Movie conventions that don't reflect the real world

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Logan

How about the dramatic exposition for why one character is about to kill another character...leaving enough time for someone to show up and put a stop to it? I imagine most real life murderers are fairly quick on the trigger.

This! This! This!

You can always tell when the murder is not going down, even in the most impossible of situations. The would-be murderer just stands there talking away, as if it is important to tell someone who will be dead shortly your whole life story and every motivation.

[stevew]

A wrongfully accused guy steals cars, runs from cops, destroys property to escape....and yet he's free of any negative legal obligations once the conspiracy is revealed.

[thesloppy]

Getting shot in the shoulder is akin to a stubbed toe, you can just walk that shit off.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Apple owns Hollywood. PC's are 85-90% of the market, and yet 90% of offices in tv/movies are Apple-based.

How else is the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air supposed to take down an alien space ship?

As an aside: You know how IMDB has up 4 movies for every actor. Will Smith's are MIB, Independence Day, i Robot, and... The Pursuit of Happiness?

Without even looking, I can name a half dozen Will Smith movies that he starred in that were bigger than The Pursuit of Happiness. Bad Boys. Ali. Hancock. I Am Legend. It pains me to say it, but Wild Wild West. That chick flick with the King of Queens guy. Does Seven Pounds count as bigger? Probably.

SI

[stevew]

He was at least nominated for Pursuit of Happyness.

[JediKooter]

Being former military, I hate when they have someone in military uniform and their hair isn't even close to conforming to military regulations. This seems to be less prevalent lately though.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Getting shot in the shoulder is akin to a stubbed toe, you can just walk that shit off.

Unless the bullet has already traveled through someone else's shoulder, then it's like being hit by a truck.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Product placement is HUGE in movies - my favourite was one of the Arnie films set in the future where the only restaurant was Taco Bell ...

Demolition Man - All restaurants are Taco Bell

I absolutely loved the blatant product placement in this for some reason.

And who knew Taco Bell had a wiki:
Demolition Man - Taco Bell Wiki

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Cap Ologist

I always loved how in every western, they always had to build a new gallows. Was it too much trouble to leave the old one up? Were they trying to boost tourism by tearing them down between hangings?

Excellent

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

My buddy and I used to debate about the limits of the "willing suspension of disbelief." His argument was that if you're watching a movie, you've accepted a social contract to suspend your disbelief and accept the premise.

I argued that the social contract goes both ways, and that if a filmmaker abuses my willing suspension of disbelief, then I do not have to respect it.

In this case, if you're not willing to at least fake it and put some energy into making me THINK you're actually working at a computer the proper way, then I'm not going to accept your assertion that the plot you're presenting me is plausible.

I use "The Day After Tomorrow" as my object lesson when talking about willing suspension of disbelief. Roland Emerich is great for this sort of thing as ID4 also has some moments of crazy but I'm willing to overlook all but one (fire through the tunnel moment, you know who you are)

It seems like three giant hurricanes freezing the earth and the currents stopping and whatnot is insane, right? Well, no, not really. Why? Because they spend 2 minutes and have a scientist onscreen explaining it. Doesn't matter if the scientist is correct in this universe- it's just that that director went to the effort of spending some precious screen time on scientific exposition explaining how the world you are watching works.

One of the corrolaries to this is that if you're in a particular field, you're going to hate something that isn't totally factual and will even be unduly harsh on a movie. Yes, my mom, the geophysicist, hated Volcano. As a computer user, I hated The Net (tho I haven't seen it in, what, 15 years- I bet a lot more of those things are possible and have come to pass now in a scary, dystopian sort of way).

Ok, but here's where the movie lost me: Cold chasing kids down the hallway in New York. I still understand how cold works: And it doesn't chase kids down a hallway only to be stopped by a little bitty fire in a fireplace. If the scientist could somehow explain that away, then maybe the movie doesn't break my suspended disbelief.

As I mentioned before, ID4 had a similar problem. Yes, Mac uploading virus to alien ship. But, as stated earlier in the thread: we established Jeff Goldblum as a computer geek and he spends a couple of seconds explaining it so the author said "go ahead, throw this disbelief away". That wasn't the one for me there.

But there was a scene where fire is chasing Will Smith's character's wife through a tunnel and she ducks into an open door and so does the family dog. But seconds later, fire does not. Again, I know how fire works. This isn't football where it can't break the invisible plane. That said, I was slightly more forgiving because it was an unexplainable alien death ray so maybe there's something the aliens did to it to make it suck so much.

I think the roots of this debate may lie with the movie Speed -- otherwise known as The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.

It's no "Billy and the Cloneasaurus"

SI

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

How else is the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air supposed to take down an alien space ship?

As an aside: You know how IMDB has up 4 movies for every actor. Will Smith's are MIB, Independence Day, i Robot, and... The Pursuit of Happiness?

Without even looking, I can name a half dozen Will Smith movies that he starred in that were bigger than The Pursuit of Happiness. Bad Boys. Ali. Hancock. I Am Legend. It pains me to say it, but Wild Wild West. That chick flick with the King of Queens guy. Does Seven Pounds count as bigger? Probably.

SI

Huh? I'm not sure you realize how much that movie made. Of the half dozen films you listed as examples, the Pursuit of Happyness made more than four of them. Bad Boys and Ali combined made less than Pursuit of Happyness. And then Seven Pounds? Wow. It made less than half of Pursuit, had less critical acclaim, and Will didn't get nominated. Did you think Pursuit was some kind of bomb or something? It's actually one of his most impressive box office performances (not mention his best acting performance) considering the subject matter.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

But there was a scene where fire is chasing Will Smith's character's wife through a tunnel and she ducks into an open door and so does the family dog. But seconds later, fire does not. Again, I know how fire works. This isn't football where it can't break the invisible plane. That said, I was slightly more forgiving because it was an unexplainable alien death ray so maybe there's something the aliens did to it to make it suck so much.

SI

It always appeared to me that the door closed right after the dog jumped into the room. Dog jumps in, light blows out, darkness. The darkness is what makes me assume that the door was shut right after the dog jumped in. I need to watch it again, so I may not be remembering it quite right.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

It always appeared to me that the door closed right after the dog jumped into the room. Dog jumps in, light blows out, darkness. The darkness is what makes me assume that the door was shut right after the dog jumped in. I need to watch it again, so I may not be remembering it quite right.

No, the door definitely isn't shut as the fire goes by, because we see it go by from her perspective.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

No, the door definitely isn't shut as the fire goes by, because we see it go by from her perspective.

I actually always thought the force of the explosion might blow the fire by briefly before enough of it would catch on the edge of the door and fill the space. So for that reason, I didn't have a big reason with the fire flying by before the door shut.

My issue with that scene is that the fire--which had enough power to encompass most of the immense LA basin--didn't blow the door off of its hinges. And also, that the fire--even if it didn't break down the door--didn't turn the little closet into a ready made oven and cook them to a crisp where they huddled.

[Pyser]

i mean, while we are just complaining about stuff, where did that huge drop off in jurassic park come from?

theres a fence, there's a goat on a chain, there's ground obviously, the t-rex comes through it walks across it to tear the fence down. then, same space, the ground is gone and we are hundreds of feet above tree tops? the car falls over the side and down into the top of a tree. what?

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

No, the door definitely isn't shut as the fire goes by, because we see it go by from her perspective.

Ahhh ok. So what you're saying is, fire can turn corners and go through open doors?

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

This! This! This!

You can always tell when the murder is not going down, even in the most impossible of situations. The would-be murderer just stands there talking away, as if it is important to tell someone who will be dead shortly your whole life story and every motivation.

"You sly dog! You got me monologuing!"

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Pyser

also, getting knocked out by being touched on the head. by a punch, a frying pan, etc

id assume it hurts a lot, but i can't imagine going unconscious.

Nah, that actually happens. I went through a span of a couple of years where I was having some health issues that would cause me to lose my balance. I ran into doorways, door knobs, door jams, fireplace mantles...and even a frying pan (on a rack, not swung by my wife). I knocked myself out completely cold about half a dozen times...usually for 10-30 seconds or so. Ended up with post-concussion syndrome for awhile.

When you throw 190 lbs of falling force into a stationary object without a chance to brace for the impact, you can knock yourself out pretty easily. Or I can, at least.

[Drake]

Wait...should that be 190 lbs of mass? I didn't take physics. You know what I mean.

[panerd]

If there is a 30 car police chase and the lead detective's car crashes the chase is over.