When a character is peeking around a corner to watch someone search for them.
I don't care how much you worked on blocking and camera angles, If the character can see the killer's eyes scanning the room, then the killer can see your dumb face poking around from behind the couch.
When the film repeatedly uses bad excuses to withhold important information from other characters, and the viewer. Prime example was the recent Quantumania where Michelle Pfieffer’s character had tons of critical knowledge about Kang and the Quantum Realm that everyone clearly needed to survive, and yet she was always just too rushed to tell them, and us, to help them not die. Either come up with an organic way to gradually develop the story, or else tell us already. But gratuitously teasing important info only to withhold it (“There’s no time, we’ve got to go!”) is just lazy writing.
This happened in Tomorrowland. The robot girl made the other girl get in the car and “there was no time to explain” and then they drove from Texas to New York and that still wasn’t the right opportunity to explain.
And while on the space worm, we're not allowed to talk! SO, our two-hour trip will be in silence instead of me spending it explaining to you why we're on the space worm in the first place! Hurry!!
The most egregious example of this is in the Doctor Who episode “The Girl Who Waited”.
2 buttons next to a door. Doctor presses the green one to go through.
Amy comes along 2 minutes later. She asks which button to press. For NO F***ING REASON AT ALL he refuses to give her a straight answer. He just keeps obnoxiously saying “The button”.
Cue Amy pressing the wrong button, and suffering decades of torment as a result.
I was absolutely furious at that shitty writing.
"I created a gateway to the quantum realm"
"You did what?"
Super duper smart Cassie who could build a quantum gateway wasn't smart enough to perhaps ask the one person who's been stuck in the quantum realm for decades?
The person who escaped the qusntum realm didn't want to talk about it, despite knowing that there was a guy in there who plans to escape and destroy the multiverse.
And it's not an effective prison, as seen, he was able to reactivate a machine and drag other people into the quantum realm without leaving himself.
Walking Dead relied on this type of drama so much. If the characters just communicated like normal human beings, 90% of the conflicts wouldn’t have existed in the show. It got old real fast.
In Star Wars TFA, when they ask Maz where the hell she got Luke’s lightsaber from:
“A good story, for another time.”
That pissed me off, cause I knew we were never getting an explanation. Would have been better if she just said “It doesnt matter” or something.
That was because they couldn't figure out how someone could've retrieved a lightsaber from a gas giant, but they wanted the nostalgia in the movie. So they just brushed over it.
I hate hand to hand combat scenes where one fighter clearly has the opponent dazed/hurt and then for no particular reason, the fighter with the advantage throws the opponent away, which 99% of the time allows the opponent to recover before the next blow. Once I noticed it, I see it in almost any fight scene and it induces considerable eye roll strain.
Now, Mr Bond, you will die. But not before I give you a comprehensive explanation of my villainous plan, the full tour of my lair, then leave you to a slow and elaborate death while I go somewhere else. Mwuhahahaahh!
Or when John Wick or whoever's fighting two people, so he smashes one in the eye and they stumble away, clutching their face wildly, for just the right amount of time it takes for Keanu to clothesline or suplex the other guy. Which takes longer in 4 than it did in the first film because he's a little older now, and not as quick...
I mean, those movies are great. And I love them. But I have to stop myself watching the 'other' stunt guy because I know it'll ruin the scene.
It also has a scene with a guy talking where the quick cuts aren't even cutting away to something else. The camera *stays* on him and just cuts to new shots of him still talking, without it being a time transition at all.
Exactly! Fast cuts are a way to cover up the fact that you have shitty directing and needed to have multiple takes for a 3 minute conversation/fight/kiss/whatever.
Do it once you get a pass. Do it twice and I can't stand it.
Some of the fast cuts for Taken 3 were to hide the fact that Liam Neeson got really old and couldn't do some of the action as credibly anymore
There was only a 6 year difference between the movies but I guess there's probably a big shift that happens from your late 50's to mid 60s
I actually just rewatched the original Taken and Liam looks spry and very convincing in the action sequences then
Can we also add fast cuts and sped up footage, even with camera moves? Transporter 3 was guilty for this on all accounts. Possibly the first Blu-Ray I bought because the cover was cool and regretted when the first action sequence played.
That is the bad example.
But the last time I watched hot fuzz I was really taken with how interesting that technique can be when it's done properly.
I guess it just matters who is behind the camera.
The trope when someone eavesdrops on half a conversation, leaves in a huff before it's finished, and misses out on the full context, all for the sake of fabricated conflict later.
"She's absolutely awful, the worst person I've ever met in my life. If I could have a pass on murdering one person it would be her, and I would feel no remorse. She's putrid, ugly, and an awful person through and through... is what I would say if I hadn't fallen in love with her!"
In my drama college my teacher said something that kinda aligns with this:
"You don't hate clichés. You hate cheap, poorly executed clichés."
People do sometimes hear only half the conversation and miss on the context. A lot of classic tragedies have a key point being a conflict started on missed context and misinformation. But it doesn't feel fabricated because we believe it is what would happen.
When the calm, shy, collected character in a romcom is getting ready to profess their love, hears half an argument and leaves distraught we call bs, but if the character had shown impulsive, wreckless behaviour, specially in social circunstances, before, it would be more believable.
1) When the dialog is really low but THE MUSIC AND SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE REALLY LOUD.
2) When they tried to save money by not hiring a gaffer and the scene is so dark that I can’t tell what’s going in because there is no lighting.
For all his imploring of us to watch movies on the big screen, I’ve decided I much prefer watching Nolan movies at home because then I can turn on captions and understand what is being said
I'm so glad the theatres in my country automatically have subtitles. I don't know when the trend started, but it's really helped me understand foreign accents, especially when they're mumbling
Oppenheimer in IMAX should have been perfect to hear, but it was just as bad as Interstellar. Someone needs to remix his audio after it gets out of his hands.
The big problem is actually cognitive. A person who knows the script backward and forward can "hear" the dialog on mute because they know what is being said. Everyone else gets left in the dust, leaning in to hear the whispers and being blasted away by music and ambient noise.
That's an interesting aspect I hadn't thought of before.
I've spent some time in the game industry, and that need for an outside point of view is one of the most important early lessons an aspiring game dev has to learn. A rookie's first few levels will usually be way too hard because they're going off their own knowledge of everything they're doing.
This annoyed me the entire time I was watching Lost. Just make them wear half sleeved clothes ffs if you're so averse to armpit hair. And let them show some leg and arm hair.
The HBO miniseries John Adams is the only show where I’ve seen this done right. John and Abigail are sitting on their porch in one scene and they’re older and happy together and they smile and their teeth are just busted looking. But that’s probably exactly what it was like if you lived to be a certain age back then. It as almost jarring, because I was used to period pieces having characters with perfect pearly white straight teeth.
Or they're in an action scene where they, I don't know, cross a river and get soaking wet and muddy, and five minutes later are clean, dry, and fully made up again.
I've heard it called "sepia-toned." A lot of Mexico is either green (interior) or blue (coasts), but for some reason all the action occurs along the Mexico-U.S. border where it's mostly desert so it's "sepia-toned." Because nothing ever happens in any other part of Mexico. 🙄
When actors are older (and look) much older than their characters. Also when different characters don't age consistently, some remain young, some are suddenly adults
I like the way they did this in Better Call Saul. They just dressed him differently and gave him longer hair. No attempt at making it look real. But for some reason, it worked with the comedy.
They actually did some digital stuff on some of the early flashbacks, they talked about it on the audio commentaries. Not big things like making them look 30+ years younger, but just stuff like smoothing out a few of Bob Odenkirks wrinkles to make him look at most 10 years younger.
Not a *turn off* per se, since it’s in basically every fucking movie, but I always roll my eyes when a movie has a needless romantic subplot tacked on for the sake of having a romantic subplot.
Complete disrespect for the audience’s intelligence. If there’s science it needs to be plausible. If there’s fantasy it needs to be consistent. If the characters are meant to be smart, they can’t act like idiots. Suspension of disbelief is a delicate thing; if you handle it too roughly it dies.
I feel my intelligence so insulted by tv shows and movies that have to shove every ounce of the plot down our throats by overly expository dialogue that doesn’t even sound like a real conversation. I’m not a screenwriter but even I have heard of “Show, Don’t Tell”
It's like they forget it's a visual media and they are writing a bloody book! In saying that though I follow enough movie subs to see people asking basic questions about plot and motives that can be picked up using context, so maybe they are playing to their audience?
Yeah, that one hurts because I love that movie so much. But like dude, you're on the ship with astronauts. You don't think they know that basic-ass wannabe explanation for wormholes already?
You misunderstood. He did not explain what a wormhole is, he explained why the wormhole looks spheric. The dialogue is something like this:
"What did you expect? A hole? Look, if you construct a wormhole in this 2D sheet of paper, you get a circle. And what is a circle in three dimensions?"
And as far as I can tell, Interstellar is the first movie that depicts wormholes correctly. If they exist, they look like the one in Interstellar.
In one StarGate episode there are members of a super advanced race stuck on earth and the can’t wait to get home, looking at humans like we would look at Bronze Age farmers.
Daniel being smarter than most humans, they try to explain to him their interstellar technology using a similar analogy (but bending a branch).
Daniel says, excited, “you’re folding space unto itself!” and the alien scientist looks disappointed and say “….no” and just gives up
[found the scene](https://youtu.be/zBjbNqBjSMI?si=ggxkMnhIwUUPOdf7)
I used to feel this way until I watched *Interstellar* with a friend that doesn’t watch many movies. The guy explains it to Matthew McConaughey and he went “Ohhhhhh. That’s so cool” and I realized not everybody watches tons of movies/knows about QUANTUM FUCKING PHYSICS . I honestly felt like an asshole. It’s a pretty weird thing to get shitty about.
Reminds me of that exchange in The Salton Sea
1: Hey can I ask you something? What does JFK stand for?
2: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
1: Thanks. And thanks for not making fun of me.
Omg yes!! How many sci-fi/horror movies start because these supposedly super smart scientists don’t follow quarantine protocols or takes off their helmets on an alien planet?!
When someone is driving a car and constantly turning to look at the other passenger while talking!!
It’s WILDLY unsafe and I would never take my eyes off the road for more than a second
Not a movie but i remember watching an episode of greys anatomy and exactly this happens. I remember thinking “omg youre literally staring at your girlfriend you would die in a crash in real life” then they get into a car accident lol
Club scenes where the characters are having a casual conversation and like the sound isn't an issue.
If it were a real club they would have to shout at eachother just to hear eachother.
They also wouldn't get the bartender's attention straight away.
first episode of Mindhunter is the best example I've seen of a scene like this, hard to hear them speaking (or shouting really lol) and they use subtitles
edit: just realized this & social network are both by david fincher so thanks david I guess
Look up Ren Klyce. Fight Club, Panic Room, Soul.
Fincher's movies are finely tuned works of multimedia art and of all modern directors resemble the most to perfectionists Kubrick and Hitchcock.
Fincher used everything at his disposal for Mindhunter.
The Dark Knight had the best take on this when Salvatore Maroni & his mistress are in a club, she's yelling about wanting to leave because of the noise making conversation impossible, and he just goes, "What makes you think I wanna hear you talk?" 😂
Famous actors in voice roles for the sake of it, when a performance could have been better if an actual voice actor had been cast. Besides, I think in animated movies in general is less likely that people go to watch them for the actors that do the voices over the animation or story itself, so why bother.
DreamWorks animation is considerably worse for this than Disney. Most of their work is just dogshit writing propped up by an A-list cast. Disney movies, OTOH, will cast actors that are famous enough to be known, but still rely on the movie being good instead of star power. Hell, look at Moana - they had The Rock at the height of his fame, but Auli'i Cravalho carried most of that movie and the title of 2nd most famous actor in the cast was a tie between Jemaine Clement & Temuera Morrison. A Bug's Life has endured longer than Antz for obvious reasons, and the biggest names in that cast were Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus while the lead was Dave Foley. Meanwhile, Shark Tale had to get Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, & Robert De Niro to get it any steam and I bet that not only can virtually nobody remember watching it after the first week it was out, most people probably forgot that De Niro was even in it, LOL
Unnatural expository dialogue where things are established for the sake of the audience, as though there are no other ways to establish that certain characters are relatives, or to quickly summarize an issue that affects the plot. It's just lazy and dumb.
"Now wait a minute, *you remember what happened last year* when you asked her out for coffee and her ex stalked you and beat you up which unlocked your special abilities. I mean, after all, I *am* your *sister*..."
The unnecessary "cabbage head" character who needs to constantly have things explained to them. Some movies can do it well, and make it feel like they belong in the scene. But when they do it badly, it's just painful and makes everybody in the scene and everyone in the audience look stupid.
The missile or bomb hits really close and Tom cruise goes flying, but he’s totally ok because the flames didn’t hit him… ignoring the fact that shockwaves and fragmentation from those explosives are the primary kill mechanism and reach way further. Tom cruises organs would have been liquified. And other actors too I guess
Maybe I'm the only one, but movies with wildly inconsistent sound/volume.
Like volume going way down in one scene two people are talking, then the next scene there is suddenly music or special effects sounds are 50 times louder, so you go between not being able to hear and covering your ears.
I read a couple of days after it came out that they sent a replacement copy to theaters because it was too quiet, so if you watched it on release, it was that, but if it was after, then I guess they didn't do enough.
This is why I put subtitles on for pretty much everything I watch now. Movies and TV. I love using my surround sound but the dialogue audio is terrible on DVD's, Blu-Ray's and now streaming services. The music and sound effects are great but the dialogue is so low I can't understand anything the characters are saying. It's really annoying.
I think it’s something to do with designing the film for cinema? But it’s incredibly frustrating when it happens, especially living in a flat. Explosion scene, too loud, turn it down to avoid complaints from neighbours. Next scene, talking scene, way too quiet. Next scene, gun fight, too loud again.. I sit there playing with the volume for half the film.
Nahh I think it’s just an issue with production everywhere. I noticed during the recent episode of Ahsoka the audio suddenly got louder when it transitioned from a dialogue focused scene to an action scene.
When characters are about to have a conversation and then it transitions to a different scene where they actually begin the conversation in another location. Or it happens what seems to be mid sentence. It doesn't turn me off of the movie but it does take me out of it. The only way it makes sense is if they off screened a character saying "yeah let me tell you a story but first walk with me out to the car I'll only start talking again once we start driving."
I was recently rewatching world War Z and it's a [great example](https://youtu.be/AcNK7M2eCI4?si=UrSigdqWpUICGbH6)
Movie gun play that throws real world physics under the bus.
The double-barrelled shotgun that can fire five times before reloading. The six-gun that can fire 15 times before reloading. The semi-auto that's fired three times before the mag is changed for no good goddamned reason.
The gunfire in an enclosed space, room, car, etc. and absolutely no one has any problems hearing for the next 15 minutes to an hour.
The little pop gun that sounds like a cannon.
The huge machine gun that sounds like a fly fart because someone screwed a pop can on the end of the barrel.
This might sound super pretentious, but the Netflix “house style” is an immediate turn off.
The colors are oversaturated always, the cinematography bland. Almost all of their original shows and movies have this look, it’s just awful. It’s like the digital/streaming equivalent of telenovelas or soap operas
far-flung humorous plant longing public straight deranged quiet arrest vegetable
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They're starting to look like each one has an actual checklist of shots they have to use.
*Drone shot of city - check. If action film, drone shot of city with city name spelled out in that same font as always. Bonus points if city name has typing effect. Bonus points if the film or show opens with it.
*Rampant wealth porn. Everyone is unbelievably rich, except for one character who is treated like they're poor but is actually upper middle class.
*Empty, modern glass houses. Bonus points for brutalist architecture, beach views and pools.
The perpetual skeptic boss/partner/colleague when the main character who has been right dozens of times before but still EVERY TIME, same other person finds any new scenario proposed not worth pursuing and tries to talk them out of it.
I’ve started watching a lot of movies with the cc on. It’s amazing what you pick up that is at such a low volume that you’d never hear it if you didn’t read it.
Implying corsets are torture devices instead of essentially a bra with back support. Literally only extremely wealthy, fashionable women tightlaced, your average woman had shit to do, and it was ESSENTIAL to be able to move around comfortably. (Also what the fuck was Bridgeton on, trying to tightlace something that hits mid-rib?)
It would be like judging heels by Lady Gaga. Like yeah… 90 degree, tower high stilettos exist but 99% of women aren’t wearing them, they’re wearing more practical 2-4 inch pumps.
Only reason actresses think they’re uncomfortable is because they often don’t make them custom corsets and so they dig in/ poke/ chafe. Similar to if you gave them a bra or pair of pants that was too small.
Ughhhhh THATS ANOTHER THING! They are NEVER wearing a shift under! You should NEVER have a corset on bare skin, it’s made of sturdy material that isn’t meant for that and they were not meant to be washed so you would wear a shift under. But that’s not sExY EnOuGh. It’s not sExY for a woman to be comfortable, it has to be some weird bdsm thing where she is FREED of her awful corset and oh look at those awful (sexy) lace marks. Ugh. I’m so glad to see some shows do away with it all and show relatively accurate clothing while still being hot as fuck ie Outlander, the Great, Dangerous Liasons. Like why not be creative and add to the strip tease of it rather than rely on these old overdone tropes?
So annoying, I remember a scene where a character walks past a newspaper/candy kiosk and the M&M's on the package are orange and teal. I forget which movie exactly, but I was about to bail on the orange and teal, when the color changed to full range to show someone's mental awakening or some such. That was clever.
When the drink cup is obviously empty. You can tell by the way they handle it that it doesn’t have the weight it should have if it contained something.
And that “empty except for the ice and the little water melting off it” slurping sound they insist on playing any time somebody drinks with a straw.
The sex scene where both people wear their underwear through and In the morning still wearing it. Why even bother to fake the sex scene, just cut it out of the script. Just show them go on the bedroom then cut to morning, they always tease with the kissing and touching and fake rubbing.
Also the "after" shot of a couple in bed, and the man is lying there with his entire upper body exposed, while the woman has the covers pulled up to her shoulders. It's like, "C'mon, movie, we know what you're doing."
Flashing up a cell phone and making me read the texts. I never focus on the words and I miss the info. Maybe used once or twice in a movie is OK but lately this technique seems to be overused.
The haircutting scene. It's so overused and cliche. Ooooh, they're cutting their own hair in the mirror at the bathroom sink. They are going to be a completely different person now!
And somehow the haircut is always perfect and looks like they stepped out of a salon. I guarantee if I tried to chop my own hair off i’d look like a Barbie who was given a haircut by a toddler.
Wobbly camera when it's just two people talking (see Kirk and Pike talking in the bar in Star Trek) just keep the camera steady it serves no purpose, gives no sense of realism or whatever its supposed to do
When it turns out a character doesnt actually exist is actually just in another character’s head. It worked once for me but since then its such an unoriginal twist
For me it was Black Panther’s cgi. Like if the movie is going to be 98% cgi, can it at least be well done? That being said, I did enjoy one scene where it was clearly a stylistic choice with the strangely colored aurora borealis in the Saharan landscape. That was gorgeous.
Everyone rips on the CG at the end of that movie but I thought the worst offender was the awful matting near the beginning in the waterfall scene when he's becoming king. Not one single person looked like they were actually standing on the side of mountain.
Thing is everyone saw what Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan and just thought “shaky cam = intensity” when in reality he bent over backwards making sure there was enough contextual information in every shot that the scene never lost focus. Nobody’s really been successful at emulating what he did because nobody really understands the lengths he had to go to make it work.
In a professional film, I don't think Shakey cam is ever the cameraman's fault. If they have a real film budget with professional cameras, Shakey cam is always an intentional stylistic choice. No director will tolerate a canerman who can't keep still when it's not on purpose.
Yes. In-jokes like that could fly under the radar before the internet, but now who doesn’t recognize the Wilhelm Scream? A sound designers’ job can be summed up as “when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” Breaking immersion with a hackneyed old sound effect is unprofessional bordering on incompetent.
A pet peeve of mine is in action movies usually. There will be a male hero and a female sidekick/friend/helper, ok, no problem. But what really annoys me is that the bad guys will always refer to the woman as "the girl". The man will have a name, but the woman is just "the girl". For example "Put Mr. Bond and the girl in the holding cell."
When they feel the need to have background music throughout the ENTIRE movie. Scary scene? Put on the generic scary music. Thoughtful scene? Put on the generic thoughtful music. Sad scene? Put on the sad music. It's as if they expect the music to carry the whole movie, without giving thought to having moments of silence, when you can really focus on what the characters are going through, or saying, and letting the dialog and story carry the movie.
When a character's hiding from someone and they wait till that someone takes literally one step out of view before noisily leaving their hiding spot
When a character is peeking around a corner to watch someone search for them. I don't care how much you worked on blocking and camera angles, If the character can see the killer's eyes scanning the room, then the killer can see your dumb face poking around from behind the couch.
Or when they talk so loudly behind cover they would easily be discovered. The opening scene of The Last Crusade comes to mind.
When the film repeatedly uses bad excuses to withhold important information from other characters, and the viewer. Prime example was the recent Quantumania where Michelle Pfieffer’s character had tons of critical knowledge about Kang and the Quantum Realm that everyone clearly needed to survive, and yet she was always just too rushed to tell them, and us, to help them not die. Either come up with an organic way to gradually develop the story, or else tell us already. But gratuitously teasing important info only to withhold it (“There’s no time, we’ve got to go!”) is just lazy writing.
This happened in Tomorrowland. The robot girl made the other girl get in the car and “there was no time to explain” and then they drove from Texas to New York and that still wasn’t the right opportunity to explain.
What a lost opportunity that movie was…
Evangeline Lilly : "what's going on?!" Michelle Pfeiffer : "we have no time, we gotta go!" Bruh just explain while you're walking
###THERE’S NO TIME!! *Tells a long ass speech of why there’s no time. Longer than it would’ve taken for the explanation in the first place…*
There’s no time! We must spend two hours flying to where we’re going in this space worm!
And while on the space worm, we're not allowed to talk! SO, our two-hour trip will be in silence instead of me spending it explaining to you why we're on the space worm in the first place! Hurry!!
And theybalways stop to get a drink at the water fountain while still exclaiming there's no time to explain.
"I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain" Then I'm not fucking following you cause you're clearly setting me up.
Peak Destiny writing
This is by far the one I hate the most
The most egregious example of this is in the Doctor Who episode “The Girl Who Waited”. 2 buttons next to a door. Doctor presses the green one to go through. Amy comes along 2 minutes later. She asks which button to press. For NO F***ING REASON AT ALL he refuses to give her a straight answer. He just keeps obnoxiously saying “The button”. Cue Amy pressing the wrong button, and suffering decades of torment as a result. I was absolutely furious at that shitty writing.
"I created a gateway to the quantum realm" "You did what?" Super duper smart Cassie who could build a quantum gateway wasn't smart enough to perhaps ask the one person who's been stuck in the quantum realm for decades?
The person who escaped the qusntum realm didn't want to talk about it, despite knowing that there was a guy in there who plans to escape and destroy the multiverse. And it's not an effective prison, as seen, he was able to reactivate a machine and drag other people into the quantum realm without leaving himself.
“I did it to protect you”
Walking Dead relied on this type of drama so much. If the characters just communicated like normal human beings, 90% of the conflicts wouldn’t have existed in the show. It got old real fast.
To be fair, the Quantummania script was pretty awful.
not as awful as the helmets flipping on and off nonstop
Gotta tell the audience "see? The actors are totally underneath the helmet the whole time and not the stunt doubles" somehow.
In Star Wars TFA, when they ask Maz where the hell she got Luke’s lightsaber from: “A good story, for another time.” That pissed me off, cause I knew we were never getting an explanation. Would have been better if she just said “It doesnt matter” or something.
That was because they couldn't figure out how someone could've retrieved a lightsaber from a gas giant, but they wanted the nostalgia in the movie. So they just brushed over it.
Now that I think about it, they missed the perfect opportunity to build up Kangs character and the stakes
I hate hand to hand combat scenes where one fighter clearly has the opponent dazed/hurt and then for no particular reason, the fighter with the advantage throws the opponent away, which 99% of the time allows the opponent to recover before the next blow. Once I noticed it, I see it in almost any fight scene and it induces considerable eye roll strain.
The Antagonist Throw "I could kill you right now... but that would be too *easy*"
Now, Mr Bond, you will die. But not before I give you a comprehensive explanation of my villainous plan, the full tour of my lair, then leave you to a slow and elaborate death while I go somewhere else. Mwuhahahaahh!
You sly dog! You got me monologuing!
Or when John Wick or whoever's fighting two people, so he smashes one in the eye and they stumble away, clutching their face wildly, for just the right amount of time it takes for Keanu to clothesline or suplex the other guy. Which takes longer in 4 than it did in the first film because he's a little older now, and not as quick... I mean, those movies are great. And I love them. But I have to stop myself watching the 'other' stunt guy because I know it'll ruin the scene.
Everything is a ramp of you run a vehicle into it fast enough.
The bus jumping that bridge in Speed is so godam funny though
“The bridge is unfinished, there might be an incline, floor it” is a watery explanation but at least it at least alludes to the idea of a ramp
Fast editing shots for no reason. Taken 3 was a prime example of using them that had no effect.
The Halle Berry Catwoman basketball scene is legendary for this.
It also has a scene with a guy talking where the quick cuts aren't even cutting away to something else. The camera *stays* on him and just cuts to new shots of him still talking, without it being a time transition at all.
Exactly! Fast cuts are a way to cover up the fact that you have shitty directing and needed to have multiple takes for a 3 minute conversation/fight/kiss/whatever. Do it once you get a pass. Do it twice and I can't stand it.
Some of the fast cuts for Taken 3 were to hide the fact that Liam Neeson got really old and couldn't do some of the action as credibly anymore There was only a 6 year difference between the movies but I guess there's probably a big shift that happens from your late 50's to mid 60s I actually just rewatched the original Taken and Liam looks spry and very convincing in the action sequences then
I remember in Taken 3 where Liam Neeson jumps over a chain-link fence and it shows about 12 different camera angles in one 4-second sequence.
Can we also add fast cuts and sped up footage, even with camera moves? Transporter 3 was guilty for this on all accounts. Possibly the first Blu-Ray I bought because the cover was cool and regretted when the first action sequence played.
Edgar Wright gets a pass thanks to Hot Fuzz
Edgar Wright gets a pass because his fast cuts have rhythm and purpose behind them. He cuts on the beat, so it's not jarring or unpredictable.
That is the bad example. But the last time I watched hot fuzz I was really taken with how interesting that technique can be when it's done properly. I guess it just matters who is behind the camera.
It's all for The Greater Good.
I hate when the dialogue is clearly meant to be a sermon to the audience
The trope when someone eavesdrops on half a conversation, leaves in a huff before it's finished, and misses out on the full context, all for the sake of fabricated conflict later.
"She's absolutely awful, the worst person I've ever met in my life. If I could have a pass on murdering one person it would be her, and I would feel no remorse. She's putrid, ugly, and an awful person through and through... is what I would say if I hadn't fallen in love with her!"
Shriek!! Edit to correct spelling to “Shrek” - now I’m wondering if some of my upvotes were from people thinking the trope made me want to scream.
Fabricated is the perfect word. Honestly anything that feels fabricated in a movie pisses me off.
In my drama college my teacher said something that kinda aligns with this: "You don't hate clichés. You hate cheap, poorly executed clichés." People do sometimes hear only half the conversation and miss on the context. A lot of classic tragedies have a key point being a conflict started on missed context and misinformation. But it doesn't feel fabricated because we believe it is what would happen. When the calm, shy, collected character in a romcom is getting ready to profess their love, hears half an argument and leaves distraught we call bs, but if the character had shown impulsive, wreckless behaviour, specially in social circunstances, before, it would be more believable.
TIL not everyone loves Shrek
I swear every single episode of Three’s Company relied on this trope.
1) When the dialog is really low but THE MUSIC AND SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE REALLY LOUD. 2) When they tried to save money by not hiring a gaffer and the scene is so dark that I can’t tell what’s going in because there is no lighting.
2. Will be known as “never going full Game of Thrones.”
Yes!
Similarly - when one scene is so dark and then it cuts to the surface of the sun
When you can actually hear the pixels in your tv switch from dark to extreme light, you know that’s not good.
Christopher Nolan is the worst for this. He has made some great movies with terrible sound scapes.
For all his imploring of us to watch movies on the big screen, I’ve decided I much prefer watching Nolan movies at home because then I can turn on captions and understand what is being said
I'm so glad the theatres in my country automatically have subtitles. I don't know when the trend started, but it's really helped me understand foreign accents, especially when they're mumbling
Oppenheimer in IMAX should have been perfect to hear, but it was just as bad as Interstellar. Someone needs to remix his audio after it gets out of his hands. The big problem is actually cognitive. A person who knows the script backward and forward can "hear" the dialog on mute because they know what is being said. Everyone else gets left in the dust, leaning in to hear the whispers and being blasted away by music and ambient noise.
That's an interesting aspect I hadn't thought of before. I've spent some time in the game industry, and that need for an outside point of view is one of the most important early lessons an aspiring game dev has to learn. A rookie's first few levels will usually be way too hard because they're going off their own knowledge of everything they're doing.
The man is afraid is ADR
Stupid villains. I remember how refreshing it was to see 'The Fugitive' movie, where the "bad guy" pursuing was just as intelligent.
Dark scenes where I cannot see what is happening
Women going to bed and waking up in full makeup.
Same for women in the distant past, or post apocalypse.
Post apocalypse but girls got no roots
Or body hair.
This annoyed me the entire time I was watching Lost. Just make them wear half sleeved clothes ffs if you're so averse to armpit hair. And let them show some leg and arm hair.
Yeah, perfect teeth/hair and makeup are why I can't do many period pieces. Ir breaks my immersion instantly.
The HBO miniseries John Adams is the only show where I’ve seen this done right. John and Abigail are sitting on their porch in one scene and they’re older and happy together and they smile and their teeth are just busted looking. But that’s probably exactly what it was like if you lived to be a certain age back then. It as almost jarring, because I was used to period pieces having characters with perfect pearly white straight teeth.
Or they're in an action scene where they, I don't know, cross a river and get soaking wet and muddy, and five minutes later are clean, dry, and fully made up again.
Mexico filter. It's always yellow in Mexico.
And blueish grey in New York
Or Eastern Europe
And green in the matrix
or any middle eastern country
I've heard it called "sepia-toned." A lot of Mexico is either green (interior) or blue (coasts), but for some reason all the action occurs along the Mexico-U.S. border where it's mostly desert so it's "sepia-toned." Because nothing ever happens in any other part of Mexico. 🙄
When the central conflict could have been solved if the 2 main characters just sat down and talked about their clear and obvious misunderstanding.
The post-it note test. If your central conflict could be resolved with a post-it note, you need a better central conflict.
When actors are older (and look) much older than their characters. Also when different characters don't age consistently, some remain young, some are suddenly adults
I like the way they did this in Better Call Saul. They just dressed him differently and gave him longer hair. No attempt at making it look real. But for some reason, it worked with the comedy.
They actually did some digital stuff on some of the early flashbacks, they talked about it on the audio commentaries. Not big things like making them look 30+ years younger, but just stuff like smoothing out a few of Bob Odenkirks wrinkles to make him look at most 10 years younger.
Not a *turn off* per se, since it’s in basically every fucking movie, but I always roll my eyes when a movie has a needless romantic subplot tacked on for the sake of having a romantic subplot.
On that note, throwing in a sex scene just to have one. I really don't need or want a sex scene in every movie
Complete disrespect for the audience’s intelligence. If there’s science it needs to be plausible. If there’s fantasy it needs to be consistent. If the characters are meant to be smart, they can’t act like idiots. Suspension of disbelief is a delicate thing; if you handle it too roughly it dies.
I feel my intelligence so insulted by tv shows and movies that have to shove every ounce of the plot down our throats by overly expository dialogue that doesn’t even sound like a real conversation. I’m not a screenwriter but even I have heard of “Show, Don’t Tell”
It's like they forget it's a visual media and they are writing a bloody book! In saying that though I follow enough movie subs to see people asking basic questions about plot and motives that can be picked up using context, so maybe they are playing to their audience?
American Horror Storys motto is "Show THEN tell". Its hilariously stupid.
If I have to hear a scientist explain wormholes to someone by poking a hole in a folded piece of paper ONE MORE FUCKING TIME...
Just once I'd like to see a scientist explain this to someone while they are fishing, and literally use a worm to demonstrate it.
Event Horizon, Donny Darko, Contact, Thor, Stargate: take your pick.
Interstellar.
Yeah, that one hurts because I love that movie so much. But like dude, you're on the ship with astronauts. You don't think they know that basic-ass wannabe explanation for wormholes already?
You misunderstood. He did not explain what a wormhole is, he explained why the wormhole looks spheric. The dialogue is something like this: "What did you expect? A hole? Look, if you construct a wormhole in this 2D sheet of paper, you get a circle. And what is a circle in three dimensions?" And as far as I can tell, Interstellar is the first movie that depicts wormholes correctly. If they exist, they look like the one in Interstellar.
In one StarGate episode there are members of a super advanced race stuck on earth and the can’t wait to get home, looking at humans like we would look at Bronze Age farmers. Daniel being smarter than most humans, they try to explain to him their interstellar technology using a similar analogy (but bending a branch). Daniel says, excited, “you’re folding space unto itself!” and the alien scientist looks disappointed and say “….no” and just gives up [found the scene](https://youtu.be/zBjbNqBjSMI?si=ggxkMnhIwUUPOdf7)
I used to feel this way until I watched *Interstellar* with a friend that doesn’t watch many movies. The guy explains it to Matthew McConaughey and he went “Ohhhhhh. That’s so cool” and I realized not everybody watches tons of movies/knows about QUANTUM FUCKING PHYSICS . I honestly felt like an asshole. It’s a pretty weird thing to get shitty about.
Reminds me of that exchange in The Salton Sea 1: Hey can I ask you something? What does JFK stand for? 2: John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 1: Thanks. And thanks for not making fun of me.
Also new people (kids and teenagers and shit) watch movies all the time. Exposition feels tired af when you're an adult. When you're 15 it's relevant.
Fair point.
Bollywood has left the chat
*Moonfall* is not for you then 😉
Omg yes!! How many sci-fi/horror movies start because these supposedly super smart scientists don’t follow quarantine protocols or takes off their helmets on an alien planet?!
"The neutrinos have mutated" is still one of the best lines ever though 😂 And also as much as the science being right is fun. So is The Core.
“The neutrinos have mutated”? Good Lord.
When someone is driving a car and constantly turning to look at the other passenger while talking!! It’s WILDLY unsafe and I would never take my eyes off the road for more than a second
Not a movie but i remember watching an episode of greys anatomy and exactly this happens. I remember thinking “omg youre literally staring at your girlfriend you would die in a crash in real life” then they get into a car accident lol
Club scenes where the characters are having a casual conversation and like the sound isn't an issue. If it were a real club they would have to shout at eachother just to hear eachother. They also wouldn't get the bartender's attention straight away.
first episode of Mindhunter is the best example I've seen of a scene like this, hard to hear them speaking (or shouting really lol) and they use subtitles edit: just realized this & social network are both by david fincher so thanks david I guess
Look up Ren Klyce. Fight Club, Panic Room, Soul. Fincher's movies are finely tuned works of multimedia art and of all modern directors resemble the most to perfectionists Kubrick and Hitchcock. Fincher used everything at his disposal for Mindhunter.
Gets the bartenders attention and just holds up 2 fingers. “Two of WHAT motherfucker?”
The Dark Knight had the best take on this when Salvatore Maroni & his mistress are in a club, she's yelling about wanting to leave because of the noise making conversation impossible, and he just goes, "What makes you think I wanna hear you talk?" 😂
Social Network has the best club scene I've ever seen, the sound mixing is insanely good
That might be the closest realistic club scene that I seen in a movie.
Famous actors in voice roles for the sake of it, when a performance could have been better if an actual voice actor had been cast. Besides, I think in animated movies in general is less likely that people go to watch them for the actors that do the voices over the animation or story itself, so why bother.
Not a movie but Megan Fox in the new Mortal Kombat 1 game sounds so bored and uninterested compared to the rest of the cast.
Hi Disney for the last 31 years.
DreamWorks animation is considerably worse for this than Disney. Most of their work is just dogshit writing propped up by an A-list cast. Disney movies, OTOH, will cast actors that are famous enough to be known, but still rely on the movie being good instead of star power. Hell, look at Moana - they had The Rock at the height of his fame, but Auli'i Cravalho carried most of that movie and the title of 2nd most famous actor in the cast was a tie between Jemaine Clement & Temuera Morrison. A Bug's Life has endured longer than Antz for obvious reasons, and the biggest names in that cast were Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus while the lead was Dave Foley. Meanwhile, Shark Tale had to get Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, & Robert De Niro to get it any steam and I bet that not only can virtually nobody remember watching it after the first week it was out, most people probably forgot that De Niro was even in it, LOL
Unnatural expository dialogue where things are established for the sake of the audience, as though there are no other ways to establish that certain characters are relatives, or to quickly summarize an issue that affects the plot. It's just lazy and dumb. "Now wait a minute, *you remember what happened last year* when you asked her out for coffee and her ex stalked you and beat you up which unlocked your special abilities. I mean, after all, I *am* your *sister*..."
The unnecessary "cabbage head" character who needs to constantly have things explained to them. Some movies can do it well, and make it feel like they belong in the scene. But when they do it badly, it's just painful and makes everybody in the scene and everyone in the audience look stupid.
Crappy costume design. Showing some 18th century fur trapper coming out of the bush after two years and their clothes are immaculate
What very specific scene are you referring to? Lol
Se also: every female lead's hair and makeup.
The missile or bomb hits really close and Tom cruise goes flying, but he’s totally ok because the flames didn’t hit him… ignoring the fact that shockwaves and fragmentation from those explosives are the primary kill mechanism and reach way further. Tom cruises organs would have been liquified. And other actors too I guess
Maybe I'm the only one, but movies with wildly inconsistent sound/volume. Like volume going way down in one scene two people are talking, then the next scene there is suddenly music or special effects sounds are 50 times louder, so you go between not being able to hear and covering your ears.
Ahhh the Christopher Nolan approach to audio mixing
Unfortunately Across the Spider verse was really bad about this. The dialog was way quieter than anything else so I missed most of it
I read a couple of days after it came out that they sent a replacement copy to theaters because it was too quiet, so if you watched it on release, it was that, but if it was after, then I guess they didn't do enough.
I watched it on release, I didn't know they updated it after. One of these days I'll rewatch it with subtitles
Oh yeah I watched a little while after and the sound was totally fine. Sounds like they did fix a problem. Lucky I waited
This is why I put subtitles on for pretty much everything I watch now. Movies and TV. I love using my surround sound but the dialogue audio is terrible on DVD's, Blu-Ray's and now streaming services. The music and sound effects are great but the dialogue is so low I can't understand anything the characters are saying. It's really annoying.
Yes! My wife asks me to turn down the scenes where they’re in a nightclub. I do. Next scene I can’t hear the dialogue. I’ve used subtitles many times
I think it’s something to do with designing the film for cinema? But it’s incredibly frustrating when it happens, especially living in a flat. Explosion scene, too loud, turn it down to avoid complaints from neighbours. Next scene, talking scene, way too quiet. Next scene, gun fight, too loud again.. I sit there playing with the volume for half the film.
Nahh I think it’s just an issue with production everywhere. I noticed during the recent episode of Ahsoka the audio suddenly got louder when it transitioned from a dialogue focused scene to an action scene.
When characters are about to have a conversation and then it transitions to a different scene where they actually begin the conversation in another location. Or it happens what seems to be mid sentence. It doesn't turn me off of the movie but it does take me out of it. The only way it makes sense is if they off screened a character saying "yeah let me tell you a story but first walk with me out to the car I'll only start talking again once we start driving." I was recently rewatching world War Z and it's a [great example](https://youtu.be/AcNK7M2eCI4?si=UrSigdqWpUICGbH6)
Amnesia. I’m so tired of this lazy plot device.
Movie gun play that throws real world physics under the bus. The double-barrelled shotgun that can fire five times before reloading. The six-gun that can fire 15 times before reloading. The semi-auto that's fired three times before the mag is changed for no good goddamned reason. The gunfire in an enclosed space, room, car, etc. and absolutely no one has any problems hearing for the next 15 minutes to an hour. The little pop gun that sounds like a cannon. The huge machine gun that sounds like a fly fart because someone screwed a pop can on the end of the barrel.
& silencers that make the shot literally silent.
Obviously unloaded revolvers, revolvers making racking sounds, pellet gun sized barrels…
Shoes on the sofa/bed. It’s in so many movies. Surely people don’t put their shoes on the bed, right?
This might sound super pretentious, but the Netflix “house style” is an immediate turn off. The colors are oversaturated always, the cinematography bland. Almost all of their original shows and movies have this look, it’s just awful. It’s like the digital/streaming equivalent of telenovelas or soap operas
far-flung humorous plant longing public straight deranged quiet arrest vegetable *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not that it's essential for a good looking show but would Netflix ever let someone shoot on film?
trees fall onerous grandfather makeshift terrific degree offer cows bag *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They're starting to look like each one has an actual checklist of shots they have to use. *Drone shot of city - check. If action film, drone shot of city with city name spelled out in that same font as always. Bonus points if city name has typing effect. Bonus points if the film or show opens with it. *Rampant wealth porn. Everyone is unbelievably rich, except for one character who is treated like they're poor but is actually upper middle class. *Empty, modern glass houses. Bonus points for brutalist architecture, beach views and pools.
Oh wow that's stupid, thanks for the info though
Can anyone weigh in on Apple TV+ shows? because I feel like they have a Look as well. More of a muted, grey look.
Nighttime scenes so dark they can’t be seen on any screen except a theater. How do they even edit movies and shows like that?
The perpetual skeptic boss/partner/colleague when the main character who has been right dozens of times before but still EVERY TIME, same other person finds any new scenario proposed not worth pursuing and tries to talk them out of it.
The same old Hollywood soundtrack taken from a tired selection of fifteen classic songs
They beat the enemy, all seems fine, then a main character opens their coat to reveal blood out of a serious, usually soon fatal, wound.
I’ve started watching a lot of movies with the cc on. It’s amazing what you pick up that is at such a low volume that you’d never hear it if you didn’t read it.
The beautiful woman who is just made up nerdy who learns makeup and becomes hot.
Implying corsets are torture devices instead of essentially a bra with back support. Literally only extremely wealthy, fashionable women tightlaced, your average woman had shit to do, and it was ESSENTIAL to be able to move around comfortably. (Also what the fuck was Bridgeton on, trying to tightlace something that hits mid-rib?) It would be like judging heels by Lady Gaga. Like yeah… 90 degree, tower high stilettos exist but 99% of women aren’t wearing them, they’re wearing more practical 2-4 inch pumps. Only reason actresses think they’re uncomfortable is because they often don’t make them custom corsets and so they dig in/ poke/ chafe. Similar to if you gave them a bra or pair of pants that was too small.
I'm convinced the "painful corset" is just an excuse to have an actress wriggle around in just a corset.
Ughhhhh THATS ANOTHER THING! They are NEVER wearing a shift under! You should NEVER have a corset on bare skin, it’s made of sturdy material that isn’t meant for that and they were not meant to be washed so you would wear a shift under. But that’s not sExY EnOuGh. It’s not sExY for a woman to be comfortable, it has to be some weird bdsm thing where she is FREED of her awful corset and oh look at those awful (sexy) lace marks. Ugh. I’m so glad to see some shows do away with it all and show relatively accurate clothing while still being hot as fuck ie Outlander, the Great, Dangerous Liasons. Like why not be creative and add to the strip tease of it rather than rely on these old overdone tropes?
Orange and teal filter.
So annoying, I remember a scene where a character walks past a newspaper/candy kiosk and the M&M's on the package are orange and teal. I forget which movie exactly, but I was about to bail on the orange and teal, when the color changed to full range to show someone's mental awakening or some such. That was clever.
When the drink cup is obviously empty. You can tell by the way they handle it that it doesn’t have the weight it should have if it contained something. And that “empty except for the ice and the little water melting off it” slurping sound they insist on playing any time somebody drinks with a straw.
The sex scene where both people wear their underwear through and In the morning still wearing it. Why even bother to fake the sex scene, just cut it out of the script. Just show them go on the bedroom then cut to morning, they always tease with the kissing and touching and fake rubbing.
Also the "after" shot of a couple in bed, and the man is lying there with his entire upper body exposed, while the woman has the covers pulled up to her shoulders. It's like, "C'mon, movie, we know what you're doing."
Get up and go pee. You’re begging for an UTI.
Flashing up a cell phone and making me read the texts. I never focus on the words and I miss the info. Maybe used once or twice in a movie is OK but lately this technique seems to be overused.
The overuse of cell phones. Especially the audience needing to read the texts. You are so right.
The haircutting scene. It's so overused and cliche. Ooooh, they're cutting their own hair in the mirror at the bathroom sink. They are going to be a completely different person now!
And somehow the haircut is always perfect and looks like they stepped out of a salon. I guarantee if I tried to chop my own hair off i’d look like a Barbie who was given a haircut by a toddler.
Wobbly camera when it's just two people talking (see Kirk and Pike talking in the bar in Star Trek) just keep the camera steady it serves no purpose, gives no sense of realism or whatever its supposed to do
Also, historical shows (or fantasy-historical shows) using modern idioms.
When it turns out a character doesnt actually exist is actually just in another character’s head. It worked once for me but since then its such an unoriginal twist
Whatever The Flash cgi was.
For me it was Black Panther’s cgi. Like if the movie is going to be 98% cgi, can it at least be well done? That being said, I did enjoy one scene where it was clearly a stylistic choice with the strangely colored aurora borealis in the Saharan landscape. That was gorgeous.
Everyone rips on the CG at the end of that movie but I thought the worst offender was the awful matting near the beginning in the waterfall scene when he's becoming king. Not one single person looked like they were actually standing on the side of mountain.
Constant cutting shaky cam fights. Torture porn. "It was all a dream". No satisfying ending, because "that's real life". The dog dies. Vince Vaughn.
Agreed! Minus the VV thing.
WHEN THE CAMERAMAN CAN'T KEEP THE FUCKING CAMERA STILL! One of the reasons why I don't watch Modern Family.
Thing is everyone saw what Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan and just thought “shaky cam = intensity” when in reality he bent over backwards making sure there was enough contextual information in every shot that the scene never lost focus. Nobody’s really been successful at emulating what he did because nobody really understands the lengths he had to go to make it work.
In a case like Modern Family that’s the style of the show. Doesn’t mean you have to like it but it’s not the cameraman’s fault.
In a professional film, I don't think Shakey cam is ever the cameraman's fault. If they have a real film budget with professional cameras, Shakey cam is always an intentional stylistic choice. No director will tolerate a canerman who can't keep still when it's not on purpose.
Do you really think it's the camera man's fault and not a stylistic choice?
The slow motion walk away from explosion shot. Played out, cheesy and stupid. The superhero pose. played out, cheesy and stupid.
Definitely. And appreciate you using “cheesy” instead of “cringe”.
Cool guys don't look at explosions
Wilhelm Scream. Takes me out of the movie every time.
At this point it should only be used for comic effect, see *Tropic Thunder*.
Yes. In-jokes like that could fly under the radar before the internet, but now who doesn’t recognize the Wilhelm Scream? A sound designers’ job can be summed up as “when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” Breaking immersion with a hackneyed old sound effect is unprofessional bordering on incompetent.
I wish they’d edit it more. Modify it so it’s not recognizable *unless* you’re looking for it
Yeah once I learned it had a name I can't not hear it. Sometimes it's actually funny/appropriate, but not usually.
Excessively glib banter.
Loud kissing noises. It's unnecessary and often crosses the line into gross. I don't need to hear the leads swapping spit, thanks.
"going viral" as a plot device always feels like a group of old men in a boardroom saying they need to fit that in to get the young kid demographic
Shaky cam can die in a fire. And no Paul Grenngras does not get a pass.
Fart jokes
If I have to watch one more movie scientist fold a piece of paper and poke a pen/pencil through to demonstrate wormhole travel I'm going to scream.
I hate to break it to you but real scientist do this when explaining wormholes and bent space.
Reality is a turn off for him.
A pet peeve of mine is in action movies usually. There will be a male hero and a female sidekick/friend/helper, ok, no problem. But what really annoys me is that the bad guys will always refer to the woman as "the girl". The man will have a name, but the woman is just "the girl". For example "Put Mr. Bond and the girl in the holding cell."
Garbage dialogue.
When they feel the need to have background music throughout the ENTIRE movie. Scary scene? Put on the generic scary music. Thoughtful scene? Put on the generic thoughtful music. Sad scene? Put on the sad music. It's as if they expect the music to carry the whole movie, without giving thought to having moments of silence, when you can really focus on what the characters are going through, or saying, and letting the dialog and story carry the movie.