# Stupid stupid stuff in an otherwise okay movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2000, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279 "2000-08-22T07:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/221 "2001-08-29T15:27:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jab1 \* > \*\*It’s called “product placement.” BMW paid mucho dinero to get the car in the movie. At least the car was used well in _The World is Not Enough_ (aka “TWINE”). \*\* NOnonononono…I _get_ “product placement”. That’s when you see someone drinking from and holding a Pepsi can with the label out. That’s when you see someone answering their Nokia phone with the logo in a funny place (under the chin so the camera can get a clear shot), or placing the BMW in Q’s office while various lab-coated people fiddle with it… …what I despised was that Q introduced the car, told Bond about what the car’s got and what it can do (as he has with various cars in past films), and making the big presentation only to have the car be used for what was essentialy a useless and pointless joyride. Darq in theatre: “So MI5 transports the BMW to Cuba just so he can drive five miles even though what he really needs aroud those islands is a plane… riiiiight.” I agree that they way they handled the new Beemer in TWINE was the way they SHOULD have handled it in the first place. THAT car got used! In comparison, Volvo ALSO paid much for Templar’s use of their new coupe. But at least there was a scene where it was used. No big presentation needed, but the car was an excellent example of well done (not hoaringly obvious) product placement. ---
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/222 "2001-08-29T15:39:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by thermalribbon \* > \*\*I mean c’mon, the drug czar’s daughter is a huge druggie?!?!?!?! WTF! \*\* I think you meant the _anti_-drug czar’s daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/223 "2001-08-29T16:43:09Z")
In E.T., when the kids are riding through the streets on their bicycles and the Bad Adults are trying to stop them, a cop pulls out his shotgun and steps out into the street. Who, exactly, was he planning on shooting? ---
**Author:** ![Heloise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@Heloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heloise)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/224 "2001-08-29T18:07:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*In E.T., when the kids are riding through the streets on their bicycles and the Bad Adults are trying to stop them, a cop pulls out his shotgun and steps out into the street. Who, exactly, was he planning on shooting? \*\* I guess you’re not from Southern California, where the police pull out their guns at the slightest excuse, in the hopes that they might get to kill someone/thing. Later, they can say they thought one of the kids pulled out a gun. Works IRL, anyway. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/225 "2001-08-29T18:14:44Z")
If they’d just remove the scene in Meet The Parents from the beginning of the movie to the end, it would have been much better. It was still a great title. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/226 "2001-08-29T21:10:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Darqangelle \* > **…what I despised was that Q introduced the car, told Bond about what the car’s got and what it can do (as he has with various cars in past films), and making the big presentation only to have the car be used for what was essentialy a useless and pointless joyride.** It was the obviousness of it. Yeah, I realized later that was what you meant. My bad. :o ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/227 "2001-08-29T21:16:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Heloise \* > \*\*I guess you’re not from Southern California, where the police pull out their guns at the slightest excuse, in the hopes that they might get to kill someone/thing. Later, they can say they thought one of the kids pulled out a gun. Works IRL, anyway. 😉 \*\* [hijack] How many LAPD cops does it take to change a light-bulb? Two. One to shoot the bulb and another to testify that the bulb was armed. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/228 "2001-08-29T21:26:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\ ***Raiders of the Lost Ark** : We’re given to believe that Indy is able to ride the back of a U-Boat all the way from the mid-Atlantic to the island of Malta, without the sub ever submerging (during a secret mission) and drowning him, and without any Germans in the conning tower seeing him. > \*\* Awww, c’monnnnn! It’s Indy!!! He can do anything!!! 😃 The Great Gazoo (who yells “Do another Indy!” whenever he sees Harrison Ford on tv) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/229 "2001-08-29T21:34:15Z")
\*\* > [@](#): > > This leads me to _Enemy at the Gates_, which I recently rented. It is the true stroy of a Russian sniper and German sniper playing cat-an-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. Sounds interesting and suspenceful enough, doesn’t it? No, you know what they decide the film needs? A LOVE TRIANGLE! Stop it already. Love triangles do not automtically make a film more interesting. The scenes invloving the girl slowed down the film and interupted the suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse the two snipers were playing with one another. And on top of which … > **SPOILER FOR ENEMY AT THE GATES** > IRL, the Russian sniper pinpointed the German sniper by a glint of light off the German’s scope. The Russian fired, and they later found the bullet had gone through the scope into the eye of the German sniper (so says the History Channel, a documentary of which promtped me to rent the film). The filmakers decide to twist the ending to resemble a Western showdown with the two of them standing, fully exposed to enemy fire in a trainyard. > > Knowing the real life ending to the story spoiled the film version for me, since it didn’t follow. \*\* They used the wrong book for the movie - they should have used David Robbins’ “War of the Rats” - this book makes a lot more sense. I vaguely remember another movie named “Stalingrad”, I think, that was a similar tale to this one - could have been a foreign flick. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/230 "2001-08-29T22:20:15Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Fiver \* > **Raiders of the Lost Ark** : We’re given to believe that Indy is able to ride the back of a U-Boat all the way from the mid-Atlantic to the island of Malta, without the sub ever submerging (during a secret mission) and drowning him, and without any Germans in the conning tower seeing him._\* Did they ever say where the sub intercepted the steamer? It’s possible they were still in the Mediterranean and the sub’s journey could have been much shorter, only a few hours. (Remember, the trip began in Cairo, so they would have been sailing to Gibralter to get to America.) The submarine captain may have decided not to submerge for such a short trip. In the Marvel comics adaptation of the movie, Indy tied himself to the periscope with his bullwhip. The periscope was never lowered (though I doubt this would have happened either). When they arrived at the island, Indy got off the sub and swam unnoticed into the base. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/231 "2004-01-16T00:21:26Z")
Hitchcock’s _Vertigo_ is generally considered a classic. I agree, but there’s something in the middle that really bugs me: Jimmy Stewart’s character is obsessed with a girl who looks just like the girl he fell in love with and lost. Is she the same girl? He can’t be sure, and neither can we. Until – she sits down and writes him a letter explaining the whole thing, a good half hour before the end of the movie. She throws the letter away, but now we know what Stewart doesn’t, and the uneasy tension is lost. Now the only tension is about whether Stewart will figure it out. After he does, an intense scene explains everything we need to know. For the life of me, I don’t know why the letter scene is in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/232 "2004-01-16T05:02:13Z")
Okay… I didn’t realize the last post in this thread was over two years old; just came across it when I was searching for something. Still… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/233 "2004-01-16T05:15:59Z")
Moving this antique to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Lagged2Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lagged2Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lagged2Death)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/234 "2004-01-16T20:45:21Z")
> [@Darqangelle](#): > > [Lack of narration]… is exactly why I liked the Director’s cut of _Bladerunner_ over the screen version. The intro narration, explaining about replicants in the far-flung future, was truly gag-inducing, but I didn’t think Deckard’s “internal monologue” style narration is nearly as bad as is generally made out to be. The Director’s Cut does have a much cleaner noir-style ending, though. One thing that always bugs me a little about Bladerunner, which is, don’t get me wrong, one of my very favorite movies, is the prominent product-placement ads for real companies. They can be downright jarring (Atari doesn’t really exist anymore, darn it!) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/235 "2004-01-16T22:27:10Z")
[QUOTE=KJ] The other day I saw the movie The Cell, which just came out on Friday. FWIW, I recommend seeing the movie. It rocks. It might even become my favorite movie, now that I think of it… Near the end of the movie, one of the characters must find a way to break a glass wall. There is water on the other side, so theoretically, if you broke the glass, the pressure from the water would instantly crash through the glass (I won’t reveal anything else about the situation, because that would kind of spoil some of it.) He has a gun, so he shoots the glass 3 or 4 times. When that doesn’t work, he picks up a pipe off the floor and smashes through the glass with it. Now, I’m no scientist, but unless it was a **really f** king heavy pipe\*\*, wouldn’t you assume that a BULLET would have more force, in a more concentrated area, than the pipe? [QUOTE] I was annoyed by the fact that there was no reason at all for them to go inside the killers head. It never occured to the police to find out what companies make these huge, thick sheets of glass that would be able to hold that much water, and then do some cross-checking to see how it related to the killer and where he might have taken them? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/236 "2004-01-16T22:33:49Z")
[QUOTE=Pipeliner] I thought **The Blair Witch Project** was an okay movie (not a great one), but there were a couple of things that really irritated me about it (besides the character Heather). 1. You must have noticed which direction the stream was flowing when you walked into the bush. Once you find the stream, FOLLOW IT. How hard is that? Keep the stream in sight at all times, and FOLLOW IT. [QUOTE] I don’t know if you were listening, but they did. They followed it for hours, and ended up at the exact same place. I can’t believe how many people miss that little detail. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/237 "2004-01-16T22:37:05Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I thought the recent _Titan A.E._ was pretty cool all around, except for the small detail of the storyline. Kind of a big hurdle to overcome, but the movie’s still neat to look at. > . Just Curious, which detail? I know it will likely seem obvious once I hear it, but right now I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Unless you are thinking of the incredible decision by one of the characters near the very end that, while nessacary, somewhat breaks suspension of disbelief(or borders on deus ex machina). ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/238 "2004-01-16T22:38:54Z")
> [@Lagged2Death](#): > > (Atari doesn’t really exist anymore, darn it!) Actually, Atari does. If not, somebody is operating a website using their logo and name without their permission. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/239 "2004-01-16T22:58:14Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > The stupid stupid idea of putting Keanu Reeves in “Much Ado About Nothing”. The stupid idea of putting Keanu Reeves in “Dangerous Liaisons”. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279/240 "2004-01-16T22:59:56Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Actually, Atari does. If not, somebody is operating a website using their logo and name without their permission. Yep Publishing company Infogrammes bought Atari and now is using that label to publish games. (They were the publishers for Neverwinter Nights, and KOTOR IIRC). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-stupid-stuff-in-an-otherwise-okay-movie/30279.md?page=13)