I searched for this topic and surprisingly did not find any existing threads that deal specifically with the issue, so here it is:

What are your movie pet peeves?

This applies only to the movies themselves, not the viewing experience (e.g., cell phones in theaters, non-skippable trailers on DVDs, etc.).

I'll get us started:

Opening credits that appear over the action of a scene. Either save all of the credits until the end, or give me an entertaining credits-only opening sequence (Seven and -- for some reason -- Hollow Man are the first examples that come to mind). Don't make me follow the action of the movie while obscuring the frame with the credits, which I also want to pay attention to.

Movies that are set in ancient times, or anytime pre-1800s for that matter, in which actors open their mouths widely (to scream, yell, let out a battle cry, whatever the case may be) and their silver fillings are clearly visible. Never fails to ruin the illusion for me.

When heroes emerge virtually unhurt from action that would clearly have killed them. E.g., in BOURNE ULTIMATUM when the car falls from a parking garage ten stories down to the street and smashes and Matt Damon gets out and runs to get another car, instead of lying there dead or mortally injured.

When the hero's bullets never fail to hit and kill their targets while the targets are shooting at him from all directions with automatic weapons and they all miss! E.g. COMMANDO, when Arnold is running to and fro on the island and he's shooting while he's running and not particularly aiming and he hits all the soldiers while they're standing, aiming and shooting at him and all missing.

I'm old enough to remember action movies when they weren't stupid!

In general I agree with your post, but in the specific scene you mentioned, Bourne drove off the second level of a two-level parking garage. When you factor in that he landed on other cars, he barely fell the length of the car he was driving. The agents shooting him even climb down to continue the chase.

When actors in period pieces have perfect/bright white teeth.

Somebody is in peril on the side of the road...I can't think of one specific example because it's become such a cliche...but let's say the husband is carrying his dying wife or something trying to find somebody to help him and the first person to drive by doesn't only drive by but honks their HORN as they pass. And seemingly angrily.

It never fails to make me mad. I understand not everybody is going to stop and help somebody in need and be a good Samaritan but how often do you see somebody just blasting their horn at somebody on the side of the road in serious trouble. "HOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKK! Get out of the way with your dying wife, JACKASS!"

Or when there's a big truck driving by they always will blare their horn for no reason and use the same stock sound effect.

Yeah, that too. I live in a city and I hardly ever hear people honk their horns, even during rush hour on busy streets.

Whenever I see a dude peeing and they don't have a piss shiver it usually takes me out of it.

Jim Carrey did it in "Dumb and Dumber" but I can't recall any others..

A very, very, very big pet peeve of mine, too.

When I don't feel the need to see a movie at all because the trailer is a three minute summary including the final act. Remember when the idea was to explain the premise, and make us want to see what happens? And they want to know why, major franchises aside, theater attendance has kept declining....

Then there are the casting pet peeves. I hate that they always cast Britons for every historical piece. Peter O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia was one thing, but as King Priam in Troy? They couldn't find any older Greek actor?

A sub-category of this is the Bond Girl having been a recognizable American actress; the worst offender were the last three of the Brosnan era. I'm grateful that the Daniel Craig era has not been thusly guilty.

And it's been a decade. Can we move on from shoot-outs being based on The Matrix? Once upon a time, the multi-angle, slow frame shot added to the scenes. Now, whatever happens, I'm bored because I've already seen it.

When someone's kid is taken hostage I check out, as in almost every Bruce Willis movie, The Dark Knight... so many others... has a kid hostage ever been killed on screen?

When it's a movie set in a foreign country where nobody should speak English but everybody in the movie speaks in English. It completely takes me out of the movie.

(this is coming from somebody who doesn't mind subtitles at all.)

A person picks up a phone and dials a number and instantly is connected to the other person. There's never a wait for when the phone should be ringing.

Someone offers someone else a drink, etc. and they say yes, only to not take a drink and end up leaving.

This is starting to happen more and more in movies and I hate it. Showing people vomit. I hate that. I wish they'd cut away and just have the sound, but nope, gotta show the liquid spew out. ugh.

Lack of dispersion in war films. In other words, military personnel and vehicles advance a metre apart one another. I realize the need for camera framing and dramatization, but it's like "Maintain dispersion men!" and they are breathing down each other's neck.

A character fires a burst from his/her gun and there is a dozen bullet holes. For example, True Lies involves a bad guy firing a couple of burst shots from his AK at screening walls of public toilet. There are hundred bullet holes in the aftermath.

People playing video games. 9 out of 10 times it involves them smashing the buttons on the controller while 1970 beeps come out of the TV speakers.

Movies that are under 2 hours and/or are not rated R or higher.
Just kidding (well kinda at least).....
Some things kinda peeve me are when things take a lot less time and they normally do in real life. Examples: characters driving and stopping at red lights that last like a total lof 3 seconds. Then off and driving again. People answering the phone on the first ring, etc.

Is that something you really want to see? A kid hostage get his throat cut or a bullet in the head on screen? If so, you have issues.

Computer programs making noises with every click.... just leave em silent!

Cell phones, monitors appearing too bright, esp outside. They can still leave them brighter than usual, but at least tone it down a bit.

Jack Slater III (If that counts) I'm with you, though.

I'll add when any secondary character in an action movie or war film speaks of his home life with longing and pride. Often spells imminent death.
or...
When two characters are talking in a moving vehicle, and the driver is looking at the passenger more than the road.

I freakin' hate the "unwrapping" of presents in movies. The top of the box is wrapped. The bottom of the box is wrapped. The character just opens it up.

I think he means it ruins the suspense, because you know they won't kill the kid.

No, I don't want to see it, but there is no drama or suspense when the kid is taken, because you know it's all working out in the end.
Edit: Drexl, You just beat me to the post. Thanks.

I always hated 2 characters having a conversation in one place (usually a car). The next scene shows them someplace else, and the conversation continues without skipping a beat. It's as if they stopped talking until they changed locations.

By solving that last problem, one could solve the first.

Repo Man includes a classic riff on this motif ... good stuff.



This is probably not specific enough, (most of these peeves are fantastic) but I was done with musical montages before they ever started. Changing outfits and dancing? Enough. Falling in love over a few dates while Savage Garden plays in the background. OMG. Or multigenerational groups of women singing into hairbrushes? (Mermaids being a prime example.) I'll just be blowing my brains out, thanks.