What inconsistencies in movies/television annoy you?

The age of characters inconsistency. Seriously Brooke from The Bold and The Beautiful should technically be like 200 years old. If that’s what you mean by annoying inconsistencies.

@TooBlue
I guess i mean that.
I am not sure if inconsistencies is the right word though.
I meant things that happen in television/movies that won’t happen in real life.
I guess this Brooke character has had more things happen to her then she could have normally when it was a real life person, in the same time.

The girl is ugly until she takes her glasses off and lets down her bun.

Which, no. If she’s so beautiful without glasses and with her hair down, chances are she was rather good-looking before that as well.

@aprilsimnel
Bingo, good one.

Police routinely chase anyone who has so much as pulled away from an expired parking meter. Not only do they chase everyone, but they call out the entire police force and follow relentlessly. When they finally do perform evasive maneuver, it consists of some maverick cop driving straight into the fleeing suspect. Oh and during each and every one of these scenes there just happens to be an old lady crossing the street, a fruit cart on the side of the road, and a glass truck stalled in an intersection.

Of course no man in Hollywood is ever too old to date a hot 20-something actress.

It bothers me that everybody in movies is always so ’‘rich’’. Unless specified otherwise and usually a main point in the movie, it’s odd how everyone has like ten laptops, three cells and Porsche Turbos. I know that’s not really an inconstancy, but it still bugs me enough to go off topic about it.

So you’re looking more for film and TV cliches then?

@TooBlue
Not so much cliches, as more the examples above by @Symbeline , @SuperMouse , and @aprilsimnel

Yeah, they’re all cliches, the “beautiful nerd”, the classic car chase, the token rich family, etc. I don’t know maybe that’s just how I see it. Anywho doesn’t matter. :)

Mistake. Please flag. thnx

Children are allowed to talk back to parents and guardians, without any consequences.

my answer is inspired by an episode of Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, which is on at this moment

Any porn movie. I’ve delivered mail to many hot women in the last 25 years and can’t remember any ever offering up what they do in adult films.

The rookie cop is always paired with the guy who is scheduled to retire the very next week.

@AstroChuck
Career change maybe?
Plumbing?

How nice all the schools are. They have fresh paint jobs in colors other than white/off-white/beige that coordinate with each other and have patterns on the wall, the carpet or other flooring is always brand new, and it’s generally a fresh, loving environment that would truly encourage learning. Plus, the janitor (unless he’s the antagonist) is always very nice to the children, speaks English, and is thorough in his job.

How even though all of them have a cell phone that has clearly been purchased in the last 5 years, none of the phones comes with caller ID, thus forcing them to unwittingly answer the phone “Hello?” and find out it’s the person they were trying to dodge. It especially bugs me when it’s product placement, and I happen to know first-hand (as opposed to “because they don’t make cell phones without caller ID anymore…) that the phone has caller ID. Also, how they all have answering machines instead of voicemail and always listen to their messages in front of other people, instead of in private (although I do understand how it does lend a helping hand to the whole “conflict” thing).

How they always have actors at least 5 years older than the child they are portraying, and then when they get to high-school, it’s 30 year old’s portraying the 15 year old’s. I didn’t know that growing up, and it really through me for a loop on the whole “how you should look at blank age”.

How every time they turn on the tv to see breaking news, they turn it on RIGHT as the news breaks. Never 10 minutes later, never during the commercial, never 2.4 minutes after the breaking newscast starts so they miss the whole premise. And it’s on every channel, instead of just on the network channels (because they often interrupt the Disney Channel in real life to say anything other than “all you kids, run. Run right now. Run the f*** away and don’t look back!!!!” as the aliens attack…)

@AstroChuck – That’s because you haven’t delivered pizza or milk.

Food.

It’s what works.

Ask Michael Palin. Oh, wait, don’t ask Michael Palin.

Probably not what you are looking for, but I can’t stand medical inconsistencies. Like on House when the doctors are actually doing practically all of the patient care that under normal circumstances a nurse would be doing, or when they say something and it’s completely wrong. It just irks me.

@Seaofclouds Which is sorta ironic, because as medicine on shows goes, House is one of the most realistic.

@Seaofclouds
Any inconsistencies are welcome.
@papayalily
Nice answers there (especially the caller ID thing).

@papayalily I agree it is one of the most realistic, it was just the first example that jumped in my head.

Also, how even though if you get shot, you should never ever try to remove it until you are in a fully-equipped hospital (so NOT a clinic) and even then it’s often better to just leave it in, on a show, they must remove it right away, and whoever took 1 semester of biology in high school is the best equipped to do it (and of course, they’re always successful and don’t kill the person by making them bleed out…)

On Burn Notice (in case you aren’t familiar, he’s a spy who’s been burned, or fired, and is trying to get back in) they use the Blackberry Pearl for product placement. Now, having had the Pearl, here’s the thing: A) going on stats alone, not performance reviews, the Pearl is the crappiest Blackberry. It’s the mini, the junior, the nano, the cheapest. It has the least space, the least memory, is the least powerful. And while Blackberry is a great brand in many respects, the phones are flimsy as hell. If you drop it, the back will pop off. Do that a few more times and the phone will have some serious issues. But it’s clearly the best choice for gun fights, hand-to-hand combat, explosions, and high-speed car chases.

I scream at the TV every time someone refers to a chimpanzee as a “monkey”. Even the characters that are supposed to know better do it.

@syz Are they not monkeys? If not, what are they? What must a primate have to be a monkey?

They are apes. They are not monkeys. Both of those (as well as humans) are primates.

@syz Fascinating! Learn something new every day.

Nobody ever eats the meal in front of them. Why not just start the scene at the end of the meal?

On this subject alone, I cannot keep it to just 5.

- Manipulative music. When I’m going to the refrigerator to find there is no milk, it usually is not accompanied by overly dramatic non-diegetic music.
– Lights under the dash at night to show character’s faces
– Repetitive skid marks where it is obvious the car is on its third take or more of a certain stunt.
– People overly moving the steering wheel back and forth showing us they are driving
– People not really playing the piano (or when a director comes in close to show us they actually are playing the piano.
– What I call WWF fighting, the fake back-and-forth faux drama of the protagonist about to be killed, but then comes back from all odds – in its plethora of forms – if that is not the most over-played and cliché technique in movie making, I do not know what is.
– 360 degree tracking shots around someone – the second most cliché technique. That was dated the second time it was used.
– Bad use of guns – people ”throwing bullets” by whipping the end of the gun – vs. having any semblance of aiming
– People who die of a single gunshot slowly without pain, and often with a one bullet body shot
– People who get knocked unconscious with one punch
– “Domino characters” – shown in line, saying something each in turn to the scrolling camera.
– Blatant convenience in its many forms. e.g. talking about someone and they just happen to drop in. Most extreme plot device is called “dea ex machina”.
– Fred Flintstone chase scenes – where the same window/chair/table goes by like 10 times.
– Fred Flintstone faux scenes – like when he surfs on top of the wave vs. in the wave.
– Actors looking at themselves in the mirror – completely interrupts the suspension of disbelief. You just think – “There is an actor looking at themselves in the mirror.” (They always seem to be eye-locked too, mesmerized by themselves, not inspecting for dandruff or something.) Same with pretty much any sex scene. You’re instantly thinking, “oh – how uncomfortable it must be to act naked in front of a stage crew and camera and 2M movie viewers.
– 555 phone numbers
– Inconsistent “timeouts”, like someone walking up the stairs and the cut is such that it took them .25 seconds to get up 3 flights of stairs. That’s OK, but then inside the apartment they may show “real time” movement from room to room. No consistency.
– Anything overly theatrical/stagy – like in the middle of a dialogue, standing up and walking to the other side of the room and dramatically turning around and saying something. HATE that.
– Dower women in Euro films – zero cuteness – they over cook the sophisticated thing – which I believe is one of MANY male overlays misrepresenting women in film. This is its own subject entirely.
– Cars that don’t start. Women who fall down.
– Gay men kissing. I feel exactly like someone has taken a cream pie and crammed it in my face (which may or may not be the movie maker’s intent) To me it’s just its own special kind of Liberal “product placement”.
– Product placement – anything, but especially iconic American products in a Euro film. As an American.., how embarrassing.
– Handing out money with exact change – never looking at it or getting change back.
– Film stuttering when panning in the theater – I think it is called “picketing”
– ANY dance scene – Richard Gere dancing in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) comes to mind.
– Overly sentimental gag-puke scenes – like the Russian’s chanting “ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY” in whatever Rocky movie that was
– Al Pachino making the biggest ass of himself in the history of movie making when he got himself all worked up in the junk yard scene in the movie Heat (1995). He really brought his big acting that day.
– Every single scene in True Crime (1999) with Eastwood (70+yo) with a 25yo woman.

You know – just some off the top of my head.

@ipso Is there any movie that you do like?

@faye You mean where opposing parties (the good guy and a bad guy’s henchman) go through a huge process to set up a meal where they can discuss things and then it’s over in 2 minutes, but for some reason, they both ordered, and then one or both will leave without paying or eating? Or the other one, where the bad guy will say “pull up a seat” and a/the good guy will order something even though he seems to know he’ll only be there for 90 seconds and then the food goes to waste again and you’re thinking to yourself “half the reason I want to be the good guy is so that I get all that exercise to work off all that awesome food I keep ordering…)

What really irks me is war movies that have firearms not consistent with the period.

I recently saw a Jimmy Stewart’s Shenandoah Civil war movie. I am sorry but no one is going to have one winchester ‘73. As the name implies they were not developed until 1873.

The Henry rifles that were available by the end of the war were almost exclusively used by the union. A confederate that was fortunate enough to acquire one as a spoil of war, often failed to find enough the ammunition required to make it worth carrying into battle.

I usually pick out inappropriate vehicles and weapons right away. A lot of the movies depicting the early Middle Ages show knights in heavy plate armor, which wasn’t used until almost the Renaissance period. Films depicting 100 years ago usually show more automobiles than were available at that time.

@papayalily – I’m big on Viking movies.

Now THIS movie I like a lot! It is flawless in its own special way. Especially the borrowed music queues, the wardrobe, and particularly the motorized oar boat later on.

Genius!

@papayalily And the big family meals where there’s a big fight before anyone has a bite, or the couple that storm apart without eating. Yep.

@faye your answer made me think of family meals in and of themselves. Every single movie and television family seems to have at least one cook who is on the level of Paula Deen or Bobby Flay. This person also has the ultimate kitchen and dinning room and is willing to host hundreds of people for the holiday family meals. As a woman who grew up eating Thanksgiving dinner on the picnic table (carried in from the back patio) covered with a Budweiser table cloth, off of paper plates, who didn’t realize turkey even had juice until well into my 20’s, I can tell you not every family has that relative.

@SuperMouse well said, or mothers with their hair styled and pearls on at 7 am!!

Oh, another one! When a crime fighting duo (cops, an ex-spy and a civilian, whatever) are paired up, and their names just happen to form some sort of pun, such as the upcoming “Knight and Day”. The only time it didn’t bug me was the Scrubs episode where JD and Turk go out of their way to keep the surgical duo of Turner and Hooch together.

@ipso The oarsmen on Viking vessels were warriors, not slaves under the lash.

Villains that are nearly invincible with perfect aim at the beginning, turn into bumbling fools that can be beaten by 8 year olds at the end.
People never going to the potty.
Firing guns without ever reloading.
Whiny bitch Anakin admitting to supporting a dictatorship and slaughtering dozens of men women and children and still being married by that stupid bimbo Padme.
Obi Wan (first star wars movie) saying that Anakin was a “good friend” when in the (dreadful) prequels all they do is bicker like women and talk badly about each other behind their backs.
But the worst one is:
The good guys always win.

One especially weird product placement is that constant ringing of what I think is a Nokia (?) standard ring tone all the time on Medium. I love the show but it drives me crazy.

Labor and delivery in movies and on TV. It always happens fast, with a lot of screaming. The water breaks in some public place, and ten minutes later the baby is born. When the baby pops out, it is clean and looks three months old. I know some labors are very quick, but the vast majority take hours, not minutes, and most of the time the water doesn’t break until labor is well under way. It bothers me so much that when a baby is born in a movie, my husband will ask, before I can be critical, “Does that look like a newborn?”

I hate how calls take time to be traced, but DNA evidence is quickly available. My cousin, who is a cop, says that calls can be traced instantly and criminals don’t need to be kept on the line for a specific amount of time. DNA results take weeks, at least, to come back.

And in courtroom dramas, there is always some big surprise or a witness who falls apart on the stand under intense questioning. You’d think every trial hinges on that kind of thing, when I suspect most are actually pretty boring.

Standard of living doesn’t always seem to match characters’ employment. Especially on sitcoms, people have nice homes with all the amenities, maybe a housekeeper, or a great apartment in the city (Friends) but don’t always have jobs that would support that kind of lifestyle.

Fight scenes are no longer governed by the laws of physics. Ordinary people can perform miraculous stunts, because now when you learn martial arts you also learn how to defeat gravity. Kids with computers can hack into anything, and super criminals can plan elaborate plots without any detection from the authorities.

It’s entertainment, however, so complete reality would be too much to expect!

I can’t stand timeline inconsistencies. Like a Western set in the 1800’s and seeing a loading shoot in the background or a zipper on one of the costumes.

Well not annoying more hilarious really.That the Dutch football team actually believes it may win the world cup. I suppose they’re consistent in their failure to do so but certainly something I see on tv that couldn’t possibly happen in real life.Still at least they try, bless.

Instant communication in ‘Mission to Mars’ when the spacecraft called Earth which was 4 light minutes away. Everything was supposed to be hard science fiction. No subspace and stuff like that.

When the baddie always seems to be dead after the first shot or blow or fall, but usually “comes to life” again for that final attempt at killing the goodie. And generally, the fact that baddie are so darn hard to kill in the first place, whereas goodies usually die quite easily.

And also the thing about children shouting and yelling and being cheeky to their parents and then storming off to their room and slamming the door, but the parents do nothing. If anyone i know had to do that to their parents, they’d get the hiding of their life.

Ooh ooh!! And when they make obvious mistakes during filming or editing. For eg in the movie Twister, there’s one scene where the new girlfriend is overhearing her boyfriend and his old girlfriend talking over the car radio thingy – they film her standing there listening, in the rain with an umbrella. One shot her hair is dry, then the next one her hair is soaked, then the next one it’s dry again and then soaked again. That was such a poor mistake to make i can’t believe professionals could have not noticed that one…

@MissAusten – It’s pretty much illegal to use a newborn in TV or features, which is why they are never used. Even the 3 month olds can only “work” for 15 minutes a day.

@aprilsimnel Oh…that makes sense!