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Things I am sick of...
 

[Closed] Things I am sick of in american films

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Pixar films are always good 🙂 Wall-E is one of my favourites.

Also Primer is so hard to keep track of, I've watched it 3 times now and still none the wiser.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:02 am
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I quite like American films, if I want something mentally stimulating I'll read a book.

Some weird complaints on here...

People on computers who never use the mouse, only the keyboard.

That's to say: expert users?

high-speed car chases on freeways, where all the 'civilian' cars are all travelling at a nice steady speed and are neatly spaced so that the speeders can slalom easily through them.

If you're willing to risk your life and that of others there's more than enough space to slalom on a freeway - if there's a car length between two cars you can fit in.

The "cars always exploding" thing is a bit of a myth, the Simpsons are always taking the piss out of it, and it doesn't really happen that often.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 8:53 am
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ohhh i really enjoyed Primer, memento, eternal sunshine etc etc

but i also really enjoyed DieHard4, wall-E and so on..

Just loves films i do 😀 there's something to enjoy in most films.. apart from the crap ones (wimminz films i tend to find)


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 9:22 am
 Pook
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ooOOoo - Member
Any film where the advert has a plain white background, featuring 2 or 3 heavily airbrushed lead characters, pulling odd faces, is generally a cliche laden stink fest.

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 9:32 am
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not so much a rant a hollywood films, but their influence.... PLEASE can advertisers and TV trailer people stop using that fog horn noise from Inception in an attempt to build suspense!!!


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 9:46 am
 Pook
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just realised - my trainspotting poster is not an american fillum.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 10:56 am
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As mentioned above, it always stands out to me when a car is driving on a loose surface and the tyres are squealing like they're on tarmac or multi-storey car park floor paint.

Not sure it winds me up as such, but I do notice it everytime.

Bullet-proof sofas are quite irksome too, and endless gun magazines....


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 10:58 am
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Bullet-proof sofas are quite irksome too

And car doors, upturned wooden tables, etc...

Geographical things annoy me. Film I watched last night had a car going over Tower bridge with the Tower behind them, so heading south. Turned a corner and towards St. Pauls. 😕


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:08 am
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Americans always coming to the rescue


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:08 am
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Changing Optimus Prime's vehicle mode form from a cab-over to a conventional style truck.
It genuinely upset me.
They shouldn't be allowed to sully peoples childhood icons like that

I thought Optimus got off quite lightly compared to how the Decepticons ended up - featureless, silver and spikey. 🙁 AND at least Peter Cullen did his voice.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:09 am
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Americans always coming to the rescue

Films made to appeal to their target audience SHOCKER!

Some of you need your eyes open when watching this stuff I think.

Oh and the Matrix is NOT a clever film! A fairly heavy concept (human made God) glossed over in favour of the usual American hero dross. Annoyed me so much I didn't watch the other two.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:16 am
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I tire of .......

The downtrodden good guy only really becoming a man when he punches someone, and that one punch making the world right and everything happy-ever-after. George Macfly's destiny changing punch for instance.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:20 am
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Films made to appeal to their target audience SHOCKER!

Yes, but it goes beyond that - as per the comments above on the "re-writing of history"


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:23 am
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George Macfly's destiny changing punch for instance.

Yup I remember thinking, as I sat there watching Back to the Future, "I don't expect that sort of nonsense from a science-fiction comedy film".

Mind you, what does Steven Spielberg know about "entertainment" ?.........he has got to be the worse film producer [i]ever.[/i]

Luckily British comedy films are much more "true to life".


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:45 am
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Luckily, British [s]comedy[/s] films are much more "true to life".

Generalisation of course..., but isn't there an element of this to many British films?

Take war films for example (an I'll use a classic British example...)

At the end of the Dambusters, do we get:

[i]"whooop, whoop, we good guys let them evil Nazis have it good and proper"[/i]

or do we get

[i]"was it really worth the terrible cost in life?"[/i]


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:51 am
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Luckily, British [s]comedy[/s] films are much more "true to life".

So Back to the Future wasn't a comedy film then ? 😯

No really ........... what a shite film. All these years I had assumed that it was a comedy film.

Which kinda sums up just how crap the Americans are at producing films 😐


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 11:58 am
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So Back to the Future wasn't a comedy film then ?

Docu-drama??? 😆

Nah, I crossed out "comedy" to extend your observation across the board.

Mrs rkk01 wonders were I was during the early 80s (or whenever it was) as I [i]claim[/i] not to have seen Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Back to the Future(s), ET, Star Wars, Close Encounters, etc, etc, ad nauseam...


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:06 pm
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dambusters was made in 1955 i suspect it would be difeent if it was made now.
ernie back to the future was a comedy film but only just


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:08 pm
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pointless remakes are the things that annoy me, when they take a prefectly good film, sentimalise it and make any twists so obvious and then add on a sugary sweet happy ending


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:24 pm
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dambusters was made in 1955 i suspect it would be difeent if it was made now.

Of course, it is a product of it's time (and our cultural outlook). Don't forget, US films of this sort of era (ok, maybe 10 years later) would have had John Wayne running around winning the war single handed.

If anything, recent (post Platoon?) US war films have come more into line with our outlook - futlity, failure, less whiter than white characters.

Although even last year's Pacific had the sugar coating of following most of the men through to their everything will be ok in the end post war survival (and I don't mean that to take anything away from the USMC survivors that were portrayed). This is one area where Band of Brothers was probably better than Pacific. BoB was far grittier in this respect.

ETA - and of course, US films almost always have to have that easy to digest, unequivocal, white vs black , good vs evil, us vs them message. US films do that to this day, whereas British films don't tend to follow this rather sickening format


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:26 pm
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Not films as such, but TV adverts for films where they 'interview' punters coming out of the cinema saying how good/cool/ace it was.

That guarantees utter cack.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:29 pm
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i'm not sick of it yet, but i'm already bored by 3D...


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:34 pm
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it really jerks my gherkin when a seemingly benign film ends with a big religious message about how god looks after certain people. like at the end of that post-apocalyptic will smith film. urgh


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:43 pm
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People on computers who never use the mouse, only the keyboard.

I use the keyboard only for hours at a time. and my computer beeps.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:44 pm
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it really jerks my gherkin when a seemingly benign film ends with a big religious message about how god looks after certain people. like at the end of that post-apocalyptic will smith film. urgh

Watched a Nicholas Cage DVD last year. Three quarters or more through it went from sci-fi (ish) thriller to god squad nonsense.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:50 pm
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I think this may be a long shot but does anyone here recognise the term 'mumblecore'? anyone? please?
Posted 12 hours ago # Report-Post

I do, yes. Why?


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:54 pm
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What gets me is the way people (not just in American films) can empty endless magazines in an enclosed space, fire pistols, machine guns, shot guns etc right next to someone (you get the drift) and no one has perforated ear drums. They can all hear normally and carry on as if nothing happened. either they all have ear defenders on or every gun is suppressed although they don't have silencers fitted!

OK, short term deafness would hinder the plot lines a trifle and would be a cinematic inconvenience but it does come over as a little silly.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 12:58 pm
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I think this may be a long shot but does anyone here recognise the term 'mumblecore'? anyone? please?

Another yes here as well.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 1:00 pm
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Oh and the Matrix is NOT a clever film!

It's [i]fairly[/i] clever. Not the surface "life is a dream/simulation" thing which has been done a hundred times.

But the religious references add another dimension for those that catch them (I didn't), which sn't bad for an action movie:

Neo = "new" = "one"
Anderson = "Son of Man"
Morpheous = Greek God of Dreams
Zion, Trinity, Nebucadnezzar, Merovingian, etc

Annoyed me so much I didn't watch the other two.

That's probably for the best.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 1:22 pm
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matrix was good the other two were just cash crops


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 1:25 pm
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Yeah but what annoys me is that he's a human become God, right, and yet he continues to have the same kind of bust ups and fist fights that a human would. He just doesn't get it. If he can really control the Matrix then he could do ANYTHING including getting rid of those stupid men in suits. But then again I guess that goes back to God - why does God not just get rid of the Devil? Except that it's not framed like that at all.

And it's taken for granted that the 'real' world is the best and anything fake is bad, and the snivelling Judas who wants to go back to the Matrix is a deplorable character. When in reality it's a complex issue. How valuable is the idea of 'reality'? Surely it'd be a Phyrric victory on a massive scale to get rid of the Matrix and live in that crappy world... But it's not really dealt with.

See Total Recall for a much better treatment of that second point, and Dark City for a better treatment of the first imo.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 1:28 pm
 hora
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The Christian messages within most Yank films about 'good and evil'. Even Superbad was spoilt by this idiotness. It doesn't need to be in EVERY movie you know.

If Americans are THAT Christian why don't they question their countries foreign policy more?

Early 70's in Vietnam seems to be the last time.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:29 pm
 hora
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Plus....the slavish product placement of an American flag.

Give it a rest.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:29 pm
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What gets me is the way people (not just in American films) can empty endless magazines in an enclosed space, fire pistols, machine guns, shot guns etc right next to someone (you get the drift) and no one has perforated ear drums

They did it quite well in Blackhawk Down.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:36 pm
 Taff
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American film views on vietnam, war, getting rid of aliens and their power trips over being the strongest force in the universe.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:36 pm
 hora
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atlaz - shooting a gun from a moving car or multiple shots fired into the rear windscreen. Do the occupants have steel skulls?


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:42 pm
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ermmm Blackhawk Down was directed by Ridley Scott; last time I checked he was English


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:45 pm
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American films and TV series' are one the main reasons I haven't got a TV.
Most of the stories seem to be based around Americans shooting each other with the occasional variation of Americans shooting other people or Americans shooting aliens.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:46 pm
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dambusters was made in 1955 i suspect it would be difeent if it was made now

Is Peter jackson still going to remake Dambusters or has that (hopefully) been canned now?
I look forward (not) to a 6 hour borefest where at the end your just shouting 'throw the flipping [s]ring[/s] bomb [s]into[/s] at the [s]volcano[/s] dam

Hobbits flying big B52's could be interesting though


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 2:55 pm
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Re The Matrix. I thought it was about freedom v.s. slavery, that the humans could choose either a life in the matrix or one outside of it. The Oracle didn't want the matrix destroyed, after all she is only one of it's programs. Only freedom to choose, there would be enough humans choosing to stay in to continue to power the matrix. I assumed that Neo developed his ability to read and re-program the matrix code because he was a computer programmer.

I though it was quite a thoughtful story a la Simulacron 3, as well as being an action movie. But is it really a better film than The Thirteenth Floor?

In general, I'm always irritated by simplistic good-guy, bad-guy plots.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:01 pm
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I can't see any way that the Dambusters could be re-made today. Same applies to Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Cruel Sea etc.

They were all made at a time when the aircraft (ships etc) required were still available in sufficent numbers to make it look convincing. Yes, the special effects were pants compared to today, but no amount of cgi could conjure the flying scenes in any of those films.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:04 pm
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MidlandTrailquestsGraham:

American films and TV series' are one the main reasons I haven't got a TV.
Most of the stories seem to be based around Americans shooting each other with the occasional variation of Americans shooting other people or Americans shooting aliens.

Blimey 😯


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:05 pm
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<puts geek card on table>

IT in movies.

The protagonist sits down at a computer, types "grant me full access, priority 1"; computer responds "access denied"; protagonist types "override"; computer goes "full access granted."

Protagonist is presented with a password prompt; thinks for a second, then guesses the password on the first attempt.

The world's gone to hell, aliens are in the Whitehouse, the Internet's down, and most of Russia is on fire, but it's ok because *produces floppy disk* I have a virus! *Click* ... *progress bar* ... everything's ok! *roll credits*

VR interfaces.

A special nod to ID4 - Jeff Goldblum plugging his laptop into an alien spaceship. Hell, half the time I can't plug my laptop into a goddamn Ethernet switch without a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

"back doors"

Computers that boot up instantly.

Access codes, missile launch codes, bomb disarm codes etc, being cracked digit by digit on a large LCD display.

I could probably go on but you get the idea.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:10 pm
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They were all made at a time when the aircraft required were still available in sufficent numbers to make it look convincing. Yes, the special effects were pants compared to today, but no amount of cgi could conjure the flying scenes in any of those films.

Rubbish, given time and budget it could easily match or surpass the flying scenes.

American films and TV series' are one the main reasons I haven't got a TV.
Most of the stories seem to be based around Americans shooting each other with the occasional variation of Americans shooting other people or Americans shooting aliens.

Blimey indeed! That's just such a sweeping statement - and so completely wrong - it's hard to know where to start! There's a lot of crap that comes out of the States, but that's true of any country's media. British television is hardly the greatest out there - for every quality David Attenborough documentary there are thousands of hours of crap... TBH when it comes to globally successful series I'd suggest the Americans are far better at it - I can't think of many series to rival the international reach of the Simpsons, Friends, CSI etc.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:16 pm
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That sort of thing annoys me too, I mean, has no bad guy _ever_ implemented a realistic and sensible approach to IT systems and information security? What happened to password lockout? Or removal of excess accounts? Those things are right at the baseline of common sense.

My pet hate has to be the gun thing though. Too many rounds in the magazine, super-accurate onehanded moving car shootouts, tables blocking rounds... That sort of thing. I know from personal experience that a railway sleeper will not stop a standard 9mm round, so why will a table stop that and heavier? Grrrrr.

Don't get me started on the whole silencer thing either.


 
Posted : 04/01/2011 3:17 pm
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