Annoying Movie Cliches/Problems

[Trekker4747]

Ok, this maybe bugs me just because I'm nore knowledgable on this kind of thing, but...

Having a pilot's license doesn't mean you can fly anything that flies. There's fixed-wing licenses and there's rotors licenses. Both are very different classes, very different equipment to take the hands-on tests on, and very, VERY, different principles of flying and controling aircraft.

Yet many, many, times in movies and TV shows characters say they have pilot's licenses and they jump into a helicopter after earlier, maybe, seen flying a plane (though sometimes we just go on the information "pilot's license.)

Probably the biggest offender of this in memory come sin the movie "Air America" in it a character is grounded and fired from his job as a traffic-copter pilot but is soon has it reinstated by the military and he's sent to Vietnam to fly.... AIRPLANES.

Sorry, jut because he's a license to and experience flying helicopters doesn't mean he's able to, and knows how to, fly a plane.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Rolling out a few classics:

The Applause Crescendo. (Need I say more?)

I cannot remember a single move with a plot based on computers that has ever portrayed computers accurately. Come on, everyone and their dog has a computer now. You cannot feign ignorance.

A cop has a theory (which always turns out to be true) and nobody else on the force believes him him despite all evidence pointing towards it.

The power of love always prevails, and can solve pretty much any problem (up to and including raising the dead.)

 

[captcalhoun]

infinite ammo or worse; reloading after using twice the amount of ammo the real gun carries.

dog-fights at really short ranges when really they'd be shooting the bad guys down from about 25 miles away (top gun, iron eagle, i'm looking at you)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Twist endings.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I don't have any problem with a twist ending. However, the movie has to earn it. Too many movies slap on a twist ending for the sake of having a twist. If a movie has really built towards the ending then I'm fine with it, and can perhaps even praise it.

 

[HRHTheKING]

- Every phone number begins with 555.

- Car doors are never locked unless a serial killer is chasing you.

- No one ever says "Erm" or "Uh" when they speak...unless they are a nerd.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Every phone number begins with 555.

AFAIK, it's required by law to do that. 555 is specifically made to be a 'dead' number, just in case anyone tries to call it for real.

Just ask anyone named Jenny who lived through the 80's.

 

[Kegek]

I'm going with the computer hacker super-genius who is recognised as a world expert and who is a reclusive weirdo who lives in his mom's basement whose purpose is both to help speed the plot along and provide comic relief.

 

[Gojirob]

The teleporting serial killer. Also, the non-undead killer who takes so much damage, Goku and Superman roll their eyes. If he/she is not mystic, then have them evade damage, not shrug it off.

And my fave : He's a goofball with no life and no prospects. She's a successful lawyer - surgeon - theologian - sports champ with her own mid-sized business - and now she has a new project--him.

 

[Twilight]

Computer operating systems in movies. They look like they're (1) from some bizarre future and (2) totally useless.

They go beep and boop after every operation, there are random wireframe animations in the background for who-the-hell-knows why, and you can operate them simply by typing a rapid, uninterrupted stream of random letters on a keyboard.


Another, seen in almost every globe-trotting action movie ever: the hero is apparently able to travel to any spot on the globe within about an hour, and apparently has infinite funds with which to do so. And he gets to skip airports and lines and layovers. And when he arrives in said random spot on the globe, there is a $400,000 Ferrari waiting for him, as well as a secluded Villa for a safe house complete with hot women who wants to fuck him - but who is working for the enemy.

 

[FPAlpha]

Martial art training montage

Good guy has a personal vendetta going on because his sister/father/mother/dad got killed or worse and seeks out some weird but wise martial art master
After some convincing he trains him to become this superwarrior.. in about 20 minutes screen time that responds to a few weeks.

After this much training he goes on to kick the crap out of the main villain (who has probably trained martial arts since he was a boy).


US army sergeants

Every US army sergeant has to have a cigar in the corner of his mouth and doesn't take cover when bullets zip past his head even his entire platoon is skulking behind the wall


Cars explode wherever you hit them

Nobody uses the mouse and a symbol based OS when giving commands to a computer.. what is this? Late 80s or old style Linux?

Computer hackers have all these flashy graphics when cracking some system.. only when the symbols align have they gained access.

 

[Starbreaker]

Twist endings.

I like twist endings. I haven't seen a movie with a twist ending in forever though.

 

[CorporalClegg]

A new comer to the scene: "Of all the days to forget to charge my cell phone!"

Computer operating systems in movies. They look like they're (1) from some bizarre future and (2) totally useless.

Well, the design is most likely because they use Linux (or even just plain UNIX) a lot in movies to avoid any licensing issues and it's possible to make the GUIs look like pretty much anything you want to. As for the functionality, well that's just because the idiots don't know what they're doing.

 

[John Picard]

Rolling out a few classics:

The Applause Crescendo. (Need I say more?)

I cannot remember a single move with a plot based on computers that has ever portrayed computers accurately. Come on, everyone and their dog has a computer now. You cannot feign ignorance.

Ask anyone who works in I/T for a living. There are a lot of people out there who don't know a damned thing about computers and believe the Hollywood BS.

 

[Kegek]

Ask anyone who works in I/T for a living. There are a lot of people out there who don't know a damned thing about computers and believe the Hollywood BS.

Oh, come now. Surely nobody believes that a computer virus can cause your PC to detonate and kill you (a la Live Free or Die Hard), do they?

 

[Arrqh]

What's funny is that one of the most accurate portrayals of a computer in a movie was in the Matrix Reloaded when Trinity uses nmap and a known SSH exploit to hack into the power station computer

Screenshot

 

[Ghel]

Ugh, incomplete double post. . .my comments are below

 

[Lindley]

you can operate them simply by typing a rapid, uninterrupted stream of random letters on a keyboard.

Ever watch someone proficient in vi? It looks a lot like that, actually.

 

[Ghel]

The Matrix cliche in general killed me (no pun intended). EG. if you unplug a person from the network, they'll die because "the brain can't live without the mind" or somesuch. This is like assuming that unplugging a network cable will cause your computer to self-destruct.

Any cop show:
We take a grainy picture from 50 yards away, "enhance" it on the computer, and suddenly we can read the warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes.

Die Hard Antinit--I assumed that the villians had (at a point before the movie began) snuck into the hackers apartment and rigged their computers with physical explosives. That was the big 'ol box that was stuck inside the computers. . .
Of course this leads to a few more problems, one is namely that these brilliant hackers haven't looked inside their computers and noticed these extra boxes. Even I, a very non-hacker, spend some time inside my computer changing drives and/or upgrading components. I would sure notice something taking up a bunch of space in there. Plus, why were these hackers hitting the escape key when their computer's crashed?!? CTRL-ALT-DEL my dear hackers, or at least Open Apple-Q.

 

[Lindley]

Do people still call it "open apple"? I figured it was pretty universally known as "command" by now.....

And incidentally, the Mac version of cntl-alt-del is command-option-escape.