Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[Riceball]

Maybe in the Corps they do (I swear they're officers are treated like the British treat theirs, as landed gentry to be held in awe. The Army doesn't roll like that). But I never heard a 1LT use the full rank ever unless in a official capacity like ID purposes and such. Never in normal conversation.

In my experience Marine officers aren't treated all that much in awe, no more so than any other branch of service, in fact I'd argue that our officers are more grounded than the average officer of any other branch. One of the key tenants of Marine Corps leadership and something that is taught at all levels of the Corps is troop welfare and is only second to mission accomplishment. In the field this means that if we are served hot chow the line forms in reverse order of rank with the lowest Private being first in line and our officers and senior Staff NCOs doing the serving. We're also the only branch of service where being a ring knocker really doesn't mean a whole lot and doesn't help nearly as much in promotions as it does in the other services, out of 34 Commandants only 9 of them had been Annapolis grads.

Getting back on topic, I've always found it annoying when movie producers roll the roles of a carrier's CAG & CO into one and in some cases, like Top Gun, add in a dash of squadron CO for good measure. They don't seem to realize that a carrier Captain has little to do with aircraft operations and that job belongs to the CAG and likewise the CAG has nothing to do with running the ship.

Another thing that's annoying that happened way too often in Trek from TNG on is the notion of an Admiral commanding a starship along with a task force. Sorry, but Admirals don't command ships, they're in charge of the fleet or task force and don't have the time to worry about the minutiae of controlling a single ship, not even their own flagship. They're supposed to be on the flag bridge where they can keep an eye on the bigger picture while the flagship's captain worries about fighting the flagship.

 

[p51]

How about explosions which take half an hour to travel a few hundred yards? People can't appreciate how fast an explosion moves until they've seen one. So many movies show explosions happening so slow that they have time to react and in some cases, even try to drive out of the blast radius as it's blowing up!

Another argument in favor of getting actors who are actual native speakers, letting them speak in their native tongue, and then using subtitles.

Yeah, it worked just fine for "Dances with Wolves", I thought, and that's a language hardly anyone speaks anymore, too.
For those who have no problem with Brit "Romans," how would you feel about a movie about the Civil War, where Lincoln talked with a German accent and the Confederate generals all had Australian accents?

 

[Solo4114]

How about explosions which take half an hour to travel a few hundred yards? People can't appreciate how fast an explosion moves until they've seen one. So many movies show explosions happening so slow that they have time to react and in some cases, even try to drive out of the blast radius as it's blowing up!Yeah, it worked just fine for "Dances with Wolves", I thought, and that's a language hardly anyone speaks anymore, too.
For those who have no problem with Brit "Romans," how would you feel about a movie about the Civil War, where Lincoln talked with a German accent and the Confederate generals all had Australian accents?

Well, two things.

I think the difference is that Latin is a dead language spoken only by those who learn it academically. There are literally no native Latin speakers, so finding people to speak in Latin and use subtitles for them would be...difficult to say the least.

I've heard, but can't confirm, that the way the characters spoke on Spartacus actually conformed mostly to Latin grammatical rules and syntax styles. Example, they'd say "Apologies, Dominus," instead of "I apologize, Dominus" and such.

With other languages, though, where we have actual native speakers, and likely have actual native ACTORS who are probably perfectly capable, it seems strange to have characters speak in accented English. The only reason to do so is for commercial accessibility, I think. On the other hand, I watched Arn: The Knights Templar, and it was multilingual, with Arn speaking Swedish when in Sweden, Arabic when in the Levant, and English at other times. It was a pleasure to watch, actually, and a refreshing change of pace to see actors speak in their native tongues.

 

[Probe Droid]

The same is true for guitar players. I can tell almost immediately whether or not the actor actually knows how to play one, or if they're just pretending; more often than not it's the latter.

John Lennon used to say the same. As teens when he and his friends would go see films with guys singing and playing they could always tell who was faking it.

 

[dascoyne]

Actors cast as geniuses who demonstrate they clearly have no idea how intelligent people actually think and act. (i.e. Acting too smarmy, overemphasis on technical terms, acting unnecessarily enigmatic or inappropriately eccentric...). Often times the writer is as much to blame.

 

[p51]

Movies which have to re-invent themsevles and start over every 3-4 years. Batman, I'm talking to you!

 

[rundown]

Perfect white teeth in older situated movies. Like they had dentists in the medieval ages?

 

[MaddMaxx82]

Or a Robin Hood movie without a British Accent....

Cough...Prince of Thieves...cough...

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[MaddMaxx82]

Improper use of regional accents, really ticks me off. Perfect example, Valkyrie. Movie starts out with German narration, fading into Tom Cruise speaking in english, in an american accent the rest of the film, while every other actor, playing a german, had a different accent themselves.

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[Wes R]

The accent thing just shows you how lazy hollywood is. I mean it wasn't perfect in the old movies either but at least the Nazis in most movies spoke either German with subtitles or with a real accent. I mean even Hogan's Heroes had german accents. Edit: I can't remember if i did this one before: zombies who can managed to get into buildings via windows when the windows are up to their waists. Romero did this and it drives me insane, i mean eventually i'm sure they'll get it but they sure seem to be pretty good at busting windows and getting in.

 

[p51]

Improper use of regional accents, really ticks me off. Perfect example, Valkyrie. Movie starts out with German narration, fading into Tom Cruise speaking in english, in an american accent the rest of the film, while every other actor, playing a german, had a different accent themselves.

Yeah, and his German was pretyt crummy, too. I know they have accent coaches for films, they must have gotten a bargain basement one for him (worse still was Melanie Griffith's attempt at speaking German in "Shining Through" but at least John Geilgud's character commented on how bad it was in the movie itself)

zombies who can managed to get into buildings via windows when the windows are up to their waists. Romero did this and it drives me insane, i mean eventually i'm sure they'll get it but they sure seem to be pretty good at busting windows and getting in.

Wow, that never crossed my mind before but you make a great point.

 

[The Dark One]

I can't remember if i did this one before: zombies who can managed to get into buildings via windows when the windows are up to their waists. Romero did this and it drives me insane, i mean eventually i'm sure they'll get it but they sure seem to be pretty good at busting windows and getting in.

Part of many reasons why I dont enjoy TWD on AMC is that in the first season it showed a walker pick up a rock and beat a glass door with it; But it's easy to forget Romero was evolving zombies by showing them remember how to use tools and then use them in later films. I guess they're different kinds of apples rather than apples/oranges. As a concept of dead brain tissue having memory and using tools; it's always bothered me.

As for "how they get in" Zombie Survival Guide or WWZ touches on them (not strategically) assembling so much that they form ramps (think crowds getting so heavy people end up walking on and trampling other people) and getting over walls, so it's not entirely impossible for so many to be at that broken window a few get knocked in.

 

[Wes R]

I mean i wouldn't mind zombies that were a bit smarter depending on what's reviving them as you could write it into the storyline but they never do. It's something they take for granted and leave unexplained.

 

[Laspector]

How about fake southern accents. Very very few people can fake that AND actually fool a southerner with it. Sure, anyone can do a southern accent but for those of us that actually live here, a fake southern accent is as noticable as a hat on a hog. I can't think of any movie where anyone who has never spoken southern was able to get it right.

 

[Solo4114]

How about fake southern accents. Very very few people can fake that AND actually fool a southerner with it. Sure, anyone can do a southern accent but for those of us that actually live here, a fake southern accent is as noticable as a hat on a hog. I can't think of any movie where anyone who has never spoken southern was able to get it right.

That's true of most regional dialects, actually. It's easy to do a generic "British" dialect (like, received pronunciation), for example, but it's a lot harder to do, say, an Estuarial dialect or a Yorkshire dialect or a Geordie dialect IF you either aren't from there, or don't have a flare for accents, or haven't spent a lot of time in the region. Same is true of generic "southern" accents rather than, say a Georgia accent vs. a Kentucky accent vs. a Texas accent (yes, I know Texas isn't "the south").

 

[p51]

I mean i wouldn't mind zombies that were a bit smarter depending on what's reviving them as you could write it into the storyline but they never do. It's something they take for granted and leave unexplained.

Yeah, but if you get technical, zombies in general never get explained at all. And why? Because it's a physical impossibility. It's one of the reasons I hate zombie fiction so much, as it starts with a totally impossible premise and never addresses that point.
That, and all zombie movies end the same way, the zombies come, people die, society implodes, people prey on one another, and eventually the zombies always win. I'll never forget when "28 days later" came out, a pal of mine who's a big zombie movie fan lorded the ending of that movie over me and my theory. I looked at him and said, "Wait until the sequel, the zombies will win." He was totally blown away when the sequel came out, which played out almost exactly as I said it would...
I will never understand the appeal of zombie fiction.

 

[Wes R]

And the ones that do make sense aren't technically zombies: 28 days later weren't really zombies as they were all insane and rabid with a virus, The Last of Us game isn't zombies (and are by far the most realistic as the parasite exists in the real world). I'm kinda amazed they never did one with nanomachines being behind it, it makes an interesting story if not far fetched that the machines could revive the body with the mind dead and such. How about movies that contain knockoffs of other scifi. You look at the alien suits in Independence Day and they can be mistaken for HG Wells' aliens, then again the ships over the cities look like a knockoff of V.

 

[p51]

One phrase that drives me nuts in movies all the time. Someone asks how someone is doing and they say:

As well as can be expected

Script writers love that phrase for some reason, but seriously, WHO THE HECK TALKS LIKE THAT???

 

[Jon Kelley]

One phrase that drives me nuts in movies all the time. Someone asks how someone is doing and they say:
Script writers love that phrase for some reason, but seriously, WHO THE HECK TALKS LIKE THAT???

Dunno - I do, from time to time.

Then again, my use of language is interesting. I've worked hard to get rid of any accent in spoken English (with some success. My first "adult" job was as an Air Force radioman, but I was a pilot for four years before that...) but it's still peppered with regionalisms and archaics.

Born & raised in Indiana, been LITERALLY everywhere, and I've been in CA for the last 20-odd years. So, yeah, interesting use of language.

(You should see the looks I get with "How you doin'?" "I feel like a can of mashed arseholes." "What?")

 

[Wes R]

How you doing is a very old phrase that isn't used very often anymore. It's been replaced with "what's up" or "what's new". What i hate is actresses cast as smart characters when you can tell they're lucky they can write their own names.