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Weird things in movies that bug you

Scientist character says some needlessly complicated but generally understandable technobabble.

The hero responds with some variation on "Can I get that in English?"

Copies straight from the lazy hackish scriptwriter handbook but extremely common in Hollywood, where scientists are always unrelatable savants and the hero is an everyman like us who don't need no learnin'.
 
A character rarely suffers from exhaustion or exposure in the wilderness.

You're supposed to believe this guy who just crashed in the frozen north or a remote island is just 100% ready to chop some trees down and build a fort.
 
there's certain ubiquitous dialogue that bugs me, because it's used so much:


"Don't you get it?!" or "You just don't get it, do you?"

"How're you holding up?"

"Hey Little Brother (or variation, for the sole purpose of instantly telling the audience how these characters are related)"
 
Akuun said:
That's pretty much a version of Chekhov's Gun. If the movie specifically points out that something's never been done before or that someone person will never do something, you know someone is gonna do that thing by the end of the movie.

See Avatar with the whole "no one has ever
tamed this thing
" moment.
Click to expand...

I thought that was called contrast payoff when it's the exact opposite of what we saw or what was stated earlier in the film, but yeah it annoys me too because you can see it coming from a mile away.

Another good Chekov's Gun example might be the bazooka from Kick-Ass
 
When a character is looking for a specific segment on TV and they immediately get to the channel and the exact segment their looking for is on. And what they're watching it for is exactly what's being broadcast in that exact moment.

Also, the depictions of people using PC's is hilarious. There seems to be a lot of typing and rarely any mouse clicks. Everybody seems to know all the commands to do everything. Plus, when they need to access something, it just appears immediately. No load times, no credentials required, etc. They tap a one or two keys and somebody's mugshot is dead center on the screen with all of their personal information.
 
joe2187 said:
The same thing that happened to Halle Barry's career.
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ohoooh

Rookhelm said:
there's certain ubiquitous dialogue that bugs me, because it's used so much:


"Don't you get it?!" or "You just don't get it, do you?"

"How're you holding up?"

"Hey Little Brother (or variation, for the sole purpose of instantly telling the audience how these characters are related)"
Click to expand...

"What do you want from me" is the most egregious offender
 
I've never been super into Star Wars, but I watched "The Force Awakens" with an open mind.

I liked it, but the intro bothered me.

Why were they successfully ambushed?
Why was there no radar?
With all the crazy tech, wouldn't you be able to detect ships from hundreds or thousands of miles away?
Did I miss something?
 
zeemumu said:
I thought that was called contrast payoff when it's the exact opposite of what we saw or what was stated earlier in the film, but yeah it annoys me too because you can see it coming from a mile away.

Another good Chekov's Gun example might be the bazooka from Kick-Ass
Click to expand...
I think what you described is similar to Chekhov's Gun, but reversed. That's more of a power fantasy sort of thing where the movie shows a character failing in some situation in the past, and then ending up in a similar situation during the movie, where he of course manages to make up for that past failure.

Like the hero failing to save a kid from a burning building in his backstory, and then managing to save a different kid from a burning building in the movie.

It's a cliche but I think it can still be done well at times.
 
Icanplaythat said:
I've never been super into Star Wars, but I watched "The Force Awakens" with an open mind.

I liked it, but the intro bothered me.

Why were they successfully ambushed?
Why was there no radar?
With all the crazy tech, wouldn't you be able to detect ships from hundreds or thousands of miles away?
Did I miss something?
Click to expand...

By "they" you mean the one guy? It wasn't a military installation he was visiting, it was an old dude chilling in an isolated village. And with all that crazy tech to detect stuff, presumably there is equivalent crazy tech to hide from detection. Totally fine.
 
JCHandsom said:
By "they" you mean the one guy? It wasn't a military installation he was visiting, it was an old dude chilling in an isolated village. And with all that crazy tech to detect stuff, presumably there is equivalent crazy tech to hide from detection. Totally fine.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't Poe's(?) ship have radar that could detect and notify him?
 
-The default "semi horn" sound on any big truck. You get the "horn, horn, hoooooooooooorn" sound.
-Wilhelm scream (I know its just a popular thing to do, but it instantly takes me out of a film)
-somehow the entire universe only revolves around a few characters. Godzilla is the most recent example of this. The main actor is not only the son of the scientist who recognized the MUTO signal, lost his mom to the MUTO earthquake, but just happens to be the only person qualified in the military to work the bomb designed to use on the MUTO. He also just coincidentally is there when Godzilla first appears to attack the MUTO. He also coincidentally makes it to the MUTO lair and sets off the bomb to kill the offspring.
 
People having sex, then getting up the next morning and just putting on their clothes and walking out like they don't stink of sweat and sex juices.
 
wetflame said:
People having sex, then getting up the next morning and just putting on their clothes and walking out like they don't stink of sweat and sex juices.
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A lot of movies play this one by having one of the characters over sleep and wake up while the other character is coming out of the shower.
 
Women that have sex with their bras on. I know that's to keep it PG-13 but I just can't get past it. Who would do that? They're missing out on some of the best stuff.

Parking anywhere. From movies I got the impression that LA was so spread out you could just pull up in front of anything and park, like a city-sized strip mall. Then I went there and realized hell no, it's awful.
 
Car keys/hotwire – how fast people can hotwire cars are pull down the sun-visor and the keys drop down.
Bed scenes – sex with clothes on AND/OR after sex the couples lying in or getting out of bed wearing underwear/clothes (I do understand this from an actor/nudity point of view, but some clever editing can fix that)
Hacking – 15 seconds of mashing on a keyboard and they are able to hack into and find out all of someone’s information and location.
 
When a character is considered ugly however the person playing them is at least average looking.

Friends or family members dying horribly, but character gets over it after like thirty seconds.
 
Nobody ever eats.

You see them order food. They might take a bite or hold the sandwich or a utensil, but usually it ends with somebody getting up and leaving with a full drink or plate of food.
 
Not looking at the road while driving

Now... this happens in House Of Cards all the time: something plot-related is informed in the News, the characters watch it, and as soon as report ends, they turn off the TV.

Why? just leave it there or mute it, do they like silence??
 
HawksWinStanley said:
Nobody ever eats.

You see them order food. They might take a bite or hold the sandwich or a utensil, but usually it ends with somebody getting up and leaving with a full drink or plate of food.
Click to expand...

Or they sit down to a dinner, there's an argument or something, and they just abandon the food. Why not take the plate?

PaulBizkit said:
Not looking at the road while driving

Now... this happens in House Of Cards all the time: something plot-related is informed in the News, the characters watch it, and as soon as report ends, they turn off the TV.

Why? just leave it there or mute it, do they like silence??
Click to expand...

There's a super egregious example in an episode of Buffy, where they literally find a TV in Giles house, turn it on, instantly get plot critical info from a news report and go. They're not sitting around watching TV and it comes on, they search a TV out for no good reason and it has the info ready to go.

There's a fun subversion in the first couple of episodes of Preacher where the news about the destruction of Anneville keeps coming on TVs in places and the characters keep missing it, because who pays attention to what's on the TV in random bars and diners?
 
wetflame said:
People having sex, then getting up the next morning and just putting on their clothes and walking out like they don't stink of sweat and sex juices.
Click to expand...

My wife always laughs at a sex scene and says "what? does that guy just come pixie dust?" There is never any cleanup after sex in movies.
 
Rookhelm said:
"Hey Little Brother (or variation, for the sole purpose of instantly telling the audience how these characters are related)"
Click to expand...

This reminded me of the world's worst example of expository dialogue, from Big Hero 6.

Don't you remember how our mom and dad died ten years ago and you've been taking care of me since then, big brother?

No, actually I had forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder.

Raptomex said:
When a character is looking for a specific segment on TV and they immediately get to the channel and the exact segment their looking for is on. And what they're watching it for is exactly what's being broadcast in that exact moment.
Click to expand...

Arrested Development did a great send-up of this. "And imagine the impact had that story come on RIGHT WHEN I TURNED ON THE TV!"
 
Poorly composited screens when people are watching televisions. Usually stands out even more if it's supposed to be an older television set. Get Out is a recent example that looked pretty poor to me.
 
Mother makes a three course breakfast, all laid out on the counter, dad takes a half slice of toast and goes off to work.
 
-Really blatant product placement

-"I didnt start it but I will finish it" and other horrible cliche dialogue. Totally hampers my excitement for War for the Planet of the Apes since they ended the trailer with this garbage.
 
zeemumu said:
Attempting to make established villains sympathetic anti-heroes.

Texas Chainsaw 3D and Maleficent are my usual examples of this. I don't understand the logic behind trying to make us feel bad that an angry mob gunned down Leatherface's cannibal family. The movie plays it like justice was done now that Leatherface got his revenge. And I was cool with Maleficent just being evil and petty. Didn't need that whole "no the king is the real evil guy" thing. They even made the three fairies shitty just to make Maleficent seem better by comparison.


Also, misunderstandings that could be easily explained with a single sentence but for some reason the characters feel the need to drag out the drama by instead saying things like "you don't understand" and "let me explain." Just TELL THEM. You're wasting all of these chances to explain yourself to tell them that you need to explain yourself. Instead of saying "you're making a mistake," maybe say "I didn't kill your father."


And very specifically, stuff like that moment in Paranormal Activity 3 where they got blatant footage of a ghost attack on camera and the guy's brother was slashed across the chest but the wife refuses to look at the footage. The footage was basically playing behind her but she's like "nope, nope, this prank's gone far enough." What prank? You think he altered the footage that well? In the freakin' 1980's?!
Click to expand...
Freaking Grinch who stole Christmas did this. Backstory where the who's bullied young Grinch. Can't he just be an asshole who hates Christmas and then learns to be good?? Hated it.
 
HawksWinStanley said:
Nobody ever eats.

You see them order food. They might take a bite or hold the sandwich or a utensil, but usually it ends with somebody getting up and leaving with a full drink or plate of food.
Click to expand...
I once wrote a scene with this exact thing happens, where someone storms out dramatically. Then they immediately walk back in, sit down, and go "Look I'm just going to finish this. Just don't talk to me. Or... fuck it, I'll get it to go."
 
related to the everyone speaking english even when they probably wouldn't, sometimes a movie with a lot of international actors will have everyone speak their native language but everyone understands everybody else with no problem.
 
The one-hit knockout punch. Everyone is a perfect-aim pro boxer in fiction. Movies pls.

People immediately dying from a gunshot to the abdomen. What's this about? Do these people know how human anatomy works?

joe2187 said:
getting thrown means instant knockout

getting punched in the gut means instant knockout

getting shot once means instant death

getting stabbed means instant death

when a group of guys surround a single opponent and then proceed to line up and take turns engaging them in a fight
Click to expand...

This man knows.
 
Man Called Aerodynamics said:
This reminded me of the world's worst example of expository dialogue, from Big Hero 6.

Don't you remember how our mom and dad died ten years ago and you've been taking care of me since then, big brother?

No, actually I had forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder.
Click to expand...

Yes, any time when one person feels the need to tell another about something they both already know. It's even worse when they dress it up with "Let's go over it one more time" at the beginning or a snarky comeback like "Why are you telling me this?" at the end.

Very Bad Things is one of the few I've seen subvert "stabbed means instant death" thing. They stab a guy in that one and lock him in the bathroom and you can hear his agonized moans and pleas for mercy for a long time. Very Bad Things pretty much subverts everything about comedies, though. Anywhere where you'd expect someone a pat or happy resolution it becomes messy and awful.
 
The way characters will sometimes seem "frozen" once they are no longer the focus of the camera. Kinda hard to explain but let's say some dudes are having a conversation and then we switch to another scene. Once that's done we switch back to the previous characters and even though significant time has passed or even a change of scenery (no longer in a car but in building now), it seems as if nothing happened during that "off time". So they said or did nothing of importance that whole time?

Edit: I see this happen a lot in tv shows too.
 
chadtwo said:
How people on the phone silently agree on when to hang up without saying goodbye or anything.

edit: beaten
Click to expand...

This one always bothers me.

Also when actors deliver a line like they know they're going to be interrupted, pausing way before the actual interruption occurs.

Example:

"But when did you...?!" (too-long pause with no indication in their voice that they're going to continue this thought)
"Get into town? Just last night".

I wish more directors could get natural sounding speech out of actors. When I see a movie where lines overlap naturally, or characters mishear something and ask for another character to repeat themselves, etc. I always appreciate how authentic it feels. It's hard to get right though, and doesn't always serve the filmmaker's goal of just getting the plot conveyed as simply as possible.
 
Henchmen who cannot hit the hero with their guns...... until they fire a tranquilizer dart in which case they always hit exactly in the neck.
 
In the Dark Knight, there is a scene when Gordon starts loosing his shit and starts screaming at Batman "We have to save Dent!! we have to save Dent!!" , then ,the following scene he is just really calmed whispering something in the ear of one policeman.

I don't know, the clumsiness of the edition on those scenes lead be to believe that maybe Gordon was overreacting on purpose in order to mislead the Joker who was listening or something, got me really confused the first time i watched it.
 
This may just be me not knowing how sound setups work, but I hate it when there's a conversation and it's supposed to be all important but they're talking super low. So you turn up the volume like "what the fuck are they saying" and then A BUS CRASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW OR SOMETHING LOUD ENOUGH TO FUCK WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS TWO DOORS DOWN.
 
(Probably going to get flak for this one on here. But here goes)

Women beating up men (Especially groups of guys).

I know there are strong women that can fight men in real life. But not the kind of women that you usually see doing it in films (Thin, short, weak). Always looks stupid and makes me cringe.
 
bugs me in TV too:

During 1 camera angle 2 speaking characters are making eye contact but it cuts to a different angle (same conversation) and then all of a sudden they're not. Same thing for position of hands, etc.
 
bjork said:
This may just be me not knowing how sound setups work, but I hate it when there's a conversation and it's supposed to be all important but they're talking super low. So you turn up the volume like "what the fuck are they saying" and then A BUS CRASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW OR SOMETHING LOUD ENOUGH TO FUCK WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS TWO DOORS DOWN.
Click to expand...

This is how Hollywood mixes their movies nowadays. Everything is super loud except for the dialogue. It's really annoying, I'm constantly fidgeting with the volume control with some of these fucking things.
 
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