Stuff in movies you realized in retrospect was horrible

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by JirinPanthosa, Mar 25, 2019.

  1. Locutus of Bored

    Locutus of Bored Yo, Dawg! I Heard You Like Avatars... In Memoriam

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    In the first five minutes of Ghostbusters faculty member Dr. Peter Venkman is conducting fake experiments on the dime of the university he's defrauding. Experiments which involve torturing a barely paid student with electric shocks while falsifying data to impress another student so Venkman can have sex with her in a totally imbalanced power dynamic that was probably a violation of university rules even in the 80s. Then, when the university rightfully kicks him out, they're treated like unreasonable stuck up dicks who won't just let Venkman do his thing.

    A theme which is repeated with the EPA inspector Walter Peck later on who is totally in the right up until the moment they start shutting down dangerous machinery without testing it or forcing the qualified personnel to do it safely.

    Of course, that kind of stuff is pretty much par for the course in any kind of old(er) movie (and even ones made today) and a lot of 80s movies I grew up on, and you have to decide whether it affects your enjoyment of it or not now or whether you would show it to kids (at the very least with an explanation). I still love Ghostbusters and it's one of my favorite movies.

    Revenge of the Nerds
    is a different story, between the rape of the head cheerleader Betty under false pretenses by Louis posing as Ted McGinley's character in costume, and the invasion of the cheerleader's sorority house and placing of cameras everywhere. It's treated as if the fact that the cheerleaders were assholes to the nerds first means sexual assault, home invasion, and placing hidden cameras in private areas as revenge is perfectly okay.

    Of course it's all played for laughs and if you dismissed every comedy or even romantic comedy where the characters behaved like horrible people at some point you'd have very slim pickings to watch because that's more the norm than the exception. But I guess it's a judgment call on where you draw that line.
     
  2. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    But isn’t the point that Venkman is a dick at the start of the film? And he does grow, after a fashion. I mean later on the woman he’s obsessed about basically offers herself on a plate to him and he turns her down because he realises she’s not in control of her actions, and then he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save the world.

    Plus he has a great respect for the church ;)

    But yeah, in another film Walter Peck is the hero of the hour!
     
  3. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's a brilliant example. Especially since the light-heartedness of the film, the mother-son seduction plan truly is something that you don't see as truly awful until you reflect on it later!

    I recall reading it's the same reason Disney (and likely) other studios passed on the script for Back to the Future and it took years for Bob and Bob to find a studio who would agree to film that story as written.

    Also the whole Biff-horrific 1985 altered timeline is disturbing, too. You get a sense of how low Biff could go, murdering George McFly so that he could have Lorraine, etc. That's pretty dark compared to the stuff Biff ordinarily does.
     
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  4. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    And watching that recently it never sits well with me. In the novel it's worse Doc Brown kind of tells Marty it's OK to sleep with your not yet mum to be.
     
  5. USS Firefly

    USS Firefly Commodore Commodore

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    Wow that really is disgusting
     
  6. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    It is when you think about it.

    Sure she isn't his mother and he hasn't been born yet but yeah it's kind of disgusting if think it nearly happened. Lorraine even wanted to. It's been forever since I read the book but Doc Brown mentions Oedipus complex or something happening if they did do the deed.


    These guys tackled this topic

     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2019
  7. USS Firefly

    USS Firefly Commodore Commodore

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    Well now you have ruined the movie for me :wah:
     
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  8. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    To still use Star Trek as an example, any magic users impose a sort of prime directive on themselves and actively seek to limit exposure to themselves in the muggle world. You see that as much in the first Fantastic Beasts movie. The way I see it, they don't know how Muggles would react to them, and rather than cause chaos, they hide.
     
  9. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I am sorry for that... I did not mean for that to ruin your enjoyment.
     
  10. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I never minded the incest joke because it's just a joke and everyone is familiar with the Oedipus complex thing and the humor comes from how awkward it makes Marty feel. Making characters feel awkward is like a tried and true comedy angle. It also feeds in that idea of how we look at our parents as our mom and dad and we kind of forget they are just regular people like the rest of us. Especially when we are young like Marty is, still being in high school. Also in high school they were doing some of the stuff they are suppose to tell you not to do when they raise you.

    The part that doesn't feel right in retrospect is how Biff in the future is just hanging around the house as a lakey despite the fact that he attempted to rape Lorraine.

    Also the sports almanac being useful for to long just isn't possible. Soon as you start changing the timeline the outcomes of the games would change meaning you got a list of useless scores to games that were never played in this new timeline. Kind of like how in "Hot Tub Time Machine" the Broncos vs Browns 1986 game called "The Catch" ended up not happening because a squirrel in this new timeline effected the game.

    Jason
     
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  11. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Oh yeah there is that and that's plenty weird.

    It's like no one remembers those events
     
  12. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I think people remember it's just that movie logic and real life logic aren't always the same. Biff in movie logic is getting punished for his crime by loosing out on the girl but also having to clean after the guy he bullied and the girl he desired. He has been humilated which according to movie logic is all that is needed.

    What's also weird is Marty basically killed his parents and siblings as he knew them and now has a new altered version, yet he has no memories of living a life with them yet it's a happy ending for him because now their lives are better in theory because of more money and material things and he gets the pickup truck he wanted.

    Of course this isn't even a 80's thing. You still see movie/tv logic today. Only in tv and movie can you kill someone and simply get off the hook for simply feeling bad about it with fans. In movies people will get outraged if a dog is killed by a monster but people laugh if a dumb teenager gets it just for being rude or a asshole despite the fact that teenagers being rude assholes is kind of what being teenager is often all about until they grow and mature as people.

    Jason
     
  13. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    SOAPS........... They do that all the time where someone offs someone and next couple of episodes all is forgiven and no one does jail time.
     
  14. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    If newspapers and photos can change to react to timeline modifications, surely the almanac can, also. ;)
     
  15. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    No because that travels with the time traveler so is like the time traveler itself protected from changes.
     
  16. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Back to the Future 3 totally disproves that idea. The picture of the tombstone from the future changes repeatedly.
     
  17. USS Firefly

    USS Firefly Commodore Commodore

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    I am sorry, my post wasn't meant to be that serious.
    I mean in the end it is only a movie.
     
  18. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^^ yeah, it' even more pedantic in Part I when Marty and his brother/sister's body parts are disappearing and re-appearing in the photo of them all, especially while he's playing Earth Angel.
    As if they came into existence piece by piece. And Marty couldn't play without his hands....
    "...George!"
     
  19. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    I've never watched 3
     
  20. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Marty not being immune to timeline changes is quite literally the core plot of the first film. ;)
     
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