Disappointing Trends in Movies

[niolo]

The jerky camera in Bourne Supremacy.

Talking people in the audience/Phone rings "Oh hi...yeah I am at the movies...nuthin...sure"

People who bring youngins to a movie the youngins shouldn't be seeing. A couple brought 3 kids that looked no older than 8 into Sin City. I really thought that was truly a crime.

Kids wiser than their years in movies. UGH!

Cheap scare tactics. I hate it when all is quiet and very intense and then the lame skreetching owl or scared cat dashes across the screen. Fricking LAME cliche.

A sub-gripe would be all the action cliche endings: good guy beat up real bad and exhausted then somehow recovers but bad guy is now totally exhausted; the bad-guy-is-dead-no-he-isn't switcheroo; and related to that the "oh I am so tired from beating up the bad guy and I know he's not dead, but I really must sit down WITH MY BACK TO HIM because I am dog tired."

Subtitles that are the same color as the background so I can't read them.

 

[Finster]

I have to chime in with the in-too-close, jerky, frenetic camera movement. I thought that the first 15 minutes of RotS were exciting, but afterwards I couldn't tell you what happened. Too much, too fast...brain hurt. Maybe I'm just too old for new movies, but I need at least a nanosecond to assimilate what I just saw before moving on.

Other than that, my biggest movie pet peeve is people running away from explosions. Explosions are FAST, that's why they are deadly. If this was possible, all a demolition tech would need is a good pair of sneakers. I once saw a movie where a guy rode a motorcycle away from a nuclear detonation. I can't suspend disbelief when I see this, sorry.

 

[Desdichado]

Other than that, my biggest movie pet peeve is people running away from explosions. Explosions are FAST, that's why they are deadly. If this was possible, all a demolition tech would need is a good pair of sneakers. I once saw a movie where a guy rode a motorcycle away from a nuclear detonation. I can't suspend disbelief when I see this, sorry.

That's nothing on O'Connell outrunning the sunrise in The Mummy Returns. To pull off that feat, he had to have been running faster than the speed of rotation of the earth, which means he was hoofing it at over 1000 miles per hour.

 

[sniffles]

A couple of years ago, some friends and I went to see Shall We Dance? (the Japanese original, not the pointless American remake) at the local second-run theater. The theater's lobby had several posters, almost entirely in Japanese (with a handful of obvious English translations). Not five minutes into the movie (Japanese with English subtitles), the two women in the row in front of me turned around and asked, "Is this whole thing not in English?"

I honestly thought they were kidding--but said, "No, it's a Japanese movie."

At which point they both harrumphed and left!

I ran into the same thing the second time I saw "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". A large family in the back caught my attention with their disgruntled muttering when the subtitles began. I don't recall if they left - I was too involved in the movie to notice - but I'm pretty sure they were muttering about having to read. I got the impression it wasn't a skill they were good at, and they had a 4-year-old kid with them too.

And how about people who leave before the movie is over? When I saw "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", a couple with a little girl of about 4 sat down the aisle from us. They never made their child sit down throughout the entire film, and then they left when there was still half an hour to go!! What a waste of money for them.

I personally dislike people who stand up when the film is over and then just continue to stand in the aisle. I like to watch the credits and they're blocking my view.

 

[Taren Seeker]

Tacked on love interests. You know I do believe women are capable of seeing fllms that do NOT include a useless love interest. I'm looking at you Batman Begins and Pearl Harbour...and too many others to actually pick out examples.

Ditto on Shaky cam. I like it for some scenes, but it's getting ridden into the ground.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

The shaky cam works sometimes and doesn't others. It was used well in Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan, but not so well in Batman Begins or Gladiator. In the new BSG show it is non-stop and that detracts from the show at times.

The tacked on love interest stuff is another annoyance. It lowered my enjoyment of the LotR series a bit, especially in the last two movies. The Arwynization of those two was unnecessary IMO and took up time that would have been better spent on story elements that were cut.

 

[Demmero]

One of my pet peeves is when something unintelligent eats something (or someone) and then gives the obligatory burp. It's almost as bad as the jumping cats in horror flicks.

 

[Dagger75]

Reamakes, whether they are crappy old movies or crappy old TV shows why do they need to be remade. Dukes of Hazard wasn't that great of show why does it need a movie. Whats the point of remaking The Bad News Bears.

Prequels, these never jive up with the originals they are trying to enhance.

Loud music over the movie. It used to be this was in the background now its like watching a music video. Also whenever a band comes on the screen the music is played over the movie also.

I am tired of cars exploding when ever they hit a speedbump or getting shot with a .22.

Totally out of place actors or actresses. I'm looking at you Jessica Biel (not a bad sight) and the movie Stealth.

 

[Numion]

A couple of years ago, some friends and I went to see Shall We Dance? (the Japanese original, not the pointless American remake) at the local second-run theater. The theater's lobby had several posters, almost entirely in Japanese (with a handful of obvious English translations). Not five minutes into the movie (Japanese with English subtitles), the two women in the row in front of me turned around and asked, "Is this whole thing not in English?"

I honestly thought they were kidding--but said, "No, it's a Japanese movie."

At which point they both harrumphed and left!

In light of those events, was the american remake really pointless?

As for the jerky movement: there is good jerky movement and bad jerky movement. Saving Ryan had good jerky movement. Batman Begin had some of the worst. The first fight in the prison was absolute crap. Couldn't tell what happened, and it was in broad daylight.

And yeah, the unnecessary dark lighting is also annoying. Before good fx it was needed to cover the shoddy work, but nowadays the effects can be good enough to be shown in broad daylight.

 

[Elemental]

One thing that has been a pet peeve for a long time is the "When the monster should have been absolutely positively killed for the last time, it will get up once more to menace the heroes". A related peeve is the "OH MY GOD! THE MONSTER ISN"T DEAD!" shot that they seem obligated to include at the end of pretty much all horror movies.

In the same vein, any cliche about serial killers. If you believe Hollywood, they all have genius intellect, the ability to psionically predict the movements of the police and their next victims, short range teleportation, immunity to pain and a secondary heart that starts up ten seconds after the first one stops.

Just once, it'd be nice to see the killer menace the scantily clad blonde teenage girl...and to have her either shoot or kick the living daylights out of him (indeed, Joss Whedeon cited the same feeling as one of the factors leading to Buffy).