Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[Rotwang]

"Casting" a steel sword. Just pour the liquid metal into a mould and presto !

Also the "magic 3D printer" Just feed the computer some photos of people holding and handling an object, wish real hard and press "start" to get a perfect copy with all features in sub-micron accuracy of said object.

 

[p51]

People to who refer to each other by the character names when there's nobody else around.
I know it's for the audience to establish character names, but I normally would ask, "Who does that in real life?"
That said, my wife does when she's ticked. When she does, I always gesture around and ask, "Where's the TV camera or audience? Who else can you be talking to, as it's only us in the room?"

 

[Laspector]

A song comes on the radio or something, people start singing to it, and suddenly everyone knows every lyric to the song.

 

[p51]

A song comes on the radio or something, people start singing to it, and suddenly everyone knows every lyric to the song.

It's a lot more common in older movies, where someone starts singing and everyone joins in.
Even as a kid, that never made any sense to me.
Long ago, I confirmed with several WW2 vets (as you see this in wartime movies a lot) that about half of the people would know the words to even popular songs.

 

[Richard Baker]

Singing in films is always surreal to me- there has been only one time I have ever been in a room and people started singing together spontaneously.
Of course we were all drunk/stoned at the time and the song was 'The Good Ship Venus'

 

[Riceball]

Something that always gets me everytime I see it, and that's a lot, is when people are brushing their teeth and they're clearly not using toothpaste. Do people in movies not ever use toothpaste? Or only when they know that someone is going to be talking to them?

 

[p51]

How about people 'drinking' something and clearly there's nothing in the cup?
Hey, you might not know that the MD in the doctor movie is using the wrong knife or the helicopter in the war movie is carrying the wrong weapons, but everyone can tell what it looks like when you're actually drinking out of a cup!

 

[robn1]

Something that always gets me everytime I see it, and that's a lot, is when people are brushing their teeth and they're clearly not using toothpaste. Do people in movies not ever use toothpaste? Or only when they know that someone is going to be talking to them?

And when they do use toothpaste they squirt it into their mouth instead of on the brush.

 

[Strikerkc]

How about people 'drinking' something and clearly there's nothing in the cup?
Hey, you might not know that the MD in the doctor movie is using the wrong knife or the helicopter in the war movie is carrying the wrong weapons, but everyone can tell what it looks like when you're actually drinking out of a cup!

That's a practicality thing. If there's nothing in the glass, you won't make a mess, you won't damage wardrobe, you won't have to wait for somone to reset the scene by filling your water glass, you won't have to go vomit in the corner after take #37 that calls for you to drink a full glass of water.

food scenes often don't involve any actual eating or drinking. There can be a bucket or something nearby or off screen that the actors spit chewed food out into between takes.

Folks making commercials, TV shows, or films, don't want to have to postpone filming because two of their actors are in food comas, and another is retching in the corner. So when they can get away with it, they'll often have folks skips actually eating or drinking

 

[Riceball]

That's a practicality thing. If there's nothing in the glass, you won't make a mess, you won't damage wardrobe, you won't have to wait for somone to reset the scene by filling your water glass, you won't have to go vomit in the corner after take #37 that calls for you to drink a full glass of water.

food scenes often don't involve any actual eating or drinking. There can be a bucket or something nearby or off screen that the actors spit chewed food out into between takes.

Folks making commercials, TV shows, or films, don't want to have to postpone filming because two of their actors are in food comas, and another is retching in the corner. So when they can get away with it, they'll often have folks skips actually eating or drinking

They could at least put water or weigh down the cup so that they actually have some weight to them that you can actually see. There's a subtle something to an empty cup or, for that matter, empty suitcase, that you can always tell that it's empty.

 

[Strikerkc]

To be fair, the "always" that you see, is probably only a fraction of the empty glasses/suitcases/etc that you've really seen (but thought had actual contents). It's far more likely that most of the time, the actors are actually fooling you. It is, after all, their job. And a lot of them are really good at it.

 

[CT1138]

How about people 'drinking' something and clearly there's nothing in the cup?
Hey, you might not know that the MD in the doctor movie is using the wrong knife or the helicopter in the war movie is carrying the wrong weapons, but everyone can tell what it looks like when you're actually drinking out of a cup!

Better yet, scenes in Westerns where two characters both order whiskey, and the bartender serves them enough to kill a horse. And they down every last drop in a single gulp without a wince.

 

[Montagar]

I am sure these two have been mentioned already but after just watching Alita...

1) "Bullet time" (I thought we would have be done with that by now)

2) "The slide" (sliding under a closing overhead door, under an combatant, under an oncoming object, etc.)

...and the worst of all "the bullet time slide"!!!

 

[AJK001]

It's a lot more common in older movies, where someone starts singing and everyone joins in.
Even as a kid, that never made any sense to me.
Long ago, I confirmed with several WW2 vets (as you see this in wartime movies a lot) that about half of the people would know the words to even popular songs.

That reminds me of the scenes in WWII movies where the Germans are trying to infiltrate American lines by wearing American uniforms and they always ask them who won the World Series or some such question. I've spoken to relatives and other veterans who were in WWII and they said that not everyone cared enough to know these things off the top of their heads.

 

[Almizilero]

I don't know why this bothers me so much, but I hate it when the phone screen is still on when people hold the phone to their ear. Real screens turn off when you do that while having a phone call.

 

[Richard Baker]

How about people 'drinking' something and clearly there's nothing in the cup?
Hey, you might not know that the MD in the doctor movie is using the wrong knife or the helicopter in the war movie is carrying the wrong weapons, but everyone can tell what it looks like when you're actually drinking out of a cup!

A variant of this is when people are carrying a stack of boxes and all of them are empty. Just about every scene where someone is helping a character move in or search for something these empty boxes are used. I think the only time a box has any weight is when it is important to the plot, i.e. it is too heavy for a character and they struggle and drop it.

I think just about every Hallmark Christmas movie features the empty box and the empty cup scenes

 

[p51]

Yeah, the slugs of whiskey scenes in Western never made sense to me. Consider that most were out on the trail and hadn't had a drop for god-knows-how-long before that, yet they belt it back like their stomachs and livers are made of cast iron. I've never even seen British Special Forces (the biggest drinkers I've ever seen in person) belt back heavy drinks like that with no reaction!

A variant of this is when people are carrying a stack of boxes and all of them are empty. Just about every scene where someone is helping a character move in or search for something these empty boxes are used. I think the only time a box has any weight is when it is important to the plot, i.e. it is too heavy for a character and they struggle and drop it.

In "Band of Brothers" when they've moved up to Belgium for the Battle of Bulge, Jimmy Fallon comes up and they start grabbing wood crates of small arms ammo. Those boxes are insanely heavy as they came filled with whatever ammo was in them, all the way to the top. Yet they're tossed out of the Jeep like the empty crates they were. Anyone who ever humped ammo for the military knows how much that weighs.

I think just about every Hallmark Christmas movie features the empty box and the empty cup scenes

… or any other scene. Worst TV writing ever on those. I hate them, and of course my wife loves that horrible network...

That reminds me of the scenes in WWII movies where the Germans are trying to infiltrate American lines by wearing American uniforms and they always ask them who won the World Series or some such question. I've spoken to relatives and other veterans who were in WWII and they said that not everyone cared enough to know these things off the top of their heads.

Ever seen the classic 1949 movie, "Battleground"? That film addresses that very point, with an officer who doesn't know squat about baseball and some GI's almost shoot each other because of it.

 

[Richard Baker]

My wife loves those Hallmark movies as well. She also points out the empty cup/box thing all the time - "They have plenty of money, just put something in those freak'n things"...

One funny thing about those Hallmark Christmas movies- they are usually filmed in the summer months and have to fake snow build up and not typically CGI in the falling snow. I really feel sorry for those actors having to walk around in August wearing parkas...

 

[CT1138]

It's a lot more common in older movies, where someone starts singing and everyone joins in.
Even as a kid, that never made any sense to me.

This, especially when it's a song and dance routine unique to the movie. As a kid, I would wonder how everybody in the scene knew the steps, tempo, tune, and words to a song that was implied was being made up on the spot by the lead.

 

[jarroth]

Man and woman looking at each other telling each other how much they hate they feel for one another, than kiss and make love.
As if that happens in real life.