For that matter, it’s very distracting when certain movies exist in a universe where no brands apparently exist. The soda cans are fuzzed out or have “Soda” written on them but nothing else.
I know it’s product placement, but frankly, it makes things a lot more relastic to see advertistments in all the places you’d expect them. Not doing so makes it look like a fake universe, or a universe without much detail.
It was the “Stomach Contents” or something like that.
There was an episode of NewsRadio where Jimmy James got a good-looking teacher’s phone number through one of her students. As the kids walks off, Jimmy reads out the number: 555-something. Then he says, “Wait a minute, this is one of those phony 555 numbers!”
The cliche scene that irks me more than any other is when Character A has done something wrong or shameful that will eventually impact upon Character B (his / her love interest) in a negative way. Character A wants to come clean about it. There is always, always, always this exchange -
Character A: Um, <Char A’s name here>, can I talk to you?
Character B: Yeah, what’s up?
(Slight pause)
Character A: Nothing.
Character B walks away.
Just once I’d like to see a movie in which Character B says “No seriously, what’s up?”
Oh, I hate that, too. I’d rather they just turn the soda can or position it behind something. It’s worse when they use real products and go over it so it looks like the red and white Coke can but says Dola-Cola (or something) instead.
A similar scene to this is when character A has decided to reveal some big secret to character B (“I’m not really an astronaut”) and character B says he/she has something to say as well. B always goes first and says something that makes A more reluctant to spill the beans (“Since Billy met a real astronaut, he’s started speaking again! It’s a miracle!”). Character B then asks what A wanted to say and A always hems and haws and says something lame("I just wanted to say…I really like that dress’). Character B never says “You like my dress? That’s it? That’s what you said was really important and couldn’t wait? That’s why you had to drag me outside on this balcony? WTF?”
I had to look it up- the Seminal Fluids.
I heard that story, but if I recall correctly, he didn’t put his own phone number in, but as a joke, he put in that of his good friend, animator Bill Melendez (who directs the Peanuts TV specials). Melendez was confused as to why he was getting so many phone calls that day until he saw the strip.
In the film Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey meets God and is granted some of his powers. God calls Carrey’s character a number of times during the film. Bruce’s pager shows that the phone number is 776-2323- no area code. A number of people with this number recieved a bunch of phone calls. Their opinions were mixed. (When the film was released on home video, God’s phone number was changed to a 555 number.) And of course, the same thing happened after Tommy Tutone recorded Jenny (867-5309). Nowadays, though, this number is beloved by some- someone once tried to sell the phone number 212-867-5309 on eBay until Verizon shut the auction down, and if you call the number using my local area code, 973-867-5309, you’ll get Benjamin Franklin Plumbers. Their advertising uses a parody of the song called “Benny.”
The Simpsons (who themselves have registered a number of websites and one e-mail address which have appeared on the show) did a similar joke. Chief Wiggum recieves a phone call from someone in distress and asks for their phone number. “555…oh, that’s gotta be fake!”
Person A(Ultrasneak) convinces Person B( Generally not presented as an idiot) to lead Person C into a trap where he can be gunned down. A offers B an improbably high reward. The trap, at some deserted landscape, goes flawlessly. Then B , (to A)
“OK, give me my money and I’ll be off”
“Well I could do that but…”
BANG!
Really annoying when it involves a 4 person, (or more), chain.
There are some great responses here. How about sports?
1- All baseball games end on a home run in the bottom of the ninth.
2- All basketball games are decided by free throws with no time on the clock.
3- High school gymnasiums have about 4 rows of seats for bleachers.
4- The team of lovable losers can win the championship.
5- The winner of every boxing match will have been knocked down and nearly counted out earlier in the fight.
Off of sports now:
In animated movies/shorts, ever notice that in night scenes when stars are visible, there will be a meteor about every 10 seconds?
Parking never seems to be an issue, even for undercover cops. The largest city always has plenty of parking right in front of every building.
Actually, I’ve noticed the opposite. Sometimes in movies people let the phone ring a dozen or more times before answering, the situation becoming more intense with every ring. I always wonder, would anyone wait that long on the other end, and do any phones even ring for that long?
One I’ve always disliked. A guy meets a woman, usually for the first time, and for whatever reason, she’s trying to flatter him. She comments that he’s in good shape, possibly squeezing his bicep. He invariably says, “Well, I try to get down to the gym 3 or 4 times a week.” For a while there, this exchange was in every show I watched. Just lazy writing. :rolleyes:
Galaxy Quest had a nice send up of this cliche.
I’ve actually had customers come up to the bar when I’m working to order a beer.
They’ll say, “I’ll have a beer.” (I’m not kidding.)
I always say, “This isn’t a movie. What kind of beer do you want?”
I’ve never understood how a short, fat baddie can sit at his desk and threaten the goons standing in front of him that he will kill them if can not perform impossible feat #54.
“Get me that Blood Diamond or next time the gun will be loaded!”
The henchmen, usually in comically inept pairs, will then walk off fearing for their lives and attempt to take on the hero, who has already killed 200 other goons. Why don’t they just pull out a gun and shoot their boss while he sits there, before making off with what goodies are lying around? Why does anyone listen to the guy in the first place?
On Scrubs Dr. Turk got a new number, 916-CALL-TURK, which the producers had a little fun with.
And it’s the same sound that Simcity played every time you built a police station. Oh yes, I know it well. And I want to kill it. Yes, I want to KILL a sound effect. You heard that.
I’d rather have that than have the brand companies wasting movie time on ads. If there’s actually a product placement, there’s a long-drawn-out shot of the product apropos to nothing, and sometimes there’s even dialogue pissed away promoting it (see I, Robot).
Screenwriters spend a LOT of time perfecting their craft to the poitn where every single word in the script moves the story forward. When a 2-3 hour movie spans days, weeks, months, or 10+ years ala The Godfather you can’t waste ANY time talking about real-life products. I think Dr. Pepper seems to be better about this than other sponsors–you see the soda can long enough to make you want to go buy one (that’s the point, obviously) but it’s mixed in with the ongoing scene (ala Spider-Man where the point that he was having trouble mastering his new powers was illustrated by getting the soda can caught in his web) without wasting time on the stuff. But when a screenwriter survives on ramen and crackers for 10 years in L.A. and finally gets a big break, I hate to see 30 seconds of his (or her) precious three hours wasted on a shot of a Budweiser truck with a beer jingle in the background.
I’d much rather they make up brand names or fuzz out the labels or cover the labels, personally.
That’s one of the things I liked about a certain baseball comedy in theatres now:
In The Benchwarmers, the three-man loveable loser team, which has won every game in the tournament entirely on home runs and strikeouts by the only one with any talent whatsoever, reaches the championship and puts in even worse losers who get creamed in horrendous fashion.
Ever been in the military? Not that they threaten to kill you if you don’t accomplish an impossible task, but it’s all psychology. I don’t have to suspend my belief, personally.
Main characters always get great parking.
They did that in Magnolia, too. Tom Cruise played a egocentric, misogynist motivational speaker with a real phone number that led to a recording of Cruise, in character, pimping his products. It was pretty clever.
My biggest pet peeve, which I know I’ve said on here before, is women in obvious makeup under highly improbable circumstances. Makeup in space, makeup whilst scuba diving, makeup after wandering in the desert (even on an alien planet) for four days. Arrgh.