MovieChat Forums > Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2002) Discussion > Annoying little things in movies

Annoying little things in movies

posted 16 years ago by tmaj48
211 replies | jump to latest

In the beginning of "Amelie," she mentions that when she's watching a film,
it irritates her when the actor driving a car in the film doesn't keep his/her
eyes on the road, but usually spends more time looking and conversing with the
person in the passenger seat, spoiling the illusion that the actor is really
driving. What little things like that irritate you in movies?

For instance, while I have the same pet peeve about driving actors as Amelie,
I'm also bugged by:

Inappropriate accents in films: In "Gone with the Wind," why does Ashley
Wilkes, the consummate Southern gentleman, have an English accent? In "Mrs.
Miniver," meanwhile, why doesn't Englishman Mr. Miniver have one?

In "Back to the Future," the entire town is meticulously done over in
1950s sets, furniture, cars, fashions, etc. Yet in the present-day finale,
Marty's dad, a highly successful science-fiction author, shows off his latest
book, just released by the publisher. The dust jacket of the book looks
amateurish! This is true of other films, such as "Throw Momma From the Train,"
which depict authors and their books. If the set designers, etc. could spend
so much effort making the sets, costumes, etc. as realistic as possible, couldn't they make the cover of a book look like it was professionally done?

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] onelastnail 15 years ago

Quite a few people have complained about accents not matching the setting, such as English accents in Moulin Rouge. Surely speaking English in a French accent would be worse. French people don't speak to each other in heavily-accented English, they just speak French. The actors use English accents because we, as an English-speaking audience, understand it as though a French person were listening to another French person speaking French. Dig?

[–] TitaniumSpork 15 years ago

People drinking from empty cups, and basically every single thing mentioned upto this point.

Also when somebody knocks on a door and they must have been standing a foot away to open it so fast.

Or on CSI where they shout "Police! Open up!" while they are swinging a battering ram lol. If they were stood as close to the door as in the other example they would open it just in time to get hit with it, or get a door in the face.

Also if you knock on a door and they actually take long enough to answer that you can turn your back on it and stare across the street, you should probably turn back around the second you hear the door open.

Edit: And when you pick up the phone and the person on the other end knows it's you before you say anything and can tell you a secret/threaten you etc etc

"I’m sweating now!" - Doctor Rick Dagless, M.D.

[–] rob_capper 15 years ago

I have always hated seeing someone play the piano, if they cannot actually play in real life. they always lift their hands too high off the keyboard. In real life your hands do not rise very far off the keys. - Worst example I can think of is Joan Collins in the film version of Joseph and his Amazing Dreamcoat (the one with Donny Osmond). She is the pianist in the school concert at the beginning and her "acting" of piano playing is painful to watch.

You are special... just like everyone else!

[–] charlie_221 15 years ago

haha yea, I hate it when two foreing people speak to eachother in english, like in James Bond: GoldenEye, when Natalya and Boris speak together in english and
say the odd russian sentence. Or when american comdies respect the same patern, like starts out funny and innocent, the gets weird and finally the mushy unfunny part. Again when actors portray unbeleivable people, like 32 year olds who are CEOs. Again when they say that a character can speak a sertain language but the actor has such a heavy accent f.e like in Friends: Phoebe's french or again an episode of Suite life of Zack and Cody, a little girl was supposed to be friench but had the HEAVIEST accent and actually made gramatical mistakes.
Take the money and Go Johny go

[–] Lady_Groan 15 years ago

I hate when movies pretend to have some meaninful truth or life lesson in it, but obviously the writer just tacked on some boring cliche he probably learned from a proverb.

It's like they're pretending that, all along, this story was written to enlighten us, but a fortune cookie would've done a better job.

Don't lie to us, we know this is was a pointless comedy and the only reason it was written was so Adam Sandler can make stupid voices.

"and possibly i like the thrill/of under me you so quite new" -- e. e. cummings

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] monalisa_777 15 years ago

I hate how in movies and TV shows, no one ever orders anything specific in a bar. The hero walks in off the street, sits down, and says, "I'll have a beer," then the bartender just nods and hands him a bottle. Um...what bar has only one kind of beer? There's dark beer, light beer, "lite" beer, red beer, stouts, ales, lagers, etc...and yet the bartender always miraculously knows what kind to bring just hearing the word "beer". Sure, I get that there might be issues with brands and product placement, but would it really be too much trouble for the hero to say, "I'll have a pale ale"? Or at least for the bartender to say, "What kind?"

[–] chanberriesss 15 years ago

When people read books and they open it magically to the exact page they're up to or the one they're looking for.
Never, ever happens! Just take about 5 extra seconds to flick through a few pages to find the right one and then viewers won't get annoyed

[–] rutica 15 years ago

when people kiss and everyone around them claps. have you ever clapped after watching someone kiss?

[–] ckretmsage 15 years ago

My major pet peeve is the stuff blowing up issue. The last James Bond Quantum of Solace film was really guilty of this. The reason I loved Casino Royal was because sh!T didn't just blow up, the building at the end had a reason to fall down, an intelligent, if somewhat far out reason to fall down, the floats were intentionally shot. Quantum, the building at the end just blew up/ caught on fire, because they used “gas”. Gawd!

My second peevey is the new trend to blur, darken or have the camera shake during action scenes so that you don't notice how bad they really are. I can't stand that.

The third I will only mention because I noticed it during Zombieland this weekend, the unaccounted loss of time. When the girls leave in the morning the last time from Bill Murray’s house, they don't arrive at the amusement park until dark... they are already there! Why did it take all day? Then the guys go after them... and its dark already... and they get there within minutes... great movie none the less... but why let hours go buy just to the lights of the amusement park can light up.. Silly.

[–] Dietzbismarck 15 years ago

When the characters say something like "oh, that's stupid, they'd only do that in a cheap kid's movie." and look at the camera and raise their eyebrows. Like...that usually happens in comedies for adults or children, but it's annoying.

Too many Matrix moves, or the odd Matrix move. Like the knife scene in V for Vendetta...the style didn't really jive with the action in the entire rest of the film. *and I know the special affects people from the Matrix were involved in that or something*

Basically the forumla for romantic comedies. We all know it.

All of Juno.

The dramatic "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" *camera zooms out* after somebody dies or something.

Huge breakfasts. The mom makes pancakes and there's orange juice and butter and EVERYTHING. Who eats like that. Not even us fat Americans have breakfasts like that. (unless we go to ihop)

Hanging off a lege of some kind in an action movie...idk, I just think that's getting old.

Awesome sex, sex scenes. Lets be real. Fall off the bed, bump heads. It's not always perfect.

[–] blackwood_sugar 10 years ago

Ha, yes. Same with hard liquor being ordered at a bar. "Scotch, please." Anyone who is legit ordering actual Scotch has got a preference.

If they want just the "well" whiskey then maybe they could say just "Whiskey, please." But SCOTCH is different and no bartender would pour a random dark liquor sans comment if someone ordered "scotch."

there was this screw wot really had it in for me

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] yfguitarist 14 years ago

In Lady Vengeance the little girl was supposed to be raised by Australians but she has a thick Korean accent.

[–] Zhow 15 years ago

- When kids are in the movie only to be a pain, i.e. the parents tell them someting important that they don't understand and they run away screaming "I hate you!!" (typical in TV soap operas or TV shows about fight for custody). Or when the kid is limited to basic lines such as "I love you Dad" or "I hate you Dad".

- When the adults say to the child to go and play in his bedroom so that they can talk about serious business. And the child immediately obeys.

- When the woman goes to bed with lots of make-up and hair spray or wakes up in a satin gown with mascara and painted lips.

- In American catastrophe/SF movies, when they show foreign landmarks (Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Pyramids) surrounded by total disaster or alien invasion, as if tornadoes or earthquakes happened only near touristic places or aliens could hover only above historical places. Just to show for 10 seconds that the tragedy didn't hit the US only.

- When the scene finishes on an extreme close-up of the actor's face to outline his emotions (fear, anger, surprise, sadness) with painful violins in the background.

- When actors dance to some kind of romantic music with a saxophone in a middle of a restaurant. The woman wears an evening dress and the guy has a tuxedo and they whisper completely dumb lines like "You look so beautiful tonight darling". Or when young people go to a dance club and dance stupidly to an unknown track because the production could not buy the rights for a decent song.

______________________________________
The higher you fly, the faster you fall.

[–] nizlmizarsh 15 years ago

My main one is the single accent used for English people in American movies, you know the 'Jolly good show old chap!' one.

Also when someone is hacking into a government computer and there are multiple screens showing 3D graphics as they manage to gain access. Also the hacker is never a nerdy looking guy, but I suppose that wouldn't get people into the cinema!

[–] cosmic_bubblebloom 15 years ago

when they DON'T CLOSE THE EFFING DOOR as they come inside.
Is it that hard?

I assume I need no introduction.

[–] cosmic_bubblebloom 15 years ago

When there are 2 cops investigating, one of them is always black.

hahahaha Se7en!

I assume I need no introduction.

[–] DonnerParty808 15 years ago

Honestly, almost everything in Amelie annoyed me. All the metaphorical scenes like Amelie dressed as Zorro cutting a Z into the door or her falling away as water just seemed to me as far fetched attempts of the movie trying to be quirky. I don't think it worked at all. What REALLY REALLY annoyed me was all the way they honed in on sounds for precision. The red converse stomping on the ground of the finger smashing down the sugar. OH MY GOD. I was grinding my teeth!

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[–] icanseehimrightnow 15 years ago

LOL I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT

"I'm gonna give you a little somethin' you can't take off. "

[–] russ101 15 years ago

i hate it when a good guy has a bad guy tied up or his hands on his heads or even running away or something, and they NEVER just shoot him in the leg or foot or something so that he cannot run away until the police get there etc.

P-p-p-please d-d-don't tell my m-m-m-mother.

[–] flamingbugg 15 years ago

my god this is one of the worst lists ive ever seen. if you want annoying little things in movies, fix 90% of what people said here. i really want to watch someone flip through pages to find their spot, or watch previews before a movie starts, or see a car catch fire like in real life (which ive seen, honestly rather tame, ive seen cooler camp fires), or have the villain kill the hero instead of monologueing, etc. dont get me wrong, things that ruin the illusion like editing mistakes where stuff teleports are annoying, but if hollywood took most of these suggestions, we'd be paying to watch reality. the point of movies is to show the stuff thats funny and interesting and romantic or whatever and cut out the boring every day stuff.

someday ill make a movie with all these fixes. when the doorbell rings, the camera will sit on the door for 30 seconds. when people go to dinner, we'll watch them chew every last bite. dont worry, well get to see them trying to flag down that waitress. when something is paid for, we'll watch that vendor count out exact change. then we'll watch the character recount the change to make sure he didnt get screwed. what a thriller thatll be. after 2 hours of pointless every day dealings, the character will confront the horrible villain. of course the villain will have to be a random mugger since therell be no time for character development. and the climax will consist of the fraction of a second it takes for a bullet to travel from the gun to the character.

the sad thing is, as an art student, thats a movie i could probably get away with making. excuse me, i have to go find a camera

[–] malekthegreat 14 years ago

Damn right. I don't watch a film because I enjoy the realism and accuracy of it -- I want to be entertained, and couldn't care less if the computer the super-haxxor is using is so impractical it would never be used in real-life. Seriously, who wants to see someone hack into the secret government database using Windows XP?

I think TV Tropes summed it up perfectly with their entry on 'Rule of Cool'.

Magic Malek!