# Things in movies that really bug you ... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466 "2000-11-16T16:00:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AndyKeats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@AndyKeats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyKeats)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/1 "2000-11-16T16:00:26Z")
I hate it some movies when they zoom into a photo, it gets all blocky (or blurry) and they magically enhance it so all the detail is there. Then they do it again. So unrealistic. You can’t magically create detail where there was none before! If the picture had that detail to begin with, why did it pixelize in the first place! Whenever I see this happen, I have to loudly comment on it to whoever I am with at the time. What bugs you? ---
**Author:** ![FloChi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@FloChi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloChi)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/2 "2000-11-16T16:11:04Z")
What bugs me is when movies are not internally consistent. you know, people wear different clothes/ hairstyles after walking through a door. Also incredibly sappy endings ‘I forgive you, and did I mention that I love you?’ erghh. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/3 "2000-11-16T16:14:38Z")
A few things: 1. Not reloading 2. Never getting hit with bullets, nobody has good aim. (John Woo movies, even though I love them, though he makes a point of reloading, or throwing away an empty gun and pulling out a fully loaded one) 3. Fake technology, like the picture enhancer, or THE NET (entire movie). 4. No ugly people (not even as extras). C’mon, get a little realistic at least. 5. MI:2 with the other people faces and voices all the time. 6. HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!! TURN AROUND!!! ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/4 "2000-11-16T16:14:38Z")
Product placement. I mean, when it’s obvious and unnatural, so that, for instance, if Pepsi is sponsoring (or rather, as I recall the practice correctly, has donated stuff for the making of the film), not a single Coke can will be seen to be drunk, nor a single Coke sign displayed, etc. The most egregious example was the movie _Oh, God_, in which the magazines at the supermarket checkout line were actually _turned around so that the advertisements on the back covers would be shown!_ Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/5 "2000-11-16T16:16:25Z")
In general, I get bugged whenever a movie employs the LaForge manuever. You know, from ST:TNG -\> **Picard:** Geordie, our writers have come up with a fantastic villian who is about to blow our butts to smithereens, our defenses are useless! **LaForge:** Maybe if I remodulate the schwarzkopfian neurostatic gyrostabilizer. Yes, that’s it! The enemy has been destroyed! Back to the thread -\> I am an engineer by trade, and as such, expect a certain degree of technical competency in movies. I get so annoyed when a plot hinges on something that just doesn’t scan. It’s bad enough if they’ve written themselves into a corner and are using science as a Deus Ex Machina like above, but when they use bad science for no apparent reason (Hmmm…the alien spaceship is Macintosh compatible!). Really twists my goat. Second most annoying thing: The seemingly intelligent character who becomes a complete ninny when faced with a problem. Granted, most of these stories are written so poorly that if the character displayed a modicum of common sense the movie would be over in 10 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![ultress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7c8e57/32.png) [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/6 "2000-11-16T16:40:21Z")
I HATE any scene that has kissing in it and the people are all slurping and smacking. I hate smacking, most people don’t kiss that way. ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/7 "2000-11-16T17:36:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pcubed \* > \*\*In general, I get bugged whenever a movie employs the LaForge manuever. You know, from ST:TNG -\> > > **Picard:** Geordie, our writers have come up with a fantastic villian who is about to blow our butts to smithereens, our defenses are useless! > > **LaForge:** Maybe if I remodulate the schwarzkopfian neurostatic gyrostabilizer. Yes, that’s it! The enemy has been destroyed!\*\* A really blatant example of this was in the TV cartoon _Star Blazers_. A predicament would arise that would seem to spell doom for the spaceship _Argo_, when the engineer – I forget his name – would simply _push a button_ and _voila_! the situation would be resolved (enemy annihilated, spaceship protected from gunfire, etc.) The engineer would calmly explain to his dumbstruck crewmates how he had just that morning completed this new weapon or defense mechanism or whatever and hadn’t got around to telling anybody yet… ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/8 "2000-11-16T17:49:45Z")
internal consistancy. Examples include: \* The Piano\* little girl who adores her mother, then near the end betrays her? - the Lost World\* let’s see, we have a t-rex in a cargo hold, it gets OUT of the cargo hold, kills all the humans on the ship THEN jumps BACK into the cargo hold and locks itself in??? there’s more, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/9 "2000-11-16T19:33:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\*internal consistancy. > > Examples include: \* The Piano\* little girl who adores her mother, then near the end betrays her?..\*\* Thanks a lot **wring** , I hadn’t seen the movie yet. (Ya could have warned me!) :mad: My peeve - wrong bird vocalizations (incorrect voice-overs) Shot of a Bald Eagle (or a vulture) flying overhead and they dub in a Red-tailed or Red-shouldered Hawk for the nice _kiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrr_ scream. Bald Eagles do not scream; they sound like a creaky door with the hiccups. Vultures are usually silent. Jungle scene in Africa or South America, and you hear a Kookaburra (they’re native to Australia, not Africa or South America)! ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/10 "2000-11-16T19:39:43Z")
sorry **Screech**. Should I also not tell you that Rosebud is a sled??? Seriously -That movies’ been out for YEARS, figured, apparently wrongly that anyone who’d had ANY inclination to see it had. Will keep in mind in the future to post “spoiler” ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/11 "2000-11-16T19:42:50Z")
In “Terminator” when Arnie calmly reaches into the cop car and extracts the shotgun. Come on, those things are locked and clamped in such a way that you’d have to mangle the gun just to extract it. Best line in the whole movie was just before the line in this post’s title. The punks are looking through the coin-op telescope and one sights naked-as-a-jay-bird Arnie strolling through the park and asks his buddies; “What’s wrong with this picture?” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/12 "2000-11-16T19:55:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > \*\*My peeve - wrong bird vocalizations (incorrect voice-overs) > > Shot of a Bald Eagle (or a vulture) flying overhead and they dub in a Red-tailed or Red-shouldered Hawk for the nice _kiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrr_ scream. Bald Eagles do not scream; they sound like a creaky door with the hiccups. Vultures are usually silent. > > Jungle scene in Africa or South America, and you hear a Kookaburra (they’re native to Australia, not Africa or South America)! \*\* This reminds me of one. I was watching the old Bela Lugosi version of Dracula a couple of weeks ago. There’s a scene in the castle crypt (in Transylvania, mind you), and there are a bunch of small animals skittering around. The animals? Opossums! Good old American opposums! I half expected Dracula to come out of his casket carrying a banjo. Bad fake accents bug the hell out of me, as you can see from my thread on that topic. There are plenty of Southern or British or Irish actors out there. Why hire someone with a fake accent that is painful to the ears of true natives? Also, it annoys the heck out of me that folks being chased in horror movies are always falling down. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/13 "2000-11-16T20:06:40Z")
The whole wrong-bird thing reminds me of another: Wrong video game sounds. They show the kid playing playstation or nintendo 64, but the sounds are from the old atari pacman. Or how they just jam on the buttons and it doesn’t even look like they’re playing. My hands hardly move when I use the controller, but these people are shaking and hitting every button. ---
**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/14 "2000-11-16T20:24:02Z")
it seems that in every drama where an important character dies, they give it away with what i call the “death scene.” it’s usually a moment when the hero who will survive is parting (unbeknowst to them, for the last time) with the hero that is going to die. they always gaze for several seconds into each others eyes. often, the soon-to-be-dead character has a setting sun blazing in their eyes, or they are backlit with a sunset or bright light (is that a god reference, or what?). the only one i can think of off the top of my head is from…sorry for this one…Titanic. when they are lowering Rose down in the boat and they show Leo gazing strongly with flares flying behind his head… just as always, i turn to my girlfriend and say, “he’s dead.” i would call it a cliche, but most people don’t seem to notice. is this a cinematic convention? any directors out there? ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@Me\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Joe)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/15 "2000-11-16T20:54:52Z")
The “Hero-Leaps-Away-From-The-HUGE-Explosion” Scene I used to just suspend my disbelief during these scenes, but they have become just all too common, trite and cliche; Just look at the trailor for Charlie’s Angels (haven’t and WON’T see the actual movie): The hero/heroine starts running (in slow motion, that’s a given). Behind them is an obviously bluescreened/CGI-ed/whatever-the term-is gargantuan explosion, sending shrapnel flying towards the camera, not to mention screen-filling sized flames and fireballs, all of which fail to hit the escaping charcters. The hero/heroine manages to duck behind or underneath something WHILE THE EXPLOSION IS HAPPENING ONSCREEN. Of course, the fireworks reach a crescendo just AFTER he/she/they have reached cover. A scant ten seconds later the fire, asphyxiating smoke & all, has disipated and all the shrapnel has stopped flying, and the explosion has failed to cause the air temperature to rise to a degree that the heroes don’t spontaneosly ignite. The audience get to see a close-up of the hero/heroine emerge from shelter panting and gasping from the exertion of running to shelter. Note to any directors who may be viewing this: I never ever want to see another scene like this again. I am quite sure i’m not the only one!!! ---
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/16 "2000-11-16T20:56:06Z")
It always bugs me when someone (a) goes up to the bar and orders a “beer,” (b) orders a pack of “smokes” or “cigarettes” or © gets a “soda” out fo the fridge. It always sounds so ridiculously fake. Not to sound like a Tarantino devotee, but I do like that he takes the time to come up with fake brand names (note the constant use of Red Apple cigarettes). ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/17 "2000-11-16T21:08:37Z")
I hate it when the bad guys attack the hero ONE at a TIME. Rush him for goodness sakes. Also when they fire a machine gun with one had and manage to have perfect aim. machine guns are not known for their accuracy, not to mention how difficult it would be to hold it steady with one hand. How cars ALWAYS blow up when they crash. God, you’d think all of our cars are just huge gas tanks the way those things go. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/18 "2000-11-16T21:12:46Z")
**wring** , it’s just of all of the millions of movies you could have picked, that’s the one that yesterday I rented specifically to watch tonight after work!! (And I have seen the ending of “Citizen Kane” many times, but never the beginning or middle! Sigh. Looks like another trip to Blockbuster.) No hard feelings. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/19 "2000-11-16T21:15:50Z")
Um, weren’t those armadillos in Dracula, not opossums? ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466/20 "2000-11-16T22:16:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > \*\* > (And I have seen the ending of “Citizen Kane” many times, but never the beginning or middle! Sigh. Looks like another trip to Blockbuster.) > > No hard feelings. :)\*\* Glad there’s no hard feelings - I personally HATED\* “the Piano”\*, it spent loads of time “setting the mood” (I fast forwarded, they’re trugging through deep mud through the forest. Now they’re trugging back. Now they’re trugging forward again… I got it already) so maybe I saved you from a terrible fate. Try _THe Music Box_ with Jessica Lange for a more interesting parent/child struggle, IMHO… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-movies-that-really-bug-you/41466.md?page=2)