[Tiresias]

The other way I saw The Lost Room. At one point, a computer expert was analyzing an old piece of video on her computer.

"Here," she said. "Let's slow it down."

For you and I, this is as simple as a click of the mouse (90 per cent of digital video editing is mouse-work). But apparently, to execute this simple operation in stupid movie world requires about 30 seconds of furious typing.

TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP

"Wait," said another character. "Let's see that again."

"Sure."

TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP.

"And zoom in on that face."

TAP-TAP.

Then the woman (a single TAP this time!) transforms a blurry-beyond-recognition face into sharp focus drawing on a mysterious, hidden trove of pixel information.

Then yesterday I saw 30 Days of Night. A man stands over a box of dynamite and throws a match in. The building in which he is standing, along with 8 vampires, is blown to smithereens. Then the Boss vampire walks into the flaming rubble and drags out the man, still alive, and eats his face.

Dynamite blows rock apart. It's how they make mines. Even an idiot can see that the man should have been obliterated but that the hapless writers wanted to retrieve him (they didn't care how) just for the sake of another extra vampire-eating-man's-face scene.

From this point on, I wrote the movie off and could no longer take it seriously. It totally destroyed the suspension of disbelief. I realized that my imagination was in the hands of idiots.

Think of how much talent and experience is involved in putting a movie together. Hundreds of professional film people, and not one said: "Wait a minute, maybe we could do that differently."



Is it just me, or does this kind of thing ruin movies?

For my own amusement, I permit you to enlarge the repertory with your own examples.

[peeb]

Computers in films are generally poorly portrayed - I guess it's because the reality is not very interesting?

The Return of the King - at the end, they are at the gates of Mordor, and there are so many continuity errors it's horrible. They are on horses, then they're not, then they are again, then there's this huge creature, then they kill it, then the corpse disappears etc etc.

[PaperNotes]

The last half hour of Rambo is a gaffe. I expected to see some serious ninja skills but all Rambo did was stay behind a 50mm machine gun in a fixed position.

[reader50]

Fellowship of the ring. Troll exposed to sunlight remains quite frisky. If you rewatch that sequence,
he goes in and out of the sunlight shaft several times, without ever turning to stone.



Stardust, after prince stabs seer to death. Knife doesn't have a speck of blood on it.
This is a recurring continuity problem with edged weapons throughout the film.

[MacosNerd]

You mean to tell me the stuff in movies is not portrayed accurately. Never saw that coming.

I guess I should be upset that most space movies throw out the laws of physics too.

seriously its a movie, sit back and enjoy it, otherwise if you're bothered that dynamite didn't kill somone, then stop watching that tripe and pick up a book.

[Oversoul]

Originally Posted by Tiresias 

The other way I saw The Lost Room.

Great miniseries!

[kelso]

I know this isn't a movie but it reminds me when I watched Smallville yesterday. And Chloe intercepted data and hacked a "mainframe" in a matter of seconds.

[RAILhead]

That's it, I'm never watching another movie again -- they just aren't real enough anymore.

[subego]

I saw a movie where the "scientist's" cat is named Neutron... because he's so positive.

There wasn't a hint of irony either.

In this same movie, they have to get into glass cylinders after their spaceship takes off from Earth or else the "thermal barrier" would kill them.

When they get to the alien planet, they have to fight off giant ant people...

They were called mutants.

[besson3c]

There was a scene in Earnest Goes to Camp where Earnest was in a forest, fell down, and then when he got up some of the trees had shifted position!

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by subego 

I saw a movie where the "scientist's" cat is named Neutron... because he's so positive.

There wasn't a hint of irony either.

In this same movie, they have to get into glass cylinders after their spaceship takes off from Earth or else the "thermal barrier" would kill them.

When they get to the alien planet, they have to fight off giant ant people...

They were called mutants.

You enjoy crappy movies, don't you? When I go to Hollywood Video, I always wonder who rents those movies with only one copy in the new release section. You and my friend seem to be the only people I know that actually watch them.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

There was a scene in Earnest Goes to Camp where Earnest was in a forest, fell down, and then when he got up some of the trees had shifted position!

Those weren’t trees, they were Ents.

[mindwaves]

Yeah, computers in movies are interesting to see. Often, they have some proprietary interface that requires a lot of typing to get things done. And apparently, to hack into a government computer with some proprietary interface, all you have to do is plug in a USB drive and tap tap and automatically upload/download files. And when zooming in, pixels magically come into place.

[subego]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

all you have to do is plug in a USB drive and tap tap and automatically upload/download files.

He had to plug it in, but no typing.

Best. Interface. Ever.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Yeah, computers in movies are interesting to see. Often, they have some proprietary interface that requires a lot of typing to get things done. And apparently, to hack into a government computer with some proprietary interface, all you have to do is plug in a USB drive and tap tap and automatically upload/download files. And when zooming in, pixels magically come into place.

On one of the CSI shows, the guy referred to this ability as "running an algorithm in greyscale". Simple stuff, really.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

Great miniseries!

Really? I thought it was totally anticlimactic. I thought the idea was cool, I wanted to like it, but it was a long lead-up to nothing.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Really? I thought it was totally anticlimactic. I thought the idea was cool, I wanted to like it, but it was a long lead-up to nothing.

Seconded... and thirded by the SO.

[besson3c]

Earnest Goes to Camp: great or the greatest movie of all time?

[d4nth3m4n]

wait, you're just cluing into the enhance gimmick nearly every cop show has used for the last decade and a half?

how about the operating system in office space? looks a lot like a classic mac, yet there's a c: drive.

just saw the movie hackers today, what a laugh.

[Shaddim]

There's only one reason to watch Hackers.

[Oisín]

One that’s annoying me right about now, ruining a movie that actually started out fairly okay (though somewhat predictable):

“Bobby, I’m telling you, she’s crazy! She killed her sister and she killed Dr. Thompson. I think she killed Kelly too. We have to try to stop her.

All right, here’s what we do: we make her think her sister’s still alive (’cause you look exactly like her) and spook her out. That way, we’ll get her to go out to where she buried her sister and get her to dig up the body to see if it’s still there. And then, when she’s sitting on the ground with the spade next to her, I walk up to her in a fancy party dress and high heels and with absolutely no kind of weapon to defend myself, and then I’ll tell her everything we know about her! That’ll get her good!”