Favorite Incorrect Cliches in Movies

[Taverner]

My favorite? They show someone leaving San Francisco, and they're usually on the Bay Bridge - on the top level!! Even Oliver Stone made this mistake in Salvador.

Folks, if you are on the top level, you are going into the city and if on the bottom level, you are leaving the city

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Women can magically have orgasms...

just by having some sweaty guy bang away at them.

Which make me love and appreciate Dennis Quaid in "The Big Easy" even more. :loveya:

[HEyHEY]

2. Hey, once it's in my job is done

[JVS]

225. "Do what you will, lady. My plan is to get this over with, grab a quick beer, and go to sleep"

[lost-in-nj]

32. ummmm

if it's done right!!!!

:shrug:


just saying!!!!

:rofl:


lost

[Hell Hath No Fury]

123. Research shows up to...

80% of women cannot have an orgasm through vaginal intercourse alone, they need a little bit (a lot?) of help from clitoral stimulation. :) As Randy illustrated perfectly in the afore mentioned movie.

Too many Hollywood films show women writhing in ecstasy with their male partners hands groping just about anywhere other than her clitoris.

A terrible disservice to women and men everywhere, IMO. :hi:

[Schema Thing]

154. You seem unaware of "clitorniples"

[ForrestGump]

214. Oh, _I_ can elicit that without physical contact, even

Though it costs me $3 for the first minute and 75 cents for every minute thereafter.




And Tiffany's voice sounds different every time I call her, for some reason...

[HEyHEY]

3. The play by play is broadcast live to the stadium

I've never seen that in real life.

[begin_within]

56. That's why I wear earphones to the stadium.

People may think I'm listening to music, but I'm actually listening to a radio broadcast of the game. It makes it more interesting, and once in a while, it really helps. For example, something happens suddenly and you weren't looking at the time, or you were too far away to see exactly what happened, and all of a sudden the whole stadium is booing, or cheering, and you don't know why. If you are listening to the radio, you are updated constantly on what's happening.

[Kire]

122. the end of Die Hard 3 (spoiler)

When Zeus gave John McLane a quarter to call his wife at the end of the movie, they were in New York, she was in LA

[SCantiGOP]

146. another blooper

They are supposed to be in DC. When he uses a phone, it clearly says Pacific Bell.

[XemaSab]

4. Every country has wildlands that look just like the Angeles National Forest

:crazy:

[Taverner]

5. Ahhh yes I've always wondered why that is

Especially cheap horror movies made by a major studio.

[begin_within]

57. Also, the Vasquez Rocks sure get around.

A group of rocks in the desert near Los Angeles, popular with filmmakers



They have appeared in Star Trek episodes, Planet of the Apes, the Flintstones, many old Westerns, etc.



Some movie called "Forever" being filmed there.

[XemaSab]

63. Blazing Saddles

:D

[begin_within]

69. It would be fun to edit all the scenes filmed there into one wacky hodgepodge

[XemaSab]

70. Especially with a Blazing Saddles/Pee Wee's Big Adventure-esque ending

:thumbsup:

[realisticphish]

164. i've climbed on them

awesome geology, if you're into that

[begin_within]

165. cool

I read they were pushed up through the crust

[Tektonik]

172. I always loved riding in a car going on the 14

As a kid I'd always loved passing Agua Dulce.

[Phillycat]

6. During chase scenes in Philly..

they cut to all the most photogenic places in the city right in a row, even when they're miles away from each other. So they'll be in Old City at the Constitution Center one minute, then racing down Ben Franklin parkway 20 blocks away the next, then back in South Philly...ridiculous. Do they think no one lives here?

My husband says they do the same thing for movies filmed in London and Oxford.

[XemaSab]

15. They definitely do that in San Francisco and LA

Look! We're going through Chinatown! Look! We're going along the Embarcadero! Look! We're on the Golden Gate Bridge! Look! We're in Golden Gate Park! Look! We're in Marin County! :o

[Taverner]

17. HAHAHAHAHAHA too true!

The Rock was infamous for this

[Oeditpus Rex]

191. Look! We're inside a Chinese dragon!

[Zavulon]

231. Washington, DC as well.

In Invasion, Nicole Kidman is running through Georgetown, turns a corner and magically winds up in Cleveland Park, where she takes the Metro.

Georgetown residents have lobbied long and hard to keep Metro stations out of Georgetown, so as to separate themselves from "riffraff" like me and others who choose not to drive in the city, but I digress. Georgetown and Cleveland Park just aren't that fucking close to each other.

[Sequoia]

30. Los Angeles area also.

One scene that'd be roarding down Santa Monica Blvd. and then a second or so later there they were on Vermont Ave. near the Hollywood sign above on the hill.

[ForrestGump]

193. And the La Brea Tar Pits

are in Long Beach. :D

[MrSlayer]

71. Yeah, they had Rocky running a marathon.

He goes from Kensington to South Philly to the East River Drive back to South Philly to Center City where he runs the Parkway and finally ends up at the art museum. He would have dropped dead before running that far. Raw eggs only help so much.

[taterguy]

7. The good guys triumph in the end

[Taverner]

8. No the good guys win eventually, and posthumously

[MilesColtrane]

9. People who get shot in the gut...

...sweat, wince a little bit, then urge their partner to go on and capture the gunman, instead of screaming in pain then passing out.

[Alexander]

11. I'm convinced writers were inspired by Shakespeare for that one...

His characters took about three pages of dialog to finally die after they were fatally wounded.

[XemaSab]

16. "Mother! I'm killed!"

:o

[montanto]

76. "He has killed me, mother." Spoken by Egg Macduff.

[DarkTirade]

54. No, not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a barn-door,

but it will serve, I warrant. What meant you to come between us? I was hurt under your arm.

A pox of your houses! I am fairly dressed. Sirrah, go fetch me a surgeon.

I am peppered for this world, I am sped, i'faith; he hath made worms' meat of me. And ye ask for me tomorrow, you shall find me a grave man. A pox of your houses! I shall be fairly mounted upon four men's shoulders, for your house of the Montagues and the Capulets. And then some peasantly rogue, some sexton, some base slave shall write my epitaph, that Tybalt came and broke the Prince's laws, and Mercutio was slain for the first and second cause.

Now he'll keep a-mumbling in my guts -- on the other side -- come, Benvolio, lend me thy hand. A pox of your houses!

[Danger Mouse]

18. Resevoir Dogs was cool because of that. When Tim Roth gets shot in the gut...

you feel his unbearably excruciating pain.

[begin_within]

58. Unbearably excruciating pain! Cool!

[Danger Mouse]

139. It was cool because of the realism.

In most movies, you don't see that.

[Taverner]

162. Yup

I also like in Pulp Fiction how when the random pedestrian gets shot, she starts screaming in pain. That is what would really happen - moral of story: don't shoot people.

[kentauros]

229. Similar scene in Heat

where the one that had been the snitch gets shot in the chest and you hear this horrible sucking sound as, well, his lung collapses and he can't breathe any more.

Of course, at the end, they had to have the "body thrown fifteen feet backwards after getting hit with a shotgun blast (or other 'big' gun)" cliche, but overall, a great film! :D

[Critters2]

217. Or don't even know they've been shot until they look down and see blood.

I've never been shot, but I gotta think you know when it happens.

[Alexander]

10. Shooting locks off of doors always works...

In real life, that's a great way to get the bullet to ricochet and kill you.

Also, the cliche that throwing your body against a wooden door will bust it open.

In reality, the best way to break down such a door is to push your foot against the lock area.

[NewJeffCT]

43. And, you can pick a lock in a few seconds with just a few wires

and, you can just as easily hotwire any car.

[Phillycat]

114. Oh yeah, two seconds.

In fact, they can generally break into a locked car, hot wire it, and drive off, all in about 5 seconds. None of us would have cars if that were real. :rofl:

[Solon]

216. Actually, stealing a car takes about 30 seconds if that, with the right tools...

first off, hot wiring is out, also, if the key has a chip, it isn't going to work, but for the majority of cars that still use the "traditional" key, its a simple matter of getting into the car(broken window would suffice) and forcing the ignition, which can be done with numerous devices and tools. The negatives are you could break the ignition, which isn't a big deal if they car is getting stolen for parts or a joyride, but you also run the risk of it not starting at all, though that is a somewhat small risk.

One thing though, a flathead screwdriver, by itself, may not work, I had my car broken into and someone tried to steal it, the problem was the flathead screwdriver broke off its tip in the ignition. Still cost me a 100 bucks to get a new ignition, but they never were able to steal my car, damaged the ignition though. The funny thing was I had a really expensive radio/CD player in the car that wasn't even touched. I think it was just teenagers looking to have a joyride in a convertible, but it was a stick as well, I don't think they would have gotten far, even if they were able to start it.

[ForrestGump]

176. Kicking a door in can be pretty easy

I had to do it a few times and found it was fairly straightforward, sometimes destroying the doorway's trim and sometimes not (I was maybe around 170-190 lbs at the time, with strong legs, and training kung fu, but I think a committed kick from a smaller person level with the lock and doorknob would just as effectively work). Trying to use my shoulder just resulted in a really sore shoulder, and I could easily imagine breaking a collarbone by trying it. Not with a Hollywood balsa door, of course, but in the real world...ouch. If I had a gun, I think I'd try kicking the door in rather than risking a ricochet.

[av8rdave]

12. Every time a car goes off a cliff, it explodes

[Taverner]

13. Yes - we've seen from evidence that when a car goes off a cliff

It sits there, rusting away, making homes for seagulls.

Same thing happens in the woods.

[ashling]

48. When a car crashes in the woods and theres no one

around ... oh, never mind.

[DarkTirade]

92. Also, every time a car gets shot, it explodes.

Or every time it crashes.

Or every time there's a fire anywhere near it.

Or every time a squirrel farts nearby.

[ForrestGump]

194. To be fair,

they do use a lot of Ford Pintos in the movies.

[kentauros]

234. Remember the Pinto scene

in Top Secret!

and then the heroes driving away the still-on-fire VW Thing: "Boy these Germans sure do make great cars!"
:rofl:

[Schema Thing]

156. cf. Toonces

[Critters2]

218. Toonces!! A blast from the past!!

:rofl:

[Danger Mouse]

14. Good guys hit with pinpoint accuracy, bad guys can't hit a target to save their lives.

[Alexander]

19. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.

Apart from destroying the Sandcrawler, blasting R2, and hitting Leia in the shoulder, they couldn't hit anything.

[Xipe Totec]

20. Silence of the Lambs

Lambs don't scream at slaughter.

Literally, they can't.

[Lethe]

21. explosion sounds in space?

there's nothing for the sound to travel through right? so, lets say that the Death Star exploded, you wouldn't hear it.....right?

[Phillycat]

22. Also ships shaped like planes, with wings and everything.

It's a zero-gravity environment, with no wind. Why do they need wings and a pointed nose?

[DarkTirade]

93. In some cases they're made to go in an atmosphere too...

but in others there's no excuse. :P

However, the fact that they all fly the same way they would in an atmosphere is kinda silly. In space you don't need to bank to turn.

[MilesColtrane]

132. Also 95% of the time, whenever one spaceship first encounters another...

...they're both right side up.

[DarkTirade]

94. I think the only movies/show that had silence in space was 2001 and Serenity/Firefly.

Can anybody else think of one?

[Phillycat]

112. BSG - the new one.

[Angleae]

140. Could have fooled me.

[Flying Dream Blues]

23. When an intruder is in the house, one always runs upstairs. nt

[NewJeffCT]

44. and, when people enter their own house, they never turn the lights on!

oh come on, it's dark and you don't turn the lights on as soon as you get in the door? because your spider-sense is tingling?

[ThoughtCriminal]

183. Until they get undressed

and open the cutains and raise the shades.

[alphafemale]

24. The rookie cop (or near retiree) who dares mention his family is going to die within 5 minutes.

[ForrestGump]

25. The Vegas Strip

I think, in every film I've seen that includes Vegas (this is a lot of films), the characters are passing through, usually by driving, various Strip and Downtown landmarks in total random order. Basically, within a continuous scene of dialog, you'll see them driving north on the Strip, then a mile or so further back going the same direction, then going south on the Strip, then passing by casinos on Fremont Street (maybe five miles north), then driving past the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign at the southern terminus of the Strip...etc, etc, etc.

It's a given that any film that includes as a backdrop the lights of Las Vegas will include this kind of massive error in spatial continuity, and it's not like a great many people aren't somewhat familiar with the layout of things in this tourist mecca. Even really well-made films are guilty, films like Rain Man, for example. It doesn't annoy me, but I find it kind of funny and look for it every time Vegas is shown..."man, these people must be really lost, going north, going south, going east, going north..."

[begin_within]

60. I think that's pretty much how we drove around Vegas...

[Orsino]

80. Sounds kind of appropriate.

Massive errors in spatial continuity that happen in Vegas stay in Vegas.

[Zavulon]

230. Just saw something like this.

In Con Air, a plane is flying low enough for one of its wings to shatter the Hard Rock guitar. Where does the plane land? The Strip, of course. At that altitude and direction, the plane should have completely wiped out the St. Tropez, which if memory serves is the hotel across the street from the Hard Rock.

[deucemagnet]

26. A blow to the head will cause instant unconciousness.

The victim will awaken with no side effects other than a headache, or less often, amnesia. In the case of amnesia, a second blow to the head will cure it.

[Twillig]

36. When I was a kid and I saw "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"

Having seen the cliche a dozen times or more, I found it hard to believe when--shit, I'm gonna spoil it--well, when one of the characters dies (not so rapidly) from a blow to the head.

[Orsino]

81. Or, even more ludicrous...

...Kirk's clasping his fingers together to bring his hands down on Klingon's necks drops 'em like sacks of ghakh.

Who knew that Klingons had off switches?

[Zavulon]

232. As will a chop to the neck. (NT)

[skygazer]

27. Horses always whinnying at a gallop

Moviemakers can't seem to accept quiet horses - they must make sounds. In reality, horses rarely whinny under saddle and I've never seen one do so at a gallop. :eyes:

[lost-in-nj]

28. yeah!!

if nothing else the horse farts!!!!


:rofl:


:hi:


lost

[Runcible Spoon]

85. yeah, or they dub in horse snorts with an impeccably dressed actor standing next to said horse..

and not a SPECK of horsie snort! :rofl: My quarter horse used to drench me with snots when he made those noises!

[lost-in-nj]

29. my "insert famous NY street here" apartment

ALWAYS has front space parking just for me!!!!


:)


lost

[La Lioness Priyanka]

96. or people who barely make a living have apts in manhattan

that are decent sized. umm really?

[ForrestGump]

31. A few odd things that just do not happen, like tires screeching or squealing on sand or dirt (as in

two better-known examples represented in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Casino) and bullets sparking whenever they hit or glance off a static object. I remember some film I saw in the last year having bullets spark spectacularly when they hit trees and I just watched the remake of 3:10 To Yuma and noticed not only the same kind of thing but saw one of the special-effects dudes, in the DVD extras, smiling as he said that real lead bullets wouldn't spark at all but that they do in the movies. :-)

EDIT: interesting typo. Seen a couple of them in movies, too, even outside subtitles.

[begin_within]

33. There's a whole web site devoted to movie clichés

http://www.moviecliches.com/

One of my favorites is people or animals watching gun battles. How many people do you know who would stand and watch a gunfight take place? In the 2005 movie "An Unfinished Life," two house cats watch a gun battle on a ranch, from just yards away. What cat would watch a gun battle in person? At the first shot, a cat would head for the hills and not be seen until the end of the day.

[HughBeaumont]

34. "Honeymooners" pairings. In EVERY DAMNED THING.

As in here would be the woman:



And here's who she would be married to:



AAAAAAAARRRRGGGHH! COME ON FUCKING GUY!

Or "Grandpa Charming" leading men who in their movies are able to bag hot daddy-issue-having 23 year olds instead of someone their own age, who would be in the "Mother" or "Grandma" roles. You know, because once every woman turns 35, they're instantly undesirable. :sarcasm: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[elshiva]

55. It's never the other way around:

Hot sexy guy with a chubby, hairy woman. Also, no truly happy, sexually active fat white women.

[Lasher]

73. Oops, posted wrong place

[bertha katzenengel]

86. "once every woman turns 35, they're instantly undesirable"

Well, of course! :eyes: The stars of my youth are getting up there in years, and before long Meryl Streep will only be able to play mothers, wise old professionals, aging madams ;) . . .

[amitten]

131. I think that one bugs me the most.

Extremely good-looking people rarely want to date slobs of the opposite sex.

And I've yet to meet a woman in her 20's (or 30's) that wants to get it on with any dude in his 50's. But dream on, all you aging male directors!

[HughBeaumont]

145. And dream on, you portly, out of shape schlub writers!

Giving the Joe PizzaWings of the world hope is a cruel thing indeed. Life isn't like Knocked Up or King of Queens.

[Writer]

213. Eva Mendes is fugly.

[HughBeaumont]

221. I beg to differ.

Even accounting for varied tastes, she'd still be way the hell out of that talentless slob Artie Lange's league by miles.

[begin_within]

35. When someone is hanging on for their life to something, they can hang on endlessly

until rescue arrives. People suddenly achieve a superhuman capability to keep their grip on that tiny piece of wood or metal sticking out, to keep them from plunging thousands of feet to a certain death. Their hand muscles never get fatigued enough to lose their grip. They can just hang there indefinitely until the hero arrives, and reassures them verbally until he can reach them.

[madeline_con]

37. No one ever finishes eating before they leave.

AND no on puts the milk away! AND no one puts their dishes in the sink or dishwasher if they DO finish!

[begin_within]

59. Also, no one says, "Goodbye" before hanging up the phone...

It's always like this: "What? I can't believe it. Stay right there. I'll be right over..." then they hang up the phone without saying any more and without even looking at the phone. They just stare off into the distance with a concerned look, then jump into action.

[DarkTirade]

95. ... for some people that's fairly realistic.

:P

[Skittles]

38. people have wonderful, HUGE apartments no matter what shit job they have

I mean, really

[NewJeffCT]

45. that goes double for TV shows

Like that LA Times reporter who had a home built into a mountainside overlooking the LA skyline... yeah right, it's probably 7 figures just to get that kind of land, let alone build a fancy house there.

[bertha katzenengel]

87. SKITTLES!

Would you PLEASE not kick my ass me when I try to corral you for your rabies shot? PLEASE?

Oh. Wrong Skittles.

:hi: :hug:

[underpants]

125. Rarely does anyone work

Who has time for a job when you have this story to be involved in??

[Taverner]

163. Sex in the City was horrible for that

One's a PR Rep, the other a Lawyer. These two professions have the benefit of no time.

[Jade Fox]

178. Yeah, in New York City!!!! n/t

[Beaverhausen]

39. Women always fall when running away from a pursuer

[Skittles]

46. while running on stiletto heels

if I was prone to running on stiletto heels (which I am not), one of those stilettos would end up piercing my stalker's eyes - yes INDEED

[Beaverhausen]

40. People open doors without looking to see who is there

I mean really - who does that?

[begin_within]

41. Every chase must upset a fruit cart

in fact Roger Ebert noted the cliché of the requisite fruit cart being turned over in almost every chase scene, and the movie "Ski Patrol" even had a "Siskel and Ebert Fruit Cart."

Roger Ebert's list of movie clichés is entertaining reading:

http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/tech/glossary/ebert_glos.htm

[ForrestGump]

196. One of the deleted scenes from the chase through the Death Star in the original "Star Wars"

had our heroes smacking into and turning over a fruit cart, believe it or not.













Okay, so that wasn't true.

But I bet Lucas thought of it. And it'd be one of the rare exceptions that does not feature the ubiquitous fruit cart (My Dinner With Andre is another).

[CBHagman]

42. I love the health and medicine ones.

You know what I'm talking about. A cough indicates a character is going to die sometime in the course of the film.

Labor takes place over the course of a few minutes. The woman gives birth to a downy, adorable child who must be a few months old already, perhaps even a year.

Psychiatrists and psychologists are dewy, glamorous young things and not gray-haired people who spent years and years studying and training for their chosen field.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. A cough indicates a character is going to die...

That's an opera cliché! :-)

[Zavulon]

233. Of course, regardless of age, the newborn's eyes are always open.

Even if the kid is five seconds old.

[NanceGreggs]

47. The movies shot here in Toronto ...

... that are meant to take place in NYC or another US city.

My favourite had a cops-'n-bad guy chase scene filmed in Toronto's Union Station, meant to be set in Chicago. How many viewers wondered why all of the signs in a Chicago train station would be in English and French?

[XemaSab]

64. Is Toronto's Union Station underground?

'Cause the station in Chicago is. :P

[HughBeaumont]

75. Yes.

DC also has a Union Station (underground) that leads to a mall . . . and then the Postal museum and then the Capitol.

[NanceGreggs]

113. Actually, it's on two levels ...

... street level, and underground. They did shoot most of the scene in the underground area - but those French signs were impossible to miss!

The original building (street level) is truly beautiful (and very old), and looks similar to the Chicago train station in "The Untouchables" movie with Kevin Costner.

[mikeytherat]

78. How about Jackie Chan's "Rumble in Vancouver"

I know it was s'posed to be "Rumble in the Bronx," but the mountains in the background are kind of a dead giveaway.

mikey_the_rat

[Phillycat]

79. Smallville is also shot in Toronto...ah, the majestic mountains of Kansas...

:rofl:

[NanceGreggs]

115. I've never seen it ...

... and had no idea it was filmed here!

Back in the '90s, the HBO film about John Gotti (w/ Armand Assante) was shot in our neighbourhood. When we saw it, we could hardly concentrate on the movie, because we were so busy saying, "Hey, that's Seb's Cappuccino place, or, "Hey, there's OUR house!"

We have a women's shelter in the hood, and when the film crew left, they put flyers in everyone's mailbox saying that in appreciation for everyone being so cooperative while being inconvenienced (streets blocked during filming, etc.), they had made a very substantial donation to the shelter - which we all thought was a really nice gesture.

[crimsonblue]

141. yeah... some people think you can see the rockies from the western edge of Kansas

but it takes 2 hours or so on I-70 W to see them peek over the horizon.

[Broken_Hero]

148. I thought it was filmed in

Vancouver BC?(Smallville)

[Phillycat]

222. You are absolutely right.

Brain fart!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

49. Courtroom scenes.

The witness tearfully confesses, or dramatically fingers someone in the audience. The judge pounds his gavel and the courtroom audience erupts in shouts!

But in real courtrooms, the lawyers (ordinary-looking, unglamorous people) shuffle papers and ask questions in a monotone; the witnesses mumble and drone; a lawyer hands a witness a document only after a long, tedious argument before the judge as to its admissibility (Best evidence rule? Business records exception to the hearsay rule?), and then the witness stares at it for like five minutes and then says he's never seen it before; the judge stares into space and picks his nose; the jurors fidget and try to stay awake (or not) and this goes on and on for hours, days, weeks...

[ashling]

50. Jewelry foreshadowing:

Especially on TV shows like "Murder,She Wrote" if a female character takes of he earing (clip on) before answering the phone, you have found your murderer: the earing (or other obvious piece of jewelry will be found underneath the body.

[DarkTirade]

52. How about every time they try to quote Star Wars, they always say, "Luke, I am your father!"

Only that's not what Vader said. He said, "No. I am your father."

... I know, I'm a geek.

[bertha katzenengel]

88. Another quote gaffe was going around when "Ghostbusters"

was screamingly new in the theaters:

"I've been slimed."

What Bill Murray said was,

"He slimed me."

I Hate movie misquotes. And I know from movie quotes. In my family it's a favorite pastime!

[Skittles]

53. if you're in the deep dark woods and scared and you hear a noise

you yell at the top of your lungs HELLO???? IS ANYONE OUT THERE???? thereby ensuring if said noise comes from someone with ill intentions, your location will be easier to find

[madeline_con]

65. Then you run toward the noise in heels! eom

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. If Our Hero figures out the dastardly plot and confides in his Best Friend

the Best Friend turns out to be part of the dastardly plot.

People frequently ask two people to the same dance. They spend the evening running back and forth between them. Much hilarity ensues, or at least sitcom writers seem to think so.

[bluesbassman]

62. Probably something only a gear head would notice.

Bugs me when the put the wrong sound effect to a motorcyle. Usually happens when they're using a 2-stroke bike and the sound track is a 4-stroke.

[ForrestGump]

198. Also, when the heroes get on a bike and actually wear a helmet,

they almost never do up the chinstrap but just ride off with it loose. Sure, some people might ride motorcycles like that so they're sorta observing the letter of the law while cleverly protesting helmet laws but, in the movies, the strap's sometimes done up by the time they arrive and, really, accomplishing that task while riding is a tad difficult. Either fasten the damned strap -- it can only take a second or two if your fingers are nimble enough, and dialog can cover the pause -- or just take off in a hurry without it if you're being chased by a monster, tsunami, alien, Martha Stewart, or whatever. But please don't fasten helmet straps while riding.

[ForrestGump]

199. Further, when engaged in a car chase, please don't

buckle, unbuckle, buckle, and unbuckle the seatbelt between shots. Very dangerous. It seems to also result in bullet holes and other bodywork, glass, or tire damage appearing, disappearing, and reappearing during the chase -- the universe doesn't like this kind of discontinuity. Sometimes passengers appear or disappear randomly, too (sometimes female passengers even grow facial hair during the chase), which is usually something drivers should strive to avoid (unless their car has an ejection seat, of course).

[TZ]

66. Scientists are all

really hot people that wear thick glasses and wear their hair up in a bun....and at night all they have to do is remove thick horn rimmed glasses and shake out their hair and VOILA..They look like Angelina Jolie...I love my scientist friends but ummm I have never seen one that looks anything like the way they are portrayed in the movies....:silly:

[SacredCow]

236. I know quite a few hawt scientists....

Maybe I'm just working in all of the right places! :hi:

[jobycom]

67. They always hide the stolen bicycle in the basement.

There's no basement in the Alamo.

[jobycom]

68. The tiniest person can carry three pieces of luggage, fully packed.

Usually they have a garment bag in one hand, a 28" suitcase in the other, and a mid-size tucked under one arm or another. That's about three hundred pounds.

[underpants]

127. AND the magic gym bag-the main character can pack months worth of close

AND shoes mind you-into a nice little gym bag that they can grab out of the car, from under the bus, at the airport and look oh-so-cool doing it

[Richardo]

129. 'Close', Mr Homophone?

:-|

[Bucky]

72. If you share your dreams about the future during a hazardous moment, you will die soon.

Comic sidekicks live, sympathetic sidekicks die. It's the law.

[Lasher]

74. When a cowboy buys a drink he never gets change.

Ever.

[Orsino]

83. Or do they?

Maybe those aren't just spurs a-jinglin'?

I would love to see a tough-guy cowboy whip out a change purse as fast as he draws a gun.

[begin_within]

98. Maybe because they know he can't count.

[sarge43]

77. Magical movie women

They can run on any surface while wearing high heels and Our Hero is holding their hand.

They can live and travel in any bleak environment without having concern themselves about menstruation care.

They can look perfectly groomed whatever their circumstance, including suffering from the vilest diseases.

They can be in the armed forces, wear their hair down to their shoulders while in uniform and get away with it.

[Phillycat]

82. The Ali McGraw disease...the sicker you get, the more beautiful you look.

:rofl:

[sarge43]

84. The Debra Winger Syndrome (Terms of Endearment)

She's in the terminal stage of breast cancer and she looks and acts like she's merely lost a good night's sleep.

[hedgehog]

89. Remember that episode within an episode of X-Files that had

the character Scully demonstrating to Tea Leoni (playing herself) how to run in heels?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751136/

[sarge43]

111. I'm one of the dozen people on this planet who has never seen X-Files.

So, what happened?

[hedgehog]

116. A movie inspired by Scully and Muldar was being made with

Tea Leoni playing Scully.Between consulting on the movie, Muldar and Scully also worked on a typically creepy case.

[Glorfindel]

90. Incredibly hot teenaged girls must - MUST - have a shower

The moment the presence of a mass murderer/escaped convict/deranged maniac is announced in their neighborhood. And they never lock their doors.

[begin_within]

99. And yet hot guys are never shown showering, they only shave (and always shirtless)

[Phillycat]

101. And usually have a tense conversation with their woman while shaving...

or else a flashback, after which they cut themselves, in angst and consternation.

[begin_within]

107. That reminds me of the Venetian Blinds Self-Revelation phenomenon

If there is an unsolved mystery or just a gaping plot hole, the way to solve it is by having someone (usually the male protagonist) stand in front of a window with Venetian blinds, and pull a couple of them apart with one hand as he stares into space through them. This is shown in a fairly close-up shot, and the blinds cast a shadow of horizontal lines on his face. He's not really looking at what's outside, it's more like the blinds are a window into insight itself. After a few seconds of mentioning the keywords (i.e., turquoise... a million-dollar insurance policy... clanging bells...) it suddenly comes to him, and he lets go of the blinds, swivels around and exclaims, "The clanging bells! That's it! We've got to get over there now!" He doesn't explain any more at that point, but often the next scene is driving somewhere and during that drive he explains what his revelation was.

[crimsonblue]

142. I shave shirtless

don't want to get shaving cream on my shirt... duh.

[begin_within]

166. I shave nude

because I usually shave while in the bathtub

[mikeytherat]

91. Ferret noises

Seriously. Having owned 32 ferrets, I am keenly aware of the sounds they make, and the sounds made by the ferrets in "Beastmaster" are anything but ferret sounds. Most often they substitute squirrel chattering or the "chipmunks on acid" noises.

mikey_the_rat

[Taverner]

133. What sound does a ferret make?

Every ferret I've ever met is usually deep into my shirt exploring within five minutes of holding them

[mikeytherat]

136. We refer to it as "chuckling," others call it "dooking"

It is a sort of chattering. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex9AXcYR_a0

mikey_the_rat

[Taverner]

137. Cool! Now if I could get ferrets to just stay in one place on me...

Say, my hand or shoulder rather than exploring my shirt

[mikeytherat]

138. A ferret spying a tunnel, any "tunnel," is like a terrier with a chew toy.

mikey_the_rat

[ForrestGump]

185. Sort of like gerbils, then

:hide:

[Auggie]

97. Computer software is always compatible and files download instantly.

[Phillycat]

100. Movie computers!

You turn it on, it has a big search box, you type in "Bad guy's super secret hidden files", and they download instantly. It's awesome!

[Auggie]

108. Perfect!

[MilesColtrane]

134. Hacking someone's password never takes more than three tries.

[MorningGlow]

149. And the print is always REALLY HUGE

:rofl:

[begin_within]

102. The loud ringing sound of a 1960s desk telephone - who has a phone now, that makes that sound?

[begin_within]

103. If someone is fatally injured, just before they die, they reveal a crucial plot point, then go limp.

Are people who are in their last moments of life able to coherently put together a sentence in the first place? And has anyone ever died by just suddenly going limp? Talking coherently (if slowly and deliberately) and then a few seconds later losing all control and abilities?

[ForrestGump]

200. I'd love to see some action movie casualty utter, as they die on the asphalt,

"Rosebud."

Or maybe "Kiss me, Horatio."

[AwakeAtLast]

104. Amnesia promptly follows a blow to the head

and it is cured the same way.

[Mad_Dem_X]

105. People never say goodbye before hanging up the phone

[begin_within]

167. And often they don't even say "Hello" when answering the phone

A typical phone call may be:
(phone ringing - always that 1960s desk phone sound, not a modern sound)
"Did you get find out?"
(pause)
"I knew it. I just knew it." ... "I'll be right over."
(hangs up phone without even looking at it, staring into distance instead.

[Auggie]

106. A driver exits a car from the passenger side. Ever notice it?

Not quite a cliche, but odd none-the-less.

Guess it would cause an awkward camera shot otherwise.

[sarge43]

109. Magical Movie Men

They can appear somewhat scruffy, ie slept under a chicken coop all summer, yet be clean shaven. At worst, a bit of stubble.

They can repair anything no matter their background or IQ.

They can survive all physical damage, from slamming their face into a fist to being hosed by a machine gun to a thermonuclear explosion.

Given these magical abilities, they still freak and grow ten thumbs when asked to hold a new born infant. Also, they are constitutionally unable to perform guard duty without being killed or disabled.

[unpossibles]

119. wait, you just described me!

:D

I have always been amused in movies when the male lead's stubble NEVER changes from day to day. It must be hard work to trim stubble so well.

[sarge43]

121. Well then, you just might have a future as a movie action hero.

However, don't start your career with a sentry role or as Ensign Redshirt.

[kwassa]

110. Nobody ever closes their shades/blinds/curtains at night ....

so bad people can SPY on them.

How else can this plot unfold if people don't leave their windows uncovered?

[SoxFan]

117. The L-Shaped Blanket

When a couple is lying in bed, the blanket reaches up to the woman's shoulders, while the guy's chest is exposed.

As a straight male, I feel cheated...

[sarge43]

120. Especially idiotic when she's pulls the blanket/sheet over her

boobies after we the audience have been made well aware he's performed an OBGYN exam with every one of his appendages and she's done things that would make Dr Ruth wince.

[skygazer]

118. The Bad Guy always has to disclose the Evil Plot in its entirety

Thereby giving the Good Guy a chance to free himself and Save The Day.

[NewJeffCT]

126. The bad guy always has an elaborate plot to kill the good guy

which, of course, inevitably fails when the good guy narrowly escapes by the skin of his teeth...

Why not just shoot Indy & Marion in the head? But no, you have to lower them into the 2000 year old snake pit.

Why not just shoot Bond in the head, executioner-style? No, you have to lay him on a table to a laser beam will slowly slice him in half so you can say, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

[Lethe]

158. yep, the exposition is the bane of the villian

don't say shit just kill em'!!!

[Danger Mouse]

190. As they call it in 'The Incredibles' "monologuing"

[Richardo]

124. People get told directions, addresses, phone numbers and never write them down...

Usually on the phone:

"The kidnap victim is being held at 13421 Vandenplatz Parkway."
"Yeah, I know where that is."
"If you get there and the door's locked, the key is under the stoop at Ed's Cafe on the adjoining block - 13241 Vandenberg."
"OK."
"If you need me, I'm at 231-427-9950"
"Got it."
*hangs up*

[MorningGlow]

173. Or the opposite

A character looks something up in the phone book and then rips out the page to take it with him or her. I have NEVER defaced a public phone book in such a manner! :P

[underpants]

128. Okay is there really THAT MUCH of a market for French bread???

I would love to see a movie-particularly in NYC- in which everyone in the shot have French bread in their grocery bag.

[MorningGlow]

174. Unwrapped, no less

I would imagine that's quite unsanitary and a grocery store probably wouldn't sell a loaf of bread without some sort of bag or wrapping.

Oh--and don't forget the carrots with the green tops hanging out of the bag as well.

On edit: a CLOTH bag of course.

[skygazer]

130. Oh, and security is always appallingly bad

People can get into super-secret labs, or government buildings, or steal shuttlecraft, or access computers, or any other damn thing, without getting caught.

And they know how to run all this stuff - a control panel with 4000 buttons and blinking lights - "I think if I just push this and then pull this lever, it will give me access to all the secret data files on this huge government project." And it does.

[mikeytherat]

147. I loved this plot hole in "I, Robot"

Everything is controlled and monitored, except the easy-to-open, unlocked maintenance tunnels which lead everywhere inside the company.

mikey_the_rat

[MilesColtrane]

135. A woman with straight hair, invariably wakes up from a restful night's sleep...

...with her do smooth and shiny and in place.

[Mad_Dem_X]

144. ...and usually in full makeup.

[SoxFan]

152. Kate Austin Syndrome

She even manages to do that on a deserted island

[sarge43]

161. Also known as the Deborah Kerr Effect (Heaven Knows Mr Allison)

She portrayed a nun alone on a tropical island during a war. No laundromat was ever mentioned. Is her habit dirty, smudged, torn, even wrinkled? Nope, pristine, smooth, blinding white. Kerr was incapable of looking the slob, but really ...

[begin_within]

168. I like that movie!

The Deborah Kerr part could have been played by any good actress. But Robert Mitchum was never better on-screen than in that film, in my opinion. Totally believable and real as a Marine. Reminded me a lot of some of my Dad's Marine buddies.

[sarge43]

171. Yes he was, but then Mitchum always gave value for money. n/t

[begin_within]

169. Also achieved by Nicole Kidman in "Cold Mountain"

She's on a farm during the Civil War, yet never once has one hair out of place or looks even a bit disheveled or inconvenienced or unglamorous. Her sylist must have hovered just out of camera range for the entire shoot.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

189. Or Stands-with-a-Fist in Dances with Wolves

obviously had a hairdresser in the village and a blow dryer in her tepee, while all the Lakota women wore braids.

[begin_within]

195. I call the other guy "Bad Hair Day"

The one with the thing standing up on the top of his head

[crimsonblue]

143. The biggest one, bar NONE

is that guns never run out of ammo...

[timtom]

150. Star Trek (Original)

Everything works except for their damn phasers.

"Captain! My phaser's jammed!"

But, now to the classics: Casablanca - "Play it again, Sam!"

Actual quote, "I said play it!"

[KamaAina]

151. Every time something bad happens, it starts pouring rain

:shrug:

[Auggie]

226. Or there's an accompanying sound effect -- thunder, the sound of an El train...

Both are in the Godfather

[siligut]

153. Cats yowls

Whenever something crashes or falls outside, you hear a cat yowl. Hate that.
This happens especially in comedies; like somehow that is funny?

[begin_within]

170. And the sudden dash of a cat across the screen during a dark, spooky search

[Schema Thing]

155. guns don't kill people

only protagonist and antagonist with guns kill people. Anyone else couldn't hit the broad side of a barn (or a vital organ) with a bazooka.

[Schema Thing]

157. For a woman in NYC to be worth the air she breathes

she has to be an editor or art director at a fashion magazine.



you know what, scratch "NYC" from that. For any woman to be worth screen time and the lust of a leading man, she has to work for a magazine.

[fishwax]

159. The wires on all bombs are color coded, such that disconnecting the red will disarm it, while

disconnecting the blue will cause it to go off. (Not that it goes off right away--disconnecting the wrong wire just makes the clock on the detonator move really, really fast ...)

[MorningGlow]

175. Bombs are dismantled with 0:01 left on the timer n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

187. Yup, that happened in the episode of MI-5 that I watched on DVD last night

Only it was two seconds before detonation.

However, this being MI-5, a British, not an American program, they could have just as well failed to disarm the bomb and lost yet another main character. :-)

[ForrestGump]

180. Didn't work in "Lethal Weapon 4"

Or maybe it was Lethal Weapon 3 -- I get 'em all mixed up. But at least they saved the cat. :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

227. Ooops.

[ThoughtCriminal]

184. Not always red.

the correct wire is always the one that they change their mind and switch to at the last second - never the one they were about to cut.

[fishwax]

160. You have to keep the bad guy on the phone for 30 seconds so the cops can trace the call

[FloridaJudy]

177. People with fatal diseases

Always get a precise prognosis from their doctors: "Mr. Smith, you have Ferlinghetti's Disease. You will be dead in one week two days and four hours".

[ForrestGump]

179. Some more classics

The failure to say goodbye (sometimes hello, too) on 'phone calls, as mentioned above, has always irked me. How rude! I'd be tempted not to show up for the rendezvous, throwing the whole plot into disarray, if some git treated me like that.

In the movies, people almost never lock car doors. It's always a surprise that the cars are available for the requisite car chase, given how cavalier people are about securing them. Bullit was always one of the rare exceptions and it seems like more movies in recent years show the hero at least hitting his (or her) alarm as he (or she) walks away, but it's still more common for cars just to be left unlocked even if there's ample time to lock them.

When movie characters go to a restaurant, they hardly ever eat. They usually get up before the food comes, or right after, and walk out without it. Not even a take-out container in hand. Come on...I'd have to be pretty darned upset or preoccupied (engaged in mortal combat with a demon or gangster, for instance) to do that. They usually pay, too -- I just hope they tip the server, while they're at it.

One of the most ubiquitous movie clichés of all (beating out even the above, the cat leaping out at a tense moment -- revised as an in-joke by the James Bond franchise to be pigeons -- and people not checking behind doors in dark rooms or blundering around with flashlights when some psychopath or monster is lurking in the dark) has to be the radio (sometimes TV) being turned on at the perfect moment, just in time to catch the start of a news item germane to the movie's plot. To be fair, I have had this exact same thing happen in real life, but it's rare and always notable as "hey! a movie moment!"

One reason I love the Last Action Hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger's self-parody (set his career back a while but it's pure gold), is that it lampoons such conventions and includes a lot of other swipes at Hollywood and how they make movies.


"When the Governor gets here, call me":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTVmYyk5ro


Bruckheimer meets Shakespeare: :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlavIJuNn6M



And Charles Dance made one of the coolest villains ever. :headbang:

[Zavulon]

235. Regarding the TV or radio...

...I love seeing a cop, lawyer or whatever see something earth-shattering on TV, call up his or her partner, and say "Are you watching this?"

The answer, ALWAYS: "Yes."

The second speaker doesn't have a clue as to what's being aired or what channel it's on, but the answer is always "Yes."

[Heddi]

181. Nose Bleed = Cancer

I'm a nurse--granted, I don't specialise in Oncology but I know a couple who do, and one night I had to float to the oncology floor and I asked one of the oncology RN's how accurate it was that nosebleed = cancer. She said by the time that someone had such a blood dyscrasia that would cause a nosebleed, they would have had a HOST of other "hints" long before the nosebleed. Basically, by the time the blood is so "thinned" by cancer that you begin bleeding spontaneously, the cancer is pretty progressed and there generally would have been many other signs that would have made someone think "cancer"---drastic weight loss, etc.

Of course I'm sure that I will have a host of DU'ers coming and telling me that the only way THEY or THEIR LOVED ONES were diagnosed with cancer was because of an innocuous nosebleed or some other such nonsense, but speaking with an RN who has worked SOLELY with cancer patients for the better part of 35 years in various settings (hospital, Dr's office, cancer centers, etc), I'll take her word that a nose bleed is NOT the first sign of cancer, despite the fact that movies CONSTANTLY tell us that nosebleed = cancer.

If you have a spontaneous nosebleed, chances are you have dried out sinuses, not cancer....

[Heddi]

182. All Hospital Scenes are Cliche!

As a nurse I hate watching any show that is Hospital-based....it's so fucking far off. My colleagues and I always get a laugh at the fact that the oxygen tubing is put on wrong (it's not supposed to be wrapped around the head---it goes under the nose and behind the ears!),

or that when you see someone doing CPR it looks like they're folding laundry, and they can do it for hours without breaking a sweat (reality: CPR is physically demanding and you cannot WAIT for your 3-minute stretch to be done because the first 30 seconds is one of the most intense workouts you'll ever get)

Also, when you see movies/shows that have people in the ICU, they're always clean and freshly shaven with neat hair and a touch of lipgloss (reality: you are unkempt, probably haven't had a shave in a week, hair all to hell, dried blood here and there, secretions coming from every orifice, and a virtual schmorgasboard of machines and contraptions beeping endlessly)

Also, when someone WAS in a coma and intubated (where they're on a ventilator) and come out of it and get the tube removed, they're able to talk perfectly well, eat solid food, laugh IMMEDIATELY (reality: Intubated patients rarely get extubated and start eating the same day. The vocal cords are usually truamatized and the extubated can't speak above a whisper for at least a day, or many days depending on how long they had the tube in)

Oh and some other cliches that aren't true:

Nurses do not wear short skirts, hats, and heels

Nurses are not the Dr's handmaidens. Our sole job is not wiping ass and saying "Yes, Doctor! Right away!"

And doctors in real life NEVER spend as much time at the bedside/in the hospital as Dr's on TV/movies do. NEVER. You'll see an MD for a few minutes a day as they make their rounds, or when they come up to admit a patient. Other than that, hospitals are RN territory. Dr's are the outsiders :)

[ForrestGump]

186. I dispute your last contention

on the grounds that doctors in hospitals in the movie, unless they're the main character, are usually not actual doctors but are bad guys in disguise, waiting to fatally smother or embolize the patient. :P

And nurses do so wear short skirts, heels, and....oh, wait...that was from a dream I had the other night. Scratch that, please... :blush:

[Heddi]

188. Scrubs are teh sexy

Nothing like a frumpy pair of PJ's and Crocs to bring out the sexy in all of us.

Oh, and especially when your scrubs have some "mystery" dark stain on it...is it ink? betadyne? blood? poo? We play "Name that secretion" all the time with our scrubs, shoes, chairs at the nurse's station

Why don't they show how Dr's really look? Grey haired curmudgeons who hate RN's, hate the patients, hate being on call, hate getting calls, hate coming in, hate writing orders......

[begin_within]

202. Hospital rooms depicted as quiet, peaceful, relaxing, healing places

When in fact (at least in my experience) hospitals are often chaotic, noisy, un-restful places where the patient is constantly interrupted from whatever they were doing or woken up to take their vitals, etc. About the least-healing environment you could be in.

[Heddi]

210. Oh yeah. I work nights -- 7p to 7a

and I work on a critical care unit, so we take vitals MINIMUM every 4 hours around the clock. That means Midnight and 4am. I HATE waking people up for vitals. I mean, it's one thing if someone is critcally ill enough or whatever to warrant the 4am vital, but as a routine, I think it's bullshit.

And it would be one thing if that were the only thing they were being woken up for--no, they get respiratory treatments and blood draws and the dreaded middle of the night weight (which I refuse to allow to be done to my patients. You take it at midnight or 6am, not at 2:45. That's bullshit). Then most of them (at my hospital) are in double rooms so if they're not being waken up for their own stuff, they're getting woken up for their neighbor's shit as well.

Then they have to deal with the shit they do during the daytime---breakfast, baths, vitals, PT, OT, Dr's visit, Social Work, Lunch, Meds, Vitals, Family, Bath, Dinner, PT, OT, SOcial work, Xrays, blood draws, Respiratory treatemnt, the nurse coming in and asking you why you're *gasp* sleeping during the daytime.

I tell my patients flat out that whoever came up with the notion of hospitals being places of rest and relaxation has NEVER been at a hospital. The US model of hospital-based health care is so far away from rest and relaxation it's not even funny. It's fucking pathetic and I apologize profusely to patients when I have to do bullshit middle-of-the-night procedures that are unnecessary to their wellbeing. I think that more than 2 hours of uninterrupted SLEEP is much more important than a routine vital sign on a stable patient who's going to be discharged later that day.

[begin_within]

224. Very well said. Sleep is the best healer of most things, and a hospital is one of the

most difficult places to get sleep because of all the commotion.

[benEzra]

192. All guns make mysterious clicking sounds whenever someone raises them to eye level.

Guns fired from the hip magically aim themselves and actually hit stuff, as long as the Good Guy is doing it. And the Bad Guy can't hit the Good Guy at all even with a scoped rifle at 50 yards, unless he just hits him in the shoulder. If the Bad Guy is a psycho, no one around the Damsel in Distress is allowed to be more competent with weapons than a 5-year-old on a sugar high. And you can thumb-cock a Glock.

Ford Crown Vics driven by Good Guys can keep up with BMW M5's, Corvettes, and Ferraris. Minivans driven by Good Guys can outrun anything on the road.

Whenever a car is shot with anything larger than a BB gun, it blows up in a huge fireball, even if you hit it in the radiator or the spare tire.

Most of the villains need to read Evil Overlordship for Dummies:
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html

Somewhere around here, I have "What I Would Do If I Were On A Scientific Spec-Ops Team," but I can't find it...

[Kat45]

197. Whenever someone runs out of ammo, they throw the gun at the person they were shooting at

WTF is that about? :rofl:

[Heddi]

201. In Seattle, Everyone has a view of the space needle

And everyone's house is simultaneously in three different spots of town at the same time because they can see the Space Needle, The Mariner's Stadium and The Cascades through the same window at the same time. And given that there are parts of South Seattle where I suppose someone COULD have a view like that (not through the same window, though), the people are shown living in condos that are clearly downtown, yet when they walk outside their door they have magically appeared in Capitol Hill, some 4 or so miles away in the other part of town.

Also in movies, EVERYONE RIDES THE MONORAIL TO GET TO WORK. it's like the Tokyo speed train....only it isn't. It runs from the Space Needle to the Mall with no stops in between and the only people who ride the damn thing (when it's not catching fire, that is) are tourists

One of the Medical Tee Vee This Is How Hospitals Really Are shows started with this girl who lived in Queen Anne (based on the view from her window). She then got in her car and was going to work, yet was on the upper level of Hwy 99 in South Seattle going TOWARDS the Queen Anne area, and considering the top level of 99 runs South to North, she went about 30 miles out of her way to get back where she started from. Then, while you see her coming into town from the South (even though she lives North) she is able to get off 99 and be in Capitol Hill (which is nowhere near 99) and walking down Broadway and voila! Walks into Harborview (which is several blocks away from the area of Broadway they showed her walking down).

For people who live in Seattle and know the layout, it's quite funny because it's so ridiculously implausable to have taken any of those routes to get anywhere from wherever it was that she was.

[Zavulon]

237. Ever see the view from Frasier's apartment?

No building in Seattle affords that view.

[begin_within]

203. Movies filmed in Monument Valley, yet taking place somewhere else

A strikingly beautiful but over-used landscape, often the backdrop for films that are set nowhere near the actual Monument Valley. "My Darling Clementine" (1946) is set in Tombstone, Arizona, 340 miles south of Monument Valley, yet the famous buttes and rock formations appear in the background, seemingly just a few miles from the town of Tombstone.

[ForrestGump]

204. EXCELLENT backdrop and a spectacular place to explore but, yeah,

used so often as a setting for films located as erroneously as in California, New Mexico, Texas, etc. And Plains Indian tribes never hung out there, to the best of my knowledge.

Forrest Gump did, though, on US 163, southwest of Mexican Hat.

[begin_within]

205. It's also used in "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) as the place where the

Cheyenne were dumped by the U.S. cavalry after their forced eviction from Wyoming, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

John Ford used Monument Valley many times, and it is featured prominently in arguably his best film, "The Searchers" (1956) but if I recall correctly, it is identified as Texas in that film.

[ForrestGump]

208. I just watched "The Seachers"

Yep, Texas in that movie. I got the DVD from the library last week because I was inspired by recently watching Sergio Leone westerns that in turn (after reading about Leone's influences) led me to explore some of Kurosawa's work that in turn (after reading about Akira Kurosawa's influences) led me to get hold of The Searchers and others.

I'm not sure if that film was among the vast number of 'cowboy' films I watched as a kid, but seeing it now (now that I know a bit more about film beyond the more passive experience of just enjoying a good yarn) really has me appreciating it a lot more than I might have earlier. The story was more nuanced and complex than I think many would credit at first glance, especially if they go in with the perception that it's a 'John Wayne Movie,' but the cinematography was absolutely perfect. Like a few mainstream films Hollywood put out at that time, against the odds, I think it was a little ahead of its time.

I can see why Kurosawa dressed like John Ford when he directed, and why Sergio Leone's only US-shot scenes in Once Upon A Time In The West were set in Monument Valley.

[begin_within]

209. I think that one scene with the parallel "trains,"

one train of Indians and the other of the cowboys, is one of the greatest shots in all of cinema.

[ForrestGump]

212. And, in watching it, I realized that some of the iconic moments and shots in that film

are surprisingly widespread as tributes in other films (the surrounded homestead, before Henry Fonda's evil side is revealed for the first time, being one very obvious example from the 1969 Leone film).

[FloridaJudy]

206. Terrorists

Are either scuzzy-looking, dark skinned people with heavy accents and furtive eyes or urbane, articulate types in impeccable tailored clothing. Often the first is working for the latter.

[Evoman]

207. I've said it before..in movies like K19 The Widomaker. Either have the cast speak russian or make it

a translation and knock off the accents. Why would russian commanders speak english with russian accent on an all russian boat. Either translate or sub-title, but quit with the accent bullshit.

[ForrestGump]

211. Kato, yurh fuehl!

Than whut fuhhn would Unspectyeur Clouseau be, s'il vous plait?

[Evoman]

215. Accents are okay if you're french and speaking to English people.

But why would a big group of French-only people speak broken english to each other?

[NewJeffCT]

223. I know nuffink!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztgYhVFSDSQ

[nadine_mn]

219. Everyone is always wearing their "good" underwear..

I hate it... no stains, no tears, no mismatching
wheneve a woman is getting nekkid... she always has on Victoria secret underthings and men rarely have ratty tighy whities

only when I knew for sure I was gonna get some action did I break out the expensive lingerie (the stuff so uncomfortable its good that it will be on the floor soon)

[Heddi]

220. ha

it's clearly evident that no woman has ever been involved in the making of lingere or brassieres because otherwise they would not be so damn uncomfortable :)

Where are the period-only undies? I can't be the only woman in the world who wears the crappy panties just one week a month, right? RIGHT???

[Zavulon]

228. Every window in Paris has a view of the Eiffel Tower.

There are no exceptions. Even the windows on the opposite of those with a view of the Eiffel Tower have a view of the Eiffel Tower.

[Auggie]

238. Sports teams mired in hopeless mediocrity acquire ONE player

who takes them to the championships.

[Auggie]

239. Boxing matches

Fighters land haymaker upon haymaker on each other that would normally knock someone out with one blow.

Every Rocky film, Raging Bull, Cinderella Man...

[MountainLaurel]

240. Fighting couple has baby, and everything is sunshine and roses

When in fact the opposite usually happens.