And, Chessic Sense’s post on military wear: “In movies, though, they’re consistently screwing this up. They have that collar closed and the zipper all the way up. They have no name plates, no flag, no unit insignia, and the rank is sometimes in the wrong place. Their boots aren’t bloused and their laces hang out.”
One figures that a person who has great knowledge about a particular profession / subject / activity, will very likely find in a film touching on same, a lot of inaccuracies and getting-wrong of things, which are likely to grate and to detract somewhat from enjoyment of the film. There can be situations in which “ignorance is bliss” – notwithstanding the motto of this board.
But isn’t it supposed to be every taxi-driver’s dream to, one day, experience this famous scenario? The excitement and drama will be enough for the cabbie; he won’t care about the fare .
Stupid adventures in electronics like drilling a blind hole in a wall and poking a wire in and actually expecting to be able to connect to someone’s network that way. Can’t the writers ask the sound or lighting people if the stuff they are doing is anywhere near plausible?
Of course they can ask. Sometimes they do. Most of the time, they don’t care.
There are plenty of stories about people who have told movie writers/directors/producers that “X is not realistic if you know anything about it.” Most of the time they say something like, “Thanks, but we don’t really care what’s realistic.”
Most makers of movies are not trying to re-create the real world. They’re creating a fantasy world in which things happen for certain reasons that audiences have been trained to understand and expect. Indeed, I vaguely recall reading about an instance in which a story was told the “realistic” way and audiences hated it until it was changed to the expected way.
This is why Robert Redford captured a bridge in A Bridge Too Far that in fact was taken by the British. And why the B-17s were escorted by Mustangs instead of Spitfires in Memphis Belle. And why the Americans captured an Enigma machine instead of the British in that absolute piece of dreck U-571. And so on and so on…
Everybody complains about product placement. But what bugs me is the alternative, where the characters are patronizing obviously made-up businesses and buying obviously made-up products. Nobody eats at “Burger Barn,” they eat at McDonald’s. Nobody shops at “Savings Mart,” they shop at Walmart. Stop it with the fake business names already. Bring on the product placement!
Most movie/TV conventions don’t bother me. So presents appear in a box with separately wrapped to & bottom–who could tear giftwrap identically in multiple takes? And who wants to see the dull parts of everyday life like looking for a parking place?
But, watching some favorite Buffy episodes the other day, I noticed how rarely Sunnydale front doors are locked. Sure, vampires can’t come in unless they’ve been invited. But how about the formerly friendly vamp who has turned evil? Or the well-meaning mistake–like when Buffy’s mother let Dracula in? Then there are the demons who also haunt Sunnydale–& a few sketchy humans. Of course these critters could batter their way in–but all that noise would give you time to head for the weapons chest…
Then there’s Tora Tora Tora—a realistic movie about Pearl Harbor. I’m not a hardware guy but understand some substitutions were made–in those days before CGI, there were few flyable Zeroes. But what bothers me are the few women in the film. Not that there are so few–but that they look all wrong. We see officers’ wives & a lady office worker–are all dressed like dowdy housewives of the early 1960’s, with shortish spray-net hairdos & shirtwaist dresses. They could have spent a few bucks on period dresses, hair & makeup…
Scenes that are supposed to be in New York City but the street signs are so totally not from NYC. I remember watching Death Wish 4 (I think it was 4. It was a long time ago) and being so jolted I actually exclaimed, “Hey! That’s not the South Bronx!”
All versions of Star Trek. The captain and crew will be talking to hostile aliens on a video link. Then they just cut the connection while they privately discuss whether they can trust the aliens or not. Then they switch the link back on and continue the talk with the aliens. Aliens resume the conversation without a pause apparently taking no offense.
I remember an early episode – I think the one that introduced the Fenengi – where they took a moment to discuss, and then explicitly tried to pretend that the audio just cut out for moment and they weren’t intentionally trying to hide anything.
When characters are having a conversation and someone starts a sentence with “look”. My mother and I first noticed this many years ago being done constantly in soap operas and then we realized it was standard pretty much everywhere. It became a joke between us and to this day it sticks out like a sore thumb. I don’t know that it takes me out of the movie but it is very noticeable and I instantly(and possibly unfairly) think “bad writing”.
Usually, it’s mountains in places that are decidedly flat. I think the first one I recall was in the old Gene Hackman movie “Uncommon Valor”. As the shot pans to a training camp “Somewhere near Houston, Texas”, there are mountains in the distance. If you’ve ever been to Houston, you know that the place is flat as a board and that you have to go 200 miles to even find anything that looks like it might could be called a hill.
The most recent was in the BBC show “The Last Kingdom”- they show “Oxenaforda”, and the town’s in the shadow of a fairly pronounced ridge. Unless things have changed, it’s fairly flat near Oxford as well, and you have to get some distance away before you start seeing ridges like that.
Makeup on women in inappropriate situations really pisses me off. Like when soldiers are wearing makeup in the field. Or the woman has been kidnapped and has been kept in the basement for three days…but still has a light application of lipstick and her hair is artfully tangled. Or the adventurer chick roaming the world has time to put on her makeup.
Wilhelm scream takes me right out of a movie these days.
I don’t care about newborn babies, CGI babies are weird, and I don’t expect them to use actual newborn babes. Use a 3 month old, that’s cool.
Now people racking the slide on their pistol or even cocking back the hammer kind of annoys me, especially if it’s professionals. Why weren’t you ready to shoot? Why the dramatic cock?
And yes, the practice of walking right up to someone when you have a gun on them. At which point, if they are at all professional, they knock your arm aside - half the time you don’t even fire - and manage to disarm you. It’s a gun. It works from ten feet away, too. At least make them get down on the ground on their faces before you approach them - there’s a reason why cops and soldiers want you on the ground.
Yeah, I started noticing that several years ago myself. The alternate is “Listen.”
It happens a lot in sitcoms too. Character A has a problem, character B says something wacky or whatever, cue laugh track, Character A says “Look, I has a problem” to get the plot back on point.
Catching up to a speeding vehicle. Hero in pursuit almost always catches up roughly immediately, regardless of time, types of vehicles, etc.
Case in point: I watched Spy over the weekend, and there’s a scene where Melissa McCarthy goes after a speeding car. First she gets aboard a moped with a roof on it, and falls over. She climbs out, makes a joke about it, then gets on another moped - a Vespa I think - and resumes the chase.
In no time flat she has caught up with the speeding…BMW 5 Series. On her Vespa. On the streets of Rome.
To give praise where praise is due: in Everything is Illuminated, Elijah Wood, portraying the book’s author, Jonathan Safran Foer (who does in fact have a high prescription) spends virtually the whole movie in eyeglasses that are thick and have an obviously high index of refraction.
Unless Wood has a prescription himself that’s anywhere in that neighborhood, which is very unlikely, he was probably disoriented and unable to see jack shit for most of the making of that movie. Nice dedication on his part, and good move on the director’s part to have him do it.