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Topic: goof-ups in major films that should of been fixed!

Robert Koch
Film Handler

Posts: 93
From: Williams Ca USA
Registered: Apr 2006

posted 12-04-2013 03:52 PM

Baseball movies really never get the facts. i.e. Eight Men Out has Dickie Kerr throwing from the wrong side; he was a lefty. The Winning Team has our hero Ronald Reagan portraying Pete Alaxander, one of the great early pitchers, and strikes the last man out in the 1926 series, no way; Babe Ruth made the last out trying to steal second base and was out from here to there when Hornsby tagged him out.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-04-2013 07:01 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
They might as well put the Empire State Building and Gateway Arch in downtown L.A. for the next Die Hard installment.

In Independence Day, the Empire State Building was sitting in the middle of an avenue, a bit like the GCT/MetLife/Helmsley Building complex...

I do not really mind if movies re-purpose some locations for something else, some artistic license should be permitted, as we should remember that this movie is probably just telling a fictitious story in a fictitious world. This world doesn't need to be a 1-on-1 copy of our own world.

What I do mind though, is some consistency and that's something not even generally respected filmmakers like Christopher Nolan seem to get right. For example, compare the representations of Gotham in the last three Batman movies. There are so many obvious differences and flaws, that I don't even dare to start.

There are other things I do care about, like:

- Obvious plot holes, especially those that could short circuit the whole plot in a minute or so.
- Dei ex machina, in the broadest sense. Technically not really a goof, but still quite unforgivable. Also, the main reason why I generally dislike stuff like Harry Potter or stuff revolving around Middle Earth. Those stories are generally full of this shit, there is never any real suspense. Every time when all is lost, you're waiting for some magic wizard, with a perfect sense of timing, to appear, casting just about the right spell in the last minute.
- Extreme coincidences that serve as ad-hoc story glue. Since some of those coincidences are just so out-of-this-universe, I would rather consider them a genuine plot hole.
- Bad representation of science. Well, I can forgive you if you're making some kind of cartoon, comedy or super-hero movie, but a decent thriller for example, shouldn't need Kryptonite.
- Bad representation of technology, especially anything involving computers. I don't know how many versions of MovieOS are out there... And yeah, hacking a computer system is generally a very boring business to look at, but is it really SO hard to make it look at least half way realistic?
- Bad effects or CGI in recent productions, especially those big-budget productions. Anno 2013 (or almost 2014), you either make it look like the real thing or just don't do it at all. Almost nobody is really wowed anymore by the latest CGI gizmos anyway.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-04-2013 07:20 PM

Agreed on many of those points. With growing up a Marine Corps brat, living in several different states, I might notice things like landmarks, highway routes, etc. more than most people. Some things are obvious enough for anyone to notice.

It was indeed kind of strange how this latest Batman trilogy used different locations for Gotham City in the three movies. The first one had a lot of CG buildings. The second one mostly used Chicago, with a few pickup shots in other cities (the upper level of Grand Ave. in downtown L.A. makes an appearance). The third one divided its time between New York City, Pittsburgh and L.A.

Maybe they got the idea for that shuffling geography from Robocop. In the first one the Dallas skyline served as "Old Detroit." Houston was the setting in the 2nd one. I didn't bother watching the 3rd one. Did they shoot that in San Antonio?
[Razz]

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-04-2013 09:10 PM

And Oklahoma! was shot in Arizona.
Worse yet, My Cousin Vinny was shot in Georgia.

The magic of movies, guys.

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Jock Blakley
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 218
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Oct 2011

posted 12-04-2013 11:28 PM

Setting THE MATRIX in Generic City USA and shooting it in Sydney was a good one. They tried to shoot around or paint out the really obvious stuff but there were still a lot of Australian companies with large office buildings in the background [Razz]

That and some of the signs and labels and the like that crept in showed some very un-American use of the letter "U" [Wink]

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Steve Matz
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 672
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-04-2013 11:57 PM

What really annoys me in even high budget films where multi millions of dollars are spent is they can't get something as simple as the right sound/audio for a motorcycle.I've seen countless movies where they have British Bikes like the old T120 Triumph Bonnevilles or BSA A65 Twins sounding like a Harley or even worse yet, some 2 stroke single or twin.

They seem to have deep pockets for every thing else in the Film but hey don't spend a couple extra hundred bucks for a correct audio sound wave that goes with that particular motorcycle.

I've even seen it done with cars. The 1963 film "Palm Springs Weekend" has Robert Conrad's character driving a new Ford Thunderbird that sounded like an old 4cylinder TR3/4 Triumph sports car. That T-Bird probably had a 390cu in FE engine.Even as a 14yr old back then seeing the movie in 63;I thought that sound coming from the T-Bird was laughable...

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 12-05-2013 03:30 PM

On the "filming in an obviously wrong location"...

The studio that got the rights to Superman to make the fourth installment spent nearly all the money they got on other movies and therefore couldn't afford to film in NYC and filmed in London. The UN headquarters became some random building with a few US fire hydrants, a hotdog stand, and someone wearing a shirt that said that they love New York. Yeah, no one outside NYC would know what the real building looks like, since it's not regularly shown on the news throughout the world or anything...

Not to mention the stupidity of the story in general: Supes goes to the UN to ask them all to kindly get rid of their nukes when he doesn't need to, because... HE'S SUPERMAN. He can do it himself.

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Steve Matz
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 672
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-06-2013 02:25 PM

quote: Chris Slycord
Not to mention the stupidity of the story in general: Supes goes to the UN to ask them all to kindly get rid of their nukes when he doesn't need to, because... HE'S SUPERMAN. He can do it himself.

Your statement is correct but even at Superman's supersonic speed
it would take too long for him to detonate Just the Nuclear Arsenal
of the US and Russia.This would leave minimal time for him to rescue
Lois Lane from all her dalemias that she seems to get into...LoL! [Confused]

Does anybody actually believe our Government's truthful numbers of
what minimal stockpile of Nuclear weapons we still possess.Do you feel
safer at night knowing that there are only enough weapons to blow the
earth up 10 times over the previous 20times before nuclear disarmament! [puke]

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-06-2013 03:29 PM

One of my favorites come from "Independence Day" (1996). Jeff Goldblum with his trusty Mac uploads a virus into the alien computer system and saves the world.

Right!

What protocol would the aliens be using? Certainly TCP/IP even though they are eons advanced beyond our technology. And what about the wireless Physical Layer? You know they're are certainly using something like IEEE 802.11. And even in the unlikely event a link could be established, you just know the alien coding is right on par with the 20th century.

I couldn't believe they filmed such [bs]

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-06-2013 03:52 PM

That, and the point where Will Smith just punches the alien out. Pure idiocy there.

That movie was awesome for the first 2/3 and then stupid for the last third.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-06-2013 09:48 PM

Honest Trailers: Independence Day

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 12-07-2013 05:55 AM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Bad representation of science. Well, I can forgive you if you're making some kind of cartoon, comedy or super-hero movie, but a decent thriller for example, shouldn't need Kryptonite.

John Christopher said that in order to be plausible, a science fiction novel should contain only one element of fictional science, and then focus on its effect on the real world as is then existed. That idea works well in his stuff (e.g. The Death of Grass - fictional virus kills off all vegetation), and other science fiction novels and movies (e.g. The Boys from Brazil - cloning human beings becomes reality), but I can't see how it would be possible in predict-the-future type stories such as Metropolis or Star Wars. If you're inventing a whole world that doesn't exist, not just one element of it, then you have to invent everything that goes into it.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-07-2013 08:50 AM

quote: Leo Enticknap
but I can't see how it would be possible in predict-the-future type stories such as Metropolis or Star Wars.

Well, since this thread is about nitpicking little things in movies (most often nothing more than simple continuity errors), I really should point out that Star Wars happpened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. [Razz]

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 12-07-2013 04:59 PM

Duly acknowledged, hands in the air, that's a gotcha! [beer]

How about retroactively substituting Things to Come as my other "invent a world" example?

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 12-07-2013 05:32 PM

quote:
Your statement is correct but even at Superman's supersonic speed
it would take too long for him to detonate Just the Nuclear Arsenal
of the US and Russia.This would leave minimal time for him to rescue
Lois Lane from all her dalemias that she seems to get into...LoL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yavK0mnE3wI

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