Things you think movies get wrong everytime when it comes to______

[Henkie36]

Most films that have US Military personnel and equipment in them. They are constantly using the incorrect names, verbage, equipment, tactics and generally making the troops look either ruthless brainwashed idiots or bumbling fools who blindly blunder about. I have a difficult time watching modern movies that involve the military. The last one I saw that was really accurate was Blackhawk Down and I was good friends with one of the Rangers who was there and who also did consulting for the film to make sure they were true to life.

You should watch Three Kings. One of the most accurate depictions of US military equipment and training.

OT: Aside from the most blaringly obvious one, pretty much all forms and sorts of physics, how they portray hacking always is a slight point of bother, when it only takes a decent hacker about 15 seconds to get in to somthing like the CIA mainframe. Or when DNA test come back in all cop shows in about 15 minutes, this takes about 6 months in the real world. Girls who take off their glasses, put their hair down and are suddenly a million times hotter then previously thought. And my personal favorite: guns with unlimited ammo. I mean come on, is it really that hard to count shots?

 

[NBSRDan]

Computers. Anything involving computers. I don't just mean the horrifying lack of understanding when it comes to hacking, but even just navigating a desktop never looks like a real computer.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I hate how dreams are depicted in films/television.

I've never seen an accurate depiction of a dream, they are always far too organised and cohesive.

In my dreams I frequently jump between first and third person, locations randomly change, objects randomly change, people I'm talking to will turn into other people(or talking cats for some strange reason), some times there is a voice over guy in my dreams, I usually spontaneously end up flying at some point(which always seems to result in me losing control and flying into outer space where I invariably die), hell sometimes I dream that I'm watching a movie on TV and then I'm one of the characters in the movie I'm watching, and then I'll go back to being myself watching myself on TV.

Check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There's no movie that brings across the random nature of dreams as good as that one. It's also just a very good film.

The Sopranos had some nice dream sequences, too.

 

[LAGG]

Taking cover with you back against the wall. But it's understandable that in movies they want characters to face the camera while they talk because "protagonist", "villain" and "plot-armor" and put that kind of stuff before logics, but games copying movies is just unforgivable, specially in that case.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/WillSo/20120716/174078/Why_cant_thirdperson_shooter_get_cover_mechanics_right.php

 

[omega 616]

My thing isn't a person or anything to do with them.

It's cars, the amount of times a car gets hit, goes over a cliff edge, flips or is shot and it explodes is just silly! I wouldn't like to live in the world of film, every pot hole is a cause for an explosion, a fender bender would be a dead family!

Another thing is just the opposite, cars getting the shit shot out of them but all the passengers are fine, the engine is running perfectly and the tyres are still inflated, how?

 

[YuberNeclord]

Check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There's no movie that brings across the random nature of dreams as good as that one. It's also just a very good film.

Yeah Eternal Sunshine is one of my all time fav films. And thinking about it, yeah it would be the film that is probably the most accurate in how it depicts dreams.

The Sopranos had some nice dream sequences, too.

Never really watched The Sopranos, don't really know why. I do like gangster films and shows(especially Scorsese's films) so I should get around to that one day.

 

[ninjaRiv]

The British. We do not say "I say" when we arrive on the scene. I hate it when the dialogue includes words that are there to make sure the audience know the character is British. "Bloody bugger, seems like a wanker flipping armed the silly bomb. We're in a bloody right pickle, wot wot, I say."

 

[OneCatch]

Military and police in movies generally. Having been both, it's excruciating to see them use the wrong tactics, verbiage or just do damnably stupid things. 28 weeks later for instance was especially painful. "Oh lets just give this custodian full access to a supposedly secure facility, with no surveillance or active guards. Especially around this incredibly dangerous and utterly invaluable test subject of a woman we found carrying but not effected by the virus."

"Oh crap they're escaping, choose your targets while we have them in a cross fire with .50 MG's and a strong defensive position instead of preventing a second outbreak by simply pulping everything that attempts to leave with .50s. Nevermind that we locked everyone in a basement with some shoddy chains to begin with."

28 weeks drove me nuts. What made 28 Days Later tense is that the characters were broadly sensible and still got into peril (that one lampshaded bit in the subway tunnel aside).

But then in 28 Weeks their idea of security is to lock all the panicked civilians in a darkened fucking room, and their idea of containment is to fuck around with about 10 soldiers, then to firebomb the entire city (as well as later chasing and attacking people that are clearly not infected). A prime example of stupidity driven plot.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Most "historic" movies.
What I expect from a movie marketed as 'historic' is to watch happening what has been written as history.
What you will learn if you take history classes on a university,or at least just what some ancient text says.
But usually when a 'historic' movie comes out,I play a game of guesses,trying to guess how many times things that are shown on the movie are straight from the director's imagination and not written or accepted by any university of the world.
e.g. According to ancient writings,Achilled died by an arrow in the heel shot by Trojans during a battle. Yet in the movie 'TROY' he is being killed with many arrows by Agamemnon for his crime to love a Trojan girl.
:/

 

[OneCatch]

Most of the ones written can be explained away with the fact that this is a film, not real life, and they don't have to be completely realistic if it is more entertaining to watch otherwise.
One thing I don't understand, however, is why World War 2 is used so much. It's not that it's a bad setting, but compared to World War 1 it was nothing. WWII had more deaths, but WWI was completely unlike anything before. It was the first 'modern' war using guns and trenches, and everyone signed up thinking it would be some great cavalry charge and over before Christmas. By WWII, everyone was already expecting it. So when films portray WWII as so much worse, it's completely inaccurate. The thing that bugs me however is that there is no reason to use WWII instead of WWI, save that everyone just assume it was so much worse.

WWII is still within generational memory, whereas WWI mostly isn't nowadays.
And a majority of 'epic' films are made by US companies, which means you're less likely to use a conflict which the US wasn't involved with (For example the Crimean War was just as horrible as WW1 except for the scale).
Other US conflicts tend to have some stigma attached as well: lost in Vietnam, stalemate in Korea, US Civil War is divisive, etc.
WWI was just an ignominious waste of lives for all concerned - you can't really say that the 'goodies' are fighting for a decent cause, or that the 'baddies' are evil.
In contracts, with WWII you can just say "SS Officer" and you've got a ready-made villain with no further ado, you've got a cause which can't really be questioned, and we the viewers are safe in the knowledge that the good guys win in the end.

 

[kasperbbs]

During a gunfight main characters usually don't use cover and still noone is able to hit them. Well that was obvious..

 

[Tom_green_day]

And a majority of 'epic' films are made by US companies, which means you're less likely to use a conflict which the US wasn't involved with (For example the Crimean War was just as horrible as WW1 except for the scale).

Thanks for clarifying, I guess in my study I had a very bias view of WW1. One thing however, is that the US did participate in WW1 as much as WWII. Don't want to be a dick, just clarifying it.

 

[hooblabla6262]

I hate when movies depict noble/honest politicians.

That shit ain't real!

 

[EnigmaHarper]

Nail guns.

They do not fire unless placed against a surface.

Stop using them as projectile weapons!

 

[Thaluikhain]

games are really bad for the next one. all those non lethal take downs you have done in games over the years. well if someone is unconscious for more than 5 minutes then you need to ring an ambulance for them. as for using a drug, etc to knock them out well you need to account for so much including body weight, etc otherwise you will kill the person. all those guards probably died you butchers !

Oh yeah, this is why anesthetists are trained professionals.

Is very annoying, because it plays into the idea that you can easily render someone unconscious without hurting them, which comes up up every violent confrontation that hits the news ever.

 

[OneCatch]

And a majority of 'epic' films are made by US companies, which means you're less likely to use a conflict which the US wasn't involved with (For example the Crimean War was just as horrible as WW1 except for the scale).

Thanks for clarifying, I guess in my study I had a very bias view of WW1. One thing however, is that the US did participate in WW1 as much as WWII. Don't want to be a dick, just clarifying it.

I wouldn't think of your post as being even slightly dickish!
But yeah, I certainly didn't want to give the impression the US was uninvolved in WWI, just that they weren't involved in the Crimea.

I think that the main reason WWI isn't used is because it was an utterly pointless war. The leadership on all sides was equally culpable and heartless - with the exception of the US, who had a chance to observe the carnage and adopt marginally less bloody strategies on entering the war 1917.

 

[AidoZonkey]

Computer hacking, its just shameful in some movies. Typing on the keyboard quickly does not= hacking the computer

 

[OneCatch]

You *do not* have your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. Period. NCIS normally does it right, in that you'll see their fingers off the trigger when not actively shooting. Most other movies, though? Constant inappropriate usage. It can be a bit grating.[/img]

NCIS gets a lot of other things wrong. Like... say... two people typing on the same keyboard to make the computer go faster.

Abby and McGee should know better.

Heheh, and the good old "Can you clean up that CCTV image a bit?".
Tech wizard then dutifully zooms in and gets a name off a receipt on the other side of the room. The best one was in CSI, where someone was out of the camera's frame, so they got a facial match from a reflection in someone's eyeball.

Vehicle explosions: even when it from above with rockets the explosion always comes out the bottom, not the point of impact. I mean I know why but it's always so obvious. Especially when Batman flips that truck in The Dark Knight.

In fairness, at least that wasn't CGI, they did it with a gigantic hydraulic ram. But yeah, it's kind of daft.

 

[gibbles545]

As a history student pretty much all the medieval historical films are travesties at accurately representing the medieval period.

It also irritates me even more when they say they 'need' to take artistic license with the material to make it interesting, which is evidently why you have films like Braveheart having William Walace being a commoner which he wasnt, and the Scots not wearing armour in a battle and winning. If they were accurate in the films it would have still been entertaining and informative.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Nail guns.

They do not fire unless placed against a surface.

Stop using them as projectile weapons!

That's easily solved with a piece of duct tape though. I know, movies never show a character taping the safety down, but still. I've done it before.