Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[greenmachines]

Hope this hasn't been taken yet: When the bad guy is finally caught (like very bad, killing innocents type bad) and they don't kill them but the writers kill them. It is the literary version of revenge for the falsely altruistic audience. So the heros were going to allow this villain to continue killing "so we aren't as bad as them" but the writer kills the villain through chance or accident. This gives the audience the poetic justice high. Either step up and show you can wear the big kid pants and end the evil guy forever or just admit that the evil guy wins because no one is willing to do anything about it. But killing the bad guy by chance just to give the simpering audience a way to see them eat it without any guilt, that is just cheap pandering.

 

[drusselmeyer]

If you kill skeletor you'll be just like skeletor!

 

[greenmachines]

Although most of the writing was very forced, I did appreciate the end of "the good son" in that she made a choice. And it was when i realized that child actors are messed up.

 

[Treadwell]

Speaking of which: movie posters.
Macauley Culkin did not play the title role!

 

[Treadwell]

See also: two or three actors' faces on the poster. Their names along the top. The faces are not in the same order as the names.

 

[Treadwell]

This isn't really "a thing I'm tired of seeing" but I can't find another place for it and didn't want to make it its own thread.

I just rewatched Jurassic Park for the first time in many years.
It holds up, despite dated computer stuff "It's an interactive CD-ROM!", and I still admire it.

But wow, it takes a while to get going! The time is spent well for the most part, setting up characters and situations, etc, but... still.

I think one bit of exposition could've been whittled down by eliminating one or two of the THREE occasions it's spelled out for us: the need for the inspection tour.

1. Lawyer at the amber mine: I'm a lawyer and I'm doing an inspection tour for the investors
2: Hammond at Grant's dig: a lawyer is doing an inspection tour for the investors
3: Lawyer and Hammond in the Jeep on the island: I'm a lawyer and I'm doing an inspection tour for the investors as if you didn't already know and we in fact are on it already

 

[batguy]

But wow, it takes a while to get going! The time is spent well for the most part, setting up characters and situations, etc, but... still.

I think one bit of exposition could've been whittled down by eliminating one or two of the THREE occasions it's spelled out for us: the need for the inspection tour.

20th-century filmmakers like Spielberg . . . they do everything with the theater viewing in mind. No need to rush too much because the audience has bought the ticket & popcorn and sat down. They won't get up and leave unless the show is REALLY boring them, AND they have no hope it will improve farther in.


I like Spielberg's 'Close Encounters' (1977) but it is unacceptably slow to modern eyes. The issue is way beyond editing. The script itself would not get a passing grade now. A producer would say "It's an interesting finale but nothing happens for the first hour. Bring this back to me when it's finished."

 

[Cephus]

I like Spielberg's 'Close Encounters' (1977) but it is unacceptably slow to modern eyes. The issue is way beyond editing. The script itself would not get a passing grade now. A producer would say "It's an interesting finale but nothing happens for the first hour. Bring this back to me when it's finished."

That's the problem with the modern TikTok generation. If something isn't happening every second, they get bored and go elsewhere. Stories need time to unfold. Characters need time to develop. It's why modern movies have become such CGI-fests, because they're looking to keep people entertained and the second that the audience loses interest, even for a second, they're off to a different channel.

It's not the movies, it's the audience.

 

[Treadwell]

mind you, apart from that bit of repetition I'm okay with the pace.

 

[batguy]

The first JP feels pretty good to me, pacing-wise. I would speed it up if I had to change it. But not by much.


Modern kids will eagerly binge-watch modern TV shows for many hours at a time. That has to count for something.

They demand faster pacing than past generations, bu they seem to have quite a decent attention span as long as the pacing stays above their threshold.

People's pacing demands have been creeping up for a while now. 1980s-90s stuff was noticeably faster than 1950s-1960s stuff.

 

[joberg]

That's the problem with the modern TikTok generation. If something isn't happening every second, they get bored and go elsewhere. Stories need time to unfold. Characters need time to develop. It's why modern movies have become such CGI-fests, because they're looking to keep people entertained and the second that the audience loses interest, even for a second, they're off to a different channel.

It's not the movies, it's the audience.

I remember David Lean's story regarding the sequence of Omar Sharif appearing like a mirage and trotting atop of his camel toward Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia". He wanted the whole thing to be filmed in "real time"; which meant that the whole sequence would've been, at least, 5 minutes long The suits were livid and pushed Lean to shorten that part saying that after 1 minute the audience would leave the theater!
So, even in the '60s, people didn't have patience either...its seems

 

[Cephus]

The first JP feels pretty good to me, pacing-wise. I would speed it up if I had to change it. But not by much.


Modern kids will eagerly binge-watch modern TV shows for many hours at a time. That has to count for something.

They demand faster pacing than past generations, bu they seem to have quite a decent attention span as long as the pacing stays above their threshold.

People's pacing demands have been creeping up for a while now. 1980s-90s stuff was noticeably faster than 1950s-1960s stuff.

Yet I have no problem with the pacing of movies from the 50s or the 30s. I can sit down and watch a silent movie with no problem. Modern audiences can't handle anything not in color.

 

[dascoyne]

Public attention spans in the 1960's had their limits, but they were still longer than what we have today. Sure, "TikTok Culture" plays its part, but also look at how even viewing practices have evolved. The movie theater used to be this huge art deco temple with a Wurlitzer Grand emerging from the stage. Today more often we are watching at home, where the movie is playing in the background while shopping on Amazon. I have to practically slap the iPhone out of my kids' hands when we have a family movie night at home.

 

[p51]

Speaking of movies from the 60s, one thing that drives me out of my mind in any WW2 era movie from that timeframe. They always had women wearing fashions and hairstyles from the filming timeframe, not from the film's era of the 1940s.
I assume that the 40s "look" was just considered passe and unattractive at the time, but I've never understood why most WW2 movies from the '60s have women who just stepped onto the set in (at the time) current looks.

 

[CT1138]

Speaking of movies from the 60s, one thing that drives me out of my mind in any WW2 era movie from that timeframe. They always had women wearing fashions and hairstyles from the filming timeframe, not from the film's era of the 1940s.
I assume that the 40s "look" was just considered passe and unattractive at the time, but I've never understood why most WW2 movies from the '60s have women who just stepped onto the set in (at the time) current looks.

They do that with a lot of period movies from the 1980s as well. Can't stand the mom's 80s frizzy big hair in A Christmas Story. Looks completely out of place.

 

[AJK001]

When watching a lot of movies you can tell pretty much what decade they were made in from the hairstyles and fashions of the women. Even in a Roman epic most of the actresses look like they do off camera except for their outer garments.

 

[joberg]

Public attention spans in the 1960's had their limits, but they were still longer than what we have today. Sure, "TikTok Culture" plays its part, but also look at how even viewing practices have evolved. The movie theater used to be this huge art deco temple with a Wurlitzer Grand emerging from the stage. Today more often we are watching at home, where the movie is playing in the background while shopping on Amazon. I have to practically slap the iPhone out of my kids' hands when we have a family movie night at home.

Well, they don't mind viewing classics on their phones

 

[bwayne64]

I am so sick of scenes where someone has a gun pointed at a person, and either they or the target moves closer and closer together. Finally the unarmed one is within arms length and grabs the gun arm and starts to wrestle it away. It's especially grievous when the target has killed a friend or family member or members. Somebody kills someone close to me and I get the drop on them, they will be ingesting large amounts of lead. No chit chat, no begging. Just there you are, bang, bang. I actually scream at the screen sometimes. SHOOT THEM, YOU STUPID SO AND SO !

I know, I need to switch to decaf, lol.

Just venting about killing anyone, vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord, but you get the sentiment.

 

[batguy]

The hairstyle thing is also obvious with old Disney animated movies. You can pick out the era when it was made by how the characters are drawn.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I am so sick of scenes where someone has a gun pointed at a person, and either they or the target moves closer and closer together. Finally the unarmed one is within arms length and grabs the gun arm and starts to wrestle it away. It's especially grievous when the target has killed a friend or family member or members. Somebody kills someone close to me and I get the drop on them, they will be ingesting large amounts of lead. No chit chat, no begging. Just there you are, bang, bang. I actually scream at the screen sometimes. SHOOT THEM, YOU STUPID SO AND SO !

I know, I need to switch to decaf, lol.

Just venting about killing anyone, vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord, but you get the sentiment.

Every time I am yelling at the tv "You dumb*ss! He's talking and closing the distance, shoot his *ss!" and they never listen.