People that think every movie has to be "realistic"

[TheDeadWalk]

I'm not talking James Bond shit where you drive a 100 grand car around doing donuts on a solid patch of ice, or rocketing yourself out of a movie vehicle going 99 mph while you shoot all the bad guys with an uzi as you land safely on your feet.

I'm talking basically any movie that bends the rules of reality, such as Dawn of the Dead where you have zombies taking over the earth, a werewolf movie, sci-fi, or the like.

"I didn't like it cause it wasn't real. That could never happen in real life."

Who gives two shits? Put yourself in the movie's frame of reality and let them show you your world for an hour and a half to two hours.

If you want extended realism, start watching cop dramas and documentaries.

[DareDevil]

cant agree more, ppl always complain about CGI not real enough, like have u ever seen that in real life, no well thats what it ewould look like about 90% of the time (hulk!!!!!)

[Jerk Shapiro]

That sums up my mom in a nutshell. She hates movies like The Matrix and stuff. Guess I'll just leave here alone with her light-hearted romantic comedies.

[Moviefan1234]

I also agree. Movies are supposed to entertain. They don't have to be 100% realistic, as long as I like the movie it's kosher with me.

[Jon Lyrik]

I pretty much agree, though crafts lasting 1000 years (a la Battlefield Earth) is where I draw the line as being too hard to swallow.

[Kaos]

I go to the movies as a means of escape from reality. So long as there is not a glaring mistake that pulls me out of the moment(ex. a boom mike at the top of the screen), I'm usually forgiving if the rules of reality are not strictly adheared to.

[quoth_the_raven]

I'm a massive James Bond and Sci Fi fan.

i gave up on the idea of "realistic" movies aged 8 and havent thought about the issue since...

:D

[Luke-Abbott]

Realism in movies? Whats that? I never go to watch a movie and expect it to be realisic in the slightest. Movies are meant to entertain us and come back for more. Examples of these would be: The Matrix movies, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings to name but a few.

I can't people who say it wasn't realisic and thats why it sucked, people have just got to let their imagination go sometimes.

[echo_bravo]

EXACTLY! Damn, why cant I find people like you around here?

I go into a movie totally open-minded

[the good girl]

don't people want to explore their imagination? thats what those "unreal" movies are doing.....

for me, i love the movies that "could never happen in real life"...makes my imagination get even MORE active then it already is

[Puckat22]

I can't agree more man...

When I go to see a movie or if i'am just sitting in my apartment watching a movie it is all an escape from my normal life.....

And if it can't stretch the limits of my imagination....It's just not a good movie

I get enough realism M-F 9-5

[Tom Samborski]

I agree with you, movies don't have to be realistic. If there was a law that required movies to be made only in a realistic way, then we wouldn't have great movies like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.

[ColinM]

I mostly agree, although I do like some degree of realism depending on the type of movie it is. Like if a movie tossed in a "surprise" ending that didn't make sense and was full of plot holes and unrealistic, and somebody says "It doesn't have to be completely realistic, it's a movie," I'd probably disagree.

But, of course, movies don't have to (and shouldn't) be completely realistic all the time. It all depends on what type of movie it is.

[flowrchild]

I absolutely agree that not every movie has to be realistic for it to be good. However, some movies try to pawn off fabrication as reality or present incoherent characters doing things that they just wouldn't really do. Sometimes screenwriters are so out of touch with their characters and the storyline that they try to pass off a manipulative mess as a "Real movie".

I have no problem with a sci fi movie or one where aliens fall from the sky and eat the towns people. As long as a movie knows it's not realistic and doesn't try to be, and doesn't take itself so seriously, I don't mind.

[Reigh Kaufman]

I think the difference is not whether it's 'real' enough but whether you can suspend the 'realm' of your disbelief enough. It's why I weep over the death of a latex puppet in ET - in the realm of the film it is believable - but cannot sit idly by and not comment on the stupidity of the stunts in xXx. It doesn't have to be realistic (i.e. could that happen in everyday life?), just emotive enough within the context and terms of the movie.

Fucking hell, sensible comment. I need a lie down.

[JCPhoenix]

I hated all those damn comments about Crouching Tiger on the IMDb...seriously, half of them started with "the flying around was stupid and unbelievable" or something like that.

geez people know your stuff before you say something like that. Wuxia films are F A N T A S Y...that means they're not supposed to be realistic, just like the Matrix, etc...MOST wuxia films have flying around etc in them...it's just a given, like gravity is on earth.

oh, and while you meant it in the way about suspending your belief, i also hate when people watch a movie like A Beautiful Mind and start ranting on about how it's not realistic, it doesn't follow the truth to a T, etc...well screw that, I went in to see a movie, and if taking out some of the truth makes the movie better, then I'm all for it! Leaving the stuff about the divorce etc in would have made the movie have an overall different tone, and it wasn't one they wanted to go into. They were trying to focus on his illness, and they did exactly that in the movie so i was satisfied.

Of course in certain movies like Schindler's List, etc there you have to be a bit more careful to tell the truth because this is an entire race of people's history and you don't just treat something like that casually, you have to treat it with respect when writing the material. But other than those few, I really do hate it when people start complaining it didn't follow the truth etc...


that's just my view on this...

[Cronos]

Isn't part of the point of movies to do things that cant happen in "reality".....and people that only like to watch films that are "realistic" either have no imagination, have no life or are boring......and most films that are apparently "realistic" actually aren't such as most romantic comedies

i personally dont know anybody that only likes "realistic" films which is quite good

[NeuGenX]

I watched Rat Race with a friend the other night and all he could say was "c'mon...like that could ever happen IRL...that could never happen", all I could say was it's a mindless, fun comedy...you start thinking about it and you've pretty much screwed it up for yourself.

[Tommy Doyle]

I'm in agreement.

The worst case scenario... Face/Off... fuck... If I heard one more of my fucking friends say "that couldn't happen! It's not possible! They just can't do shit like that" I would've flipped and wanted to see how many bodies could've fit into the dryer....

[TheDeadWalk]

It's been damn near a year now, and I felt like bumping this thread, because now its a new issue.

The New Dawn of the Dead:

Ok guys, I understood some of the arguments about the dead running constantly and what not, but now I think its gone tired. Too many of us seem to have these preconceived notions about what zombies should, and should not do. How the fuck should we know?!

Has a zombie ever, EVER truly been empirically discovered?

Fuck no there hasn't!

And the same thing goes with 28 days later here. I love George Romero, and all his films, but holy Jesus has he given us a predetermined stigma on what a zombie is and isn't. I know Jackson had his rant on that, but this kind of falls in the same line where I'm going to say:

What exists in the realm of the movie, exists in the realm of the movie. If something in a movie can make the dead walk, why the fuck can't something in a movie make the dead run?

And also, so I get it in bold this time around:

A zombie need not be a member of the undead.

28 Days later was credited as reinvented zombie horror. So please, with whip cream and sugar on top: they're fucking zombies.

I know its hard to divide the New Dawn of the Dead from the classic, because it carries the same name. But please, try to subtract yourself from the norm. Subtract yourself from George A. Romero, from the stereotypical shouting of "Brrrrrraaaaaainsss!", and all the like, and sit down and when you see a fucking zombie hop up and chase after some bitch try to accept that for the rules of the film and how things will be in this film, in this environment, and in this world.

Have a nice day!

:)

[ERIN_LoJ]

The thing they need to realize is that it's real in THAT WORLD. If it was unrealistic in the "world" created, then that's annoying. But otherwise...grrr, hate this too

[Cronos]

i couldnt agree more, a films meant to entertain, who gives a fuck if its not realistic, anyway id prefer to watch robots running around blowing the shit out of aliens and zombies and stuff instead of watching someone elses life instead of mine

[The Rain Dog]

Originally posted by DareDevil
cant agree more, ppl always complain about CGI not real enough, like have u ever seen that in real life, no well thats what it ewould look like about 90% of the time (hulk!!!!!)

I basically agree with the views here - if you can;t suspend disbelief you're in the wrong movie - go watch fuckin When Harry Met Sally or Saving Private Ryan - obviously genre films just aren't for you.

BUT - I fel thats seperate from criticisms of poor CGI. When people say CGI "isn't realistic" (or at least in the rare cases when I say it anyway) it's more to do with the physics of the CGI being employed. For example - one of the main gripes I heard about Spider-Mans CGI effects was that Spidey seemed to have no actual, realistic weight when he was doing his web slinging thing. He seemed to be as light as a beach ball rather than a person with a normal humans mass and didn't move accordingly, thus making it look unrealistic.

Yeah?

RD

[Annie Hall]

Originally posted by Jerk Shapiro
That sums up my mom in a nutshell. She hates movies like The Matrix and stuff. Guess I'll just leave here alone with her light-hearted romantic comedies.

The...erm...EPITOME of realism, I dare say ;)

[Scarface98.9]

I'm in agreement with all here, though I do take exception where a realism complaint is justified. 1) Movies that try to pass themselves off as true to life, and realistic, but violate those rules, and 2) Characters that are a certain way, then do something completely non-sensical and stupid that's not true to their characters at all. An example of #1 would be Daredevil. It tries to come off as a realistic movie about how the life of a superhero would be, like with the scars scene, but then DD jumps off buildings or does Crouching Tiger leaps with no damage at all prompts me to make the realism complaint

[MickeyKnox]

I don't care if a movie is realistic or un-realistic a movie is a movie! Also i think it have to depend on the material where in such more war movies are realistic and action/sci-fi movies are unrealistic but who cares, movies are a way to escape from reality, and it is also a passion of me and my fellow schmoes here on the board..

[zeppelin]

Completely agree. If you want realism, how about, um...oh, I don't know...looking around you, perhaps? Realism should be kept in reality, I say. The only time I complain that a movie was unrealistic is if it was about something that actually happened, i.e. the Holocaust, any war, etc., and the movie completely made stuff up. That's the only time I'm for complete realism in a movie: when it's based on real events or deals with a real issue. Otherwise, realism in movies? Pfft.

[TheDeadWalk]

I'm hoping that I'm not contradicting myself and sounding like one of those guys that says "I can't get into an in-depth conversation about the movie, because it's only a movie. Quit taking it so seriously."

I love in depth conversations about movies, their messages, and their little world inside my world. I just can't stand someone who would look at an apocalypse film or a war film (Red Dawn for instance) and say that they won't watch it, or dispute anything good about it because "it could never happen".

[moviemuffin]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge defined this. He wrote about the "willing suspension of disbelief."

It only happens when the writing (or, in this case, film-making, which starts with writing and includes much more) is good.

In other words, if the movie is good nobody questions things that are fantastic or unlikely. It's only when the movie is absolute fucking shit that people snort derisively and refuse to play along.

Personally, I think that's fair. :)

[Tweek]

i don't complain that a movie is unrealistic...except when it tries to claim it is.


like "Mean Girls"=not realistic re: female bullies.

[Hucksta G]

It really pisses me off when you're watching a movie and somethinga tad over the top happens and then someone thats watching it with you, tries to act smart and say "yeah right, that would neevr happen" and then they go on to this long half assed explanation on how it could never work.

IF I WANTED TO SEE FRICKING REALITY I WOULDNT BE WATCHING A FRICKING MOVIE!!!!!!!!

[Jimmy"The Gent"]

Fuck Yeah! I'm with you guys all the way because I'm sick and tired of my friends busting on excellent movies because they could never happen or they were too over the top.
A great flick is a great flick in my opinion.

Example: I recently watched Dead Alive for the first time about a week ago and was totally blown away by the movie. For those of you that haven't heard of it, this is one of Peter Jackson's earlier horror films pre-dating his LOTR trilogy, which is pretty over the top with its gore and violence. Needless to say, I loved every second of it and couldn't wait to show it to some of my friends who had never heard of it either. But when I tried to show it to them they were totally uninterested because the zombies were too cartoonish and unbelievable for them. I was like: "You assholes have never even seen a real life zombie so how the hell do you know what they look like?" Well, I came to find out that the day before they had all seen the remake of Dawn of the Dead and were convinced that those were realistic zombies. Unfucking believable, a great movie shunned because of a fucking mediocore remake....I need new friends.

[jeo4]

If you go into a sci-fi or horror film expecting realism, then somebody needs to whack you in the back of the head with a shovel and bury your lifeless body in their back yard. I'm not against realism in a film, but there are too many people going off on a tear about films like this. One of my favorite comments comes from a friend. (And God bless him for being such a movie fan, but this is just an example.) It comes from DAWN OF THE DEAD

SPOILER:

When the gunman on the rooftop across the mall was attacked, he went up and smeared blood on his writing board and held it up, which let the people at the mall see that he was a zombie. My friend and my wife saw the film with me and when it was over, he said "How would the guy know to hold up a sign like that?" To which I replied "How could the dead rise and walk around again?" I didn't even mind it myself. It was just a movie.

END SPOILER.

[rilocay]

I can remember having a conversation with a firends gf, about the matrix reloaded.
She said something like "it's gay because its sooo unrealistic, that would never happend in real life"

I then told her how the movie is not sposed ot be realistic and used a whole lot of shit about the movie to really make her look like an ass. ALl of my firends n dat were laughing our asses off at her. i did apologizr though, but she now look sat movies differently, so atleast i got her thinking in a better way topwards movies.

[MrCouch]

The other night a friend of mine and I were talking about the moive Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis. She claimed that she hated the film due to the fact that there was no possible way that bruce willis' character (Lt. A.K. Waters )would just get lucky enough to rescue some extremley attractive doctor out in the middle of africa during a rebel assault. She said it was "unrealistic".
What do i have to say to that?
Who says attractive people can't be doctors who happen to dedicate thier lives to the unfortunate in foriegn countries? Its not that the movie was written to bring them together or to have some hot steamy passionate sex scene in a grass hut. His mission was to get her and bring her back safley, however she did not want to leave her people whom she had grown fond of and loved. Now if i or any other male in this situation were so gun ho about thier militarty job as Lt. Waters was in this film, YES you would get annoyed with the fact that she wont obey your orders. and even though you know what she is doing is right deep down, you still have a job to do. Lt. Waters knew she needed to stay but he was also obeying and serving his countries orders whether or not he thought they were right or not. Now yes he did dissobey his officer and take the hard way out by leading all the rebels into Cameroon to saftey, but i can honestly say that i would probably do the same thing. i have a pretty big heart so...yeah. Throughout the film, you could tell that Lt. Waters aslo had a heart deep down.
So i say to you my friend and anyone that agrees with her....shut up.
thats about it.

[sharkstank]

yep, my dad hates movies where "people fly"
YEAH

ANYWAY, some things i can look past
for example, i know its a bond movie, but in die another day, the bad guy strips the diamond of its protons
STRIPS THE DIAMOND OF ITS PROTONS
come on

WWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[MrCouch]

what don't you strip diamonds of thier protons on your free time?


......

[Darrell]

thats the shit that makes movies fun, if everything was realistic and had no sense of fantasy or anything then why would they be fun to watch???

[zakzombie]

i agree. some movies just arnt made to be realistic. Braveheart was, beacuse, it is a true story, on the other hand, things like Signs arnt supposed to be realistic, and i dont see why people complain about realism so much.

[Common Sense Man]

I'm of two minds about this. It all depends on what type of movie I am watching.

If I am watching the Matrix well then almost everything goes.

But if I am watching Heat or some other modern day movie and people start shooting up the world and no cops show, well come on that is dumb.

All movies do things that are not real. But you have to take it in context.

If it is a movie that is trying to be serious then the flaws can really stick out.

And come on no one could withstand half the crap they get put thru in any movie.

You get punched 700 times in the face you don't get up!

But stuff like that doesn't bother me because it IS a movie.

It all depends on the context.

Out.........................................

[the_maid_tricks]

Originally posted by Jon Lyrik
I pretty much agree, though crafts lasting 1000 years (a la Battlefield Earth) is where I draw the line as being too hard to swallow.

I agree that the aircraft lasting 1000 years is a stupid idea, but if I had been a child, I don't think I would have really found a problem with it.

Battlefield Earth was a bad movie because they screenwriters were not true to the book; they took too many liberties because they are stupid.

The real problem with the aircraft lasting 1000 years is that in the book "Battlefield Earth" the main character, Johnny, goes to a deserted military base that is more for shelter than anything. I think that he goes back later for shelter again and that's where the nukes come from. But when he finds the indoor hanger, he finds piles of metal in rows--the airplanes have pretty much disintegrated. Not only does this make more scientific sense, but from a literary/dramatic standpoint, this illustrates the theme of the book better, that of desolation, and the fact that a long time has passed since the invasion of earth. The earth is not humanity's planet any more; it belongs to the Pyschlos.

People often complain about movies aren't true to the book. If enough people see the movie, the bookworms spring their trap on the unsuspecting moviegoing public.

This case is different, because not that many people saw Battlefield Earth; it was a failure.

Maybe this post belongs in some "movies i'd like to see" thread because I believe Battlefield Earth can be remade, perhaps as a miniseries, or TV show, using the book as a guide instead of "source material".