# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**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, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/41 "2004-10-27T21:44:59Z")
Richard Curtis is one of the guys behind Blackadder, and thus deserves nothing but your prostate… er, \*\*prostrate \*\* gratitude. So what are these so-called “spoiler boxes”? I can see them up there, but there is no “spoiler” button on my editor, and as a longtime web editor I have never heard of a \ tag. Do you just change the text color? Let me try that. ---
**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, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/42 "2004-10-27T21:58:31Z")
Cricetus-- You can use spoiler tags in the message box. ```auto [spoiler]No Peeking![/spoiler] ``` …will parse as: No Peeking!. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/43 "2004-10-27T22:03:38Z")
I think the dumbest aspect of the “science” in \*Face/Off \* is that a plot point hinges on the results of one of the switched characters’ blood test. The Cage and Travolta characters have different blood types. Um, good luck with that whole transplant thing (never mind the fact that their bone structures are also completely different, etc.). I like the movie though. It’s not like it takes itself too seriously. I can accept \*Armageddon \* for the same reason. It exists to be goofy and fun. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/44 "2004-10-27T22:11:58Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > So what are these so-called “spoiler boxes”? More info found in the [Sticky Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=187235) at the top of Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/45 "2004-10-27T23:56:08Z")
No, no, no. Amateurs. It’s all about **Brotherhood of the Wold** , man - it’s an interesting piece of action/horror fluff until things begin to be made clear, all of which are dumb and suck. But the real kicker, the thing I always forget about when somebody pops the movie in until I remember and go :wally , is when you find out that The villian is the guy who couldn’t be doing it becuase he’s only got one arm. Turns out he’s just had the other arm stuck up his ass for a few decades. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/46 "2004-10-27T23:59:57Z")
> [@Waccoe](#): > > 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. I rather adored Ms. Judd in _De-Lovely_. And hey, I also liked _Love, Actually_. There is a time and a place for schmaltz, and that was it. It didn’t pretend to be anything other than it was, which was a pleasant, funny, sweet lovefest. With Colin Firth and Alan Rickman. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/47 "2004-10-28T00:02:09Z")
BRUCE WILLIS A SLED! ROSEBUD IS A GHOST! Excellent. Thanks for the tip. I will make it a personal mission to peruse the stickies for more trickery. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/48 "2004-10-28T08:57:54Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > In order for them to turn stupid, they’d have to start off doing well, so I nominate **Mission: Impossible**. Beginning was OK, nice spy-stuff with the elevator and the camera-glasses and the invisible spray and the exploding gum…then we get into the business of the secure lab. > > A secure lab in which no data is meant to be removed from the lab, ever, but it has an external floppy drive, and sensitive data is stored in such a way as to fit onto a 1.44MB floppy. A secure lab with sound sensors that aren’t sensitive enough to detect a disk being copied, although I guess if you’re too stupid to remove an external drive from your secure workstation, you’re too stupid to think to have the sound sensors detect a disk being copied. > > That whole business with the lasers being redirected over the vent with his mirror contraption. Wouldn’t he have to have been moving at the speed of light for the lasers to get tricked by that? And why was this Pentagon vent system large enough to allow a human to crawl through it? How big are the A/C vents in your house? In your office? (Vents large enough for a person to crawl through is a separate rant). And finally, how about having NO GIANT VENT installed DIRECTLY over the secure workstation in the most secure building in the World? Not to mention the absence of security cameras! Okay, so they thought their security could not possibly be breached. But when that level of security is necessary, you don’t even trust the people who do have clearance. There would have been a camera to watch the employees before you even start worrying about intruders. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/49 "2004-10-28T12:59:03Z")
I’d like to nominate _Secret Window_. In my effort to catch up on movies I’ve missed over the last three years, I rented this loser and tried to watch it. Hey! I enjoy a good scary suspenseful movie. I even find it pretty easy to suspend disbelief, a knack that lets me enjoy movies many people detest. That being said, however, I was completely unable to suspend disbelief and allow myself to believe that the stupid writer would actually go back and stay alone in his cabin out in the middle of nowhere after his dog was killed and he was threatened by the extremely weird and menacing Shooter (John Turturro–doing an amazing job, as usual). I turned it off and took it back that night. Yeah, yeah, I know. I searched cafe society the next morning and learned that Johnny Depp’s character was psychotic and Shooter was actually Depp or something like that. Still, I just couldn’t buy it. Pretty darn stoopid. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/50 "2004-10-28T13:16:22Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Not to mention the absence of security cameras! Okay, so they thought their security could not possibly be breached. But when that level of security is necessary, you don’t even trust the people who do have clearance. There would have been a camera to watch the employees before you even start worrying about intruders. That part is believable, actually. You don’t want security cameras to possibly record ANYTHING being entered. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259/51 "2004-10-28T13:58:58Z")
I only heard about this today, my friend says he saw this movie, yes, bear with me, that was japanese. Now apparently it had just been your average mob movie (you know, pistols, some knives, nothing too gruesome or supernatural in this one) until the last scene… when this happens: The two mob heads are in a room. Suddenly out of nowhere, one pulls a bazooka out from behind his back, the other mob head, rips his own beating heart from his chest. The bazooka gets fired and the other guy throws his heart at him. They heart and ammo collide and the world explodes. Just, WTF? 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-movie-plots-turn-horribly-stoopid/271259.md?page=2)