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Finding Names For Your Movie Pet Peeves

post #1 of 12
6/3/11 at 12:05am
Thread Starter 

Okay, I'm trying to think of ways to describe movie tropes or devices that pop up in movies and always distract me from the real thing. Two I can think of, only one of which has a name.

 

NAMELESS TROPE.

Does it ever bother someone when they're watching a movie about regular everyday people, and the leading man or women is unreasonably buff? It's usually when you have a popular leading actor who wants to "stretch" himself but it's always distracting. I remember the "Amityville Horror" remake came out and Ryan Reynolds was just coming off his new action hero remodeling in "Blade Trinity" and here he is playing a normal, mild-mannered dad. And then he takes his shirt off and it's like, ok, mild-mannered dad must visit the gym at least four times a week. Why isn't this in the script? What does this say about the character? Because you can't be a mild-mannered dad with those biceps. That was a dopey movie, but it still took me right out of it. Apparently Aaron Eckhart moved from Rabbit Hole to Battle: Los Angeles, but he must have started his training early, because he was distractingly superbuff as he pined for his dead child and flirted with Sandra Oh (year right). Will Smith is guilty of this as well.

 

NAMED TROPE:

JAMES BOND PANTS

Have you ever tried running three blocks or so as fast as you can in nice pants? Have you noticed how quickly those pants will rip or tear, usually in pretty uncomfortable ways? Even if you're in great shape, and/or your pants have been tailored to the last inch, if you start to hot-foot it, you're going to ruin those pants. Unless you're the lead in an action film. I guess James Bond is most guilty of this, since he's always wearing tuxes, but it bugs me whenever there's a movie with a guy doing improbable things in clothing that would clearly be ruined by said improbable actions in real life. I once got involved in a minor drunken scrap in a bar and my perfectly normal jeans completely ripped in the crotch, lending me a great deal of embarrassment during an extended train ride home. All I'm asking is for the slight bit of reality that has James Bond (or Ethan Hunt, or Arnie, or whomever) tending to a giant hole where their balls would be after an action movie scrap.

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post #2 of 12
6/3/11 at 5:15am

I always forgive the James Bond pants, because Daniel Craig looks so goddamn cool doing it.

 

He's kickass and well dressed!

 

quantumford.jpg

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post #3 of 12
6/3/11 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 

True, but Seth Rogen in Green Hornet also sorta has James Bond Pants. Not on board with THAT.

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post #4 of 12
6/3/11 at 10:52am

And of course, these super-tough tailored clothes rip so easily and perfectly when the hero needs to show off that gym body!

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post #5 of 12
6/3/11 at 10:14pm

My biggest pet peeve in movies are the motherfucking wet streets.

 

If it's raining in the scene, okay.  If it's not, the goddamn streets don't need to be wet.

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post #6 of 12
6/5/11 at 9:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mike_tyson View Post

My biggest pet peeve in movies are the motherfucking wet streets.

 

If it's raining in the scene, okay.  If it's not, the goddamn streets don't need to be wet.


YES!

 

I always wonder if this is just some kind of cinematography technique or if it just serves some weird aesthetic purpose.  Or perhaps every street in America is soaked between the hours of 12:00 and 5:00 AM.

 

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post #7 of 12
6/5/11 at 10:00pm

It's just supposed to look nicer.  More 'cinematic' I guess.  It's usually just night scenes, right?  So that the street lights reflect on the ground?  More colors!  More dynamic!

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post #8 of 12
6/5/11 at 10:57pm

On the FIGHT CLUB director's commentary, Fincher mentions it's done so the streets read better.. and I guess it helps with the lighting.. I was watching CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and noticed that the streets looked soaked in the scene at the airport(the "Come Fly With Me" scene), yet it's a bright, sunny day outside. 

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post #9 of 12
6/5/11 at 11:03pm

Just thought of a BIG pet peeve that I have in certain movies... one that's been happening for as long as I remember...

 

THE "THATS NOT HOW WINDSHIELD'S REALLY BREAK" ISSUE

 

Was watching THE HURT LOCKER, and in the scene with the cabbie driving his car recklessly into the bomb area, James pulls his pistol and begins firing warning shots.. He then shoots the windshield, and it shatters!!  Windshield's aren't supposed to shatter.

 

Not to nitpick, but isn't that what this thread is for? 

 

 

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post #10 of 12
6/6/11 at 12:14am

I have no problem with wet streets, they tend to look cool. What really annoys me is the "not quite as bright as an interior light but still way bright" nighttime interior shots in driving scenes. They drive me nuts.

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post #11 of 12
6/6/11 at 12:35am

A lot of these pet peeves can be chalked up to filmmakers wanting things to look slicker, more evocative or simply just more readable as visual information.  A lot of those conventions just stick.  One that comes to mind is something Alexander Payne brought up in his commentary for Election: immediately hearing a dial-tone whenever someone gets hung up on over the phone.  We're just supposed to hear silence, but there is a convention that hearing the dial-tone sells the hang-up better.  That bugged Payne and he made sure that there was silence on the other end when Matthew Broderick gets hung-up on.

 

A shattering windshield just looks cool!  Windshields in movies are also super-fragile.  I swear, nobody in movies get rock chips in their windshields.  Getting a pebble on the highway would just cause a movie windshield to shatter.

 

 

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post #12 of 12
6/6/11 at 5:31pm

I can't remember which BEVERLY HILLS COP movie I saw it in, but there's a moment where Axel literally punches his entire broken windshield out of it's holdings, which is how it would accurately break since there's a small sheet of plastic in it to prevent shattering.  Really felt out of place in THE HURT LOCKER, which seems to be a fairly real and gritty movie up until that moment.  

 

The dial tone thing has always bothered me too.  Also, grenades that create fireballs.  I understand we're talking about movies here, and they need that visual flair to make what we're watching stimulating to the eyes and all.... but when a grenade goes off and then we see our heros attempting to outrun a fireball.. come on.  I'm looking at you LONG KISS GOODNIGHT

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