posted
This has bothered me about other movies, but I saw Die Hard last night, and it just brought it up again in my mind.
Whenever there's a movie in a city and the "bad guys" mess with traffic lights, why do people always end up in multi-car pile-ups? I mean, I've SEEN street lights go out/mess up while traffic is going on a few occasions, and people never just drive full speed ahead brazenly assuming that everyone else is wrong. I can see how it'd be a problem if you were in a more rural setting where cars had the chance to start moving pretty quickly, but this was in a city. And as was pointed out over the radio while they were driving, traffic was getting pretty bad. From what I've seen, real people just start treating every intersection, no matter how large, as a four-way stop.
Does this bug anybody else? What similar things bother you in movies?
posted
When there's a monster/UFO/large scary bad thing approaching everyone always gets out of their cars and runs away. When anyone with half a brain knows they have a better chance of escaping if they drive away.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Alcon: When there's a monster/UFO/large scary bad thing approaching everyone always gets out of their cars and runs away. When anyone with half a brain knows they have a better chance of escaping if they drive away.
Is there a time when that's happened when the road hasn't been clogged with cars? The only thing I can think of right now is Independence Day.
posted
There were more unrealistic things in that movie then just driving straight when the light is green.
*SPOILERS*
Like the fact that it was impossible to kill that Asian girl or even make her bleed after she was punched like a million times, got hit by a car, thrown through glass windows and walls, and then she just gets up like nothing happened.
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: There were more unrealistic things in that movie then just driving straight when the light is green.
*SPOILERS*
Like the fact that it was impossible to kill that Asian girl or even make her bleed after she was punched like a million times, got hit by a car, thrown through glass windows and walls, and then she just gets up like nothing happened.
Well, yeah. She was like the Terminator!
This traffic thing, ugh. They do that in SO MANY movies, and it's like....real people do not behave that way. They don't. The light next to my building has gone on the fritz on more than one occasion, and a semi has yet to plow into my living room. Knock on wood.
Killing the airplane was what really frustrated me in that movie. That whole scene was just SO unrealistic, that I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy that.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Here in Tally, we don't stop for lights being out. The folks on the busier road keep going. Then when there's a break in the traffic, the side street goes like crazy until the larger street basically forces their way out again.
Maybe all the writers went to school here and are projecting Tally traffic on the rest of the world?
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
When that happens in movies, that annoys the crap out of me.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
posted
In the movies, cars and trucks tend to blow up in a big fireball with very little provocation. Auto collision? Fireball. Hit a tree? Fireball. Gunfire? Fireball. Go off the road and over an embankment? Fireball.
Please! I collide with other autos, trees, stop signs, yadda yadda ya, like, a couple of times a week, and I've never had my car make a mushroom cloud.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
I would. I have.
What did the strange noise turn out to be? Did you carry any armaments other than the flashlight? Was it the big one that takes, like, four D-cells, or one of those little ones that run off an AAA battery?
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by mackillian: I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
You're absolutely right. I would send you.
You're much scarier than I am. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
I would. I have.
What did the strange noise turn out to be? Did you carry any armaments other than the flashlight? Was it the big one that takes, like, four D-cells, or one of those little ones that run off an AAA battery?
The strange noise never turned out to be anything at all.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:I'd like to know what person in their right mind, if they hear some strange noises coming from the basement in the middle of the night, will grab a flashlight (because the basement's light is out), and trot on down there all alone to check on said noise.
I would. I have.
Yeah. But you weren't in a scary movie at the time. These people should know better. If they're in a scary movie it's likely to be some big, scary monster. Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The green light thing is moderately believable. I don't know why someone would go when they see cars coming, but if they see cars coming and expect them to stop by the time they get to the light figuring it's green in front of them it must be red for the other guy.
I've seen it twice now, once for free with my best friend and once I paid with my dad and brother. Was it REALLY any more unbelievable than the first three movies? With the possible exception of the scene with the plane and the freeway, I think it was PERFECT for the Die Hard series.
Frankly I thought it was hilarious and the action awesome. It was totally over the top which is totally what I was expecting. My main complaint was that that version of the F-35 would not have been there, and not just because they aren't out in large numbers yet.
Anyway, the traffic thing didn't strain believability for me that much. The little monkey fighting Frenchman was more outlandish than that, then again, that sort of thing is an underground sport in France, so that might just be believable too.
I guess my question is, to people who saw Die Hard 4 and came out shaking their heads in disbelief "Did you even SEE the first three? And if you did, how was 4 surprising?"
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The first time my little sister saw "The Wizard of Oz" on TV, she kept asking all through the Munchkin scene, "How do all those little people know all the words to that song? How do they all know how to do that dance? Why do they all know all the words to that song?"
She must have been, oh, I don't know, three or so at the time, and I kept trying to explain that it was a movie, and that in movies, everyone always knows the words to the songs, and they all join in and sing. She found that to be much harder to believe than the rest of the plot.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Psst. It is safe to check out noises in the basement at night with your flashlight, unless you go down there in nothing but your underwear. That is when the psycho will get you every time.
Oh, and check for background music. If you hear creepy background music run away. Run AWAY!
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Here’s two things that annoy me about movies. The least annoying is this, and it seems to happen in just about every monster movie: The girl is running away from the monster. She trips on something. Then she just lays there screaming until A) some guy comes and saves her or B) the monster has lunch.
But the really really annoying thing about movies is that the movie makers go to great lengths to make the blood and gore as realistic as possible. They even do a lot of it is slow motion so we will be sure to not miss a single thing. And yet, at the same time, they can’t be bothered to make the plot or the situation realistic. Pathetic!
What first made me start noticing this was “True Lies” where Jamie Lee Curtis is being attacked. She accidentally drops her machine gun which proceeds to bounce down the stairs, continuing to fire the whole time, and wipes out a whole squad of bad guys. Of course much of it was in slow motion so we wouldn’t miss the bullet impacts and blood splatterings.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind goofy and implausible plots and other fantasies. That is what entertainment largely is : the willing suspension of disbelief. But yo, movie makers, tone done the gratuitous graphic gore. Please!
Posts: 631 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:But the really really annoying thing about movies is that the movie makers go to great lengths to make the blood and gore as realistic as possible. They even do a lot of it is slow motion so we will be sure to not miss a single thing. And yet, at the same time, they can’t be bothered to make the plot or the situation realistic.
quote:What first made me start noticing this was “True Lies” where Jamie Lee Curtis is being attacked. She accidentally drops her machine gun which proceeds to bounce down the stairs, continuing to fire the whole time, and wipes out a whole squad of bad guys. Of course much of it was in slow motion so we wouldn’t miss the bullet impacts and blood splatterings.
Umm... If you're using True Lies as an example of realistic gore/unrealistic plot then you completely missed the point of that movie. It's a spoof of the action genre. A friggin' hilariously brilliant spoof of it. It's wonderfully over the top, on purpose!
It also was hardly what I'd call gory. In fact, I don't recall a single scene in that movie which I'd call even remotely gory -- and I'm not exactly strong stomached when it comes to gore.
Some movies I might peg with gratuitous graphic gore: Kill Bill, 300, any recent zombie or horror flick, really any Tarrantino movie. But then that's largely the point of those movies.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Alcon, you’re right about “True Lies” of course. I liked the movie a lot. I used it as an example merely because that is what got me started noticing the irony I’ve mentioned. I’ve seen many much more egregious example since then.
Posts: 631 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:Alcon, you’re right about “True Lies” of course. I liked the movie a lot. I used it as an example merely because that is what got me started noticing the irony I’ve mentioned. I’ve seen many much more egregious example since then.
Phew, you had me scared for a little while there...
But yeah, I know what you mean. Though I dunno if I'd call it realistic gore necessarily, so much as just gore. To be honest, I've never seen anyone get shot, so I don't think I can judge the realism of their blood splatters. They just seem to like their blood and guts, and I definitely agree with you that it gets to be annoying sometimes. Specially when it shows up in movies where I wasn't expecting it. I went to 300 and Kill Bill expecting over the top blood and gore, that was part of the point of those movies. But when it shows up in say, I dunno... I'm drawing a blank right now, but you get the point.
posted
Well, to be fair, we keep going to see all these movies, and until we stop seeing them, and they all flop at the box office, they will keep making them.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:But when it shows up in say, I dunno... I'm drawing a blank right now, but you get the point.
In Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, they had to re-tint the Klingon blood to look like Pepto Bismol in order to retain the movie's rating and not qualify as "blood and gore".
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Pepto Bismol is pink. Klingon blood (at least in that movie, although not any time before) is a luminescent purple.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
As a target shooter, there are many gun inaccuracies in movies that drive me bananas. The worst one is when they call a magazine a clip. I don't know why they do it. They're not the same thing! A clip is just a strip of metal that holds cartridges. A magazine is a container that holds cartridges, usually spring-loaded. If it has a spring, it's a magazine.
They never seem to realize that bullets are heavy. They're made out of lead. They have someone somehow get hold of the bad guy's weapon and eject the magazine and give it back to the villain, who is chagrined to find his weapon useless. Forget that he would have a round chambered and blow the hero away. There is no way he wouldn't notice! If you had a full glass of water and someone poured it out and gave it back to you, you'd notice. It's even more apparent with guns. Also, there will be a big hole where the magazine should be. Unless the hero takes all the bullets out of the mag, which he couldn't possibly do without being noticed.
Then when they have people identify the make and model of the gun after they hear it fire. That's just impossible. You can tell the calibur, but not the make or model. Yes, a .22 sounds very different than a .45. But a Springfield .9mm sounds the same as a Glock .9mm. And when they have guns go off when they're dropped or thrown down. That almost never happens with modern weapons.
My favorite is the magically-reloading magazines. An extended magazine will give you up to 17 bullets on a semi-automatic handgun, which is 18 shots if you keep a round chambered. I just love watching people shoot hundreds of rounds without ever reloading.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:My favorite is the magically-reloading magazines. An extended magazine will give you up to 17 bullets on a semi-automatic handgun, which is 18 shots if you keep a round chambered. I just love watching people shoot hundreds of rounds without ever reloading.
That one's everyone's favorite
Huh, I'd never known that about the clip one. Are you sure clip hasn't just slipped into slang usage to mean any cartridge? Like in the military or something? Even if that's the official definition of the term?
It's definitely used in video games as being synonymous with any ammo cartridge but that's my only experience with it. I guess the video games come from much the same place as the movies do though...
quote:Are you sure clip hasn't just slipped into slang usage to mean any cartridge? Like in the military or something? Even if that's the official definition of the term?
Positive. Especially in the military and law enforcement. I've had instructors from both fields and they all make a point of mentioning the difference in every class. It's a much bigger pet peeve for them than me.
I think maybe movie people thought that viewers would be confused by the term "magazine" because it has another meaning.
I don't play video games, so...
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Any of you guys ever watch "The Last Action Hero"? It addresses most of the action movie cliches, including guns that never run out of bullets, cars that always explode when shot, punching through glass without being hurt, etc.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
For example... gun has 15 bullets. You have 150. Although the weapon physically uses magazines, you can fire two bullets, reload to all 15, and have 148 bullets left. Like there's some magical gnome in your back pocket that's busy loading and unloading magazines for you. Not that it's easy to carry ten or twenty magazines to begin with...
In my game, The Opera, we made it so that if you fire one bullet and reload, you effectively lose 14 bullets dropped... and got massively cricized for it.
Nobody's mentioned the chaingun? In movies like Predator and T2, where the Governator fires what would be the equivalent of a trailer full of ammo (not that there's any other way on a chaingun, but still), firing it on full auto for like five minutes?
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
The most outragous traffic accident scene I've seen in a movie is in "The Italian Job". When Seth Green's character changes all the lights to green, all the cars go full speed ahead, even though there are other cars in the way.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Like there's some magical gnome in your back pocket that's busy loading and unloading magazines for you.
How do you know there's not?
Because it wasn't (a) given to me by a scientist as part of plot development, or (b) picked up after smashing a crate.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: Psst. It is safe to check out noises in the basement at night with your flashlight, unless you go down there in nothing but your underwear. That is when the psycho will get you every time.
Oh, and check for background music. If you hear creepy background music run away. Run AWAY!
Amen to that.
The gun thing has been interesting to me. I had never noticed until I went with my roommate to the shooting range and learned a little about guns. I've noticed recently though that some movies are getting better at it.
My personal pet peeve is when I see a fencing scene in a movie. Seeing two people hack at each other with foils makes me cringe. I writhed in agony during the fencing scene in the remake of the Parent Trap.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I love how in all zombie movies the zombies are meant to be flesh hungry monsters yet they seem uninterested by the flesh of other fresh converts. To me, this became especially evident in 28 days later and its sequel. If the zombies in this movie infected with rage and the insatiable urge to kill, why not kill one another?
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Aspic: I love how in all zombie movies the zombies are meant to be flesh hungry monsters yet they seem uninterested by the flesh of other fresh converts. To me, this became especially evident in 28 days later and its sequel. If the zombies in this movie infected with rage and the insatiable urge to kill, why not kill one another?
This has to be the biggest problem I have with zombie movies. What magic radar comes with being dead that allows them to identify other undead, and for that matter why should it matter? Zombies shouldn't have a pack mentality, it's goofy. That was my biggest problem with both the 28 Days movies.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The whole (I had thought extinct) premise of Die Hard 4 was that a group of elite hackers could just go ahead and infiltrate any computer system pretty much instantly.
At one point, at a nod from the bad guy, a technician "hacks in" to a public traffic camera to get a good look at John McClane... yeah right- no system even works well enough to allow that, and certainly not if you also have to break in.
The whole thing with hacking and movies is unbearably dumb.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
Like the fact that it was impossible to kill that Asian girl or even make her bleed after she was punched like a million times, got hit by a car, thrown through glass windows and walls, and then she just gets up like nothing happened.
Yeah, I thought she was dead when he drove her through the wall... that made no sense.
She even snarls at him, like 2 seconds after he hits her full speed with a car, while she is plastered to the hood... yeah right.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I guess my question is, to people who saw Die Hard 4 and came out shaking their heads in disbelief "Did you even SEE the first three? And if you did, how was 4 surprising?"
The whole reason that Die Hard the original was so well regarded was that every step of the way, everything made sense. If you study that movie, there is no stunt that is not believable, no scene that could not happen. It bothers me that people associate the die hard series with ridiculous over the top action, because the only truly nutty thing in the first movie is the scene with the firehose, where he repels down the building, and even that is believable in the way it is framed.
The directors commentary on the DVD of die hard was very concerned with pointing out where the original leaves no stone unturned, and never once causes the viewer to sit back and go.... PSHHH.
On the other hand, Die Hard 4 made me laugh at the ridiculousness every minute or so, and that's not forgiveable for an action movie. The series on the whole has been over the top, but please remember the original, it was always very human and gritty- it felt very real.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The thing with DH4 is that it had to top Die Hard: With a Vengence. Anyone who has seen that movie would know that that is no easy feat.
To me the hacking certainly was bit far fetched (using hax to move the warlocks digital camera made me laugh out loud), but the security vulnerability of our computer systems was not. I took a class on terrorism and all of our text books cited computer security breaches as our biggest weakness.
Nighthawk: I believe Battlefield 2 has the same gun reloading mechanic where you lose the ammo for reloading early.
Mrs M: Watch Rush Hour 1, I believe Jackie Chan drops the clip out of a gun and then takes the top of the gun off to remove the bullet in the chamber and throws the two pieces of the gun far away from each other.
Asian cinema seems to have ALOT of realism when it comes to how guns work but not when it comes to how the human body works. Of course I can do a backflip and fire mid flip and hit a target 20 feet away in the head!
------
I greatly enjoyed Die Hard 4, and I am glad they toned down alot of the language, it really added IMO to the movie. I wish they had given Bruce more one liners. "I was out of bullets" was pretty funny.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
