# When movie plots turn horribly stoopid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259 "2004-10-26T17:02:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/21 "2004-10-27T01:09:49Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > Fight Club wins the prize for this, especially since much of the movie was very smart. The ending was stupid AND cliched. I will not allude to what it is in case there’s someone who is watching it on DVD tonight, of course, but it was so very stupid it actually undid the brilliance of the movie’s first hour. What’s the plot hole / illogicality that you’re referring to? You can put it in a spoiler box if you like, but I think everyone’s seen Fight Club anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/22 "2004-10-27T01:21:51Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > One more thing about _Fatal Conflict:_ > > I won’t even go into the secret jewelry processing center that’s staffed entirely by sexy female slaves wearing only T-shirts, chastity belts, collars and branks (metal gags) to keep them from secreting the jewels in their secret places. So don’t even think I mentioned it. Now, if only MST3K would come back AND do softcore porn… ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/23 "2004-10-27T01:26:33Z")
> [@Atticus Finch](#): > > What’s the plot hole / illogicality that you’re referring to? You can put it in a spoiler box if you like, but I think everyone’s seen Fight Club anyway… The whole split personality thing where Brad Pitt is really Edward Norton’s “other” personality. This lead to very stupid scenes of Norton fighting himself. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/24 "2004-10-27T03:40:58Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Now, if only MST3K would come back AND do softcore porn… But this wasn’t softcore porn. It was basically a B science fiction movie. No nudity in it, even. The jewelry slaves were scantily clad, but clad nonetheless. No sex either. They even had a semi-famous star – Kari Wuhrer, who HAS done some pieces that could reasonably described as softcore (such as the aptly named “Luscious”) but this wasn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/25 "2004-10-27T03:58:32Z")
Die Another Day. Invisible car. 'Nuff Said. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/26 "2004-10-27T04:52:46Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > The whole split personality thing where Brad Pitt is really Edward Norton’s “other” personality. This lead to very stupid scenes of Norton fighting himself. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Roseworm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df788c/32.png) [@Roseworm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roseworm)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/27 "2004-10-27T07:42:08Z")
My vote goes to \*Total Recall \* (1990), which drives me absolutely crazy. It has a great premise and most of the film is fast-paced and violent - full of energy and nifty ideas. It begins as a crackerjack sci-fi/action film and manages to sustain momentum most of the way through. Admittedly the plot gets a little wonky toward the end, but everything is still cool, then…ARGHHH!!.._those stupid bulging eyeballs!!!_ And an otherwise great movie goes right down the toilet. Judging by this and some of the other choices on this thread, I would say that dumb-dumb science is a major cause of film spoilage. Don’t the Hollywood suits ever talk to real scientists? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/28 "2004-10-27T08:37:02Z")
Ah hah, but in Total Recall isn’t that evidence that it might only be a dream? (no no no I’m not Verhoevining! Arnie even questions that before the credits role so I’m not reading any “genius” into crap!) ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/29 "2004-10-27T08:46:18Z")
Arlington Road. Not a bad little movie, nicely paranoid and with a great creepy performance from Tim Robbins - but his final scheme to blow up the FBI {or whoever it was} headquarters was so ridiculously implausible as to spoil the whole movie: Jeff Bridges gets pulled over by one cop or hits one lamp-post and there goes the whole cunning plan. God, Dr Evil would have thrown that scheme out. Oh yeah, and Shane was ruined by Jack Palance not shooting Alan Ladd. ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/30 "2004-10-27T12:14:22Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > The whole split personality thing where Brad Pitt is really Edward Norton’s “other” personality. This lead to very stupid scenes of Norton fighting himself. First of all, that definitely deserved a spoiler box. Secondly, I’ll have to disagree with you - his fight with himself later in the movie was brilliant, one of my favorite movie bouts of all time. Brad Pitt’s “character” is just **utterly** menacing. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/31 "2004-10-27T12:27:00Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Ah hah, but in Total Recall isn’t that evidence that it might only be a dream? > (no no no I’m not Verhoevining! Arnie even questions that before the credits role so I’m not reading any “genius” into crap!) It’s an obvious satire and if you can’t see that, then there’s no hope for you. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/32 "2004-10-27T13:06:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Alien**. It’s a pretty good SF film up until they let the alien into the ship. Then, it got dumber, and dumber, and dumber. By the time they went to chase him in the air shaft, it had reached zero on the IQ scale and dropped into negative numbers. You clearly have not understood anything that went on in the film. 1. Ripley wasn’t going to let Kane back aboard. Ash did it, and Ash was an android programmed with a directive to retrieve an alien at all costs. 2. When Dallas went into the airshafts, nobody had seen the alien since it burst out of Kane’s chest a few hours before. It was not unreasonable to assume that it hadn’t grown to seven feet in height in a few hours. 3. I’d like to see how clearly _you_ were thinking after watching a friend die in a horrific manner right in front of you. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/33 "2004-10-27T13:21:50Z")
_Training Day_. Never a great or brilliant movie, but it gets ready to end on a somewhat thought-provoking, ambiguous note… then Denzel Washington’s character turns into Mr. One-Dimensional Super Evil Cop and the movie drags on to a stupid conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/34 "2004-10-27T15:27:52Z")
Someone mentioned this in another thread. The entire Face Off movie. So, they switch faces and no one can tell? So the guy is sitting there without a face, wakes up, calls his henchmen, they can understand him without lips, they come over, force a Dr to put the other guy’s face onto his, no one notices the different body types… man, there is just too much to detail. I’m usually all about saying “If you wanted reality, what were you doing at a movie?” But this one was just too bad for me to enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/35 "2004-10-27T15:35:42Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Someone mentioned this in another thread. The entire Face Off movie. So, they switch faces and no one can tell? So the guy is sitting there without a face, wakes up, calls his henchmen, they can understand him without lips, they come over, force a Dr to put the other guy’s face onto his, no one notices the different body types… man, there is just too much to detail. > > I’m usually all about saying “If you wanted reality, what were you doing at a movie?” But this one was just too bad for me to enjoy. Well, I’m certainly not going to say that any of that is possible, but i think that would have been obvious before seeing the film. They actually do mention the different body types in the film and how they will fix it (they show a computer doing…something…in order to change their physiques). But come on, the entire plot hinges on them being able to trade faces. I don’t really think this is a movie in which to expect total realism. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/36 "2004-10-27T16:38:56Z")
AI!!! Okay, getting over the fact that the movie should have ended at an earlier scene, this is compounded by the fact that You can only bring back the mom for ONE DAY??? WTF??? Computers are, ummm, you know, digital??? :wally :wally :wally :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :dubious: :dubious: :dubious: :mad: :mad: :mad: stupid forced sappy ending ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/37 "2004-10-27T17:21:25Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Someone mentioned this in another thread. The entire Face Off movie. So, they switch faces and no one can tell? Ah, but you see, they didn’t switch faces. They switched skin. They retained their own underlying bone structure. Stupid, stupid, stupid. As to _Fight Club_, I thought it was a brilliant portrayal of dissociative behavior. My girlfriend agreed with me so much so that she made her psych students watch it. Anyone want to take on _John Q_ or _League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_? Veritable treasure troves of Stoopid. _Double Jeopardy_ – now there’s a realistic flick. Woman loves her husband very much. They spend the night making love on a boat. Then she finds herself standing over his bloody corpse, holding a knife. The Coast Guard shows up at that exact moment, so they arrest her. Yeah, it’s going to be that kind of movie. She goes to prison for murder, and serves a whole six years. Six. While she’s in, she finds out he’s still alive. So she plans her revenge. Please try to follow along with this next bit, it’s a little weird: Double jeopardy means, more or less, that if you’ve been tried for a crime and aquitted, you cannot be tried again. It does not mean that you have a free pass to commit the crime. Further, if you’ve been found guilty of murdering someone who later turns out to be alive, you do not get one free murder. Right? Wrong. The entire movie is based on this One Free Murder premise. There is so much more wrong with this movie, but I’ll limit myself to only one more thing: Evil hubby puts unconscious wife in a coffin. She awakes, has a look around, and sees a decaying corpse lying next to her. Must be one of those coffins built for two (but inhabited by one) that I’ve been hearing so much about. ---
**Author:** ![Waccoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Waccoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waccoe)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/38 "2004-10-27T18:14:29Z")
Good post by Dooku on _Mission Impossible._ I liked the film, but now I realise it has bigger flaws than I thought. As for \* Double Jeopardy\*, the scene where she goes to a graveyard is so bad…how did Ashley Judd become a film star? I’d like to nominate Richard Curtis films. Don’t you Americans get irritated by this stupid scmaltz? I’m thinking of _Notting Hill_ and _Love, Actually_. Both have a kind of sweet premise and then turn really sickly. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/39 "2004-10-27T18:19:37Z")
Good post, **tdn** … _Double Jeopardy_ may be the dumbest movie premise I’ve ever heard. The only fitting revenge for it would be to kill the writer… twice. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/40 "2004-10-27T18:25:51Z")
> [@Waccoe](#): > > I’d like to nominate Richard Curtis films. Don’t you Americans get irritated by this stupid scmaltz? I’m thinking of _Notting Hill_ and _Love, Actually_. Both have a kind of sweet premise and then turn really sickly. Two of my favorite films, actually. I’m the strong yet sensitive type. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259.md?page=3)