Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Movie Pet Peeves Part 2

I originally did a post about movie pet peeves long before I started The Movie Guy blog. I listed some of the things that drive me crazy that I frequently see while watching movies. I'm not advocating that all movies be documentaries and be 100 % accurate in every way, I'm just trying to weed out some of the repeat offenders. Since identifying the most common ones in my Movie Pet Peeves Part 1, I have picked up on several additional items to add to the list.

Fake Torches-I can't stand it when someone in a movie finds a stick near a cave entrance and then they rip some cloth and wrap it around it to create a perfectly glowing inextinguishable torch yet it doesn't produce smoke or burn down the entire time they are using it. A cousin of this one is when there are scenes with fire, yet there is no smoke, just clean Hollywood flames.

The Little Kid Get Away- I have seen little kids run away from big bad guys by running under their legs to get away. I don't care how dumb and big the villain may be, he should still be able to catch a kid. Not being able to catch Jackie Chan is one thing, but if you can't catch a little kid because he ran under a table or your legs, then you are pathetic!

Fake Computer Performance.-I'm sure you have seen the fake scenes where a computer and a programmer talk back and forth in everyday English like instant messenger. I love 24 but I can't stand it when Chloe sends requested building schematics to Jack's PDA before he even finishes the sentence. I'm not asking to see an hourglass or watch people's computers stall or crash, but it would be nice if it happened to someone besides myself.

The Multiple Angle Slow Motion Stunt Montage- If a stunt is really that cool then we can always rewind it when we rent it on DVD. Occasionally a movie will show the same stunt several times from different angles as if they didn't film it properly or they want to get their money's worth for how much they spent on it. Maybe the stunt man's mom is also the movie editor.

Totally Fake Amounts of Police or Swat Team- I can understand if there is a bank robbery or some kind of standoff with the police then there would be a large number of law enforcement officials present, but when a car chase starts and immediately there are 15 cop cars following or if an alarm in a building goes off and and multiple swat teams descend on a location and repel in out of nowhere it drives me nuts!

Get with it Hollywood. Some of these fake details are detracting from some potentially good movies. I can't be the only one who notices these things.

6 comments:

Kristina P. said...

True all of that, my friend!

Everyday Goddess said...

My number one movie pet peeve is: Matthew McConaughey. Can't stand the guy!

Raine said...

If only police were so quick to arrive in real life

Rosee Rouge said...

so funny yet so true. What's your take on Inglorious Basterds? I've been willingly dragged to the theatre twice already to see it.

Joanna Jenkins said...

Amen to all of those! You can spot a movie "fake" a from the back row :-)
Have a great weekend.
xo

Jeanne Estridge said...

We've been watching "NCIS" lately, and I like the show, but it drives me crazy that Abby is the only forensics person. Guns, fingerprints, DNA -- she does it all. It's troubling to think we've cut the Defense budget so far we can only afford one Goth to handle forensics for the Navy AND the Marines.