Little Things that Annoy You on the Screen?

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Jory: Your last post reminded me of the first time I had seen Ralph Fiennes (I forgot about him being in "Schindler's List"). He was in "Maid in Manhattan", and did a flawless American accent. I had no idea he was British until.... Maybe not until "Harry Potter". Now that you mention it, there was no reason, really, that he couldn't have been British.

It bothers me less when the actor does such a good job that you'd never be able to tell. Gary Oldman has played plenty of characters who could have been British but for whatever reason it was decided that they needed to be American, but it's fine since he can pull it off flawlessly. Other actors, though, are just terrible at it. I already mentioned Sam Worthington in Avatar and Terminator Salvation trying and failing to hide his Australian accent, but there's also Charlie Hunnam in Pacific Rim, Daniel Craig in Tomb Raider, Cary Elwes in Saw, and so on. No reason whatsoever that these characters need to be American.

It's as if Hollywood executives think that everyone in the audience is such an idiot that they can't fathom the idea of a British person -- GASP!! -- traveling to America and living here. I was so happy when I watched The Invasion, which takes place in America, and found that they let Daniel Craig keep his accent. But then that movie bombed, so maybe Hollywood is onto something with their fake Americans.

No way! That really happens? OMG

Jory's mention of The Invasion reminds me of something else that annoys me: Cancelling good shows! The Invasion was so exciting! Like a series version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is one of my fave movies.

You make a good point. Blu-Rays may be more durable than DVD's if they're well taken care of. The downside is that if you do actually penetrate the polymer coating and scratch one, you can't fix it. The disc is gone because the data has been scraped right off. Whereas with DVDs any scratch, scuff, or scrape you get on it that doesn't penetrate all the way to the other side of the disc, can still be fixed with a professional buffing machine. I hang around a video game store where they're used all the time and I've fixed a lot of discs myself. You can't do the same thing with the Blu-Ray discs that are used for PlayStation 3 games. When somebody brings one in one of those for us to clean, all we can do is put it on the "polish" setting; otherwise the machines will just erode the polymer and rub off the data. With DVDs, at least when mine do get damaged, there's a cheap and easy fix. Nothing about Blu-Ray is cheap, especially on my budget. And that's the most important part, really. I can afford to maintain a DVD collection much more than I can afford to start a Blu-Ray one, plus I tend to resist a change until I no longer have a choice in the matter.

Sometimes they ask for movies shot in English but in a "exotic" accent that the actors lip synch or dub their own voices to make them more understandable for other English speaking countries.
For example, the original Mad Max from 1979, the movie was shot with a very strong Australian outback accent, and distributor where so afraid nobody would understand that they asked all the actors in the film to lip synch their own voices, but still keeping the Australian accent but make it easier to understand. I actually saw both versions, and yes the original one is hard to understand but it gives it it's charm.
Same was done with Transpotting, actors made their Irish accents more understandable, but that redubed version is hard to find today, thanks god.
And British film Four Lions was also redubed to make the British Manchester working class accent more comprehensible.
So for these 3 examples, it's still the actors voices, but not the same has during the shoot.

OMG, I totally forgot Daniel Craig is British----he was James Bond, wasn't he. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is one of my favorite movies, and I didn't know who he was (I'm not a Bond fan). I thought his accent was flawless, as well----but, you're right, there was no need for him to be American. Americans love Brits, so much, anyway----what's the problem?!?

They even changed the name of the first "Harry Potter" book / movie cuz they thought Americans wouldn't know what a "philosopher" was.

They even changed the James Bond movie title License Revoked into License to Kill because they thought Americans wouldn't understand what revoke means.

-Any female character in movies that are only there for the lead male character to sleep with, or for the male audience to oggle. They rarely have much character beyond posing seductively and sweating suggestively. Obviously a trophy for the male audience's wish fulfillment character, and that's it.

-Whenever movies 'hurt' animals as 'comedy.' Cats are often the victims in this, either being tossed about, handled roughly by a kid, or some character trying to run one over. I've seen this before in some 90's comedy movies, so not sure if this still goes on as I rarely watch comedy these days.

The other story I've heard is that audiences in test screenings said they didn't like the title because they associated the term "licence revoked" with a driver's license being nullified. Whatever the case, I think they made the right decision to change it, because Licence Revoked doesn't even sound like a Bond title.

Though I still think they were wrong to change Tomorrow Never Lies to Tomorrow Never Dies... but now we're getting off-topic.

Token female characters. They're just there so there are females there, but they are not important to the story at all, and they have no personality of course. They're just there.

James Bond test screenings are usually made in the UK where the films are produced. Anyway, I to prefer the title License to Kill, and it refers to his 00 status. License revoked can be anything, his drivers, his to kill one, his fishing one or whatever else you need a license.

Something I also hate about films, is that foreigners always speak English along with there native language, every Russian speak English, every Japanese, even ancient Samurais speak English like in The Last Samurai, every German also speaks English, mostly in WW2 films, and Arabs who live in the desert and who have never had access to library in their life also speaks English, along with their foreign tongue.
Take Inglorious Basterd, great film, but why have the German officer switching from French to English if not just to make it easier on the audience, plus it's dumb because 70% of the movie was not shot in English, most of the time they are speaking German and French. And notice every German in the film speaks English and French.

Some films will start off with the characters speaking in their native language but then switch to English, with the understanding that they're still speaking their native language but the audience is just hearing it in English. One nice example is The 13th Warrior, which has the main character (a stranger in a foreign land) not being able to understand the other characters at first, but after he learns their language, we hear all the dialogue in English to reflect the fact that he now understands and can speak their language. I wish more movies would use this tactic, since it removes the need to read subtitles but still establishes that foreign characters are speaking their own language.

That technique is fair and works in certain films, but most times it doesn't. In Inglorious Basterds they start in French and then the Nazi officer tells the Frenchman that he prefers continuing in English. WTF!! ! I speak both, French and English and Christoph Waltz French is better than his English (and his English is great btw) so it makes even less sense.
Anyway, it's just cinema, films are not suppose to be in reality, they are a fantasy and you can allow these kind of things.
But what I do hate is pure dubbing of foreign films, when I see a Japanese, Hong-Kong, Spanish, Russian, Thai, Italian, Arabic, Israeli or even North Korean film (yes NK does makes films) I want to see it in their original language and will always prefer reading subtitles than listing to dubbing, that is the charm, earing other language, plus dubbing is a travesty of art. But that is another debate for a new topic about Dubbing Vs Subtitles.

Female characters that are somebody's shabby sexual fantasy in shows that are aimed at a family-oriented demographic.

Good Grief!! !

I agree with the others "License to Kill" is MUCH better!!

When they're talking to someone while driving, and they don't keep their eyes on the road