Things on occasion will bother my sensibilities. Here is a short list of 5 issues that drive me crazy in films.
1) Unnecessary Romance: It does not matter if it is a comedy, action film, horror movie or a commercial for cereal; If you do not need romance in the story – do not throw it in. Nothing bogs down a movie like unneeded romance. I am guessing they do this to make all movies date movies – and it is retarded, 300 focused on macho action and the gals loved it! Quit thinking tagged on, sappy table scraps are going to cause females to drag all their friends to your film.
2) Twist Endings: When they are good and fitting they can be great, too often they are overdone and are horrible. Shamhammer I am looking at you.
3) Casting Kids: Young children better be important to the story to have them in it. Often they will wreck a movie with shitty acting and most of the time they come off as annoying rather than endearing. Remember The Phantom Menace? Now picture Phantom Menace starting with Vader at 16 instead of 8.
4) The Film Is Too Long: Most movies would be better if they stuck to 90 min or less. It should be all killer, no filler; boil it down, boil it down, boil it down.
5) Sequels: When a movie is great and has an amazing standalone story – leave it alone. Highlander is the ultimate example of this. I will often skip sequels just so they do not taint my experience of the first film. I have only seen the original Highlander to this day, and will never stray.
International Friends the door is now open to you – What things drive you crazy when you see them in films?
@Rian Miller
They do that beer thing because they’re too lazy to keep up with the beer amount, continuity-wise. I hate it, too.
another one.. forced flashbacks. Ones with really obvious links to what’s going on in the “present”. I know it’s not a film, but Lost does it all the time and it makes me want to rip my eyes out!
one thing that bugs the shit out of me is the newspaper clippings on the wall of the killers hideout,what a shitty way of explaining the weak ass plot.
This is a fairly insignificant point, but it’s something that happens a lot in movies and always bugs me. I hate it when a character walks into a bar/restaurant and orders a drink (or has one ordered for them), then they get the drink and begin having a discussion with another character before getting up to leave, having taken one or less sips of their drink. It happens all the time and it drives me nuts. How many people would go into a bar and order a beer then leave the whole damn thing just because their conversation is over? I know it’s ridiculous, but it drives me nuts when this happens, and it happens more often than you may think.
Another thing that bugs me is when there’s a clip or scene in the trailer for a movie and then it doesn’t appear in the actual film. In my opinion, the worst case of this is the film Orange County. Admittedly it’s not a very good movie to begin with, but good portion of the trailer involved Jack Black in his underwear drunkenly helping Colin Hanks make a video to try to get him into college. I recall finding it hilarious, but upon seeing the movie, this scene was omitted completely. Of course with DVD special features these days it’s easy enough to see these missing scenes, but it annoys me on occasion when I wait for a scene in a movie that never comes.
3) Casting Kids:
did you see Tideland?
young Jodelle Ferland was incredible. must c!
Got to agree with films that are too long, totally unnecessary .
I completely agree with you Lee. It also pisses me off when they explain exactly whats going on to the good guy, making absolutely no attempt to stop him from untying himself while they do this.
I completely agree with you Lee. It also pisses me off when they explain exactly whats going on to the good guy make absolutely no attempt to stop him from untying himself while they do this.
I hate it when the bad guy captures the good guy but does not kill him right away.
No, they will lock the good guy up in a room and leave no one to keep watch over him. This then gives the good guy time to escape.
Just shoot him and be done with it!!
You know, Doug, i want to know why you want a movie 90 minutes or less. Very few movies are that length. I like my movies to be between 100 and 120 minutes long. I mean, The Prestige was 2 hours and 20 minutes, and it was perfect.
Sequels- yes
Kids- YES
Romance- YES
Twist Endings- i have a soft spot for these.
I’d say I hate it when a film tries to be two or three things at once. You know, like a character drama and a slapstick comedy at the same time. I also hate it when big name stars who aren’t even actors get cast(50 Cent, Paris Hilton).
Yep… especially no. 3. Although i thought war of the worlds would be completely ruined by this and just about managed to get away with it (just) … classic spielburg though, add a kid to every story
omfg you got it so right hose 5 things are EXACTLY what annoys me about flicks. Twists are good when they don’t make them as apparent as hell. Saw 1 had an awesome twist. …In fact thats about the only good one i can think of.
Jessica Alba’s acting.
For gay people, pointless (typically straight) romance is even more unendurable — and we have endured a lot of it, every waking day of our media lives. However, ironically perhaps, gay people seem highly drawn to, even more than straight people, stuff like Steed and Peel, or Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep, or the early days of Scully and Mulder — the really smart, witty, intelligent, non-sexual flirtation/banter.
I also hate it when a movie is TOO long but a great example of when a movie is made exponentially better with the increased length was Kingdom of Heaven. The director’s cut kept me intrigued and engrossed the entire 3+ hours while the theatrical cut just frustrated the hell outta me. But you’re right about sequels, nowadays if a movie is a hit they gotta make a sequel to it. The Matrix Trilogy is an example of this where the sequels just make the original worse.
I’m with you on them all except for 4. I feel quite the opposite. I hate movies that seem to sacrifice story or buildup simply to get their runtime down to 83 minutes. A movie should be as long as it takes to tell a complete story. If that’s an hour and 20 minutes, or 3 hours and 20 minutes, then so be it.
I also hate it when characters break the fourth wall in any way. It’s lame and takes me out of the experience.
Amen Mr. Stay Puft…. Amen
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHA
All movies would benefit from adding a giant man made of marshmallow.
As a female, I have to say how much I hate the token chick in all movies, not just action. It kills me to see a random piece of ass that’s there just to be there.
And much older guys scoring way younger women in movies. Nicolas Cage is banging Jessica friggin Biel in his new movie, and before that he was scoring Eva Mendes. And how the guy can look like hell, but the girl’s ass has to be tighter than virgin pussy.
I think forcing a movie to be right around 90 minutes (as is so often done) ruins many more movies than does a movie being too long.
Doug
you 1, 3, 5, is my pet peeves also.
Just say no to romance! Pearl Harbor was only 45 mins of the film!
Dinosaurs? Just add a kid.
Disney going broke? Release the sequels. Little Mermaid 7.
Here’s my pet peeves:
1) Gangsta rap stars in movies, calling themselves actors but in truth refuse to act/wish to retain thier ‘gangsta rap’ image.
2) Characters who see or are confronted with a threat and proceed to take situation lightly/self awareness…or “winking”.
3) Excessive and/or unnecessary nudity. Nudity for the most part, is a distraction.
4) Sadism/Sadist humor from characters. Not necessarily ‘one liners’ [although coffin humor died out in the early 90’s]
5) Great/bad special effects which have nothing to do with the story, doesn’t enchance characters, and is really there just too stick out and look cool. Worse- if the special feects good/bad “ARE the story”, that’s a tipoff to me that there is no story.
smoking annoys me
Forced conflict. A movie can be funny and really entertaining, then at the beginning of the third act you have to have the scene where the girl see her boyfriend making out with some other girl. Then he has to chase her down and make her see the truth and have a happy ending.