posted
This may be completely OT by now, but what just killed "War Games" for me was the kid (supposedly growing up in Seattle) pronouncing the name of our neighbor to the south as "Orry Gone." Sorry, dude, but no Washingtonian in their right mind does that.
I remember Tim Roth's comment about acquiring local accents (he's British and he had to become American midwestern for "Murder In The Heartland"). He said, "Don't just be from America, be from a particular state, a particular street." Most true. While national television has erased many of our regional accents, there are enough of them left for us USA-ans to disbelieve a bad approximation.
Posts: 30 | From: San Francisco, California | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by smackmac: Does it bother anyone else when someone dials out from their office and only dials 7 digits (here in US)? In most offices, you need to dial a 9 or something to get out of the internal phone system.
Dialing phone numbers without area codes bothers me to, but that's just because we have to dial them here.
I've worked in a few offices of differing sizes where we don't have to dial 9. But, yeah, I think it is more usual to have to dial 9 than to not.
That's one of the things I like about the The Venture Brothers, as it has supervillians and super-scientists dealing with such mundane tasks as trying to get an outside line to your multi-billion dollar flying butterfly cocoon lair.
-------------------- Meanwhile, at stately Wayne Manor... Posts: 1316 | From: Oregon | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by GenYus: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Max_Renn: [qb] How about "willing suspension of disbelief"?
With some works 'disbelief' must be not only 'suspended' but drawn & quartered.
-------------------- "The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart."--Iris Murdoch Posts: 3307 | From: Charleston, WV | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
One thing I noticed in Final Destination 3 just yesterday. Modern digital comeras do not have a blinding flash. Nor do they make the *flash *pop sound of older cameras. Why does hollywood insist that modern cameras still have the sound effects and bliding features of cameras made 50 years ago?
posted
Probably for the same reason that computers display text in a 48 point font and that any communication with a remote person happens one letter at a time.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BeachLife: One thing I noticed in Final Destination 3 just yesterday. Modern digital comeras do not have a blinding flash. Nor do they make the *flash *pop sound of older cameras. Why does hollywood insist that modern cameras still have the sound effects and bliding features of cameras made 50 years ago?
I think I may have mentioned this already in this thread... I heard a story on NPR once about how certain movie sound effects stay around even though the things they're supposed to sound like don't actually sound like that anymore. Another one most people probably don't notice is the sound effect of a car door closing. The sound you always hear in movies is that of a 1960s car door; the doors on modern cars are lighter and don't sound like that when they close. But apparently a more accurate sound effect actually sounds more "wrong" to most audiences.
-------------------- "Unseasonable is an odd word to begin with. It sounds like it's describing something that it's impossible to sprinkle pepper on." -- Nonny Posts: 5483 | From: Just south of Folsom Prison, CA | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I'm not sure if its been mentioned here before, but one common thing to be mentioned by film reviewers is that too often villans have British accents regardless of where they are from.
Mainly they don't counterpoint this by mentioning a fair number of good charaters also have british accents.
Posts: 372 | From: Marple, UK | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BeachLife: One thing I noticed in Final Destination 3 just yesterday. Modern digital comeras do not have a blinding flash. Nor do they make the *flash *pop sound of older cameras. Why does hollywood insist that modern cameras still have the sound effects and bliding features of cameras made 50 years ago?
I might be wrong, but don't most cameras nowdays have the artificial camera-shutter sound that can be turned off?
Also, I heard Kodak was called that because the name mimics the sound that a camera shutter makes
-------------------- Nico Sasha In between my father's fields;And the citadels of the rule; Lies a no-man's land which I must cross; To find my stolen jewel. Posts: 4912 | From: VA | Registered: Jul 2003
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Stupid Neanderthal villians have Southern American (Redneck) accents.
-------------------- Opinions aren't excuses to remain ignorant about subjects, nor are they excuses to never examine one's beliefs & prejudices...
Babies are like tattoos. You see other peoples' & they're cool, but yours is never as good & you can't get rid of it. Posts: 5622 | From: Jax, Florida | Registered: Nov 2003
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Mad Jay: I might be wrong, but don't most cameras nowdays have the artificial camera-shutter sound that can be turned off?
Some (all?) digital SLR cameras still have an actual shutter. I didn't believe my brother-in-law but he took the lens off and showed me.
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by BeachLife: One thing I noticed in Final Destination 3 just yesterday. Modern digital comeras do not have a blinding flash. Nor do they make the *flash *pop sound of older cameras. Why does hollywood insist that modern cameras still have the sound effects and bliding features of cameras made 50 years ago?
I might be wrong, but don't most cameras nowdays have the artificial camera-shutter sound that can be turned off?
Also, I heard Kodak was called that because the name mimics the sound that a camera shutter makes
It's not the shutter sound I'm talking about, but the sound of the flash. Older cameras used flash bulbs which made a distinctive sound. This is the sound that I heard in FD 3 and is commonly used in a lot of movies even today.
posted
The flash bulbs made a "pumf" sound, & auto wind cameras from the 80s onwards made a whirring which has been sampled for use on digital ones, I turned this off as it's off-putting.
Posts: 372 | From: Marple, UK | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Malruhn: May I offer a slight correction, Richard?
SMART villians have British accents.
Neanderthal villians have American accents.
Stupid Neanderthal villians have Southern American (Redneck) accents.
Barbaric villains have Middle Eastern, Eastern, or South American accents.
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
It always bugs me when an animal is used, but poorly. For example, a few weeks ago I was watching an episode of Bones in which there were supposed to be several aggressive Rotts. The dogs were snarling, foaming at the mouth, all that jazz, but only when the camera was directly on them. If they were in the backround, you could not only see them clearly looking at the trainer and not the actors, but they were relaxed and wagging thier nubby little tails. It really irritaed me, because it completely ruined the scene.
Posts: 75 | From: Morganton NC | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:The word "Kodak" was first registered as a trademark in 1888. There has been some fanciful speculation, from time to time, on how the name was originated. But the plain truth is that Eastman invented it out of thin air.
He explained: "I devised the name myself. The letter "K" had been a favorite with me -- it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with 'K.' The word 'Kodak' is the result." Kodak's distinctive yellow trade dress, which Eastman selected, is widely known throughout the world and is one of the company's more valued assets.
quote:Originally posted by Malruhn: Stupid Neanderthal villians have Southern American (Redneck) accents.
Uhm, I thought they speak viz der hard german akzent, jawoll!
Gavida
Oh, no! The villains with German accents are the smart ones. Sometimes even smarter than the ones with British accents! (Excepting, of course, the Indiana Jones movies, since the vast majority of the villains are actually supposed to be German anyway. )
-------------------- Last year's goat was burned down by vandals dressed up as Santa Claus and the Gingerbread Man. They were never caught. My blog. The Adventures of the Fish O'Thwacking. Countdown: 177 days (or less!) Posts: 4926 | From: NW Ohio | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Mickey Blue: I made a whole thread on this one once, but when kids survive a movie that there is simply no way they would have survived, and often we get no explanation as to how. I mean I'm not all for killing kids, but either give us a reason why they lived, kill them off, or don't put them in.. THe two worst offenders off the top of my head are Aliens and Jurrasic Park III.
I know I'm backtracking a bit, but I wanted to say that your thread, entitled "Just kill the kid, already!" was the first I ever read here at Snopes. I wasn't interested in a message board, but when I saw that title I was...intrigued.
-------------------- "It's a perfect system...unless it screws up." -Biology Professor Posts: 495 | From: Orange County, CA | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I know this is a tv show, but why did the kids in USA High pay for everything in dollars?
I was watching the episodes of Friends where Ross says Rachel's name at his wedding. When Rachel agrees to go with him to Greece, I noticed that the inside of the aiport looks nothing like Heathrow, but I can deal with that.
What really bugged me is that Rachel was even able to get onto the plane. The ticket was not in her name, and the staff at the boarding gate would have checked both the ticket and her passport. But that would have interrupted the plot line I guess. As would have the fact that rachel would't have been allowed to go to the boarding gate anyway on account of her not having a ticket.
-------------------- I am not taking lectures on physics from a man in tights. Posts: 236 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I'm generally quite nice and forgiving audience.
So, I'm not bothered the least by submarines releasing torpedoes in NY harbor in Godzilla (hey, it's a film about a *giant lizard* destroying New York - so what the Hell), 99% of the cars exploding on impact (it just looks cooler in a movie) or two guys fighting on top of a flying AV-8 Harrier. Who said action comedies of SF movies have to be realistic ?
Yet, here are my favorites :
- Those Korean War-era M-47 US tanks acting as german King Tigers in "Battle of the Bulge" (one of the worst war flicks anyway... it looks as if it was written by two kids playing with plastic soldiers - there's almost one blooper every 30 seconds).
- The final scene in the 1993 version of "The 3 Musketeers", when king Louis XIII punches cardinal Richelieu in the nose... OMG... that should land in the "people in serious need of history lessons" section.
- When they enter the abandoned starship in "Event Horizon". It's supposed to be -200C° or so inside, and you see a bottle floating around in zero gravity, with the liquid inside... well, still *liquid*.
- The many scenes where people are fatally wounded and still find the strength to say (or to shout) some famous last words (with the exception of king Theoden's death which always draws me tears).
- I'm all for affirmative action and all that sort of things. But - Morgan Feeeman or not - forcing a black character into "Robin Hood"'s plot was a bit too obvious.
- Have you noticed that except when it's necessary for the plot, users of firearms never have to do trivial things such as reloading. At least once in while.
- As said above, I like explosions. But why do they all have to produce a giant fireball as if someone had blown up a full barrel of gasoline ? Hand grenades, artillery shells and sticks of dynamite don't do that.
- The hero who always leaves his car with the doors open and the keys still on (sometimes even with the engine running). No matter how bad the neighbourhood, the car never gets stolen.
- Those clumsy criminals in CSI who never think of changing or washing their clothes after committing a crime.
-------------------- Desperate, but not serious. Posts: 689 | From: Confoederatio Helvetica | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but one of my big pet peeves with movies and TV shows is the overblown accuracy and lethality of handguns. Handguns are close quarter weapons, rarely affective beyond about 25 yards, and in the case of the military they are weapons of last resort.
But to watch shows like 24 (one of favorites) you would think that a 9mm is as deadly and accurate as an M16.
-------------------- Let your TV bleed- Tom Petty Posts: 329 | From: Wiesbaden, Germany | Registered: Oct 2005
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Major D. Saster: - When they enter the abandoned starship in "Event Horizon". It's supposed to be -200C° or so inside, and you see a bottle floating around in zero gravity, with the liquid inside... well, still *liquid*.
I haven't seen it, but maybe the liquid was the air that used to be in the bottle? (OK, it wouldn't all condense - there would be an equilibrium between the liquid and the gaseous phases - but some of it might.) Of course, there would hardly be any of it if that was the case, so I'm probably being too generous.
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Spc. Sharki: Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but one of my big pet peeves with movies and TV shows is the overblown accuracy and lethality of handguns. Handguns are close quarter weapons, rarely affective beyond about 25 yards, and in the case of the military they are weapons of last resort.
But to watch shows like 24 (one of favorites) you would think that a 9mm is as deadly and accurate as an M16.
Uncanily accurate in the timing of deaths too. The good guys always seem to get shot in a way that allows them like five minutes to get out some last words. Where as bad guys just die.
quote:Originally posted by Spc. Sharki: Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but one of my big pet peeves with movies and TV shows is the overblown accuracy and lethality of handguns. Handguns are close quarter weapons, rarely affective beyond about 25 yards, and in the case of the military they are weapons of last resort.
But to watch shows like 24 (one of favorites) you would think that a 9mm is as deadly and accurate as an M16.
Uncanily accurate in the timing of deaths too. The good guys always seem to get shot in a way that allows them like five minutes to get out some last words. Where as bad guys just die.
Unless there's some key bit of information the good guys need to get out of them first, of course.
Nonny
-------------------- When there isn't anything else worth analyzing, we examine our collective navel. I found thirty-six cents in change in mine the other day. Let no one say that there is no profit in philosophy. -- Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 10141 | From: Toronto, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, and I am very knowledgable, about unique way Pittsburgers talk.
It frustrates that shows that are set in Pittsburg, talk like people from the Midwest, examples are "Queer as Folk" these people grew up in Pittsburh, same as an old show called Hope and Gloria, and the movie "Striking Distance" for God's sake give these people accent training.
Just once I would like to here them talk they are Pittsburgers!
Posts: 87 | From: Burlington, Iowa | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Major D. Saster: - Those Korean War-era M-47 US tanks acting as german King Tigers in "Battle of the Bulge" (one of the worst war flicks anyway... it looks as if it was written by two kids playing with plastic soldiers - there's almost one blooper every 30 seconds).
Is that the one with Henry Fonda and with Robert Shaw as "Kessler" (based on Peiper)? With Telly Savalas as a tank-driver and scrounger? It's a cute movie, almost a parody of a war movie. (Anzio is another war movie with so much whimsy -- Peter Falk's character getting drunk in the back of an ambulance with several whores!) -- as to be worth seeing just for the cognitive dissonance!
I just saw To Hell and Back, and, again, those U.S. tanks with the German Crosses painted on 'em always make me titter. Same problem in Patton.
(Gotta love Kelly's Heroes! REAL Tiger I tanks! Lovely bastards; thank God they came out too little and too late!)
Oh, and the tv series Rat Patrol was also infamous for using U.S. tanks as Afrika Korps tanks.
Speaking of North Africa...Trobuk, with George Peppard (and many others) is a prize. The movie is worth it all for Nigel Greene's role alone. (Hell, the movie is worth it for his last line in the movie!)
Worst "War Movie" ever made? Return of the Jedi, where a forest of fuzzy munchkins wipes out a column of armored high-tech soldiers. Roark's Drift, anyone?
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:No matter where a soldier goes, and for how long, he will always be able to fit all of his worldly possessions into exactly one duffel bag.
Uhm.. I'm not a military person and I am sure DestertRat and other will most likely correct me but: The duffelbag contains his equipment (Uniforms, boots, etc) and his "worldly possessions (if any)" are stuffed in a box so that it can be stored easily and -if the sad thing happens- can be picked up easily by his surviving relatives / spouse. Simple things like deosticks, soaps, etc get trashed and they buy it new. My Hospital had recently a donation run of those toiletries for homecoming soldiers from Iraq.
-------------------- ~Reality, the refuge of those who fail in RPGs~ aka Darkfist Dragon -==(UDIC)==- Posts: 334 | From: Lancaster, Ohio | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:- When they enter the abandoned starship in "Event Horizon". It's supposed to be -200C° or so inside, and you see a bottle floating around in zero gravity, with the liquid inside... well, still *liquid*.
What made me laugh at that scene was not that it was still liquid, but that it was sloshing down at each rotation. "Captain, all gravity is out, with the exception of the one that affects the bottles inside, sir."
-------------------- ~Reality, the refuge of those who fail in RPGs~ aka Darkfist Dragon -==(UDIC)==- Posts: 334 | From: Lancaster, Ohio | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
In the Battle Of Britain (1969) most of the Spitfires used for filming were built after 1940, but efforts were made to make them look right. Many features made since have not been so careful.
The same goes for a lot of films with trains in set in Britain before 1948 which used preserved steam locos in British Rail colours.
Posts: 372 | From: Marple, UK | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
While we're at war flicks, I remember an italian one about the battle of El-Alamein where the british troops were storming the italian positions in M-113 APC's that entered service 20 years later, and the Italians were heroïcally throwing sticks of dynamite at them.
-------------------- Desperate, but not serious. Posts: 689 | From: Confoederatio Helvetica | Registered: Sep 2005
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Featuring a Wild-West-style, 5-days-bearded William Tell riding along middle-agic Switzerland on his white horse like a lonesome gunslinger and shooting these Austrians with his crossbow like Clint Eastwood in a spaghetti-western movie, from the hip.
I still must laugh just by thinking of it.
-------------------- Desperate, but not serious. Posts: 689 | From: Confoederatio Helvetica | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Neffti see you, to see you, Neff: People receiving unexpected news that a dearly loved one has coughed it, and instantly falling to the floor sobbing their name.
Never seen that happen once in my own life - in my experience, humans simply don't process bad news that fast. After a short period of time, yes, but shock is usually the first feeling, which can lead to responses such as "I'll just get the washing in," or "Oh, dear. Let's have a cup of tea."
It's a bugbear of mine because it can lead people to think they've given a bad, unhealthy response to bad news, just because they've seen people in films responding "properly."
I used to think that (people don't collapse when given bad news). When the hospital called and gave me the news that my mom had died, I realized I couldn't feel my legs and wound up on the floor. I don't recall sobbing her name, though. I do remember crying and being unable to tell my SO why. I also remember being quite pissed at the way I was told- the nurse assumed someone had already called the family. I am not generally given to "drama" so I felt stupid for slumping, but I finally understood why people are sometimes told to sit before getting bad news.
I think different people react different ways.
-------------------- "Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie." -Apu (The Simpsons) Posts: 2026 | From: 10 miles South of Boston | Registered: Oct 2002
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