Stupid movie cliches and impossibilities

[gmcbee]

Watching "Sneakers" at the moment, just realizing how inane it is for a guy to be scrambling around on top of a suspended acoustic tile ceiling.

[doyle]

I think most film writers have done little or nothing else - and it shows. Their knowledge of practical matters comes mostly from other movies, the one thing they do have personal experience with.

[Aitken Bonar]

The rising laugh - a good way to get out of a confrontation but any screenwriter or director who uses one should be shot.

[Xexemedes]

Originally Posted by doyle

I think most film writers have done little or nothing else - and it shows. Their knowledge of practical matters comes mostly from other movies, the one thing they do have personal experience with.

OK, OK, I'll admit that I have not read the entire 51 pages of this thread, so if this was already addressed forgive me; but...

Most scripts are brilliantly written. Becoming a writer in Hollywood is almost as hard as becoming a blockbuster star. Once a script is accepted for a movie the original writer is often never consulted again. The script can be changed at will by either the director OR the producer.

Lets take....um, Superman II; a truly horrible movie. Does anyone, who will actually admit to having watched it, remember when Superman tears that cellophane logo off his chest, tosses it and wraps up a bad guy like a bouquet of flowers? WTF was that???

I'll tell you what it was: it was the film's second director, Richard Lester. The film's first director, Richard Donner, was fired because he did not want to give into the demands of the studio execs. And thus we now have a Superman first: shrink-wrapped Kryptonians, and ice-cream blown off of cones into peoples faces. Superman III was given completely to Lester and, well, did anybody see that one? Anyone? Buler? Buler?

Harry Potter II also comes to mind with that overblown, hyper exaggerated, Hollywood wanna-be flying car scene. In the book that bit took up something like half a chapter-the director decided to make it "The" scene for his film. If your watching Harry Potter then you are granting the license to the movie makers to incorporate magic; but come on!!!! There were far more interesting, plot building, and intense scenes that were omitted than that one. Which was not only kept but magnified in intensity as to be ridiculous. Yes, the car becomes a hero a few books later, but it was the subtlety of its introduction that makes its return such a dramatic surprise later. Being clobbered over the head for 10 minutes and having Ron falling out of the door and hanging on screaming in the air was a complete waste of film and SPFX budget. With a scene like that you expect that it's the car that kills Dumbledore.



OK, rant over, right, so don't blame the writers.

[imtrying]

A couple of my all-time favorites are "the gun that never runs out of bullets" and "oh no, the monsters behind the door and...whew, it's just a cat".

[TCO95]

How about heating ducts / air shafts that are always big enough for anyone to walk around. They are always made out of tin yet no one ever hears a thing and they never collapse or break. It may be my limited experience in heating and cooling systems speaking, but I've never seen a duct big enough for me or anyone else to get into comfortably and they certainly didn't look like they would hold my weight.

[USBPepsi]

Originally Posted by TCO95

How about heating ducts / air shafts that are always big enough for anyone to walk around. They are always made out of tin yet no one ever hears a thing and they never collapse or break. It may be my limited experience in heating and cooling systems speaking, but I've never seen a duct big enough for me or anyone else to get into comfortably and they certainly didn't look like they would hold my weight.

In some tall office buildings the ducts are actually big enough to climb or crawl around in. They aren't nearly as common as in the movies, though.

On a Mythbusters episode last year they tested whether you could use hand magnets to climb up (or down) a giant ventilation shaft. Technically they were successful, but it was very slow going, and they made an incredible amount of noise. Any hero that tried to sneak up on real-life bad guys that way would get his hinder shot off.

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by polartrade

In some tall office buildings the ducts are actually big enough to climb or crawl around in. They aren't nearly as common as in the movies, though.

On a Mythbusters episode last year they tested whether you could use hand magnets to climb up (or down) a giant ventilation shaft. Technically they were successful, but it was very slow going, and they made an incredible amount of noise. Any hero that tried to sneak up on real-life bad guys that way would get his hinder shot off.

I remember that. Adam's comment was "Thor, God of Thunder, is trying to sneak into my building!"

[howerd]

99% of the time that is the case but I can think of one notable & hilarious exception:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KTpt...eature=related

[george anson]

This site is a good place to learn about the scientific ignorance in evidence in virtually every film from Hollywood.

Unfortunately as with many so called historical films audiences seem to think this view of physics, biology and history is correct.

http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/