Thursday
May082014
Open Thread. What Movie Thing Makes Your Eyes Roll?
Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 4:30PM 
This week's banner theme was chosen by James T who won a recent 'say what' contest. He selected 'eye rolls'. I have no idea why he chose it but it's appropriate for today since I am feeling so over it (one of those days). It was hard to think up actors for the banner. My queen of cinematic eye-rolls is totally Noni Ryder but I couldn't find a pic. But nevermind all that.
What cinematic trope/cliché, actor, movie-anything makes your eyes roll every time? Groan away in the comments! Perhaps other readers share your pet peeves.
Reader Comments (68)
Endless exposition a la Inception. Don't tell, don't explain. Just show a la Under the Skin.
Honestly? When movie titles are said within the actual movie. Totally takes me out. Even when they're seamless like Eternal Sunshine, I still wince. I dunno, it always seems self-conscious.
Trope? Frumpy male actor with hot or otherwise unattainable female (possibly younger) wife/gf/love interest. John C. Reilly and PSH tested me on this so hard. Recently, this specific trope almost entirely ruined We Need To Talk About Kevin and The Master for me. It's also a ridiculously sexist trope as the opposite is never seen. Ever.
The gunshot surprise. Y'know: The villain is about to fire, close-up on the face of character about to get shot and then we hear the gunshot and...surprise. The villain's dead.
murtada: Too much exposition and too little are both groan worthy for me. I'll probably avoid Under the Skin, then.
volvagia -- you're only hurting yourself if you miss Under the Skin! But yes that's a good groanworthy one the surprise gunshot.
Winslet losing whatever fire she had after winning her Oscar,yes i just saw labor day.
The old timer (usually played by someone like say Morgan Freeman) who at the beginning of the movie says he's retiring & won't commit to another bla bla bla...Cut the bulls*&% your on the poster & I paid 15$ to see u & your partner (Usually played by someone like say Chris Pine) resolve the case!
The one that springs to mind first is when a character is watching a monitor/tv/etc and the image is far clearer/different than it would be. For some reason this bugs the shit out of me.
Mark the First - I get your point on the scenario, I really do, but I think the only issue I have with it is that the reverse doesn't happen enough on film. In real life, plenty of couples are together where one is, say, more frumpy. On screen, it tends to just be frumpy guy, or when it's a frumpy woman, people get made that, "She could never get someone like that!"
Handheld cameras, especially in thrillers. As if making you dizzy is the same as engaging you.
Titles with colons. Not creative, and stop raping the English language.
Dystopian teen survival dramas--none of these words belong together in any combination.
Characters ripping each others clothes off (like buttons popping all over the place) in order to have sex. I can be passionate and want to have sex with someone without destroying my clothing, thank you very much. Clothes cost money. And they're very easy to take off. There's no need for this. That's why I love in Halloween(1978) when PJ Soles' boyfriend says he's going to rip her clothes off and she responds "Don't rip my shirt! It's expensive, idiot!"
Also, the way sound never travels realistically in film. Guess what, Juliette Binoche in The English Patient? You're only in the next room in a castle where the walls are all falling apart. Ralph Fiennes can hear everything you're saying.
Maybe it's because it's May, but...
Sex with the bra on. In the past it was the sheets that carefully wrapped the breasts. That could make some sense, I guess. But how many people have bed sex with their bra on?
And while we're at it, why does the naked guy puts his pants on to get out of bed? Show some ass, or wear some underwear. If we were to trust movies, we'd believe women never take out their underwear and men never wear any.
I know, strange pet peeve for a gay man :)
Also, I can't with "quirky" replacing some character development, to make the character cool and likeable. I'm all for quirk, but don't use it as a shortcut for likeability when you don't know how to write a character.
Cheaping out on lighting and trying to say it's gritty, artful film making. The only thing it achieves is making it hard to tell what the hell is going on.
Star Wars, Superheroes and Chastain in all her cuteness.
CRAZY PSYCHO KILLER/SITUATION OR ACTUALLY JUST MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER TWIST??
Revolutionary Road. I hate the movie. Sure Winslet and DiCaprio do a lot with the material. But the material itself gave me a headache just thinking about. The Reader is actually a better film with a better story to tell. The performance from Winslet in the latter isn't as good as the former. But overdue Oscars are never the best performance.
All the really average-looking men that we're sold as hot.
All the really mediocre actresses that we're sold as talented.
It's so petty but I can't stand the 555-whatever phone number they always use. Yes, I get it that it's because of clearance issues, but I'd almost rather not see or hear the phone number itself.
As for actual storytelling, any movie that involves long courtroom scenes, even when it's the main part of the plot gets an immediate eyeroll from me. I can't stand to watch those movies (or read the books, etc). Not sure why it bugs me so much. I appreciated Erin Brockovich and The Social Network for keeping those scenes down to the bare minimum to keep the plot moving. And those were true-ish stories!
People complaining about the SHEER NUMBER of superhero movies. Yes, the 3-4 movies a year is SO OVERWHELMING out of the hundreds movies that are released each year.
(p.s. the real problem is the amount of media and marketing and casting and all that jazz, but don't say there are too many superhero films. there isn't. or you need to watch more films.)
Every time the male and female leads take their own sweet time to kiss passionately in an otherwise disastrous or life/death situation (i.e. in the midst of escaping from a villain or a running away from a monster, do they really have the time and the mood to pause and kiss romantically?). That makes me roll my eyes. I usually like: Hello, the villain is close behind and you're kissing?
Just realized my answer is not even on topic. My bad! Feel free to roll your eyes at me.
Someone going to investigate a crime scene/site of mysterious disappearance/monster's or bad guy's liar, but for no reason waiting until the dead of night to go there and once there never turning on a single light. Makes me think if they do that in ordinary situations too; like looking for their car keys or a Mother's Day card in the inky dark of a moonless night. By the way everyone remember to get your mom something nice this Sunday.
1. People hanging up without saying goodbye at the end of a phone call.
2. Women waking up in bed fully and perfectly made up.
3. Kevin Spacey.
(All three also apply to television.)
Biggest pet peeves:
* Inconsistent accents
*Casting actors who are too young for a role
*Anjelica Huston not swimming in great film offers
Actors I find particularly irksome:
Jennifer Lawrence / The Vulgarian
Anne Hathaway
Bradely Cooper
Amy Adams
Meryl Streep
Reese Witherspoon
Annette Bening
Julia Roberts
As far as directors go, I'm no fan of David O. Russell's. So, yeah, 'American Hustle' was a blast for me.
Paul Outlaw -- no. 3 is also one of mine. especially if a southern accent is involved.
Who's the actor between Stone and Ledger?
"You still don't get it, do you?"
"Welcome to ... (Fill in the blank with Earth, the NFL, high school, etc.)"
When the protagonist gets to throw an antagonist's/doubter's words back at them after the protagonist has succeeded.
Trailers make me roll my eyes. Even the good ones. Great trailers are rarer than great movies.
Twist endings usually make me roll my eyes. I'm looking at you *SPOILERS* Fight Club and The Woman in the Window. Twists can be clever if they're not at the end of the movie (The Crying Game) or if the rest of the movie is still good without the twist (The Sixth Sense). But I also hate twists I can see coming that are just plain stupid and there's still so much of a movie yet to go (Shutter Island).
Who is the actor in the photo???
3rtful - christopher eccleston (jude, elizabeth, the others, shallow grave)
Scenes of people doing drugs--so boring to watch.
Referring to a young, newly anointed "star" as the next "fill-in-the-blank-of-some-older-star" esp. if the older star is still alive!
People who talk about some moment in history when all they know about the moment was what they learned by watching a movie. (Don't even get me started about the bull*$#X I had to listen to when The Help came out.)
Building on BD's gripe, overuse of the term "psychopath" or "sociopath" to describe a hyper-intelligent character. It's a variation on the "mental illness=superpowers" trope that's popped up a lot lately thanks to SHERLOCK and HANNIBAL.
Stephen Moffat is especially terrible at this. The way he writes Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor, you get the impression he thinks "sociopath" is a synonym for "superhero."
If I have to hear a character say 'There's a storm coming!' one more goddamn time, I will freak the fuck out.
Especially considering that, in attempting to build us up to whatever character or occurrence is on the way, they inevitably disappoint. Every Single Time.
for Mike M.
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Watch-Me/Anjelica-Huston/9781476760346
Characters talking to the camera/the audience. If you're not about to Purple Rose right out of the screen, then you need to pretend I don't exist.
food fights.
the reformed womanizer.
the 'ugly' friend with no life of her own.
Gotta agree with whoever said sex with clothes on. I ALWAYS see it in movies and it just comes off as so unrealistic "this-is-a-sex-scene-in-a-movie" to me. Who actually has sex with their bra on? Who actually has sex with their pants around just below their dick? I can get it in certain circumstances, but most of the time it just seems like a cheap way to show everything that's happening.
Also gotta agree with the phone number thing (555) - it takes me out EVERY time because it's just such an obviously movie thing.
Also the ugly men with hot women thing. I actually brought that up to a friend recently.
There's one I thought of myself but am now forgetting... :p
The 'no homo' between two guys and the 'hot girls should make out' between two women in a close platonic relationship between people of the same sex. So incredibly tiresome and eyeroll worthy, though I suppose it's a step up from the evil or dead perverts of years past.
Mark -- if you mean the photo in this post that's Marlon Brando
Fake Hollywood relationships to sell tickets ("They're going out in real life! So obviously the chemistry on screen is real!!!" BLOW ME :-( )
Sequels, prequels, any of that sort
Taking classics and making them modern ("The Three Stooges", just saw the trailer for "Alexander and the no good very bad day")
Unbelievable couples in films (that terribly attractive girl/woman would REALLY be with that guy????)
Too many white people in the movie, no ethnic actors what so ever. If I see a trailer, and no one in it reminds me of myself, I am simply not interested.
Straight men playing Gay roles. Believe me, there are enough Gay actors in Hollywood who deserve those roles and can play them with absolute authenticity. I think that's why I like Looking so much on HBO (actual gay men playing gay men?! Who would have thunk it?!)
There's more, but you get the picture....
I have quite a few but Shelley Duvall takes the cake. Thank goodness I don't get to see much of her of late. I didn't even like her in 3 Women, much less in The Shining, Portrait of a Lady and Frankenweenie. There's something about her acting that really annoys me to bits. No offence to any of her admirers if any.
Oh yes...I forgot to add...
Romantic comedies of the past 10 years (except Enough Said)...they were mostly bland, boring and hackneyed.
The photo in the post looks more like George Peppard than Brando...
Female roles in films with no complete characterizational arc that is simply there on the screen as a piece of meat for the men to enjoy and exists only to serve the male character's own arc.
Every fuckin' love scene in superhero movies
Cut the bullshit dude, get to the action
Unrealistically young, attractive (usually female) Ph.D/genius/expert having to work with grumpy, cynical, middle aged (usually male) street smart cop/lawyer/ FBI agent/ investigative journalist etc. I wonder, will sparks fly? *cue eye-roll*
My number one forever and always will be when two (for example) French people, in France, speaking to eachother in ENGLISH! This works with any language other than English in english-language films. It is so annoying and patronizing!
War Horse was guilty of this several times and it was very frustrating.
X-Men First Class is one of the few mainstream US films that thankfully kept the natives speaking their own language.
I can't stand explicit body fliud "humor". It's not funny for me, just embarrassing.
Similar to the 555 phone number thing, it really bugs me when characters go up to a bar and order "a beer." That's almost as generic and impossible as going to a restaurant and ordering "food."
But the one that really drives me crazy is any story that begins in medias res. it's so over used these days (more so in television). It's a cheap way to create tension, and half the time the flashback ends up boring anyway. Why couldn't they just start at the beginning and surprise us?
What makes me eyes roll?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Can't the world move on from his Superbad character?
Nepotism,it's too rife now,evey other director,actors daughter or son are being cast in high profile roles without the chops to prove themselves,then we are sold sold sold them.