# Things I still don't get ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925 "2011-01-17T09:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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 18, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/41 "2011-01-18T14:38:58Z")
The appeal of _Jersey Shore_, _Real Housewives_, _The Hills_, et al. I can forgive most competition-based reality shows (even though many are very bad) because there’s at least some semblance of an over-arching point. But any show that is nothing more than hateful people acting badly isn’t my idea of entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/42 "2011-01-18T15:12:02Z")
Star Wars: The first one was entertaining, and “I am your Father” was a great line, but overall they kinda suck. Why are spaceships banking to make turns? Why do they have wings? Why make a movie set in space if you are going to ignore the things that make space interesting? Also, the dialog is awful and the delivery is wooden. Finally, the prequels may have been the greatest waste of talent ever. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/43 "2011-01-18T15:21:18Z")
1. Why people think Calvin and Hobbes is so great. 2. Film critics; I’ve watched a lot of films critics loved. I’ve found almost all of them to be unintelligible or depressing, sometimes both. Sometimes I think that this must be the criteria. That a film must be unintelligible or depressing for a film critic to give it a good review. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/44 "2011-01-18T15:32:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Star Wars: The first one was entertaining, and “I am your Father” was a great line, but overall they kinda suck. Why are spaceships banking to make turns? Why do they have wings? Why make a movie set in space if you are going to ignore the things that make space interesting? Also, the dialog is awful and the delivery is wooden. Finally, the prequels may have been the greatest waste of talent ever. Why single out Star Wars? Almost all SF movies royally screw up physics and ignore physical realities in favor of making thing familiar (banking turns, sound in space) and spectacular (people blowing up in vacuum). The ones that don’t ignore physical reality (2001, 2010 (although they fudged), etc.) are in the minority. Star Wars, in fact, gets a break because it’s supposed to be nostalgic for the old serials and is demonstrably a kid’s-eye view of things. The craft have wings because they also operate in atmosphere, as shown. You can’t fault them for that. You can complain about the dialogue, though. That’s Lucas’ fault, and is still makers me cringe. The actors certainly complained about it, and generally did the best they could with it. I think “wooden” is undeserved. It’s not a _Whoosh_. It needed to be said. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/45 "2011-01-18T15:33:26Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Good call. I don’t get ANY Stanley Kubrick films. Overrated, interminably slow, pretentious nonsense. If anyone else attempted to make a movie like he did they’d be laughed out of Hollywood. I’m not a huge Kubrick fan, but I have to take issue with “interminably slow” and “pretentious.” Films like _Lolita_ and _Dr. Strangelove_ are among the most deft and entertaining (and _least_ pretentious) of their time. As for anyone else attempting to make a movie like him - again, not a huge fan of this one, but _There Will Be Blood_ strikes me as a fairly Kubrickian film, and Paul Thomas Anderson certainly wasn’t laughed out of Hollywood for that one. ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/46 "2011-01-18T15:34:25Z")
Plenty. But **Taylor Swift** is the current poster child for me. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/47 "2011-01-18T15:35:51Z")
Sluggy Freelance. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/48 "2011-01-18T15:45:10Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Forgot this until I posted in the Cormac Mccarty thread > > In No Country for old Men (the book) there are two or three instances where there is a mention of two (I think) guys in a black dodge charger (I think). I could not figure out why this was in the book, who these guys were, and what their connection to the story was. I’ve talked to other folks who have asked the same question, so it just isn’t me. And I went back into the book to re-read those sections to see if I missed anything, and I still didn’t see it. > > Can anyone help? I’ll spoiler this, just in case. [spoiler]It’s been a while but I think this is right. Chigurh meets the drug dealers at the site where Moss found the money. He’s supposed to help them investigate but instead he shoots them both in the head and takes their black Dodge Ramcharger (incidentally, a Dodge Ramcharger is an SUV, not a car. I didn’t know that when I first read the book and thought it was just another name or maybe variant of the the Dodge Charger). Later on there’s a mention of a couple guys in a black Plymouth Barracuda, they’re more of the drug dealer’s men, the ones who killed Moss and the hitchhiker girl in the hotel.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/49 "2011-01-18T15:54:19Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I don’t understand the genius of Frank Zappa. He wrote some clever lyrics and a lot of atonal bullshit. Why the love? Excuse me, why the _acclaim_? Well, _de gustibus non disputandum est_ notwithstanding, a lot of what he composed and/or performed was quite brilliant, and hardly atonal at all. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/50 "2011-01-18T16:18:40Z")
The vampire craze and all the crazies with prosthetic teeth. The resurgence of 3D movies, which seems to indicate a desperate remedy for a lack of ideas and talent. Harry Potter. The $5,000 hamburger (although without the accompanying bottle of wine, it’s “only” $80). ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/51 "2011-01-18T16:20:16Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > 1. Why people think Calvin and Hobbes is so great. \ I don’t get how Jaegermeister turned from an after dinner digestive into a woo hoo do shots party drink. It was probably perpetrated by the same people who think that anyone in their right mind would drink an entire class of Disaronno on anything other than a bet. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/52 "2011-01-18T16:21:02Z")
> [@Terraplane](#): > > Later on there’s a mention of a couple guys in a black Plymouth Barracuda, they’re more of the drug dealer’s men, the ones who killed Moss and the hitchhiker girl in the hotel Ok. Substitute black Plymouth Barracuda for my black Dodge Charger. I apologize for the mistaken vehicle identity, but I no longer have the book and I honestly couldn’t remember. But I was referring to the Plymouth Barracuda. Now, if what you say is true, I still don’t get it. I think you may have it right, but what tells you that the two guys in the Barracuda are going to the hotel to kill Moss and the girl? Maybe there is a connection that I missed. Maybe there is a spanish exchange that I missed that would tell me. But until someone comes by to refute this, I’ll go with it. Thanks **Terraplane**! ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/53 "2011-01-18T17:14:50Z")
_Burn After Reading_. It was billed to me as a comedy. My girlfriend and I didn’t laugh once in the whole film. It was just a bunch of unlikeable characters doing unlikeable things. The only two nice people, the gym owner and Brad Pitt, got dumped on from a great height. I don’t have an issue with swearing, but John Malkovich’s dialogue was just _too much_. It’s like they saw the profanity of Malcolm Tucker from _The Thick of It_, thought, “Hey, that guy swearing is funny,” and then removed what actually _made_ it funny. The whole film seemed like a way for the Coen Brothers to waste 96 minutes of my time, and the last scene seemed to say as much. After _O Brother, Where Art Thou_, it was a massive letdown. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/54 "2011-01-18T17:42:00Z")
> [@indian](#): > > 1. The so called anti-violence theme in “Unforgiven”. What don’t you get about it? That it exists? How it exists, given how violent the movie actually is? Could you elaborate? > [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > Wasn’t he out of Hollywood anyway? I think he made his films in England, including Full Metal Jacket for some odd reason. I believe “Hollywood” in this instance is being used to indicate the moving picture industry rather than a geographical location. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > I don’t get sports fans. Well said and totally agree. I can watch a game, I can even enjoy an exciting game, but I don’t follow sports and don’t care how my college team is doing this year and didn’t care when I was in college. > [@Cluricaun](#): > > The attaction of wearing skin tight jeans that still sag in the ass (I’m looking at you, youth of today) But once you decide that that is the proper way to wear pants, it’s only natural to wear skinny jeans that way, too. 😛 > [@Chefguy](#): > > The resurgence of 3D movies, which seems to indicate a desperate remedy for a lack of ideas and talent. I think this is a combination of improved 3D technology and an attempt to make movie theaters relevant again. With the quality of TV’s becoming widescreen, BluRay quality discs, and inhome surround sound, combined with increased ticket prices, and movies are losing market share. They’re trying to find something that home theaters just can’t provide. Which is lame, because 3D TVs are actually starting to come out, which renders the whole point moot. 3D TV access is going to outpace the movie theaters actually getting their 3D crafting in place. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/55 "2011-01-18T19:01:19Z")
iPhones, crackBerries, and the annoying people who use them constantly. Incessant texting. Standing in line at 0200 during Christmas shopping season in order to buy something that will be in the landfill in a year. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/56 "2011-01-18T19:33:49Z")
**Dancing with the Stars**. What a horrible cheesy show. Like a cross between Lawrence Welk and Battle of the Network Stars. Who watches this garbage? People who miss Lawrence Welk and Battle of the Network Stars? ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/57 "2011-01-18T19:46:34Z")
> [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > _Burn After Reading_. > > It was billed to me as a comedy. My girlfriend and I didn’t laugh once in the whole film. It was just a bunch of unlikeable characters doing unlikeable things. The only two nice people, the gym owner and Brad Pitt, got dumped on from a great height. > > I don’t have an issue with swearing, but John Malkovich’s dialogue was just _too much_. It’s like they saw the profanity of Malcolm Tucker from _The Thick of It_, thought, “Hey, that guy swearing is funny,” and then removed what actually _made_ it funny. > > The whole film seemed like a way for the Coen Brothers to waste 96 minutes of my time, and the last scene seemed to say as much. After _O Brother, Where Art Thou_, it was a massive letdown. I agree, for the most part. Everything I had seen of this (only commercials and trailers) led to me to believe this was a more in the _Raising Arizona_ or _O Brother, Where Art Thou_ mode of Coen. But what it really was was an inverted _Fargo_. All the humor was mean, and all the sympathetic characters were punished while the least sympathetic either got away with their misdeeds or got rewarded for it. I probably would have enjoyed the movie more if I had known the tone of the piece ahead of time. It was just such a jarring difference between the ads and the film itself. ---
**Author:** ![FrigidLizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@FrigidLizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrigidLizard)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/58 "2011-01-18T21:42:42Z")
Why Grease is so beloved. I mean, I liked some of it, I can see the appeal, I just don’t see why it’s so damn popular. ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/59 "2011-01-19T00:12:44Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > > [@Claude Remains](#): > > > > > [@GuanoLad](#): > > > > > > > [@PlainJain](#): > > > > > > > > 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’ve tried but I just don’t get it. > > > > > > Good call. I don’t get ANY Stanley Kubrick films. Overrated, interminably slow, pretentious nonsense. If anyone else attempted to make a movie like he did they’d be laughed out of Hollywood. > > > > If anyone really wants to try, [this](http://www.kubrick2001.com/) may help you to understand. > > Is that a parody?\* I could only make it about halfway through the third part. If it’s not a parody, thanks for the link - but I still don’t get it. I am a cinephile who cant stand pretentious movies (Darren Aronofsky, anyone?), and I just have to chime in and say that you are ignorant. Saying 2001 is “interminably slow” is like saying “shakespeare is boring”; it’s only true if you are uneducated or attention deficient. But, heh, what got me to jump in and reply was only because I happened to click on that link… for the love of God, man, really? It was insultingly bad. I plead with you not to judge 2001 based on that stupid link. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925/60 "2011-01-19T00:53:15Z")
> [@iamnotbatman](#): > > I am a cinephile who cant stand pretentious movies (Darren Aronofsky, anyone?), and I just have to chime in and say that you are ignorant. Saying 2001 is “interminably slow” is like saying “shakespeare is boring”; it’s only true if you are uneducated or attention deficient. But, heh, what got me to jump in and reply was only because I happened to click on that link… for the love of God, man, really? It was insultingly bad. I plead with you not to judge 2001 based on that stupid link. **iamnotbatman** – it’s okay to disagree with what someone says, but please refrain from insulting the person. “Ignorant,” “uneducated,” and “attention deficit” are not acceptable in Cafe Society. Please don’t do this again. No warning issued. **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-still-dont-get/567925.md?page=4)