atlantamoi

I'm more bemused than miffed by watching a movie location being faked. But it can totally take me out of the magic. Watching Big Fish and there was a scene that was supposed to take place at Auburn University. I don't know where they filmed that scene, but it wasn't Auburn.

Often jolted out of the story when you recognize differing locations?

marty888

Well, PHONE BOOTH says it is set in NYC, and specifies the exact location, which happens to be the block where I live. Everything is supposed to be happening right outside my front door, but trust me, when I step outside my front door what I see is nothing like what is on the screen!

IronWaffle

I live in the DC area and when I saw DIE HARD 2 it was impossible to accept the airport they used as the very odd, glassy and distinctive Dulles Airport it was supposed to be. That said, my only real problem with the movie was that it wasn't as fun as the first.

I haven't seen NO WAY OUT (the Costner film) all the way, but on TV I caught a chase seen on the subway which looks much more generic than our Metro system with its brushed steel and chocolate brown motif in the cars and its underground stations' large, hollow, arcing concrete celings. I keep meaning to rent the movie but never get around to it. I don't think it has to do with suspending disbelief, though. I think it has to do with Costnerphobia.

clappj

They filmed Hellraiser 3 here in Greensboro, NC, but it was supposed to be NYC. At the end of the movie the "main character" is running through downtown and it's funny because they didn't bother to change the street signs, so I can see the names of the streets I'm familiar with.

dhmac

Yeah, I recognized the same thing. According to IMDB.com, the filmmakers planned to actually film at Auburn University but changed the location to Huntingdon College (in Montgomery) when AU asked for script approval.

McHawkson

I remember seeing a skateboard movie (I forgot the title) where a main character skated from Irvine to near Disneyland within an hour. I laughed because it would take much longer than that!

sherm42

That was probably Gleaming the Cube. The movie is set in Anaheim where I grew up.

OldBoy

i more bemused than miffed by ambiguous thread titles.

McHawkson

Yes, that's it. It also filmed in Irvine (Woodbridge High School).

BigDan

Very few movies are set in the places I have lived, so it doesn't happen very often for me.

The X-Files movie, though, had a couple of such parts.

Alan Smithee

In "Romeo Must Die" I love how Vancouver, Canada is right across the lake from San Francisco.

Michael T Hudson

Courage under Fire. Austin was used for Washington.

atlantamoi

Why, were you upset it wasn't the title of a new Ashton Kutcher flick?

Rypro 525

major league 2 was supposed to be cleavland, but its obviously baltimore (hell you can see "inner harbor" signs. Also, the sum of all fears takes place in baltimore but we don't have any dome stadiums

milo bloom

I didn't actually see it, but apparently the first episode of "The Loop" was so bad about this it caused someone from the Tribune to devote a column to it. It's supposed to be set in downtown Chicago, and most of Illinois is as flat as an 11 year old boy. Apparently it was filmed in either some part of California or Canada where *huge* mountain ranges could be seen in the background.

Mondo Kane

In Army of One (Dolph Lundgren movie!) there's this action sequence that takes place near this lone gas station in the Owens Valley (Cali) that I'm familiar with.
I let out a huge laugh when a police car flies off a cliff behind the station that isn't really there.

Speaking of Owens Valley, it was a trip seeing Maximus running around from there to Morocco in Gladiator!

Greg613

Yea it would have been nice for Big Fish to have something like Samford Hall in it, but Huntingdon at least has a beautiful campus.

McHawkson

Forgot to add:

In ID4, they showed El Toro Air Base in desert with mountain range - but the real El Toro Air Base is in farm/city area with hill range in back ground.

Joe Molotov

True Grit is supposed to take place in Oklahoma, but the mountains suggest that it was filmed a lot farther west.

Michael Ballack

Awful movie no matter what, but Blues Brothers 2000 was supposed to be in Chicago when it was either filmed in Detroit or Canada. I really don't want to watch it again to confirm.

Cardiac161

This thread could be changed to "Hey, that's my city!!"

I live in Vancouver, BC and I could swear a lot of the movies that are suppose to set in LA or Seattle or New York are in Vancouver.

John Wielgosz

Here's one that bugged me, not the shooting location mind you, but the disregard for geography...

In 'Kingpin', Woody Harrelson's character is established as living in Scranton, PA. The location shoot isn't too bad. It isn't Scranton, but it has a similar look and isn't out of line with what Scranton looks like.

But...

He is shown driving to a LANCASTER BOWLING ALLEY (sorry 'bout the shouting) as if it's fifteen minutes away.

Lancaster, PA and the Amish community is a good two and a half hour drive (minimum) by the most direct route available from Scranton. Scranton's up in the Northeast corner of the state, while Lancaster is closer to the central area of the state's southern border...

Mr. Salty

I agree on "Blues Brothers 2000," especially when they're crossing a bridge over the Ohio River that's only about 50 feet across (the Ohio is about a mile and a half wide where they're supposed to be).

Others:

I like the mountians surrounding New York in "Rumble in the Bronx."

I used to live in Southern Illinois, near where Harrison Ford escapes from custody in "The Fugitive." If he was really in Illinois running along the Mississippi River, then the river was flowing north. Also, there aren't any dams, let alone one big enough for him to drive through or jump off of.

Randy Miller III

There's a scene in Bob Roberts that's supposed to take place in downtown Harrisburg, PA, but one of the barricades is marked "City of Philadelphia".

Flashback

I think there and Toronto are the two main cities used to stand in for US cities but filmed in Canada.