Things That Bug me in TV Shows and Movies

Almost any use of computers or IT in films. Specifically, the inevitable scene where the young hacker crouches over the laptop, pounds the keys furiously for 20 seconds, and either (a) launches a pre-emptive nuclear strike from another country; (b) retrieves the personal financial data for every citizen; or (c) fires the thrusters on an orbiting Space Station, narrowly averting catastrophe.
 
Actors in the "military" who don't know how to salute, who don't have their hair done properly, whose uniforms have the wrong insignia or mispositioned insignia, who insist on wearing their covers everywhere or not at all. Writers for these actors who don't know that a Lieutenant Colonel or Lieutenant Commander or Lieutenant General is NOT addressed as "Lieutenant"....

In the heyday of the war movie (50s-70s), a large percentage of the actors HAD military service, so these issues didn't arise as much.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Palmpilot said:
Ooh, I just remembered another one:

The phony sounds in a fist fight!
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phony gunfire sound effects. I was listening to a DVD commentary for some film and the sound guy talked about how they don't use actual gunfire for the sound effect because it doesn't play as authentic.
 
Westerns where the Indians are riding horses with blankets hiding the saddles.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Have you seen the episodes of M.A.S.H. where they had no laugh track? Changed the show. Even on the shows that had corny laugh tracks, they wouldn't use them in the O.R. scenes.

Many shows like Fall Guy & A-Team would smash up a lot of cars. Right before the crash, they would change to a beat up car that often didn't even look like the original. Drove me crazy.
a-team-van-jump-collage.jpg
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Same thing with horses in stunts.
 
Zeldman said:
Reality shows that claim they are not scripted. Alaska Bush People is the funniest comedy going today. I mean folks that are supposedly living off the land but always have clean clothes, not to mention the weight gain.
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and the fact that they are in Loomis, WA which, despite what we may think of Canada, is to hell and gone from Canada.

Note to self - avoid North Central WA. (I live a few hours away, but have never been there. Now I know why.)
 
asicer said:
Evil hacker triggers ATC Zero. Airplanes can't land don't call out ATITAPA in CAVU VMC.
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For the most authentic ATC on TV I recommend the first episode of "Scorpion", ATC had a problem and they needed to reload their software and the only usable copy was on planes in the air so they hooked up to a cable to a plane as it did a low pass down the runway.

I'd recommend drinking while watching but you'd probably end up with alcohol poisoning.
 
Whenever someone in a show hacks into a security camera (like an ATM or traffic camera) and they can zoom in and enhance the picture so well that they can read the driver's license from a guy across the street reflected in a car rear view mirror driving past. In real life when someone robs a bank, the security footage is always a grainy black and white photo and the suspect could literally be anyone.
 
Bob Noel said:
phony gunfire sound effects. I was listening to a DVD commentary for some film and the sound guy talked about how they don't use actual gunfire for the sound effect because it doesn't play as authentic.
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Check out the movie, "Master and Commander." They miked up a range to capture the sounds of the cannons.

I live about a quarter mile from a police range. Be walking outside, and passers-by wonder what that popping is. Doesn't sound like the gunfire they hear on TV.

Ron "Pew Pew Pew" Wanttaja
 
eman1200 said:
using two fingers and "the force" to choke a bloke. no offense, m'lord...
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No argument, but I'm wondering how else George could show the cause of the guy choking? Perhaps the guy saying "Enough, Vader" would be sufficient.
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how computers always make beep and boop noises and then more amazing electronic synth sounds. Every time!
 
Cap'n Jack said:
No argument, but I'm wondering how else George could show the cause of the guy choking? Perhaps the guy saying "Enough, Vader" would be sufficient.
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Star Wars is so far outside the realm of scientific plausibility that I just think of it as fantasy. That way I can still enjoy the show if the writing and the acting are good (which they were in some cases and not others).
 
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One thing I'm constantly amused by is when a show is set in a place like Atlanta or Boston, and there's not even one cast member who sounds like a local.
 
Prop department that does a mix and match of two generations worth of flight gear for a Smithsonian mannequin that comes to life.

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Dad's orange Smoking Tiger helmet is pretty cool, though.
 
Palmpilot said:
Star Wars is so far outside the realm of scientific plausibility that I just think of it as fantasy. That way I can still enjoy the show if the writing and the acting ares good (which they were in some cases and not others).
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I totally agree, which prompted my question. Jedi, wizards, witches, demons, deities, angels, etc all cause an effect, so an actor needs to do something to indicate they are the cause of said effect. I suppose the script could be written such that someone else indicates to us the cause, too.
 
Another is when a crime drama mobilizes a tactical team in full gear to hit the house of the armed and dangerous suspect, then the two or three detectives on the case are leading the stack on entry, still in suits with nothing but their pistol…

Law and Order loves to do this.
 
wanttaja said:
In the heyday of the war movie (50s-70s), a large percentage of the actors HAD military service, so these issues didn't arise as much.
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Those days are sure behind us. I spent 27 years in the military including two services and I never once heard anyone say “Sir yes sir” or “sir no sir”. But I’m not sure I’ve watched a Hollywood depiction of the military that didn’t include someone belting that out a few times. It’s passed time for Hollywood people to spend a little real time in the shoes of the people they wish they were.
 
Rokke214 said:
Those days are sure behind us. I spent 27 years in the military including two services and I never once heard anyone say “Sir yes sir” or “sir no sir”. But I’m not sure I’ve watched a Hollywood depiction of the military that didn’t include someone belting that out a few times. It’s passed time for Hollywood people to spend a little real time in the shoes of the people they wish they were.
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I was taught to say, “Sir, midshipman does not know, but will find out, sir.”

used ‘em all up that year…”sir” wasn’t in my vocabulary for over a decade after that.
 
My wife has grown tired of me saying "Be sure to move his spine around a lot," to various Fire/EMS/Emergency Room scenes.
 
Horror movie genre.... make sure everyone splits up and goes down dark hallways.
 
Rokke214 said:
Those days are sure behind us. I spent 27 years in the military including two services and I never once heard anyone say “Sir yes sir” or “sir no sir”. But I’m not sure I’ve watched a Hollywood depiction of the military that didn’t include someone belting that out a few times. It’s passed time for Hollywood people to spend a little real time in the shoes of the people they wish they were.
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only time I’ve heard anyone say “sir yes sir” was in basic training.
 
Half Fast said:
Spaceships that bank and swoop as though flying in air.

Spaceships that make noise in vacuum.

Ray guns firing beams of light that are slower than bullets.

Lawyers in court giving testimony instead of asking questions.

Cowboys whose hats stay on throughout the wildest of fights.

Shooting the gun out of the bad guy’s hand.
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When the entire space fleet warps in from all over the universe and they’re all oriented the same way up.
 
Zeldman said:
There was a movie (one of the Die Hard movies, I think) where the bad guys hacked the ATC computer and moved the glide slope down 400 feet so the planes would follow the glide slope into the ground. :lol: But the movie folk play on the audience not knowing anything about aviation (or anything else) to sell a story.
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It would be easier to just give the planes the wrong altimeter settings and no hacking needed, but try explaining altimeters to die hard watchers.
 
Salty said:
When the entire space fleet warps in from all over the universe and they’re all oriented the same way up.
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And it seems that whatever planet our brave spacemen set out to explore, from Endor to Tatooine, always has a 1g gravity and a breathable atmosphere.
 
Salty said:
It would be easier to just give the planes the wrong altimeter settings and no hacking needed, but try explaining altimeters to die hard watchers.
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Reminds me of all the murder shows where someone cuts the brake lines of a car. It would be so much simpler, and less noticeable, to loosen the bleed screw a turn or two.
 
wanttaja said:
Check out the movie, "Master and Commander." They miked up a range to capture the sounds of the cannons.

I live about a quarter mile from a police range. Be walking outside, and passers-by wonder what that popping is. Doesn't sound like the gunfire they hear on TV.

Ron "Pew Pew Pew" Wanttaja
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Also that nobody’s hearing is ever affected by close gunfire. The only scenes I’ve seen this done right are:

1. Sopranos (Caution: Violence)

2. Archer (continuous running gag throughout the series)
 
When there is an explosion in space and it generates a cumulus-like fireball. That would require an atmosphere. Everything should depart in a straight line from the center.
 
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