also seen people posting on the IMDb message boards to ask questions like what was the MPAA rating for a particular film. If you’re already on the IMDb, it’s a lot faster to look up the entry for that movie and see what the MPAA rating is than it is to post a message asking about it. Especially since the usual way to get to the message board for a particular movie is to go to the entry for that movie and scroll down to the message board link, which is after the “Additional Information” section that includes the MPAA rating.
Even better, pick a 9/11 board like the one for World Trade Center, and laugh at the twoofers.
I was trying to find the release date for Boondock Saints 2. Everytime I venture into the pit that is the imdb message board, I feel a bit more sad for humanity.
I am surprised the people posting on there can even work a computer. Truly eye opening, in a bad way.
Lamia- the opening line of your post sums it up nicely.
Um, sparky!, excuse my confusion, but why would you check the message boards of the IMDb to find the release date of Boondock Saints II? It says in the release date section that it will be released on October 30, 2009.
Try reading their “Soapbox” board sometime. Hilarity will ensure, I’m sure.
I used to read the IMDB boards rather often (not the movie ones, just the random conversation ones) before I found SDMB. I’m happy I made the choice to come here.
Gee, Wagner, obviously I missed that. In fact, I checked the page and still don’t see it as evident. Perhaps you could tutor me? I won’t pay money, but will pay via happy-happy-fun time stickers.
Honestly, I searched via iPhone for it and could not find the usual release date imdb posts.
O.K., sparky!, here’s what you do: Go to the search page on the IMdb:
Enter “Boondock Saints II” in the “Movie/TV Title Search” blank. The main page for Boondock Saints II will come up. If you only enter “Boondock Saints”, you will still get to the main page for Boondock Saints II eventually.
Look along the left side. There are a lot of links to the various pages connected to the movie. Under “Other Info” you will find “Release Dates”. This is the URL of that page:
It says that Boondock Saints II will be released on October 30, 2009.
In general, there isn’t much useful information in the IMDb message boards. There may be endless discussion of the movies, but all the objective information about the movie will be in the pages linked to along the left side of the main page for the movie.