# What obscure personal knowledge do you have that makes certain movies laughable? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802 "2004-08-27T16:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/121 "2004-08-30T06:27:13Z")
> [@Crandolph](#): > > Did they claim WEST Virginia?! There was just one Virginia until 1863, when WV split with VA over slavery and leaving the Union. Also WV is rather hilly and a different farming economy than the eastern part of Virginia … don’t know that there’s any tobacco grown there (which is why WV didn’t have many slaves, nor slaveowners, and wished to remain in the Union). No, they don’t say West Virginia, just Virginia. Apparently there were no tobacco plantations or English colonies in Virginia at that time either, but this doesn’t bother me. After all, at the end of the movie the ship sinks! so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to guess that the plantation soon failed and was “forgotten from history”. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/122 "2004-08-30T06:30:37Z")
Problems with movies set in schools: In _Kindergarten Cop_, Arnold Shwartzenegger has to fill in as a kindergarten teacher at the last moment for another undercover cop, Pamela Reed. The mothers of the students are shocked, shocked I tell you, that there is a _male kindergarten teacher_ (they say this over and over to each other, as if the teacher had attennae and blue skin). The very idea that a man might teach kindergarten has obviously never occurred to any of them. It is, of course, only the mothers discussing this, because none of the fathers are dropping their kids off at school. I taught kindergarten and first grade for ten years. I never encountered anything close to the reaction seen in the movie. Mild surprise occasionally, but even that was rare. Fathers drop off kids at school, too; in my experience about 1 out of every 3 to 4. **Askia** is absolutely right about _Daddy Day Care_. Parents would be yanking their kids out of the Daddy school and putting them on the waiting list for the other shcool at light speed. But I disagree that it has anything to do with their sex, but more to do with the fact that they have no training, no experience, and are incompetent boobs, while the rival school is the kind of pre-school people apply to while their child is still in the womb, and happily pay thousands in tuition if they are lucky enough to get in. Other general annoyances: The teacher begins a lesson, which is interrupted a minute or two later by the dismissal bell. Homework is routinely assigned by shouting it at the students as they leave following the dismissal bell. That same homework/research paper is handed in as students leave class. No matter how difficult students are described as being, they will shortly be shown sitting still and quiet, speaking one at at time, on topic. No teacher has more than one class. That one class will be ridiculously small. It will be multicultural, regardless of where it’s located. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/123 "2004-08-30T06:38:50Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > We have seen the Universe, and it looks like Southern California. Everything in the movies looks like Southern California anyway, so what the hell? 😉 [Soul Survivors](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218619/) is an absolutely awful movie, but it was fun to watch for my friends and myself because it was filmed on the Northwestern University campus. I’m not sure why the filmmakers felt that gazebos contributed to the college atmosphere, but they must’ve, because they had one built and included it in several scenes located in different parts of the campus. We don’t have any gazebos, and the fact that they built one and had it lugged around was very amusing. There’s also a scene early in the film that takes place in some kind of Satanic discotheque. It was filmed in a _church_! I’m not a broadcast journalist, but news anchors in movies _never_ sound right. (Maybe if I rewatched Network I’d see that they did it right, but I haven’t seen that in years.) I’m talking about the way the stories are written. Most of the time, they just give the information the character watching wants to know- which would be fine, I guess, albeit very, very lazy. But the rest of the time, they just don’t do the news like you’re taught to do the news. The sentence structure is wrong, and the story structure is wrong. If the screenwriter can’t be bothered to write the dialogue properly (which wouldn’t require much effort, just watch the news once or twice!), then get the info across in some other way. Using TV journalists to advance the plot when they aren’t part of the story is amateurish anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/124 "2004-08-30T06:40:23Z")
> [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > Oh, and I saw Kill Bill vol 1 last night…am I the only person impressed with the human body’s apparent arterial pressure? Especially when opened by a samurai sword. > > (after suspending disbelief, I really enjoyed the flick.) That wasn’t supposed to be realistic, though. I think it was an homage to classic Japanese swordfighting movies, where that kind of stuff happens a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/125 "2004-08-30T07:05:18Z")
The movie _Trading Places_ was shot and set in Philadelphia. Most of the buildings shown are pretty well recognizable but serve very different functions than the ones shown. I recall especially the facade of a Center City bank/office building made to look like the type of police precinct (we call them districts) you won’t see anywhere in the city. They got the Union League down right though. The _Rocky_ jog mentioned earlier is also very funny… Sly basically runs a marathon (in a heavy sweatsuit, often in a flat sprint) if that’s all one jog! And is he from South Philly or Kensington? He supposedly lives in Kensington (where they depict Adrienne’s pet shop as being) but doesn’t have the accent. He works in South Philly, and should probably be depicted living there (which is also, or was still in the 70s, the heart of the Italian American community). I haven’t actually heard anyone in any movie with a proper Philadelphia accent… and the non-white-on-green street signs also drive me nuts! (Conversly, lots of movies are shot now where Phila. stands in for NYC because it’s cheaper here. Sometimes you can catch clues like such as street signs that you’re not looking at NYC.) The TV show _Hack_ is just that. The crew spends hours making the nicest areas of the city look ‘tough’ and ‘gritty’ because they’d never actually go to the skanky parts of town. Thus you see temporarily trash-strewn streets filled with cartoonish thugs in places the average person can’t afford to live any longer. It isn’t the 70s anymore, when we were Filthdelphia everywhere… They make constant gaffes such as using the old Civic Center for 30th Street Station (which is quite beautiful… and very clean these days) and train routes that don’t exist. Of course the cab co. is fake. In general always a good chuckle. * * * Also, any movie depicting Gulf-area Arabs is usually absurd, starting with the clothing. Usually the average guy is shown wearing robes and agal (head bands to keep the kaffiya on) I’ve only seen on royal family on the news or a groom on his wedding day… if that. It’d be like watching a movie set in your average American office where the average Joe in middle management wears a tux with a sash and top hat and a chest full of medals. Because, yknow, it’s Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/126 "2004-08-30T08:15:33Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > Well, there was _2001_, which is probably as close as we’re ever going to get to accurate science in a movie (no sound in space! woohoo!). Nope, just lots of classical music. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/127 "2004-08-30T11:04:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > That wasn’t supposed to be realistic, though. I think it was an homage to classic Japanese swordfighting movies, where that kind of stuff happens a lot. At the time **Kill Bill** was released in Japan, several of my students warned me away from it, saying it was shockingly and disgustingly violent. All the old Japanese movies I’ve ever seen were surprisingly _un_bloody, as are swordbattles in TV samurai dramas. Granted, Tarantino is actually a fan of the genre and has undoubtably seen far more examples of it than I have, but I’m personally unaware of any Japanese swordfighting movie that features an unrealistic _excess_ of blood. That said, whatever Tarantino’s inspiration was, I’m sure he wasn’t going for gritty realism. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/128 "2004-08-30T11:45:05Z")
I think QT was going more for the feel of 70’s kung-fu movies from Hong Kong and China (it was filmed in HK on the set where the Shaw Brothers made most of their kung-fu films, and most of the Crazy 88 were Chinese), which were often very bloody. He intentionally chose the old-fashioned blood bags, rather than modern squibs, which produced the spouting effect. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/129 "2004-08-30T14:06:15Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > but I’m personally unaware of any Japanese swordfighting movie that features an unrealistic _excess_ of blood. > > That said, whatever Tarantino’s inspiration was, I’m sure he wasn’t going for gritty realism. _Lone Wolf & Cub_, at least. Six Japanese swordfighting movies that feature buckets o’ spraying blood. Portions of those were adapted into _Shogun Assassin_ which was mentioned (and shown on a TV) at the end of _Kill Bill Vol. 2_. ---
**Author:** ![RunSilent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/130 "2004-08-30T17:32:04Z")
This happens quite often in movies, and I always get a good laugh: someone is firing a semi-auto pistol, runs out of ammo , but squeezes the trigger and the “click” sound is heard - sometimes multiple squeezes and clicks! Can’t happen! The slide stays back when the last round in the magazine is fired. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/131 "2004-08-30T17:52:08Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > It’s their use of digital photo enhancing that made me suspect that everything on **CSI** might be bogus. I’m no expert in the field, but I know there’s no way in hell you can take a small, grainy screencap from a security cam video and “enhance” it to read the letters on the parking sticker in the back window of a passing car. [NASA has software which does this, sorta.](http://www.nasaexplores.com/show2_5_8a.php?id=01-030&gl=58) Basically they take several frames and register the object they are interested in (liscense plate fer example). The software stacks each frame with the object in the same place and allows information that is illegible in one frame to accumulate until it is legible. The process requires video data, not stills and the software isn’t close to being cheap, but it is available (and in use by law enforcement agencies). -DF ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/132 "2004-08-30T18:19:39Z")
I like costume history. It’s just a minor side hobby. Especially European women’s costume from, oh, 1100 to 1920. This makes watching historical movies with me unfun. My current biggest stupid gripe (no, I didn’t see **King Arthur**. I decided to keep my sanity) is the bit from _Pirates_ where Elizabeth says, “You like pain? Try wearing a corset.” 1. They weren’t called corsets. They were called stays. 2. They don’t freaking hurt. 18th century (which is what her clothes were) stays are very comfy. They mostly function as a Wonderbra. Plus, they provide a nice place to keep your knitting. I’m still not sure when that movie was supposed to be set. The men’s clothes vary from mid-17th to late 18th, and if I remember correctly (which I probably don’t) Elizabeth’s were sort of mid 18th. ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/133 "2004-08-30T18:48:09Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Oh, here’s one: in _The Jackal_, a Montreal postal code is given as GXY 453 (or some other letter-letter-letter-number-number-number combination starting with G.) Not only are Canadian postal codes not formatted like that (it’s A1A 1A1), “G” isn’t a Montreal postal code. Montreal postal codes start with H. > > Yes, it’s tiny, but it would have taken one second to research. It might have been an easter egg. For example, if you were a digital artist working on a crowd scene where the crowd had employee numbers or criminal numbers painted digitally on thousands of digital extras … put anniversary dates, etc on their tiny digital breasts… Another horsey thing … Films in summer showing horses in their winter coats, or vice versa. Another city thing … the movie set in Miami with the old guys, one working at the Lincoln Road Burger King? More teleporation as they go from spot to spot … same with “Big Trouble”. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/134 "2004-08-30T19:24:20Z")
When the head Nazi guy (I forget his name) opens the Ark in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** , he is reciting a prayer in Aramaic. The name of that prayer is _Brich S’maih_ and is said in Jewish synagouges around the world every time the Torah is read. Specifically, this prayer is stated when the Ark that holds the synagouge’s Torahs is opened. However, the Ark in the synagouge has nothing to do with the Ark of the Covenant (which was never opened by anyone). The prayer was composed well after the Ark was lost. The producers probably sent someone out with the mission to “find out what prayers are said when the Ark is opened” without specifying which Ark. 🙂 ;j 😛 Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/135 "2004-08-30T19:40:57Z")
I’m _really_ not obsessing on this, and I’ve got more than just a one track mind, but in the aforementioned Kill Bill vol 1, as ‘The Bride’ is getting out of the, erm, ‘Wagon’ to get into the driver’s seat, you can see moisture dripping out of the truck’s exhaust pipe. The gearhead in me knows that a cold truck that’s been sitting there since Buck went on-shift, wouldn’t have moisture dripping out the pipe. (But a truck just newly started up, moved in front of the camera, and turned off before it warmed up would…) ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/136 "2004-08-30T20:12:13Z")
**Broomstick** and **pilot141** have pretty much covered the flying stuff, so I’ll go with my pet peeve, which someone else also touched on: musicians, especially string players. It’s not that hard to hold certain wind instruments and look like you know what you’re doing, but holding a stringed instrument and bow is ideosyncratic and makes spotting a fake really easy. _Star Trek: TNG_ makes me cringe nearly every time I see Brent Spiner trying to look like a virtuoso player. The episode “Sarek” comes to mind, where not only is his bow hold atrocious, the other actors aren’t much better, and the piece isn’t even right! He announces they’ll be playing some Mozart string quartet, but they’re actually playing a piano _quintet_ by _Brahms_! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/137 "2004-08-30T20:20:11Z")
> [@RunSilent](#): > > This happens quite often in movies, and I always get a good laugh: someone is firing a semi-auto pistol, runs out of ammo , but squeezes the trigger and the “click” sound is heard - sometimes multiple squeezes and clicks! Can’t happen! The slide stays back when the last round in the magazine is fired. Um, single clicks can happen depending on the model of the firearm and whether the proper magazines are employed. At the pistol club I shoot At we have a pair of Ruger pistols that do not lock back on an empty chamber. There are also replacement magazines for some pistols that do not activate the slide stop so the pistol won’t stay open on an empty chamber. We also have one pistol that simply does not like to stay open (the slide stop is worn down). Combine this type of situation with an automatic that fires double action and you can get multiple clicks out of it as well. Though I do take your point that this is not usually the case as is depicted in movies, it can happen. I think it started in westerns with revolvers where once you fire it dry you can still pull the trigger several times, it just won’t do anything. -DF ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/138 "2004-08-30T20:26:05Z")
Martial arts and computers. I have a degree in the computer world and am an official computer weenie. Seeing stuff like the computer usage in Judgement Day where their laptop can immediately interfact to the alien computer and upload a virus nearly made me hurl. I’m also a 5th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. I can appreciate the skills necessary to put together a good fight scene, but wire work just flat sucks the big one. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an example. Excellent, excellent work while they were on the ground, but the minute they started the flying crap, they lost me. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/139 "2004-08-30T20:54:15Z")
Since someone was asking about “hard” scifi, take a look at Gattaca. I don’t need a hundred Gattacas, but it was pretty good. ---
**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 30, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/140 "2004-08-30T21:09:45Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > The producers probably sent someone out with the mission to “find out what prayers are said when the Ark is opened” without specifying which Ark. 🙂 ;j 😛 Perhaps their justification was to assume that Hitler did the same thing… it didn’t occur to them that maybe the super-weapon of the Jews wouldn’t _want_ to be used by the Germans, so they weren’t too bright to begin with… Another one just occurred to me–_Under Siege._ Steven Seagal is the only man in the world who can run down a metal corridor, firing automatic weapons to the side as he runs, and not have to worry about ricochets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802.md?page=8)