I definitely second that 400 Blows remark.
The first part of Planet Of The Apes when Heston is in the spaceship, the part just before they crash.
I hate Charles Bronson’s shit-mustache in Once Upon A Time In The West, and in every other movie he ever made.
The inexplicably bad dialogue, at times, in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. Some of the things Michael Caine and Max von Sydow have to say sound very amateurish.
The uncreative tension between Robert De Niro and Cybil Shepherd in Taxi Driver, especially in the coffee shop scene.
The Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head sequence in Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Totally out of place.
I abhor film flubs. I love to try to spot editing mistakes and problems popping up in the background of the action. Despite my exhaustive foreign/indie collection…the one that REALLY bugs me? Bugs me to the point I can seldomly even watch the film anymore?
Bambi…
Yeah…you’d think it would be virtually impossible to screw up an animated film (considering how many hands are involved) however, watch Bambi, and during the “April Showers” song…you’ll see a mother raccoon licking her babies dry….then POOF! One of them totally vanishes. But she just keeps licking the empty air.
For a short time in both Heat and Collateral Michael Mann dubs dialogue that doesn’t perfectly match the screen. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this, as it was common practice for Italy in the 60s, but Mann is a director whose aesthetic style tends towards a certain level of realism, which is infuriating as seeing lips move in a way that doesn’t produce the sound heard breaks the illusion of immersion in the film.
Horror films- I hate that I can’t go to conventions without be surrounded by jaggalos and other indecent folk. I also hate that I can’t wear my favorite “Cannibal Ferox” or “Street Trash” shirts without someone saying I look like I shop at “Hot Topic.”
Why must they give me such a bad rep!?!?!
*Juggalos, sorry if I offend any by misspelling their god forsaken title.
*Juggalos, sorry if I offend any by misspelling their god forsaken title.
In the flub department, it seems a bit strange that Hitchcock’s birds cast no shadows. And in Halloween, not so much a personal favorite as it is a respected neoclassic of its kind, there are an awful lot of California license plates on those supposed Illinois cars.
The scene in Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss is examining the first shark victim, part of the scene is cut out leaving some choppy, unfinished dialogue . . . " and this is what happens . . ."
I forgot that one, Soybean. I think there’s a double falling star in Jaws, as well, unless that’s a common phenomenon in shark-infested waters.
I think Spielberg was under the gun, trying to get that mechanical shark to work.
Tom, if you watch the blu ray version of Halloween you can see some palm trees at the end of a street.
Ah, those rare indigenous Haddonfield palms.
While I’m here, can I admit that Costner bugs the hell out of me in JFK? Stone’s movie is lousy as history, but compelling as film – particularly film editing – but ol’ Costner/Garrison just sucks the life out from the middle.
Come on, you don’t like that brilliant massachusetts accent? bleh, horrible. I agree that the film is entertaining and well made, unfortunately for a lot of young people it’s taken point blank as history. Sadly, history isn’t taught in school anymore. So, for me, the whole movie is a flub, although an entertaining flub.
It’s not just that history isn’t taught, it’s that there’s little context. A teacher friend read to students from Civil War diaries written by people from their town; until they recognized that the fallen soldiers shared names with their classmates, I’m not sure some of those kids realized the battles were even fought on U.S. soil.
I’d be troubled to think that people draw their history strictly from the movies, but, in a land where “sound medical advice” is just a mouse click away, I shouldn’t be surprised.
I brought this up on another thread, but I think Ken Burns doc “Civil War” should be required viewing for all U.S. citizens. It just blows me away that that happened here, and not so long ago. Sorry, I’m getting off topic.
Action films which feel the need to zoom in on every action scene and make a blurred, hazy shot. My god, pan back a little!!!! Take a look at Yuen Woo-Ping directed or action-choreographed films to see how it should be done.
Remember the forum topic: Things you dislike about your FAVORITE films, not just dislikes. And not just flubs, clearly intentional choices that bother you.
One film critic, Chris Barsanti, described the The New World as a combination of “cinematic poetry and cringing adolescent pathos.” I think that’s an unfair over-simplification, but he does have a point. The movie beats you over the head with some pretty sappy narration, but I’m able to forgive those low points because I consider the overall product to be a remarkably well-realized (if not perfectly balanced) artistic vision. I have written so much about it in the past, and it’s difficult to leave it at that, so I’ll simply conclude that my appreciation of The New World comes with an acknowledgment of its shortcomings.
This is probably as good a place as any to mention one very confusing scene from “Once Upon a Time in the West.” If you’ve seen it, you may know what I’m talking about — comes about half way through the movie, when there is some sort of non-sequential, late afternoon scene with Henry Fonda. I was watching the movie and thought “What the….? Where are we?” I thought maybe I hadn’t been paying attention and ran the movie back a few minutes, to no avail. I was still confused.
I felt better a lot after watching the commentary with Alex Cox. I can’t quote him directly, but he said something like, “What in the world is going on here? Is it a flashback? What’s it a flashback to? And now the scene’s over and we cut to the middle of the day! You know, I think somewhere in the making of this movie they just lost all track of time. Doesn’t really matter in the end, though.”
And it’s true, it doesn’t. Like a lot of movies, certain stray details may be confusing but the larger picture is never less than clear.
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The only thing that irritates me about my favorite films is that other people do not appreciate them.
I feel like an alien in a strange land.
Ditto DCDREAMS’ post.
I can’t stand it when they speed up the film in (mostly pre-eighties) movies to try and rev up the chase scenes. It just looks ridiculous, and really mars some great flicks (I’m looking at you, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL).
Oh, and what’s the deal with that “brother from another mother” line in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Deadly.
If I really like a film, the thing that irritates me most about it is when it comes to an end – I just want it to keep going. Seriously, minor things or scenes that don’t work, don’t really bother me if I like the film. I don’t like any kind of gratuitous violence, but then, most of the movies I like don’t have that. Also, I wish that swearing would be kept to a minimum, because the human language is beautiful, if used properly, and it just sounds dumb when it is used repeatedly. If there is even a hint of false sentimentality or fake emotion, I am out of here. But films I like, again, don’t usually have this or I wouldn’t like them.
I freakin’ love La Dolce Vita, but it can be very long and slow, I mean very long. 8 1/2 can be very freaky if you have a very bad headache or if you’re very tired.
Rich Uncle Skeleton
What things don’t you like about your favorite films? What bothers you the most about a film despite loving everything else in it.
My own:
The inability of Utah to pass for upstate New York and Mass. in DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. It can only look like the Rocky Mountains. Bothers me to no end.
The tendency of THE 400 BLOWS to skew towards sentimentality and at times show adults to be all bad and children all good.
Robert Rounseville in TALES OF HOFFMAN. I love this movie but I can’t stand looking at him.
Harpo playing the harp. At all. Anywhere. Ever.