Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Scenes in films that are so illogical it really grates.

1000 replies

Yetmorebeanstocount · 06/02/2024 20:23

Eat Pray Love.
The two women have just discussed eating, muffin-tops, body image, etc, and Julia Roberts says to enjoy the pizza and just buy bigger jeans.

So in the next scene they are buying jeans, but doing that stereotypical-joke thing of lying on the changing room floor trying to pull up the zip on too-tight jeans.
Why? - that totally defeats the object.

I guess the male writer/director thought it would be a fun scene, that is how he imagines women always shop for jeans.
It just makes no sense in the context of the film.

What scenes really annoy you?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
VeronicaBeccabunga · 07/02/2024 13:03

Long thread, so apologies if this has been mentioned.
Police rock up at someone's home [often single-handed and someone quite senior, looking at you 'Vera'] and tell them their husband has been bumped off.
Bereaved wife happily brews up and answers questions.
I'd be a hysterical wreck.
The copper then asks if, for example, the son is at home. Someone has to call him down from upstairs and he's never noticed a police car parked outside, heard the front door, people talking in the house.

SydneyCarton · 07/02/2024 13:05

I'm watching the earlier episodes of Call The Midwife and quite a few (not all) of the birth scenes have women lying on their sides with the midwives holding their legs in position, which is how my mum said my grandma described giving birth in the 1940s

Andthereyougo · 07/02/2024 13:06

Might have been mentioned but “Sue” in Crocodile Dundee (2 ?). Been in the Outback for hours trailing the baddies, climbing rocks, hiding etc.. yet not a hair out of place, makeup immaculate and a pristine white shirt.

Iwasafool · 07/02/2024 13:07

Bruisername · 07/02/2024 12:59

I screamed the hospital down when I was giving birth!

I've had 4 children, so 4 labours (no multiples) and they were all totally different so I have no idea what a realistic birth is supposed to look like. I mean you could pick the induction with a long labour or the induction with the short labour, the forceps, the home birth, the emergency cesarean. Then there was the very slow and long drawn out start of labour where I pottered about for about 14 hrs before going to the hospital or the one where I left the hall feeling fine and was having such strong contractions by the time I reached the landing I couldn't stand up. I could go on.

2dogsandabudgie · 07/02/2024 13:08

When there is a bomb in a film with a countdown timer, and there is 30 seconds left which is more like 30 minutes and the hero always manages to diffuse the bomb with just a second to go.

Also no one ever needs the toilet especially if they're being held captive.

NoBinturongsHereMate · 07/02/2024 13:08

SydneyCarton · 07/02/2024 13:05

I'm watching the earlier episodes of Call The Midwife and quite a few (not all) of the birth scenes have women lying on their sides with the midwives holding their legs in position, which is how my mum said my grandma described giving birth in the 1940s

Yes, they're pretty good at different positions - lots on their sides, on all fours, or kneeling at the end of the bed.

IAcceptCookies · 07/02/2024 13:15

I did see a Scandi noir type thing recently, think set in Iceland, where the policewoman goes to the toilet in someone's house. Shes sitting on the throne, gets some toilet roll, then it cuts to her washing her hands.
It was so bizarrely unusual that I remarked on it to DH.

Mothership4two · 07/02/2024 13:15

Police searching massive buildings - they go up onto the floors wandering in and out of rooms and then someone says "all clear" and I think but there are literally hundreds of hiding places there - they didn't check under or behind anything or in cupboards.

SendOver · 07/02/2024 13:16

Any thriller or horror film where there appears to be a lack of light switches in the house.
A woman will walk in shouting hello, then wander in without putting a light on.
Followed by being chased by a mad axeman through a dark house, which seems to have several rooms added on to run through.
If she's lucky enough to run outside, she will trip over a tree root, then limp / hop to a car which is conveniently unlocked with the keys in the ignition.
Naturally, it won't start until the mad axeman has almost reached the car, then it will magically roar into life.

Pregnant women. They always look like they've got a beach ball stuffed up their dress, especially when laying down. Why are the bumps always literally under the boobs too, especially when they're supposed to be full term and baby has moved down? Call the Midwife is a prime example of this.
In the age of prosthetics and latex, wouldn't you think they'd make a more realistic bump?
Also, woman has given birth ten minutes ago, yet she's dressed and ready to go without the slightest hint of post baby bump.

Arguments in a restaurant or cafe. They're literally screaming at each other, yet the other diners just carry on eating and drinking without so much as looking round, whereas in reality we would be agog.

TotalAbsenceOfImperialRaiment · 07/02/2024 13:17

VeronicaBeccabunga · 07/02/2024 13:03

Long thread, so apologies if this has been mentioned.
Police rock up at someone's home [often single-handed and someone quite senior, looking at you 'Vera'] and tell them their husband has been bumped off.
Bereaved wife happily brews up and answers questions.
I'd be a hysterical wreck.
The copper then asks if, for example, the son is at home. Someone has to call him down from upstairs and he's never noticed a police car parked outside, heard the front door, people talking in the house.

Sounds like a typical teenager!

dollybird · 07/02/2024 13:22

I liked A Touch of Frost, but there's one episode where a family come home from holiday and there's a dead body on the bed. Turns out the son was having a fling with his teacher, another teacher had found out and blackmails her into having sex with him, and Frost says 'so you did consent'. Absolutely gives me the rage.

billycat321 · 07/02/2024 13:23

In filmland no one ever locks their car doors, or pays for drinks or asks the taxi driver how much the fare is but always reach in their pockets and take out the exact amount. In filmland men pull on their jeans over the underpants they have slept in (Ugh!). No script is complete without 'Oh my God' and 'Let's go'.

Mothership4two · 07/02/2024 13:25

Overworked detectives are always getting an early morning phone call waking them up and they say "I'm on my way" (often having drunk themselves to sleep). Leave without washing/showering, cleaning teeth or having breakfast. In some of the older ones they might have a cigarette on the way. They must really honk. Then they go into work and look surprisingly good.

2dogsandabudgie · 07/02/2024 13:28

When people buy things in shops and always seem to hand over the correct money. They put the money in the till but the till always sounds empty.

People drinking cups of tea but you can tell it's an empty cup.

QuestionableMouse · 07/02/2024 13:29

ItsAliveItsElectric · 07/02/2024 12:24

Like PP, Corrie. Everyone works on the street, which for a small street has an astounding number of businesses. If you're ever fired (more than likely from the knicker factory) you're reinstated the following day after someone has a word with the boss. Terraced houses are magical and can fit about 10 people living there with their own room....Eileen's house for example currently has Eileen, Sean, Dylan, Todd and Glenda living there. No one eats or makes "a brew" at home, they have to have it in the cafe or a hot pot in the Rovers. Similarly, everyone can afford to regularly eat at the Bistro which never seems to have a chef or produce any actual food since Robert left.
There is one hotel in the vicinity which is only used for clandestine meetings and you can be sure another character will "just happen" to be there the same night.

2012
No sooner than there is a murmuring that the world's crust is becoming unstable, the first crack appears in the earth. Minutes later the whole of California or wherever is falling into the abyss. All except John Cusack who manages to avoid roads collapsing, trains falling through the sky and a collapsing skyscraper he decides to drive under then come out the other end with the car unscathed! Then the bit where the little plane takes off with about 5 feet of runway to spare and is absolutely fine 😂

Is that the one where he's running to catch up with the plane while it's trying to take off?

twoforj0y · 07/02/2024 13:32

When buying coffee or tea as take away, and then they take a big chug of it - you'd burn the mouth off yourself if you did that.

Or hot drinks allegedly, but with no steam coming off them.

When they get it RIGHT, I always notice too.

Eastenders v v v guilty of lashing back the hot drinks with dangerous abandon.

Badburyrings · 07/02/2024 13:32

SheilaFentiman · 07/02/2024 11:04

Haven't read the full thread so someone else might have said... but there isn't a Surrey village so isolated that the cab driver won't go to the (unfeasibly large) cottage, but the cottage dweller (in pre WFH times) can still commute into London all week.

And I don't know what imaginary part of Surrey has had snow like that over Xmas in the last 20 years...

The village is Shere, and she would have got the train from Guildford to Waterloo (Kate) which is about 40 mins.

The lane going to the house does exist but the house at the bottom of it doesn't (if that makes sense). The house was in a different location. If you google map it the lane is the end of Church lane.

But yes, really stupid because there is no train station in Shere, but there is one in Chilworth but Kate would not be able to walk home from there, she would have had to arrive in a taxi.

LuciaPillson · 07/02/2024 13:32

Couples waking up: Morning breath is never a thing either, they always seem to breathe all over each other without wanting to brush their teeth first. I'm not really cross about female characters waking up with a bra on though, or clutching a sheet or towel to their torso as actresses are pressured into too much nudity as it is. I'll put up with some unrealistic scenes if it gives actresses a more comfortable working environment.

Law enforcement officers or sometimes other people connected with law enforcement who aren't even meant to be tackling villains (profilers etc) so often end up confronting the baddie on their own, isolated in some rundown house or alley with no realistic chance of success. Why not take someone with you? Honestly it would be easier.

Silly horror movie tropes like 'it was only the cat' or 'let's split up' are so ubiquitous and well-known that filmmakers now use them ironically, and I think we've come to expect and even enjoy them, though maybe not, judging by the complaints on IMDB.

Filmmakers cannot show rats on film without a constant squeaking noise. But in reality rats are (apparently) quiet as most of their vocalisations are pitched too high for us to hear.

It is apparently illegal to film any nighttime scene out of doors without loud cricket sounds being played. I've often been out at night and not heard crickets but expect to be arrested for this shortly. 😁🦗

Always amuses me watching actors in meal scenes doing everything they can to avoid having to stick horrible food that's been out under hot lights in their mouths. Endless cutting motions and twiddling of forks and bringing a forkful of food halfway to their mouths and then moving it away whilst saying a line of dialogue. Warwick Davis said how nasty the food got in the Great Hall scenes in HP as they'd bring out the same food day after day..... smelly and quite lethal I'd imagine.

Actors are often much much too close together when there's a closeup of a conversation. When's the last time you talked to someone other than a partner/child with your face 3 inches away from theirs?

Stock sound effects or Foley sounds where kissing noises are magnified to unpleasant levels. Slurp slurp squeeeeeeeeeeech. Imagine if this was done regularly with chewing noises as well (of course it's sometimes done, but not every time any character eats). Meal scenes would be a horror when the actors were fake chewing.

@Tarkan 'Any time there's a soaring bald eagle and you hear the long screechy noise. That's not what a bald eagle sounds like.'
I've heard it in real life, very impressive sound! It's made by red-tailed hawks. Once saw a film or show where they played this sound in a dark forest at night for atmosphere and I thought 'what's this hawk doing out at night?'

@magicmole 'Am left wondering if it's the same for (say) Spanish speakers and they're shouting at the screen when people are meant to all be from the same family but are speaking completely different Spanish dialects.'
No expert on different kinds of Spanish but I do remember noticing that the Faun in Pan's Labyrinth (set in Spain) was mysteriously from Argentina.

Trinity65 · 07/02/2024 13:34

Beginningless · 06/02/2024 21:22

Any musical. I just can’t suspend disbelief that people are chatting then they are suddenly singing. And no one bats an eyelid. Ridiculous!

😆😆👏

Havingashittyarthritisday · 07/02/2024 13:34

I agree with pp about detective shows when people they are interviewing just carry on with what they are doing and even just end the interview by walking or driving off. Surely you would wait for the detective to conclude the interview.

Also the American pronunciation of things when the character is British. I caught a bit of The Monuments Men the other day and Miles Jupp was playing a British officer who said a painting was a "moanay" not a Monet!!

Fedupwitheveryone · 07/02/2024 13:35

In Gangs of New York (set in early 1800s New York) there's a scene where Leo snogs or shags a prostitute up against a wooden pillar supporting the building/ceiling. The pillar moves noticeably and the young lady in question has a visible G string tanline

twoforj0y · 07/02/2024 13:36

Lately noticing lovely clothes the lead females... trying to figure out why those coats always look so good, I've cracked the case. It's because try have no handbag dragging half their body downwards, yet always have a phone, their car keys, these are women with NO HANDBAGS. No bag!!!! Where are they chucking their stuff? Where do they peg the random stuff they remember to pick up when out? I'm sure there are women who don't use handbags, but not at this frequency.

I remember in Happy Valley she always had her crossbody handbag on, even in the car so when she got out to run she had it in her. I always thought it was a great attention to detail!

Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong · 07/02/2024 13:40

willWillSmithsmith · 07/02/2024 10:04

Wow that’s amazing. I once had what they call a ‘meet cute’. I came out of a department store at the same time as someone was coming in, we ended up in a tangle but instead of it being romantic he huffed, gave me a dirty look and stomped off. 🙁

Happened to me once, coming down a stairs at a function wearing a long skirt. A man was behind me on the stairs and he stopped to talk to someone coming the opposite way and stood on my skirt. I tugged but it was stuck so I had to interrupt and ask him to move. He then had to walk down the rest of the stairs behind me, I was a bit embarrassed but and at the bottom he apologised and asked if it was ripped. We examined the hem, which was fine and then i looked at him and yes, our eyes locked. He offered to buy me a drink for the inconvenience and that was how it started. We talked all evening then kissed. We were together a few months that's all, but I loved our story. It was my one and only experience of love or even mutual attraction at first sight.

AlizeeEasy · 07/02/2024 13:41

Ktime · 07/02/2024 10:52

I can't remember any movies like these...examples?

Films where main hero spares the main villain despite fighting their henchmen:
any Batman film (he supposedly doesn’t kill anyone but he sure does severe harm)
spectre
star wars

films where hero commits crimes:
minority report
man on ledge
the fugitive

catsnore · 07/02/2024 13:42

Diving/underwater scenes where characters suddenly develop the lung capacity of whales and swim around for many many minutes despite then almost nearly dying and just getting to the surface in time.

Breakfast scenes where the entire table is laid out with a massive range of items. Character take one bite from a piece of toast and leave.

Also I know it's Disney but in Frozen and Tangled characters fall off massive cliffs and then just wander off like it's totally normal. I always feel like I have to say 'don't try this at home kids' 😂

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is not accepting new messages.