Having a “somewhat recognizable” actor pulls me out of a movie as my brain preoccupies itself with figuring out where I’ve seen that actor before. (“Was he the smarmy PAC dude from the West Wing? Was he the serial killer on NYPD Blue?”)
Along the same lines, watching animated movies I become preoccupied with trying to figure out whose voice it is.
Scenes shot with hand held cameras pull me out of the movie as I battle motion sickness.
Which actually happened in Apocalypse Now (and worked, at least IMHO).
I just rewatched Die Hard after reading this and was amazed to discover that it is rife with lens flare. I believe the flare in that scene, when Hans finds McClane on the roof, stands out because it is accented with music. The music draws attention to an artifact that is mostly unnoticed throughout the rest of the movie.
All right. I’ll give Buttercup a pass on this one. (It was the only example I could think of off the top of my head.)
Any scene where someone talks about waking up suddenly, after hearing a sound, and they say (this happens in books too) some variation on “As soon as my eyes adjusted to the dark . . .”
GAAH!
Anytime modern mores are imposed on a period piece. The best example I can think of comes from TV, actually. One time I caught the start of an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Dr. Quinn was retrieving a sample of water from a stream while saying something like “We can send this water sample to be analysed and see if the mining company is polluting the stream.” Umm, people didn’t think like that back then. Of course the mining company is dumping their sewage in the stream, that’s what people did at the time and nobody even thought that was a bad idea. What else are they supposed to do with it? The technology to treat their waste probably didn’t even exist.
I know this is going to make me sound horribly sexist, but anytime a movie casts a hot, young starlet in a role as a top expert in some complex field. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough, or Angelina Jolie as a Ferrari mechanic in Gone in 60 Seconds.
Oh, and, whenever a Hot Chick[sup]®[/sup] first appears onscreen in glasses and with her hair up, cuz we know what’s coming: we’re supposed to be surprised when she “blossoms” by just taking off the glasses and letting down the hair.
The horrible cliche ‘character with thick glasses’. I was just watching The Mummy on TV and one of the American “adventurers” is all of a sudden legally blind as soon as his glasses are inevitably knocked off his head and crushed. And it’s always crushed. Not broken so you would have to hold them together to see, or craked so you woulden’t be able see well…
I didn’t believe Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist because she looked like an undergrad or grad student at most, and she sucked pretty badly at acting like someone with that level of knowledge.
Another one which gets to me:
– When the killer or other character is rendered unrecognizable by a mask or, as in the case of Urban Legend, a raincoat’s hood.
Sorry to pick on poor Princess Buttercup again, but the poor girl just isn’t all that bright. Her “true love” is completely disguised by a black cloth mask which covers his eyes and bridge of his nose. (You know, my dog is like that. If you put on a hat, she’ll bark at you.)*
–When people being stalked by a killer split up, presumably so it’ll be easier for him to pick them off one by one. And no one thinks to get a tire iron out of the car, or pick up a stout tree limb to use as a club. When being chased through a building, it never occurs to them to look for a phone and dial 9-1-1. (Even if you just leave it off the hook, the cops will come.)
–Ghosts who must be ever-violent and scary during the first 3/4 of the movie until the protagonist figures out what help they need. At this point, the ghost is free to explain the whole deal, offer assistance, or turn otherwise benevolent, but before that, they can only throw people against walls (Gothica) or write scary, incomprehensible messages on foggy mirrors. (Never anything like, “Hey, Ghost Lady here. I need you to help catch my killer. Thanx. P.S.-- It’s your husband.”)
*I imagine Halloween would be a lot of fun at the Buttercup/Westley household.
*Westley comes out of the bedroom dressed in his ubiquitous pirate costume. (He goes as the Dread Pirate every year.) “Ready for the party, honey? Buttercup? What’s wrong?”
Buttercup: “Who are you and how do you know my name? You’d better get out of here before my husband gets back!”
Westley pulls off the mask. “Buttercup, it’s me.”
Buttercup throws herself into his arms. “Oh, Westley, my darling! Thank God you’re here! There was a strange man in here a moment ago and I was terrified!”*
I don’t know that it’s sexist, just a reasonable response to what you see onscreen. I’ve known quite a few women who were very attractive and dressed hot on the job. Mostly, they were saleswomen, a field where sex appeal is just part of general sales appeal. Most sales guys are good looking, or at least mediocre-looking, and dress well. If I saw a handsome actor or a gorgeous actress in such a role, it would make perfect sense.
Nuclear physicists and mechanics, you have to figure, looks are not so important to. So when you see a Denise Richards playing “Nucular physicist” it does kinda jerk you out of the movie. Not necessarily sexism there.
Yes, I think it worked too. But that was a deliberate wink at the audience, not quite the same as a boom mike casting a shadow in the scene.
Frankly, Himself & I felt this way about most of PotC 2. We felt like Will was the only character who acted like “himself” in the second movie. Elizabeth didn’t, Norrington didn’t (although we completely understood the bitterness), and Jack certainly didn’t.
We were terribly disappointed with the whole thing. 
To name just one discordant item from the baseball move Mr. 3000 which starred Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett, Bernie supposedly played for a lousy team with a lousy manager, then retired for a number of years, then came back while the team was still lousy and that same fellow was still the manager. Sorry, but IRL that manager would’ve been toast a long time before Bernie came back.
I just have to say that is the funniest thing I’ve read all morning! 
Y’know, that whole “ghost army” just took me right out of the movie also. I didn’t read the books and went to the third movie unspoiled (didn’t know how it was going to end). My wife had read the books. I remember asking her “Are you serious? That’s how they win in the end? They recruit a ghost army? Is that really in the book that way? What a cop out.” I felt cheated. I still think a dwarf army coming in at the last moment would have been better than ghost army.
I don’t know about particular scenes, but a badly faked Southern accent will take me right out of a movie.
My pulled out of the movie moments in LOTR were the two blatant cases of pre-reacting: in both cases I saw a “surprise” coming long before the surprise occured just by the looks on the actor’s faces: even the first time I saw it:
– When Gandalf asks if Frodo can see any markings on the ring, Frodo says “I see nothing,” then Gandalfs’ face slowly turns from an expression of puzzlement to one of surprise, then Frodo says “wait…”
– When Pippin knocks down the skull/pail down the Moria well and Gandalf chastises him, his faces changes from a look of contrition to one of surprise a second before the drums start. While it’s still one of the scariest parts of any movie it would be a lot better if he didn’t telegraph it.
I just reread the triology a few weeks ago, and IIRC, the ghost army is used to defeat the Corsairs as they are heading up Andruin towards Osgiliath so that Aragorn can bring the armies he’s recruited from South Gondor to help in the war. I don’t think the ghost army ever makes it to Minis Tirith.
In Robin Williams’ current movie Man of the Year the idea that Williams’ character could walk off his talk show shortly before the election and still qualify to get on the ballot in a number of states, and then get to carry on as he did during the debate were all beyond unrealistic. In reality, in order to get on the ballot a candidate has to gather signatures on a nominating petition and have the petition approved by the appropriate state office, which cannot be done overnight. In reality a candidate who repeatedly interrupted the other candidates and who goes way over his alloted time would have his microphone turned off.
That being said, any movie that brings back my all time favorite newsbabe Faith Daniels cannot be all bad. 