Movies that really strain credibility. (1 Viewer)

[Jay E]

It's been one week since I had the misfortune of seeing The Bone Collector and I still can't get the movie out of my head. It's been a while since I've seen a movie that so insults the intelligence and suspension of belief of the audience. All through the movie I kept shaking my head as one after another, events took place that defied reality.
There are so many to point out, but since I want this to be spoiler free I'll just mention one; Angelie Jolie, a cop on the beat (former model turned police officer!?!?!?}, with no prior forensic experience, becomes the chief forensic officer in a serial killer murder investigation because she had the foresight to take pictures of a crime scene before the rain washed away the evidence! Since I thought of the same thing myself, I now know that I too can be a forensic officer on a murder investigation (of course I'll need to get collagen injections in my lips first).
After watching the film, I figured out that I must have been watching a fantasy film that took place on a parallel universe where what we know as reality is turned inside out. Yeah, that must be the answer.
I would like to know if anyone else has a film that they feel might be set in this parallel universe.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Armageddon. In the real world, if you spit on the space shuttle, NASA has to postpone the launch to make sure the boosters won't fall off during takeoff, but in the movie they take this shuttle and pilot it like it's a truck in one of those off-road 4X4 commercials. And here I always thought outer space was supposed to be dangerous, but according to this movie you can smash through asteroids without any problem

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

The new movie Swimfan doesn't so much as strain credibility/realism than shred it. Now I realize Fatal Attraction in High School, which is all it is, isn't necessarily supposed to be "realistic", but I could not stop from laughing at the preposterous things that happen in it. It's a howler.
Aside from the major stuff, one of my "favorite" parts is one of those little details that demonstrates how sloppy it all is. The main character goes to the restaurant where his girlfriend works and says that they need to talk. She tells him that she doesn't get off work until 1:00 a.m. but maybe they can skip first period and talk then. Yeah, high school students working until 1:00 a.m. on school nights. Sure.

 

[Will K]

Armageddon is also hilarious in the fact there was like 18 days to save the planet and the crew had not only time to train for space, but to go out and drink and pick up chicks, and have lovely countryside picnics.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I was just talking about this last night to my girlfriend who studies language: in The 13th Warrior (I know, not a realistic movie anyway), Antonio Bandaris, who plays an Arab Muslim, learns the language of the Vikings by simply listening to them for a while talk over a camp fire to each other.

Um, no, it doesn't work that way. You have to already know some of the basics before being able to absorb a language that you hear without translation and without it being directed at you.

 

[Dennis Heller]

Double Jeopardy. Besides the completely wrong interpretation of the double jeopardy concept, my favorite part is where Ashley Judd outruns two cops who are driving a Jeep. After the cops crash the Jeep, they manage to run her down on foot. Classic.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Signs. There, I said it. Still hate the final reel of that film.

 

[Todd Phillips]

Armageddon holds the prize for me. It showed an understanding of science and logic that a six-year-old would find ridiculous. It seems to have been developed no further that the concept. The characters, plot, science, motivations, etc...nothing is credible.

 

[Ian Garton]

Four Dogs Playing Poker.

 

[MichaelAW]

Independence Day for one.

After recently watching Space Cowboys, I commented to my wife that they got a lot more wrong than right in that one.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Well, let's be honest here: Just about any Hollywood summer popcorn movie relates to credibility the way water does to oil.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

There's one scene in Dante's Peak that really disturbes me every time I see it. Pierce Brosnan at one point has to drive his truck through a river of lava in order to escape. He makes it of course, no shock their, but why oh why are HIS WHEELS AND TIRES STILL INTACT AND OPERATIONAL!?!?!?
They would have instantly melted, along with the entire truck!
Otherwise it's a good movie.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I'll borrow from Janeane Garofalo (paraphrasing)
"You know one really implausible movie? Speed. At one point Annie misses her bus and the bus driver "Sam" stops the bus for her. I mean, come on. Oh, I had no problem with the rest of the movie."

 

[CharlesD]

Even by the standards of the movie, the Gatling guns on NASA's mobile space drilling rig in Armageddon are stretching things a little too far.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Seriously though folks, is it really right questioning films like this? Afterall their only stories being told to us for our entertainment.
A perfect analogy would be to start questioning story books like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, or Humpty Dumpty. I mean come on, everybody knows that Humpty Dumpty is full of shit, but we never questioned that hearing it as kids because it was just a story.

 

[Jason Seaver]

A perfect analogy would be to start questioning story books like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, or Humpty Dumpty

Not really. Those stories' settings place them in a fantasy world, and they do obey their own consistent internal logic.

 

[Dennis Heller]

I think if the movies are going to take place in our world with our laws of physics, there should be some basis in reality.
Plus, in my example, Double Jeopardy, the movie's entire premise was false. I might be able to look past some of the other plot holes (the entire plot was all holes), but there is no basis at all for that movie.
BTW, what kind of movies can be questioned if not ones meant to entertain?

 

[RobertR]

Seriously though folks, is it really right questioning films like this? Afterall their only stories being told to us for our entertainment.

A perfect analogy would be to start questioning story books like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, or Humpty Dumpty.

The problem is that films such as Armageddon make a silly pretense of being serious human drama, whereas the stories you mentioned don't (or, to use another example, the Road Runner cartoons). That's exactly what people are saying: that despite pretensions of being otherwise, scenes in Armageddon are just as silly as seeing Wily Coyote walk away from falling 2,000 feet with a two ton boulder on top of him. This makes the movie DEVOID of anything approaching real drama.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Those stories' settings place them in a fantasy world, and they do obey their own consistent internal logic.

All of the films discussed in this thread exist in a fantasy world or one sort or another. Like all fantasy worlds, there are elements borrowed from real life, but the minute you step back and take a look at it, it's absurd. The criticisms being leveled against, e.g., The Bone Collector, could just as easily be leveled against the Indiana Jones films. (A professor who disappears from his classroom for months at a time to go gallivanting around the world having adventures that no flesh-and-blood human could survive? Please!)

Even superficially "realistic" dramas are usually full of liberties taken with reality in the name of creating drama. The Verdict is one of my favorite films, but most of the events portrayed in it could not happen in any courtroom in America.

M.

 

[george kaplan]

Manhattan.

A beautiful tall 17 year old girl might fall for a 42 year old man, but he'd have to be either rich or good-looking, and tall would probably help too.