100 things I hate in movies

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chmul_cr0n
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by chmul_cr0n »

livelove wrote:What's to dislike about 53?

Hmmm...now that you say it...I even had a couple more, but took them out, because I realized they were clichés, but not annoying ones. On slipped through, it seems. :)

livelove wrote:As for the others: Do you have examples ?

52 I've seen often. The only one that comes to mind right now, and where I found it striking, is Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. To me the only non-bland thing in that movie was the history between Johnny Depp's character and the witch. With her basically being the most interesting character by being entertainingly cartoonish and driving most of the plot due to being selfish, ruthless and in love. So her death was a big cathartic moment to me and much more interesting than whatever happened afterwards with generic romance plot. But it's a thing I see often in movies, where subplots turn out to be more interesting or minor characters have better chemistry.

55: Pretty much every modern horror movie. I found this to be particularly silly in The Conjuring. Demons that are supposedly trying to get people out of the house do nothing but slam doors every once in a while or startle people. Or turn up, grab someone's hair and than vanish for the rest of the day. I get that that's annoying and uncomfortable but if I wanted someone to leave and I was malicious, I would drive people insane or instill the fear of death in them. Which is actually what most people talk about, who claim to have been haunted by some evil spirit. Like, make them too scared to continue living there, not just harass them. This way it's just not very threatening.

62 I saw last in that billboard movie by Martin McDonagh. He goes for this hard hyper-sarcasm most of the time, but then suddenly starts being sincere about things he made me laugh at earlier. Thinking especially of Sam Rockwell beating the shit out of that dude and throwing him out a window. It's directed like a scene in an action movie, with choerographed moves and over-the-top sound effects, accompanied by a sweet and peaceful song as a contrast to all the violence and suffering.
Which is my kind of humor. I like politically incorrect, sarcastic jokes, I like provocateurs, who use tasteless things just to stir the pot...but if you go for that kind of satire it's hard for me to consider these things in a sincere, moral light retroactively. It's like if you told me an offensive joke about cancer and then asked me to pray for your sick aunt, while I was still laughing.
Or Hong Chau in Alexander Payne's last movie. She was played for laughs (at least that's how I took it) with a stereotypical over-the-top Vietnamese accent. But when it came to the emotional scenes, I was very confused. Like if Mike Myers would deliver a eulogy as Goldmember and expected me to take it seriously.


69: Can't think of an example right now. But it happens a quite often. Especially in comedies. Sometimes in the form of a guy being kicked in the nuts being justified by his girlfriend being mad at him or something.

livelove
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by livelove »

@chmul_cr0n: thanks so much for your interesting explanations

re 53) Ok, I see now what you mean. From now on, I think I will always laugh when I see fog coming out of streets ... :D

re 52) I think we use the term differently then. Or do you mean "climax" by any chance? I would understand what you are saying if you mean that there is a high point or climax somewhere in the middle or 2/3 of the film and whatever follows is less interesting. But what would that have to do with catharsis?

re 55) Ok, that's a pretty solid point. The way you explain it now is very much in line with my points 24+25 about monsters and villains attacking very inefficiently.

re 62) Unfortunately I haven't seen the examples you mention. But I think for the moment I have to disagree here. I actually tend to think that this is a very intelligent/sophisticated way of moviemaking. People always expect 1 genre. Comedy. Or drama. And then they get confused when it's both. But in my mind, life IS both. Sometimes comedy, sometimes drama. Most of the time both. I don't have any good cinematic examples, unfortunately. The only film which comes to my mind is a german satire ("Er ist wieder da" if I recall correctly) about the return of Hitler in present-day Germany. I have only seen the a little more than half the film and then stopped watching, because it didn't work for me. So it's not a good example, I am aware of that. It didn't work for me, because I simply did not find it funny at all. The jokes fell completely flat. Later, when I read the reviews, I saw that this film is exactly what you describe: The first 40% or so is played like a standard comedy. And later the film turns into something else. More like a farce or a satire. From what I have read, it is meant to make viewers second-guess about what they just laughed (possibly some racist jokes ... but not the kind of funny, politically incorrect jokes you mentioned, but purely racist jokes). I find the concept in itself interesting. Either I turned off too soon, or this particular example just didn't work for me. But in general I'm all for genre-mixing, subtleties, quirky and weird independent film-making (if it's watchable:) and intelligent concepts.

re 69) good example. Yes, in general man-woman relationships are portrayed in very bizarre ways sometimes.

livelove
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by livelove »

75. badly done fake rain, where lots of rain comes down in the foreground and none in the background

emreco
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by emreco »

76. The bad guy (usually a mob boss) catches our hero and ties him up in a basement or wherever. He delivers a speech, then tells his men to "finish the job" and leaves. Why doesn't he just make sure the guy is really dead, before leaving the premises? Of course, after his departure our hero gets loose and kills all the bad guys.

gabba2k7
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by gabba2k7 »

76. somebody sitting on important intel without disclosing asap .

paulofilmo
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by paulofilmo »

77. actors dropping profound quotes or namedropping philosophers, or other such middle-brow pandery

coffee
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by coffee »

78. Masquerading as a serious, historically accurate period piece while being full of horse droppings.

Braveheart, for example, comes to mind.

nauru
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by nauru »

79. Lighting that is so obviously fake that it ruins the immersion.

Oscar bait movies often have this; the room the scene takes place in has one light source yet there is perfect tangential lighting on both the main character's cheeks, and on their hair. Or the scene is taking place in a dark basement with hardly any light, yet the main character is lit perfectly with white lights. One of the worst offenders I can think of right now is The Imitation Game.

Image

Journey to the Centre of the Earth (2008) took place almost entirely underground, yet there are scenes that look like a sunny Saturday afternoon in California. Admittedly not oscar bait, but I'm mentioning it because it's a particularly egregious example.

One of the reasons Cinema Paradiso looks so good is apparently because it was shot almost entirely with natural light.

paulofilmo
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by paulofilmo »

^ooh good one

80. hate is a bit strong, but the eye through a crack arthouse cliche

ImageImageImageImage

livelove
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Re: 100 things I hate in movies

Post by livelove »

re:79 ah yes, I don't know how many times that made me sigh.
But in this case ?

nauru wrote:the room the scene takes place in has one light source yet there is perfect tangential lighting on both the main character's cheeks, and on their hair

Image

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