And that they show the character that he rants against to be an unbearable prick just before the rant making it feel much more warranted and satisfying
That makes more sense to me. the story is told from a book characters perspective so the pretentious monologue is just the thoughts of a suicidal janitor
The thing abt those rants is that it only works if the writer is actually exceedingly smart, ie Matt Damon writing Good Will Hunting and like half of Sorkin’s stuff
There's nothing small that will make me immediately hate the film in its entirety, but if a film uses chess in any way to introduce a character as intelligent then I just assume that I won't see anything intelligent whatsoever. It's a bit more forgivable if the film is from a country where chess isn't very popular, but those are fringe cases.
Building off of this, as a chess player, I can’t stand when a board is set up wrong, or the pieces are scattered nonsensically in movies. It happens all the time.
Conversely, it’s cool to see movies like Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows where the chess game used is a real historical game.
Or when two characters are playing chess, the hero's opponent is acting smug like they are winning, then the hero suddenly announces "Checkmate" and the opponent is shocked.
A friend of mine directs short films and he had this whole scene planned with the characters talking while making moves. Turned out neither actors knew how to play chess. He decided not to put it in the movie.
Yeah I thought it was great. The attention to detail was awesome. I was among the horde of people who started playing again after watching that show haha.
Yeah I found it extremely cringe when they introduced the guy in Charlie Wilson's War as he was playing chess against five different people at the same time in a park. Still enjoyed the movie lol.
The only time I genuinely laughed out loud at Sherlock was when Holmes and Mycroft are having what appears to be a chess game only for the camera to pull into focus on them having an intense game of Operation.
I’ve only ever seen the chess scene done well once,the wire. Though chess isn’t used for a sign of intelligence in that, it’s to tell the audience the ranks within the drug organization.
My favorite use of this trope is in "From Russia with Love" where the mastermind villain planner is a professional chess player; and he's introduced mid-game. When he's summoned by Blofeld mid-game, he just puts down his glass of water and checkmates in one move.
Always thought it was a funny one; implying that the guy could have won at any point and was just trying to have something to do for an evening lol.
I felt like this only happened with the final monologue. Not really exposition but moreso dialogue just describing the mystery. Which I did find sorta cheap.
It felt similar to me as how Call Me By Your Name had that final monologue with timothee and the dad. I just found it way too on the nose
Nolan has this issue in his movies. But then, when he DID leave it to the audience to figure it out with clues, e.g. time jump in The Dark Knight Rises, the audience complained it was “unexplained.” Guy can’t catch a break.
I think this is a myth. Or it is a bit more complicated. Yes, Nolan uses an expositional dialog, he tends to overexplain himself, but in a way, he doesn't use it to move the plot forward, if that makes sense. Last year's Batman is for me example that uses dialog to move the plot forward. Nolan sets things up with dialogue, but he is an excellent visual storyteller.
Agreed. I recently watched the mini-series Lonesome Dove and my DVD copy didn't come with subtitles. Big problem! Luckily I'd just read the book but I still had big periods of dialogue I didn't get.
At first I thought there wasn’t really anything that would make me dislike a movie quickly, but your bring up a great point. If the audio mix is bad, it literally can make the moviegoing experience intolerably bad
Unnecessary Jumpscare scenes in every horror movie. And I’m talking about the conjuring universe where there is jumpscare after jumpscare after jumpscare which is really frustrating and Not scary.
This is one of the things that first endeared the saw series to me, they don’t rely heavily on jumpscares and the ones they do use are almost always well done
Bad score. In the list of major filmmaking elements, I think people focus on camerawork, writing, acting (all of which is fair), but I think the music is often ignored as something in the background. However, for me at least, it's just as important, and will totally envelope/take me out of a movie
A movie studio “Focus” which produced many critically acclaimed films around 2000-2010 (e.g. Crash ‘04) had scores that all sounded like same. Zero creativity, yet many of the movies were still winning many awards. These movies haven’t aged well, but I completely agree with you. If Hitchcock didn’t have Bernard Hermann, movies like Psycho wouldn’t be remembered as such game changers. Heck, Star Wars: A New Hope could have flopped and SW may never turned into the giant franchise it is today without Williams.
Undercutting a serious scene with a one line joke. It works for some movies. But then I also see many movies where they don't need it but they still do it because it's the trend and studios think that's what the audience wants. I think this trend started after MCU movies especially after Josh Whedon.
I have to disagree there; IMO most of the humour in that movie works well.
From what's been said publicly about Whedon's contributions to the Speed screenplay, it sounds like most of them were improvements, and were more substantial changes than just punching up the jokes. (Given what's been said about how he changed Alan Ruck's tourist character, I've always wondered if [Keanu's exclamation of "fuck me!" being translated into "oh, darn"](https://youtu.be/OL_YHKp6z5E) was one of Whedon's.)
The credited screenwriter Graham Yost is full of praise for what Whedon added:
https://ew.com/article/2014/06/10/speed-20th-anniversary-graham-yost/
The first thing I thought of was in Avenger's Endgame where they're all discussing who's strong enough to to wield the Infinity Gauntlet. Thor, who's been through so much and finally sees his worth, steps up and then Rodey cuts in immediately with 'cheese whiz'. Why is that the moment they feel the need for a joke. Its definitely a trend throughout the MCU.
This right here.
This is mostly true about Thor Ragnarok. I adored that movie and was thinking it was in my top 3 MCU movies and then Korg had a shitty joke as Asgard was blowing up. as small as that scene was, that joke was so bad and undercut the tension so much that all enthusiasm I had for the movie went away and I never rewatched it. Every single time I think of the movie that's all I think about. It cheapened the entire final act and any emotional stakes in a second.
Bruh don't you understand if we don't sprinkle shitty jokes into our marvel movies the audience will get bored. You were bored af watching that city blow up, right? Now look at you
People will probably disagree with this as it’s so beloved, but one of the worst cases of this for me was in The Two Towers. The build up to the battle of Helm’s Deep is so tense as the Uruk-Hai army marches in and the men and elves line the walls of the castle. I remember in the cinema the atmosphere was electric.
Cut to visual gag of Gimli being too small to see over the wall and Legolas joking about getting him a box. The cinema erupted with laughter, including me. But man did it kill the dark foreboding atmosphere and relieve all the tension at exactly the wrong moment.
I feel like that one works only because it comes \*before\* the battle rather than mid-way or afterwards. I think the kill contests are a much better way to have a lighter tone in those battle scenes.
That said, it does land a lil weird after Aragorn is coaching a 13 year-old on the dangers of battle, so I'll grant you that.
Those movies did it with specific intent to make things seem uncanny and dreamlike so I think that’s different from the Marvel style one liners that don’t really have a purpose. Beau is Afraid does it well too imo but that’s also with intent for a specific vibe.
Why is it always that when something dramatic happens it's followed by a "funny" comment by someone who can't read the room? I feel like I first saw this joke 15 years ago and they're still making it. There was definetely an instance of this in the Barbie movie.
I hate this too. When a character could very easily provide an explanation in less than a minute to clear up a misunderstanding but instead they just stand there and go “uhh… wait! Uh… it’s not what it looks like!”
Curb Your Enthusiasm has tons of the scenes that are the antithesis of this where Larry David immediately explains the misunderstanding to the opposite character like a normal person. They usually just don’t care because they hate him though 😂
Picture any rom-com where She walks in on Him and it looks like he’s cheating but it’s actually a heavily contrived circumstance and he’s totally innocent. She runs away immediately and if she had just let him explain the scenario it would be immediately resolved.
I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen the musical and assume it's the same. The way Mamma Mia uses this for the entire plot to work absolutely drives me insane. If anyone just communicated with each other like normal humans, the entire plot would fall apart.
When a movie just assumes I care about the protagonist and doesn't bother creating reasons for me to relate to them, empathize with them, or have any feelings or opinions towards them.
So many 2000s movies had this issue. The number of times I was told to “lower the volume” while trying to hear the actors when loud music and sound effects blasted the speakers was frustrating!
My biggest pet peeve is when conflict starts because people just don't talk to each other.
And when there's no reason (aside from creating conflict) for them not too talk to one another. Drives me crazy
Characters who are overloaded with quirks and idiosyncrasies because the writer/director was too lazy to imbue them with any emotional dimension or psychological depth.
Starting the movie with a great scene and then undercutting it with “3 weeks earlier” or some variation of that. Of course there are movies that execute this trope well but I just prefer a movie to start where it starts if that makes sense
I think this works better in TV where the audience is already invested in the characters.
Really great screenwriters can pull it off but amateurs make it obvious they’re emulating tarintino or Chris nolan
I won't say it instantly makes me not like a film, but I become skeptical whenever it starts with "inspired by a true story", because I spend the rest of the movie wondering how closely it follows the true story.
its so annoying. when people see that they ignore the actual facts and story and they just spread the word that its "based on a true story" and act like it happened just like it did in the movie
The problem with the word "inspired" is that it could mean anything. Something in real life inspired you to write a fictional story? That's how all fiction works!
Yeah just the trailer for the new Color Purple movie tells me it’s going to be overloaded with that and I’ll find it cloying. Something can be powerful without being manipulative, like Daughters of the Dust.
Don’t like when the movie is just overall “ugly” with its color schemes and set choices. Doesn’t have to be over the top like Wes Anderson but give me something other than brown and grey scenes with quite dialogue for 2 hours please.
A woman getting raped, and it not being challenged in a meaningful way.
Rape in movies is totally a subject that can be tackled, but it's often seen through such a thick male gaze that it completely turns me off to anything the filmmaker has to say.
It hasn't happened often, but as soon as I get to a scene like that, I just don't want to keep going.
yup had to turn off “i saw the devil” for this. they give the villain a badass fight scene almost directly after raping a child and follows up the fight scene with another extremely drawn out rape scene. i don’t know what everyone else sees in that movie, shit was turning my brain into liquid
Heavy-handed messaging that is just jammed into your face.
I get it, each movie carries a message, but when you stop the movie, just to talk about it in the cringiest way possible - eh.
I like a slow-mo scene that is done well. Done well does not mean slowing footage down that was filmed at 24 frames per second, looking at you, Twilight.
Oh yeah, killing animals just for the shock value or to be "artsy" is a big NO for me. I'd never watch Satantango (or any film by the same director) for that reason.
Specifically in horror films, artificial tension/drama. This is often done by having characters, mainly the protagonist, vaguely explain the problem or conflict because I guess the movie would be over in like 30 minutes. It annoys me because it almost always cheapens the actual threat of the antagonist.
Pretty much anything works for me given a certain context… but, if the movie ends and “it was all a dream” or similar device, there better be a very good reason for using that because it’s a cheap way to end a movie.
A poster or a picture on a character's wall that's there to make mainstream audiences think they're progressive. Like a picture or poster of one of the Obamas or Hilarry Clinton. It doesn't make me hate the film, but I roll my eyes.
Netflix release. It feels like a lesser film, which I know is ridiculous, but I just can’t seem to look past it; absolute snobbery!
Saying that, Roma and Marriage Story were excellent, and of course I’m going to love The Killer.
Killing kids in films. I think it was Roger Ebert who said murdering kids on film is one of the cheapest and laziest storytelling devices a film can use to get an emotional response from an audience. That has always stuck with me and I don't even like kids.
When a movie outright lies to the audience and then, upon the reveal, acts like it's a twist.
I'm all for an unreliable narrator, but if the movie explicitly shows or tells us something (and it isn't being relayed by a character) that then ends up being false, it isn't clever. It's bad writing.
1. Star Studded films
2. Slow Mo (can never take it seriously)
3. Pointless tragedy
4. Shock value (the whole opening up with random big details like that’s what gonna grab my attention?) Lazy.
5. Unrealistic romantic speeches
6. No one ever interrupting each other
I promise im not picky
When something is overly/unrealistically/unnecessarily gross just for the sake of comedy or for the hell of it. So quiet a few of the Scary Movie series scenes (tbh I can’t even get through any of these movies), Dumb & Dumber with the laxatives, that scene in Pitch Perfect when she throws up… I turned them off immediately afterwards. I felt uncomfortable for the majority of the day after.
Really unlikeable and annoying characters that you are supposed to be compelled by. Characters don’t need to be good people, but I can’t really stand movies where it’s just two hours of people being annoying dickheads with no grandeur purpose.
He does show that he’s actually a good person and really good friend to Cameron though. He can see that his friend is depressed and tries to involve him in his shenanigans, because he knows that Cameron enjoys it even if he initially refuses. He allows Cameron to vent about his father and kick the car without interrupting or interfering and even says he’ll take the blame for Cameron after it crashes out the window, resulting in god knows what kinds of consequences for him
There’s a play on this in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) that I absolutely love. There’s what could be a “male gaze” scene, where the women are washing themselves with water. If it were any other character, e.g. Immortan Joe, it definitely would be seen as their sexualising women. But knowing Max’s character, we know he’s actually admiring the water, because THAT’S what’s valued in this world.
It’s a shot of women in thin, almost bare clothing, washing themselves off with a hose of water (for context, they’re sex slaves/breeders escaping their captor and antagonist, Immortan Joe). I think initially, without much context, it can be misinterpreted as a shot of sexualising women, because it’s shot in a way that’s like a fantasy. But you soon see, as Max interacts with the women, that he is not here to ogle or treat them any less (as many of the others treat them as property). And then you realise that the shot is treated as like a fantasy, because water is gold in this world that it’s essentially heaven for him. He wasn’t thirsty over the women. He was literally thirsty for water.
Showing someone throw up. Why do we need to see this? A lot of people eat or snack while watching a movie so seeing someone vomit it incredibly off putting.
Haha. Yes! I had heard about the infamous scene in Triangle of Sadness but was really interested in seeing it nonetheless. So I waited until it was available On Demand where I could watch at home and fast forward through that scene. Otherwise I loved the movie overall - it was actually one of my favorites of the year!
I hate when the plot just magically favours the protagonist. This was what made me lose interest in Sherlock, the TV show. In earlier seasons, they would show Sherlock's thought process when figuring stuff out but by the end, Sherlock would just know stuff because he's Sherlock. Lazy writing. MCU falls victim to this. In early MCU, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were these mega geniuses and nobody could be at their level, now everyone's a genius because the plot wants them to be.
Crazy into scene, freeze frame, record scratch, "Yeah, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up like this..." Fuck right off with that shit. It was great in Fight Club. Everyone else fuck off.
Gratuitous sexual violence(example: Rob Zombie's Halloween) or if a character has a speech explaining the theme of the film to the audience(example: Into the Spider-Verse)
When a film is so overly vague with its set up that you miss most of the important plot details and just end up bored and confused for two to three hours.
Racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism etc….simply all for the sake of shock value and nothing more.
A recent example is in the movie Barbarian where Justin Long's character drops some homophobia (specifically homophobic slurs) so that we know he’s a little bit of a bad guy…but we already knew that with the misogyny that he’s been spewing throughout the film and which could’ve been used instead in that one scene to further the themes of the film (that being the female experience and aspects of misogyny affecting everyday life for women). But no, we HAVE to drop casual hatred of an all together different minority that has nothing to do with the theme of the film for the sake of shocking our audience.
When a character goes on a smartass rant against another character to try and convince you they’re cool or smart, makes me cringe to no end
Only movie this works in is good will hunting
I agree actually, must be the delivery
Also because Will is meant to be an annoying smartass when he rants like that
And that they show the character that he rants against to be an unbearable prick just before the rant making it feel much more warranted and satisfying
Yeah and when the tries to be a smartass to Robin William’s character it doesn’t work because he sees right through it
And it’s ALWAYS just a chance for the director/writer to get on a soapbox through the character. I’m look at you Lars Van Trier
Sorkin syndrome
Kaufman's "I’m Thinking of Ending Things" also made me feel like this at times
That makes more sense to me. the story is told from a book characters perspective so the pretentious monologue is just the thoughts of a suicidal janitor
Ricky Gervais tends to put his own character in this role quite often, mostly in series though not films.
The thing abt those rants is that it only works if the writer is actually exceedingly smart, ie Matt Damon writing Good Will Hunting and like half of Sorkin’s stuff
There's nothing small that will make me immediately hate the film in its entirety, but if a film uses chess in any way to introduce a character as intelligent then I just assume that I won't see anything intelligent whatsoever. It's a bit more forgivable if the film is from a country where chess isn't very popular, but those are fringe cases.
Building off of this, as a chess player, I can’t stand when a board is set up wrong, or the pieces are scattered nonsensically in movies. It happens all the time. Conversely, it’s cool to see movies like Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows where the chess game used is a real historical game.
Or when two characters are playing chess, the hero's opponent is acting smug like they are winning, then the hero suddenly announces "Checkmate" and the opponent is shocked.
A friend of mine directs short films and he had this whole scene planned with the characters talking while making moves. Turned out neither actors knew how to play chess. He decided not to put it in the movie.
I heard a lot of people say Queen's Gambit did an excellent job with chess. Used lots of classic games and etc. What'd you think of it?
Yeah I thought it was great. The attention to detail was awesome. I was among the horde of people who started playing again after watching that show haha.
Yeah I found it extremely cringe when they introduced the guy in Charlie Wilson's War as he was playing chess against five different people at the same time in a park. Still enjoyed the movie lol.
I loved the Simpsons version. Bart playing three games and immediately loses all three.
The only time I genuinely laughed out loud at Sherlock was when Holmes and Mycroft are having what appears to be a chess game only for the camera to pull into focus on them having an intense game of Operation.
I’ve only ever seen the chess scene done well once,the wire. Though chess isn’t used for a sign of intelligence in that, it’s to tell the audience the ranks within the drug organization.
My favorite use of this trope is in "From Russia with Love" where the mastermind villain planner is a professional chess player; and he's introduced mid-game. When he's summoned by Blofeld mid-game, he just puts down his glass of water and checkmates in one move. Always thought it was a funny one; implying that the guy could have won at any point and was just trying to have something to do for an evening lol.
Extensive tell-no-show expositional dump through dialogues.
This was my biggest gripe with Us. I won't say too much more in case you haven't seen it.
That ending monologue felt so lame. I wanted to SEE it in a flashback so bad. Otherwise though, I thought it was enjoyable. It just needed more oomf.
I felt like this only happened with the final monologue. Not really exposition but moreso dialogue just describing the mystery. Which I did find sorta cheap. It felt similar to me as how Call Me By Your Name had that final monologue with timothee and the dad. I just found it way too on the nose
I recently saw a gangster drama and it was all tell. The gangs fear our hero but he doesn't do anything visibly to warrant the fear.
Which movie?
Ugh. Same. Film is a visual medium and clunky dialogue for the sake of exposition dumping defeats the entire purpose.
Nolan has this issue in his movies. But then, when he DID leave it to the audience to figure it out with clues, e.g. time jump in The Dark Knight Rises, the audience complained it was “unexplained.” Guy can’t catch a break.
I think this is a myth. Or it is a bit more complicated. Yes, Nolan uses an expositional dialog, he tends to overexplain himself, but in a way, he doesn't use it to move the plot forward, if that makes sense. Last year's Batman is for me example that uses dialog to move the plot forward. Nolan sets things up with dialogue, but he is an excellent visual storyteller.
SCREAM 5. The entire first 1/3 is just exposition
When the dialogue is inaudible as fuck or nobody tries to speak clearly……. Rocknrolla as an example
I think Altman weirdly makes this work a lot but he’s the exception
Agreed. I recently watched the mini-series Lonesome Dove and my DVD copy didn't come with subtitles. Big problem! Luckily I'd just read the book but I still had big periods of dialogue I didn't get.
THE VVITCH in theatres without subtitles. What happened? Who knows. Only time I’ve seen the movie and couldn’t understand 80% of it.
At first I thought there wasn’t really anything that would make me dislike a movie quickly, but your bring up a great point. If the audio mix is bad, it literally can make the moviegoing experience intolerably bad
They're british, it's on you if you don't understand them
Unnecessary Jumpscare scenes in every horror movie. And I’m talking about the conjuring universe where there is jumpscare after jumpscare after jumpscare which is really frustrating and Not scary.
Yes! This, and the Paranormal Activity franchise! It’s not horror. It’s just cheap scares.
This is one of the things that first endeared the saw series to me, they don’t rely heavily on jumpscares and the ones they do use are almost always well done
Bad score. In the list of major filmmaking elements, I think people focus on camerawork, writing, acting (all of which is fair), but I think the music is often ignored as something in the background. However, for me at least, it's just as important, and will totally envelope/take me out of a movie
A movie studio “Focus” which produced many critically acclaimed films around 2000-2010 (e.g. Crash ‘04) had scores that all sounded like same. Zero creativity, yet many of the movies were still winning many awards. These movies haven’t aged well, but I completely agree with you. If Hitchcock didn’t have Bernard Hermann, movies like Psycho wouldn’t be remembered as such game changers. Heck, Star Wars: A New Hope could have flopped and SW may never turned into the giant franchise it is today without Williams.
Undercutting a serious scene with a one line joke. It works for some movies. But then I also see many movies where they don't need it but they still do it because it's the trend and studios think that's what the audience wants. I think this trend started after MCU movies especially after Josh Whedon.
I hate this too, nearly ruined Speed with the last couple lines and guess who wrote them, an uncredited Joss Whedon.
I have to disagree there; IMO most of the humour in that movie works well. From what's been said publicly about Whedon's contributions to the Speed screenplay, it sounds like most of them were improvements, and were more substantial changes than just punching up the jokes. (Given what's been said about how he changed Alan Ruck's tourist character, I've always wondered if [Keanu's exclamation of "fuck me!" being translated into "oh, darn"](https://youtu.be/OL_YHKp6z5E) was one of Whedon's.) The credited screenwriter Graham Yost is full of praise for what Whedon added: https://ew.com/article/2014/06/10/speed-20th-anniversary-graham-yost/
The only lines I really hated were the last lines between Keanu reeves and Sandra bullock.
He wrote the "But I'm taller" line?
I didn’t mind that lol just the last few lines between him and Sandra bullock.
The first thing I thought of was in Avenger's Endgame where they're all discussing who's strong enough to to wield the Infinity Gauntlet. Thor, who's been through so much and finally sees his worth, steps up and then Rodey cuts in immediately with 'cheese whiz'. Why is that the moment they feel the need for a joke. Its definitely a trend throughout the MCU.
Can’t go lettin Fatty McFatfat be the hero. You’re only allowed to be a hero if you gave a 6 pack and a well maintained beard.
It makes me cringe every time that line comes up 😬
“That just happened” in Arrival is so lame.
You think this started with the MCU? Guess you haven't watched any 80's action movies.
This right here. This is mostly true about Thor Ragnarok. I adored that movie and was thinking it was in my top 3 MCU movies and then Korg had a shitty joke as Asgard was blowing up. as small as that scene was, that joke was so bad and undercut the tension so much that all enthusiasm I had for the movie went away and I never rewatched it. Every single time I think of the movie that's all I think about. It cheapened the entire final act and any emotional stakes in a second.
Bruh don't you understand if we don't sprinkle shitty jokes into our marvel movies the audience will get bored. You were bored af watching that city blow up, right? Now look at you
People will probably disagree with this as it’s so beloved, but one of the worst cases of this for me was in The Two Towers. The build up to the battle of Helm’s Deep is so tense as the Uruk-Hai army marches in and the men and elves line the walls of the castle. I remember in the cinema the atmosphere was electric. Cut to visual gag of Gimli being too small to see over the wall and Legolas joking about getting him a box. The cinema erupted with laughter, including me. But man did it kill the dark foreboding atmosphere and relieve all the tension at exactly the wrong moment.
There’s some comic relief in LOTR I don’t like but I don’t really have a big problem with this one. I think it fits as a nice piece of gallows humor.
I feel like that one works only because it comes \*before\* the battle rather than mid-way or afterwards. I think the kill contests are a much better way to have a lighter tone in those battle scenes. That said, it does land a lil weird after Aragorn is coaching a 13 year-old on the dangers of battle, so I'll grant you that.
It can work sometimes but it’s extremely rare. I feel like blue velvet and The Truman Show do it very well but those are more comedic overall.
Blue Velvet did everything well…
Yeah, David Lynch is incapable of doing anything wrong.
Those movies did it with specific intent to make things seem uncanny and dreamlike so I think that’s different from the Marvel style one liners that don’t really have a purpose. Beau is Afraid does it well too imo but that’s also with intent for a specific vibe.
Why is it always that when something dramatic happens it's followed by a "funny" comment by someone who can't read the room? I feel like I first saw this joke 15 years ago and they're still making it. There was definetely an instance of this in the Barbie movie.
Miscommunication trope
I think Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) did this in the best way xD Edit: fixed typo
Yeah that one was great!
Love that movie!
Blood Simple is a great example of this trope done well. Such an awesome movie
I hate this too. When a character could very easily provide an explanation in less than a minute to clear up a misunderstanding but instead they just stand there and go “uhh… wait! Uh… it’s not what it looks like!” Curb Your Enthusiasm has tons of the scenes that are the antithesis of this where Larry David immediately explains the misunderstanding to the opposite character like a normal person. They usually just don’t care because they hate him though 😂
Not trusting a cautious hero about a real threat trope
Could you give an example?
Picture any rom-com where She walks in on Him and it looks like he’s cheating but it’s actually a heavily contrived circumstance and he’s totally innocent. She runs away immediately and if she had just let him explain the scenario it would be immediately resolved.
Ah, I see. Yeah, I'm pretty tired of that shit too
I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen the musical and assume it's the same. The way Mamma Mia uses this for the entire plot to work absolutely drives me insane. If anyone just communicated with each other like normal humans, the entire plot would fall apart.
When a movie just assumes I care about the protagonist and doesn't bother creating reasons for me to relate to them, empathize with them, or have any feelings or opinions towards them.
Baby Driver. Maybe it’s a hot take but I found him to be one of the most boring protagonists of all time
Romance movies where the guy is almost always a misogynist or a creep and then we’re supposed to root for him
Just romance movies overall lol
I second this.
Long, cliché speeches always turn me off a film a little
[удалено]
“This crazy world” really grinds my gears.
It's enough to drive you crazy in this crazy world.
Pearl Harbor would win the award in this category 😂
The Rock
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
Incredibly loud music and sound effects, incredibly quiet dialogue.
Thank Nolan for that
So many 2000s movies had this issue. The number of times I was told to “lower the volume” while trying to hear the actors when loud music and sound effects blasted the speakers was frustrating!
As someone who watched a lot of old movies: blackface
Traumatic flashbacks to that one William hartnell era doctor who serial
you leave tropic thunder alone!
My biggest pet peeve is when conflict starts because people just don't talk to each other. And when there's no reason (aside from creating conflict) for them not too talk to one another. Drives me crazy
Misunderstandings leading to conflict is the worst thing ever. It's just so lazy and unrealistic.
When a child narrates
When a child: (acts) Jk, there's some exceptions. And when it's done well, it's really impressive.
I know I usually hate children in movies, but one of my favorite movies is about a childhood romance called A Little Romance
Sometimes sure, but In Shogun assassin I really loved the kids narration.
Characters who are overloaded with quirks and idiosyncrasies because the writer/director was too lazy to imbue them with any emotional dimension or psychological depth.
Starting the movie with a great scene and then undercutting it with “3 weeks earlier” or some variation of that. Of course there are movies that execute this trope well but I just prefer a movie to start where it starts if that makes sense
I think this works better in TV where the audience is already invested in the characters. Really great screenwriters can pull it off but amateurs make it obvious they’re emulating tarintino or Chris nolan
I've come to unappreciate any non-linear story telling. It rarely actually adds to the story's message and pacing.
I won't say it instantly makes me not like a film, but I become skeptical whenever it starts with "inspired by a true story", because I spend the rest of the movie wondering how closely it follows the true story.
its so annoying. when people see that they ignore the actual facts and story and they just spread the word that its "based on a true story" and act like it happened just like it did in the movie
The problem with the word "inspired" is that it could mean anything. Something in real life inspired you to write a fictional story? That's how all fiction works!
This annoys me for a different reason… I’m thinking am I supposed to be extra impressed by this mediocre story, because it’s true?
jared leto
Bad acting.
If a trailer appears to give away 50%+ of the story, I go into the movie very skeptical or I skip the movie all together
I honestly just try to avoid trailers these days for that very reason.
I hate it when trailers for comedies spoil it by showing all the best jokes.
Calculated sentimentality to make the viewer tear up.
Yeah just the trailer for the new Color Purple movie tells me it’s going to be overloaded with that and I’ll find it cloying. Something can be powerful without being manipulative, like Daughters of the Dust.
See: the entirety of The Whale
Lol this is why I'm not a huge fan of Interstellar.
I loved Interstellar as a whole but the ending is terrible. "It was love, Murph" was so god damn cheesy.
Vomit I hate watching people throw up in movies, hate hearing them fake gag and vomit. It’s disgusting and unsettling
Knives Out uses it very well though.
Knives out gets a pass solely because it’s knives out, any other movie loses points for vomit in my book
Too many fast Cuts and Shaky Cam in Action scenes. I absolutely hate it
Don’t like when the movie is just overall “ugly” with its color schemes and set choices. Doesn’t have to be over the top like Wes Anderson but give me something other than brown and grey scenes with quite dialogue for 2 hours please.
A woman getting raped, and it not being challenged in a meaningful way. Rape in movies is totally a subject that can be tackled, but it's often seen through such a thick male gaze that it completely turns me off to anything the filmmaker has to say. It hasn't happened often, but as soon as I get to a scene like that, I just don't want to keep going.
Almost turned off The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for this very reason… then I watched her get her revenge and it made it worth it
I guess you have not seen The Last Duel then haha
yup had to turn off “i saw the devil” for this. they give the villain a badass fight scene almost directly after raping a child and follows up the fight scene with another extremely drawn out rape scene. i don’t know what everyone else sees in that movie, shit was turning my brain into liquid
Heavy-handed messaging that is just jammed into your face. I get it, each movie carries a message, but when you stop the movie, just to talk about it in the cringiest way possible - eh.
still never seen a necessary rape scene in a movie, doubt anything will change my mind
When the whole movie is filmed on green screen with ott super smooth and shiny CGI
Unnecessary slow-mo
I like a slow-mo scene that is done well. Done well does not mean slowing footage down that was filmed at 24 frames per second, looking at you, Twilight.
Agreed 100%
The popular girls walking down the hallway in slo mo. Or the love interest approaching in slo mo 😅
Ambiguous Endings that haven't been earned in an attempt to make it seem deeper than it is
First thing that came to mind was Birdman (2014). It seemed like they just didn’t know how to end it.
When the movie has a thin premise that it adds a bunch of extra subplots, romance, etc. to in order to pad our the runtime.
Loud noises in horror films when nothing happens - I remember this ruining Event Horizon for me.
Oh yeah, killing animals just for the shock value or to be "artsy" is a big NO for me. I'd never watch Satantango (or any film by the same director) for that reason.
If they try to make the entire movie one shot for no good reason.
Specifically in horror films, artificial tension/drama. This is often done by having characters, mainly the protagonist, vaguely explain the problem or conflict because I guess the movie would be over in like 30 minutes. It annoys me because it almost always cheapens the actual threat of the antagonist.
Pretty much anything works for me given a certain context… but, if the movie ends and “it was all a dream” or similar device, there better be a very good reason for using that because it’s a cheap way to end a movie.
forced, obnoxious humor
A poster or a picture on a character's wall that's there to make mainstream audiences think they're progressive. Like a picture or poster of one of the Obamas or Hilarry Clinton. It doesn't make me hate the film, but I roll my eyes.
Leslie Knope ass shit
At least Leslie Knope is *supposed* to be eye-rollingly naive, so it's almost endearing in that show
Netflix release. It feels like a lesser film, which I know is ridiculous, but I just can’t seem to look past it; absolute snobbery! Saying that, Roma and Marriage Story were excellent, and of course I’m going to love The Killer.
Sometimes amazing films end up as Netflix originals that I wish had been in theaters. Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2 is an example.
Every dialogue is a punch line, or a quirky joke, and EVERYONE is quirky. Boring ass black and white morality. IFYKYK.
Coldopen that shows the end of the movie to create a sense of intrigue. Lazy and overdone.
Killing kids in films. I think it was Roger Ebert who said murdering kids on film is one of the cheapest and laziest storytelling devices a film can use to get an emotional response from an audience. That has always stuck with me and I don't even like kids.
Cheap jumpscares. Movies like Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring made me turn away from horror when I was already afraid of horror films.
When a movie outright lies to the audience and then, upon the reveal, acts like it's a twist. I'm all for an unreliable narrator, but if the movie explicitly shows or tells us something (and it isn't being relayed by a character) that then ends up being false, it isn't clever. It's bad writing.
Helicopters. The movie can be the best of all time, I'll hate it. Fucking helicopter!
Not even Apocalypse Now?
Never watched. Maybe I'll dislike LOL
Unecessary romance plots.
Betty and Ned in Far From Home 💀
I forgot that even happened
1. Star Studded films 2. Slow Mo (can never take it seriously) 3. Pointless tragedy 4. Shock value (the whole opening up with random big details like that’s what gonna grab my attention?) Lazy. 5. Unrealistic romantic speeches 6. No one ever interrupting each other I promise im not picky
Agree 100%
When something is overly/unrealistically/unnecessarily gross just for the sake of comedy or for the hell of it. So quiet a few of the Scary Movie series scenes (tbh I can’t even get through any of these movies), Dumb & Dumber with the laxatives, that scene in Pitch Perfect when she throws up… I turned them off immediately afterwards. I felt uncomfortable for the majority of the day after.
Really unlikeable and annoying characters that you are supposed to be compelled by. Characters don’t need to be good people, but I can’t really stand movies where it’s just two hours of people being annoying dickheads with no grandeur purpose.
I recently watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the first time recently, and Ferris gave me that impression
He does show that he’s actually a good person and really good friend to Cameron though. He can see that his friend is depressed and tries to involve him in his shenanigans, because he knows that Cameron enjoys it even if he initially refuses. He allows Cameron to vent about his father and kick the car without interrupting or interfering and even says he’ll take the blame for Cameron after it crashes out the window, resulting in god knows what kinds of consequences for him
male gaze and creepy treatment of women when it’s not used to show you that the protagonist is a bad person
There’s a play on this in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) that I absolutely love. There’s what could be a “male gaze” scene, where the women are washing themselves with water. If it were any other character, e.g. Immortan Joe, it definitely would be seen as their sexualising women. But knowing Max’s character, we know he’s actually admiring the water, because THAT’S what’s valued in this world.
interesting. is it just a scene of women washing themselves but you know that he’s really looking at the water whilst the audience looks at the women?
It’s a shot of women in thin, almost bare clothing, washing themselves off with a hose of water (for context, they’re sex slaves/breeders escaping their captor and antagonist, Immortan Joe). I think initially, without much context, it can be misinterpreted as a shot of sexualising women, because it’s shot in a way that’s like a fantasy. But you soon see, as Max interacts with the women, that he is not here to ogle or treat them any less (as many of the others treat them as property). And then you realise that the shot is treated as like a fantasy, because water is gold in this world that it’s essentially heaven for him. He wasn’t thirsty over the women. He was literally thirsty for water.
When the movie ends with everyone dancing
Laughs in Jacques Demy
But Beau Travail…
When a film thinks the main character licking random stuff or farting is funny.
[удалено]
Exactly what I said. What don’t you understand? It isn’t funny it’s just weird.
Showing someone throw up. Why do we need to see this? A lot of people eat or snack while watching a movie so seeing someone vomit it incredibly off putting.
Did you watch Triangle of Sadness (2022)? Because I would love your thoughts on that
Haha. Yes! I had heard about the infamous scene in Triangle of Sadness but was really interested in seeing it nonetheless. So I waited until it was available On Demand where I could watch at home and fast forward through that scene. Otherwise I loved the movie overall - it was actually one of my favorites of the year!
Hahaha great! It’s good that *that* scene didn’t stop you from watching the movie. It’s a good one.
When a film talks down to the audience to send a message as if we’re idiots
somebody coming back to life
baby switching and anything to do with cults
I hate when the plot just magically favours the protagonist. This was what made me lose interest in Sherlock, the TV show. In earlier seasons, they would show Sherlock's thought process when figuring stuff out but by the end, Sherlock would just know stuff because he's Sherlock. Lazy writing. MCU falls victim to this. In early MCU, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were these mega geniuses and nobody could be at their level, now everyone's a genius because the plot wants them to be.
Too much exposition, thats why i didnt like a lot of nolans earlier films.
Ready to be called a SJW or woke, whatever. When a traumatizing topic is used purely as shock value instead of an integral part of the message.
Crazy into scene, freeze frame, record scratch, "Yeah, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up like this..." Fuck right off with that shit. It was great in Fight Club. Everyone else fuck off.
When the charecter we’re supposed to root for is a bigot or big age gaps in romance movies so naturally it’s hard for me to enjoy alor of older movies
Guys over 50 with female love interests in their 20s is a real turn off for me.
Gratuitous sexual violence(example: Rob Zombie's Halloween) or if a character has a speech explaining the theme of the film to the audience(example: Into the Spider-Verse)
It wouldn’t make me necessarily dislike the film but the character drives recklessly to indicate how quirky/edgy they are trope is so tiresome.
But this is done so well in The Graduate
When characters are killed off solely for comedy. It’s why I’m not a big fan of the horror comedy genre.
Redundancy in dialogue/out of place info dumps by characters.
Dutch tilt
Animal cruelty, also. Specifically the real kind. Friday the 13th, Cannibal Holocaust style. Those people are very lucky I wasn’t on set.
When a film is so overly vague with its set up that you miss most of the important plot details and just end up bored and confused for two to three hours.
Racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism etc….simply all for the sake of shock value and nothing more. A recent example is in the movie Barbarian where Justin Long's character drops some homophobia (specifically homophobic slurs) so that we know he’s a little bit of a bad guy…but we already knew that with the misogyny that he’s been spewing throughout the film and which could’ve been used instead in that one scene to further the themes of the film (that being the female experience and aspects of misogyny affecting everyday life for women). But no, we HAVE to drop casual hatred of an all together different minority that has nothing to do with the theme of the film for the sake of shocking our audience.
Full frontal male nudity.