Things you're tired of seeing in movies

Saw this three times on TV last night:
Ultimate killer type (maybe even in pairs) looking through binoculars at bad guys in the distance, when other bad guys walk right up behind them and get within less than 10 feet. And the good guys never hear them or think of watching their backs in bad guy country? That drives me nuts. In the Army, I spent plenty of time lying prone with someone else lying down facing the opposite direction so that can't happen. If your feet are touching, you can even communicate bad guys coming without saying anything.
This is basic tactical stuff!
 
Big city heist with guns, explosions and casualties. Crooks get away from cops after extended car chase.

Where were the police helicopters? (This is the one thing that bothered me a little about Heat)
 
Those sappy songs they play at the end of almost every drama show on tv now. Shows like Defiance I can usually skip the last 2 or 3 minutes.
 
Don't know if it's been said before, but people can pick locks in seconds. Yeah, there are people who can do that, but a 4-tumbler lock takes more than two jiggles of a screwdriver to open!
 
Probe Droid said:
That sound of a sword being drawn from a sheath (you know the one) whenever any type/size knife is withdrawn. It's been used to death. I'm waiting for the day when that sound is applied when someone picks up a knife to butter a roll.
Click to expand...
They did it on Chuck once when a character removed a stiletto from a drawer, when said stiletto wasn't even in a sheath. Knowing Chuck, however, they probably did it because it was ridiculous.

Qapla'

SSB
 
When you get a successful franchise with rich setting and diverse cast
and the writer(s) feel compelled to link everybody's backstory.

A rich setting is strong because it's a platform for a thousand stories ... not just one big story.

Star Wars was an open and exciting universe.

... until we're told the farmboy on his "desolate" planet was the lost brother to the princess who was the daughter of the villain who was once the pupil of the old Jedi who has been watching over the farmboy who happened to buy the exact two droids who were built by the villain-dad long ago on the same "desolate" planet and even knew a slug creature who would one day hire a smuggler who would later coincidentally be hired by the farmboy and would later hook up with the sister-princess but was also captured by a professional bounty hunter also hired by the slug creature and whose dad happened to serve as the genetic basis for an army of surprisingly incompetent clones (which would explain how the bounty hunter died with a comedy relief gag) who became the Imperial Stormtroopers who served as the villain-dad's muscle and chased the droids, farmboy, princess, smuggler and old Jedi like keystone cops throughout the series.
 
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The movie or TV show spends time establishing that Character A is usually rational and not prone to over reacting or exaggerating, but is currently under some stress. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Character B is a friend, spouse, etc of Character A. Later on A approaches B and says something along the lines of "something really bad is about to happen. Grab some clothes and supplies and go visit family member C who lives far away." 90% chance B replies, "You're crazy. Now excuse me while I go do something that puts me and others into even more danger."

I saw this twice on the recent episode of "The Strain". First Eph tells his separated wife to leave and she ignores him and takes their kid to school instead. Then the city rat killer tells his dad to leave and dad just complains that he never comes by to visit his mother and that he should have been an architect.
Maybe it is because I read "Alas Babylon" when I was young, but if someone I know comes up and says, "You might want to be 100 miles away for the next few days" I am going to find out why and consider what they say.
 
The movie or TV show spends time establishing that Character A is usually rational and not prone to over reacting or exaggerating, but is currently under some stress. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Character B is a friend, spouse, etc of Character A. Later on A approaches B and says something along the lines of "something really bad is about to happen. Grab some clothes and supplies and go visit family member C who lives far away." 90% chance B replies, "You're crazy. Now excuse me while I go do something that puts me and others into even more danger."
Click to expand...

My exact reaction. Also considering Character A's job, you'd think B and everyone else would take the warning 100% seriously, but no. Senseless.
 
This can also happen quite quickly too, if the hero says get down, to someone we have never seen before, chances are they will look at him like he is crazy, then immediately get shot a bunch of times.

Best example of this is in lost, where Sawyer said this to three guys in a row.
 
glunark said:
This can also happen quite quickly too, if the hero says get down, to someone we have never seen before, chances are they will look at him like he is crazy, then immediately get shot a bunch of times.
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In all fairness, that's how people really would react. If a random person in real life just happened to tell you to get down, you'd most likely be standing there wondering why.
Same thing with the 'lay low for a while' comment with no explaination. Most people would say, "are you nuts? I have a job, I can't just vanish for several days with no reason, just because you told me to!"
It's easy to say a character is being dumb by not following the word of someone who knows better. Problem is, that character has no idea the main character really knows what they know (or if they're even right about it).
 
p51 said:
In all fairness, that's how people really would react. If a random person in real life just happened to tell you to get down, you'd most likely be standing there wondering why.
Same thing with the 'lay low for a while' comment with no explaination. Most people would say, "are you nuts? I have a job, I can't just vanish for several days with no reason, just because you told me to!"
It's easy to say a character is being dumb by not following the word of someone who knows better. Problem is, that character has no idea the main character really knows what they know (or if they're even right about it).
Click to expand...
In other words most people live in condition white.
 
p51 said:
In all fairness, that's how people really would react. If a random person in real life just happened to tell you to get down, you'd most likely be standing there wondering why.
Same thing with the 'lay low for a while' comment with no explaination. Most people would say, "are you nuts? I have a job, I can't just vanish for several days with no reason, just because you told me to!"
It's easy to say a character is being dumb by not following the word of someone who knows better. Problem is, that character has no idea the main character really knows what they know (or if they're even right about it).
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about a general friend telling you to get out of town for a while, I'm talking about the friend who works someplace where the few stories they can tell you are dangerous and or scary. The guy who works at NORAD and suggests you stock up on water, canned food, and iodine pills, or the woman who works for USGS that tells you to stay at least 20 miles west of the East coast of the US for the next few weeks.

As for shooting, yeah, most people are going stand there and say, "what?"
 
This probably already has been said, but people on the run/hiding out that don't change their looks at all or wear any type of disguise. I've been rewatching the Bourne films and Damon walks around looking exactly the same as in the pic that all the bad guys trying to kill him have. He didn't grow a beard, change his hair color, etc, even though both wanted women in the films did. I've seen this in many times and it's ridiculous. Wear a hat and shades at least. I know the stars want their faces seen, but this is plain silly.
 
The complete lack of situational awareness of people in backgrounds.
A character gets into a fight, now dripping with seat and covered in mud and blood, and walks into, say, a restaurant. Nobody notices this filthy and tinky guy or reacts to the sight or the smell? In real life, wouldn't you do a double take if you saw someone walking down the street who looks like he's had the living crud beat out of him? Wouldn't you especially do so in a setting like a good restaurant? I saw this on TV yesterday and laughed out loud that nobody noticed the guy.
 
p51 said:
The complete lack of situational awareness of people in backgrounds.
A character gets into a fight, now dripping with seat and covered in mud and blood, and walks into, say, a restaurant. Nobody notices this filthy and tinky guy or reacts to the sight or the smell? In real life, wouldn't you do a double take if you saw someone walking down the street who looks like he's had the living crud beat out of him? Wouldn't you especially do so in a setting like a good restaurant? I saw this on TV yesterday and laughed out loud that nobody noticed the guy.
Click to expand...

It's like what I said before, person is wanted by the bad guys, or just the police or whatever, and is in the area that's being searched so in order to avoid being recognized they quickly throw the hood of their cloak or hoodie, with their head hung kind of low and nobody notices them because of that. This is despite the fact that they're the only with a hood over their head, they're walking ver suspiciously trying very hard to look inconspicuous, and they only threw on the hood at the last minute. With all that you'd think that even the dumbest goon would be just a little suspicious of them and want to have a look at their face.
 
The following lines:

"What's going on down there?" -or- "What the hell's going on down there?"

"[technobabble] is offline"

"[technobabble] is down thirty percent" [pick number]

Just filler lines
 
Blackbirdcd said:
The following lines:

"What's going on down there?" -or- "What the hell's going on down there?"

"[technobabble] is offline"

"[technobabble] is down thirty percent" [pick number]

Just filler lines
Click to expand...
In all fairness, I've heard all those in real life in the military several times...
 
I don't think this one's been mentioned yet. Why does every movie in which a submarine plays an important role in the story have to include a sequence in which the sub, for one reason or another, goes below it's "crush depth" at some point? We get it--water is heavy and submarines, no matter how well they're designed and built, can only withstand so much pressure. To me it just stinks of "We need another 15 minutes and we need a scene that shows the crew is in peril, so let's have them go deeper than the sub should be able to go. Audiences will be on the edge of their seats!!!" :facepalm
 

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