And it inherently weakens good movie villains to show their "tragic" backstory that led them down the path to being a baddie. It killed the epic ominousness of Darth Vader to show him as a mop-topped eight-year-old squealing "Yippee...!" and as a creepy teenage stalker who keeps badgering Natalie Portman with such "romantic" come-ons as, "I'll be miserable if you don't love me back!" Do we need a Die Hard prequel with young Hans Gruber being led down a path to terrorism and bank robbery?
Is that what happened to Vader? Thank goodness I've stayed away from Star Wars flicks (but not the scores) since July 1983.
Someone shouting at the cinema screen "I told you so NOT to wander into that darkened room where a possible threat may occur!". D'oh!
...on the subject of which: people wandering around in darkened rooms at all, when they could put the lights on at the moment they enter. The only time they ever try the light switch is in, say, an abandoned warehouse – just to confirm to us the audience that the power is out. But in their own homes in the middle of the night when a mysterious noise has been heard? Naaah.
Someone is running for their life and trying to get inside a building that's locked. They frantically bang on the glass window or door. On the inside the janitor or maid are oblivious of whats happening right behind them because they got speakers from a Walkman, iPod or cell phone in their ears.
Someone is running for their life and trying to get inside a building that's locked. They frantically bang on the glass window or door. On the inside the janitor or maid are oblivious of whats happening right behind them because they got speakers from a Walkman, iPod or cell phone in their ears.
People running from something, looking back and tripping. It's not improbable but it's done too often. Find some other way for the threat to catch up.
On the other side: someone outrunning (and sometimes even outcrawling!) something that can't be outrun (fire, water etc.).
When someone is shot in a movie the fall backward EXCEPT. .... if they happen to be on a roof or stairway. Then they fall FORWARD. (no doubt due tothe Stunt person Protection Act of 1966)
Racists instantly become un-racist after the main character of a different colour does something they "respect".
An episode of "The Jeffersons" subverted this impressively.
A Klan member moves into George's building. He has a heart attack, but George saves him. When he finds out how he survived, the Klan member says to his son, 'You should've let me die'.
... in gangster films and tv, why don't all the wise guys wear bullet proof vest beneath their garb? Also, why aren't all wise guys and their wives/goomars checked for bugs/wires when talking about gangster business that could land all them in jail?
These are simple things to do considering the outcome of not doing them.
....characters withhold information for dramatic effect. It's not realistic. They say it's because "I wanted to protect you", but in real life, you spell the beans when it's warranted, dammit.
...when a movie has a scene set in a specific past date, then cuts to a title card simply reading "today". That only works for the year of the movie's release! Especially funny when the "today" scenes feature hairstyles, fashion and technology that's years if not decades out of date.
...when a movie set in the "future" features a logo for a real-life product, but it's the exact same style that was used in the era that the movie was made. Also movies where the product in question has been discontinued long before we reach the actual "future" date, like Atari in Blade Runner.
...when a prequel has the same actor playing a character years if not decades earlier, but they look noticeably older (like Ian McKellen in the Hobbit trilogy, or Anthony Hopkins in Red Dragon).
...when a movie set in the "future" features a logo for a real-life product, but it's the exact same style that was used in the era that the movie was made. Also movies where the product in question has been discontinued long before we reach the actual "future" date, like Atari in Blade Runner.
The most famous example has to be the Pan Am clipper in 2001!
The most famous example has to be the Pan Am clipper in 2001!
Kubrick made a bet and lost. Pam Am had been around for 40 years (since 1927) when he was making the film. I suppose he figured it would continue to be a mainstay of air travel far into the future. And for 23 years (until they folded in 1991) he was right. Just 10 years short.
Of course Kubrick's biggest lack of foresight was his optimism as to how far space exploration would proceed by 2001. On that he was WAY off.
The most famous example has to be the Pan Am clipper in 2001!
Kubrick made a bet and lost. Pam Am had been around for 40 years (since 1927) when he was making the film. I suppose he figured it would continue to be a mainstay of air travel far into the future. And for 23 years (until they folded in 1991) he was right. Just 10 years short.
Of course Kubrick's biggest lack of foresight was his optimism as to how far space exploration would proceed by 2001. On that he was WAY off.
There wouldn't be a space program without the cold war and military directives. Yes, we've gotten a lot of good science out of the program in the last 50 years, but it's a by-product of competing nations worst fears and intentions. This is true all the way up to the Space Shuttle program. Once the US "won" the cold war, funding was cut. The NASA budget is like 0.2 percent of the entire federal budget. In other words the US government has little interest in scientific missions or exploration.
In the midst of a battlefield between 100s of combattants the leaders of each side not only find each other to have their final conflict but are left undisturbed to look around, find each other and have only themselves to contend with.
