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!

[–] KatrinaW 11 years ago

When people are supposed to be typing, but are actually just hitting random keys.

When people go to look up something on the computer, and it comes on immediately, and their search results are automatic and not filled with garbage results.

When a character is driving somewhere, they arrive at their destination, and are able to park right in front of the building, without having to hunt for a parking space.

[–] Kawada_Kira 10 years ago

I haven't read through this rather large thread yet, so someone else may already have covered this one, but one thing that always, ALWAYS irks me is phone conversations in movies. A character will answer a phone, talk, and then suddenly answer something that the other person could not possibly have had the time to say. Like after about one second the character will respond to their conversation partner as if the other person had gotten out a long and detailed sentence. It always annoys me, probably a lot more than it should.

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."
- Voltaire

[–] velcronewsletter 9 years ago

that annoys me so much. i once did a scene in a drama piece, just me and the imaginary person on the end of the phone. really helped to pause, hmmm a bit and pretend to be listening when i forgot some lines but by giving some sort of answer in my head and waiting for that to finish, i managed to make a 2 minute phone conversation look realistic which i got marked up on. i notice this on bones in particular, brennan never lets people talk. they can't possibly say all of that jargon in 2 seconds on the other end of the phone. so annoying

[–] Kawada_Kira 10 years ago

Another thing that always gets on my nerves is how, when the characters are watching TV or listening to the radio, the TV/radio presenter will always pause whenever a character has something to say, and only resume talking when the character is done, as if aware of these particular listeners' conversations amongst themselves and waiting for them to finish before resuming whatever the announcement is. This can be for 5 seconds or 10 or even longer, which is a pretty long time to pause when you're talking on the radio.

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."
- Voltaire

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 10 years ago

I hate movies that end with a 45-minute action scene where you know the good guy is going to win. And then he does.

[–] tristandude14 10 years ago

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these yet, but:

You'll notice in most movies people are never wearing seat belts in the car. It's annoying enough that it isn't safe, but also wouldn't their seatbelt alarms be going off like crazy while they're driving?

People almost never stutter or go off topic in a movie. I know it's written that way so that only the important stuff that the movie is about comes out of the characters' mouths, but in real life people don't know exactly what they're going to say every second they're talking without stuttering or going off topic. Tarrantino is one who breaks this cliche quite often which is why I like his movies.

In high school movies, I hate how easy they depict teenagers talking in class or texting so obviously when in real life they'd definitely be yelled at. Also I feel like all high school movies have the sound effect of the class bell going off. i get that all schools have class bells, but it's always the old-fashioned one when I'm pretty sure most schools have electronic bells now and also it's just annoying that they always have it going off just to remind you that it's a school.

[–] morganmf 9 years ago

Time being stretched blatantly. Example: a time bomb is counting down, with just 10 seconds to go, and the camera keeps switching between the clock and someone running to reach it in time to stop it. Five seconds pass while we see the person running, climbing obstacles, etc., then we go back to the clock and it has only counted down one second. This is supposed to eke out the tension and build the panic? Puh-leez…

I have seen this so many times. Do movie directors really think we are that dumb?

Yep, they do...