Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[p51]

I was watching Wargames the other day and the General at NORAD tells a base to scramble two F16s, and they cut to two F15s flying out. One designation number short and one vertical stab too many. I know most people don't know the difference, but come on. The only way the planes could look any different is if they showed two B52s flying by, ; )

I hear ya there. How about the start of "Starman," including the intercept that starts with F-106s and ends in a shootdown from an F-20?

And there's a 4th season West Wing (which is usually accurate with such things) episode called, "Angel Maintenance" where the script routinely calls an interceptor an F-16 when the FX folks clearly put an F-15 there. And there's a character (Will Bailey) who's an Air Force reserve LT who would certainly know he's not talking about a Falcon after seeing the F-15 pull up alongside Air Force One!

 

[p51]

Nope, no keys. Even things like Humvees and 5 ton trucks didn't have keys.

We had cable locks on all our vehicles. We put 5200-series GI locks through cable loops on the steering wheels to keep someone from driving them anywhere.
Believe it or not, early WW2 Jeeps had key starters in some cases, and many key key entry to the glove compartments. They also had keys to prevent the spare tires from being taken (those came in handy in North Africa where you had to put guards on everything, otherwise it would get stolen). But they didn't last long for obvious reasons.
Civilians don't get how stupid "Joe" can really be. "Joe" is the embodiment on that guy in high school you wouldn't trust with your pencil, who is now entrusted with the lives of the guys in his fire team. Joe will always walk up to formation without his ruck sack, helmet, or even his rifle.
I once saw some national guardsmen drive off in a Humvee in the town I live in (long after I resigned my commission) and they left a M249 machine gun sitting against a tree! I threw it in the back of my SUV, prayed that nobody with a badge saw me do that and think I was stealing it, then set out after them. I caught up with them well down the state highway, cut off the serial commander's vehicle (lead, trail, and commanding vehicles in a convoy are supposed to have flags on them to spot them) and handed the belt-fed light machine gun to a very surprised Captain. "I think Joe left this behind at that last red light," I told him as we stood in the middle of the road. He just stood there in shock.
The SGT driving the Humvee came up, thanked me, took it and put in in the back of the Humvee without that Captain ever saying anything. I've often wondered what happened to the guy who left it behind once all the vehicles were back at the armory...

 

[Riceball]

I thought it was even nicer that they found a fighter jet with side by side seating, rather than one in front of the other!

It's funny that they had to make one up instead of using existing historical examples like the F-111, the A-6, or the Su-34.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I hear ya there. How about the start of "Starman," including the intercept that starts with F-106s and ends in a shootdown from an F-20?

And there's a 4th season West Wing (which is usually accurate with such things) episode called, "Angel Maintenance" where the script routinely calls an interceptor an F-16 when the FX folks clearly put an F-15 there. And there's a character (Will Bailey) who's an Air Force reserve LT who would certainly know he's not talking about a Falcon after seeing the F-15 pull up alongside Air Force One!

Stuff like that with planes causes me to just shut the show/movie off. I even have trouble with old WW2 movies that use T-6s as Zeroes, even though I know they didn't have a choice.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

 

[Tommy]

The thing that immediately turns me off in the remake teaser for The Little Mermaid is the out-of-place embellishment to the end of “Part of Your World.” Huge pet-peeve that seems to go hand-in-hand with the habit nowadays of casting first-and-foremost musicians in place of musical theater actors.

The original goes: “Wish I could be…” – with “be” almost spoken in a whisper.

This new one goes: “Wish I could BEEEE-ee-ee-EE-ee-ee…” - like a pop star showing off with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Some may consider this overly picky, but such an overt change – to what is arguably the most perfect song Howard Ashman and Alan Menken ever wrote together – immediately takes me out of the moment. Anyone who's seen behind-the-scenes footage in the documentary “Howard” on Disney+ knows how Ashman and theater actress/singer Jodi Benson worked meticulously to give every word of the performance just the right mood for the character and story. Ashman even specifically cautions at one point “it’s about [having] all that emotion, and then not letting it out,” stressing the importance of “inner intensity” over “noise.”

I’m certainly not saying every rendition of this or any other song must be an absolute carbon copy. After all, many have their favorite Grizabella, Christine, and Elphaba – or their favorite “Star-Spangled Banner.” But that generally comes from characteristics of the singer’s voice and/or very subtle variations to the notes/timing, which the ear is fantastic at picking up on. This kind of over-the-top added flourish is just jarring.

 

[p51]

I might have listed this before, but it bears repeating:
In a firefight:

• Thing goes boom
• Guy is tossed an insane distance by said boom like a rag doll, and it doesn't kill him
• Rag Doll only has the ringing in his ears, no other sounds, while he watches other insane things going on
• Of course, bad guys don't make Rag Doll go boom again while he's in his 'tinnitus moment'
• The sounds come back, Rag Doll resets to factory specs, and goes on like nothing happened

It sort of worked in "Saving Private Ryan," but it's been badly done hundreds of times in movies since then. Can we please retire this sequence forever?
Folks, I was way too close to something big that went boom but it didn't toss anyone in the air. It did shatter the Humvee windshield I was nearby and ripped it's soft top off. It yanked a few caps off the heads of those dumb enough not be wearing proper cover at the time.
Even though I knew it was coming and was as ready for it as I could be, I didn't get tossed anywhere. I was pretty queasy for a day or so, though...
If the boom tosses you anywhere (more than just knocking you on your butt; I've had that, too), it probably kills you.

 

[ScourgiousJinx]

This may have been mentioned, my apologies if it has...

During a werewolf transformation the other person or people witnessing it wait for the transformation to be either completely or nearly done before they try to run away from the scary beast that's going to tear them limb from limb. Doesn't seem like a smart move.

 

[Master Boda]

The thing that immediately turns me off in the remake teaser for The Little Mermaid is the out-of-place embellishment to the end of “Part of Your World.” Huge pet-peeve that seems to go hand-in-hand with the habit nowadays of casting first-and-foremost musicians in place of musical theater actors.

The original goes: “Wish I could be…” – with “be” almost spoken in a whisper.

This new one goes: “Wish I could BEEEE-ee-ee-EE-ee-ee…” - like a pop star showing off with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Some may consider this overly picky, but such an overt change – to what is arguably the most perfect song Howard Ashman and Alan Menken ever wrote together – immediately takes me out of the moment. Anyone who's seen behind-the-scenes footage in the documentary “Howard” on Disney+ knows how Ashman and theater actress/singer Jodi Benson worked meticulously to give every word of the performance just the right mood for the character and story. Ashman even specifically cautions at one point “it’s about [having] all that emotion, and then not letting it out,” stressing the importance of “inner intensity” over “noise.”

I’m certainly not saying every rendition of this or any other song must be an absolute carbon copy. After all, many have their favorite Grizabella, Christine, and Elphaba – or their favorite “Star-Spangled Banner.” But that generally comes from characteristics of the singer’s voice and/or very subtle variations to the notes/timing, which the ear is fantastic at picking up on. This kind of over-the-top added flourish is just jarring.

I never cared for the cartoon,the whole 15 minutes I watched of it. I found the notion of singing underwater stupid to begin with.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

This may have been mentioned, my apologies if it has...

During a werewolf transformation the other person or people witnessing it wait for the transformation to be either completely or nearly done before they try to run away from the scary beast that's going to tear them limb from limb. Doesn't seem like a smart move.

They actually do that with a lot of situations where a very bad thing is cooking and the idiots just sit there and wait. They could either run, shoot the thing, hide, etc., Of course, as was mentioned a page or two back, people react stupidly to some situations so it's entirely possible that someone would just freeze and watch instead of act.

 

[jkno]

They actually do that with a lot of situations where a very bad thing is cooking and the idiots just sit there and wait. They could either run, shoot the thing, hide, etc., Of course, as was mentioned a page or two back, people react stupidly to some situations so it's entirely possible that someone would just freeze and watch instead of act.

Add some popcorn in that scene and the Benny Hill song and you have the best horror.

 

[Schlegel]

They actually do that with a lot of situations where a very bad thing is cooking and the idiots just sit there and wait. They could either run, shoot the thing, hide, etc., Of course, as was mentioned a page or two back, people react stupidly to some situations so it's entirely possible that someone would just freeze and watch instead of act.

These days you can return verisimilitude to this scenario just by putting a recording-mode phone in the bystanders hands. I've lost track of how many real world videos I've seen that make me go "Why are you idiots standing still?"

 

[dascoyne]

They actually do that with a lot of situations where a very bad thing is cooking and the idiots just sit there and wait. They could either run, shoot the thing, hide, etc., Of course, as was mentioned a page or two back, people react stupidly to some situations so it's entirely possible that someone would just freeze and watch instead of act.

Reminds me of this great scene.

 

[p51]

These days you can return verisimilitude to this scenario just by putting a recording-mode phone in the bystanders hands. I've lost track of how many real world videos I've seen that make me go "Why are you idiots standing still?"

So true.
I recently saw some video taken on 9/11 in New York, and there are a lot of people just standing there watching the tower(s) collapse while a small number of others are beating feet and literally running for their lives. Some of the runners were yelling at the others to join them. Some, it seemed, never moved at all.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

So true.
I recently saw some video taken on 9/11 in New York, and there are a lot of people just standing there watching the tower(s) collapse while a small number of others are beating feet and literally running for their lives. Some of the runners were yelling at the others to join them. Some, it seemed, never moved at all.

The ONLY time you will ever see me stand there and watch is if a planet killer asteroid is going to hit Earth. At that point, nothing to do but watch something that no one has ever seen before!

 

[Lightning]

So why not just chuck a few at Alderaan instead of destroying all the mineral and other resources by blowing the planet up?

Destroyed? I think you mean "converted to easily mineable astroid field"

 

[pengbuzz]

Destroyed? I think you mean "converted to easily mineable astroid field"

Other resources include:

Solar

Wind

Livestock

Farms

Trade

Forests

Ocean/ Hydroelectric

Fishing

Recreation (skiing, surfing, swimming, parks, etc)

Shopping

Restaurants

You can't exactly "mine" those out in the vacuum of space.

 

[dascoyne]

Other resources include:

Solar

Wind

Livestock

Farms

Trade

Forests

Ocean/ Hydroelectric

Fishing

Recreation (skiing, surfing, swimming, parks, etc)

Shopping

Restaurants

You can't exactly "mine" those out in the vacuum of space.

Solar - you get better solar power without that atmosphere getting in the way

Wind - Alderaan banished all wind power when endangered and stupid white-winged birds were getting chopped up in the generators

Livestock - Alderaan nerfs are too lean and their milk smells like death

Farms - since Bill Gates bought up all the Alderaanian farmland I don't care what happens to any of it.

Forests - ditto

Shopping - the place is a ripoff

Restaurants - not a single Michelin star on that dumb planet. No loss.

 

[pengbuzz]

Solar - you get better solar power without that atmosphere getting in the way

Wind - Alderaan banished all wind power when endangered and stupid white-winged birds were getting chopped up in the generators

Livestock - Alderaan nerfs are too lean and their milk smells like death

Farms - since Bill Gates bought up all the Alderaanian farmland I don't care what happens to any of it.

Forests - ditto

Shopping - the place is a ripoff

Restaurants - not a single Michelin star on that dumb planet. No loss.

Solar: with no planet to collect it on, just how are you going to harvest it that doesn't require an artificial body (to replace the one you just blew up)?

Wind: no evidence Alderaan banned those.

Livestock: many other animals smell just as bad, but no evidence Alderaan was vegan.

Farms: Bill gates isn't in that galaxy.

Forests: see Farms.

Shopping: Bail Organa wouldn't allow that kind of thing.

Restaurants: no complaints from the population or the galaxy at large to go by.

 

[dascoyne]

Solar: with no planet to collect it on, just how are you going to harvest it that doesn't require an artificial body (to replace the one you just blew up)?

Wind: no evidence Alderaan banned those.

Livestock: many other animals smell just as bad, but no evidence Alderaan was vegan.

Farms: Bill gates isn't in that galaxy.

Forests: see Farms.

Shopping: Bail Organa wouldn't allow that kind of thing.

Restaurants: no complaints from the population or the galaxy at large to go by.

You're simply wrong. Reasons.



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