Nitpicking movies

[mustang84]

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I'm pretty observant when watching movies...especially when it comes to filming locations. Tonight I was watching Halloween I. The movie is supposed to take place in a fictional town called Haddonfield, Illinois. Yet two scenes are shot at different schools, both the open-air type you see in places like California where there is a mild climate. That would never fly in Illinois during the middle of the winter. Second, in the scene where the doctor is headed to Haddonfield, you can see these gigantic mountains in the background. News flash: Illinois doesn't have mountains!

Same thing with Stephen King's "The Stand." There is a scene where one of the characters named Trashcan Man is setting oil tanks ablaze, with "Cheery Oil - Powtanville, Indiana" clearly painted on the side. Yet there are these huge 10,000 foot mountains looming in the background of the shot.

I realize that there are tight budgets and filming in Illinois or Indiana might be out of the question, but how hard is it to go up to the Central Valley at least and try to get a vista that doesn't have gigantic mountains, or pick a school that doesn't have exterior hallways, or find some vegetation that looks like what you would find in the upper Midwest and not in a subtropical climate.

Yes, I'm a nitpicker.

[trinacriabob]

Only one movie comes to mind for an error and I can't believe I watched the whole thing: "A League of their Own" which had Geena Davis as one of the ball players. Her fiance, Bob from Oregon, is going to bring her back home where they will get married.

First, there are few Geena Davis-alikes in Oregon.

Next, the terrain and deciduous vegetation on Bob's family's farm was not at all like the area. There were no hemlock or fir, no grade change and no gray skies to be seen.

[regfootball]

Only one movie comes to mind for an error and I can't believe I watched the whole thing: "A League of their Own" which had Geena Davis as one of the ball players. Her fiance, Bob from Oregon, is going to bring her back home where they will get married.

First, there are few Geena Davis-alikes in Oregon.

Next, the terrain and deciduous vegetation on Bob's family's farm was not at all like the area. There were no hemlock or fir, no grade change and no gray skies to be seen.

LMAO

are we talking above the waistline or below the waistline?

what's fer dinner? carpet!

[capriceman]

I do that all the time. I like all the wrong stuff. like in Apollo 13 when tom hanks daughter holds up the beetles album and it wasn't even released yet at that date

Or they show 80's pick up in the parking lot or a 60's scene.

[Enzora]

I do that all the time. I like all the wrong stuff. like in Apollo 13 when tom hanks daughter holds up the beetles album and it wasn't even released yet at that date

Or they show 80's pick up in the parking lot or a 60's scene.

Speaking of nit-picking. . . .

[Hudson]

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I'm pretty observant when watching movies...especially when it comes to filming locations.

I was watching the John Travolta film "The Experts" which was set in New York. In one scene, the main characters were riding in a limousine and a blurry car can be seen following it. I turned to my friends and said, "this movie must have been filmed in Canada."

They asked why. I told them that the car in that scene was a Hyundai Stellar, which wasn't sold in the US. They rewound the tape (yes, this was about 17 years ago) and THEY couldn't make out any features of the car.

At the end of the movie, it stated that the movie was filmed in Vancouver.

And speaking of bad movies, the opening credits of "Mannequin 2," the main character drives his Jeep onto Kelly Drive in Philadelphia. The camera, mounted in the passenger seat, shows the driver with Boathouse Row in the background. For this scene to occur, the Jeep is heading OUT of Philadelphia intead of INTO the city, which is where the following scenes take place.

[mustang84]

There's also plenty of movies where they supposedly take place in some city but by just seeing a couple buildings or landmarks from the skyline you know it was shot somewhere else completely. Somehow LA has a magical way of becoming Kansas City, Dallas, Detroit, and Atlanta.

[knightfan26917]

Yes, I'm a nitpicker.

He he...so am I!

Most recently ... the TV show Life On Mars is supposedly set in 1973. Except...I spotted a 1977 Monte Carlo....

Cort | 35swm | "Mr Monte Carlo"."Mr Road Trip" | pig valve.pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"You got your blinders on" ... Sheryl Crow ... 'Real Gone'

[Croc]

There's also plenty of movies where they supposedly take place in some city but by just seeing a couple buildings or landmarks from the skyline you know it was shot somewhere else completely. Somehow LA has a magical way of becoming Kansas City, Dallas, Detroit, and Atlanta.

Tell me about it. LA is everywhere. You want to know where that car commercial was shot? If it's in a tunnel, it's the 2nd St. tunnel downtown (Cadillac CTS). Several of the recent Saturn commercials? 2nd St. tunnel, 4th St. "freeway," 4th St. viaduct, 6th st viaduct.

Ford Edge was shot downtown, too...but I forget which street.

One of the biggest tell-tale signs of LA is the presence of red curbs. LA paints their curbs red for no parking zones, yellow for loading, green for permit parking only, and blue for handicap only. Other cities do this too, but LA has a LOT of red curbs...sometimes blocks and blocks of streets. Also, LA curbs tend to be a bit higher than usual (consternation for front passenger unloading), especially in older areas.

The biggest nitpick for me, though, is CSI: Miami. Not only is "Miami" really LA (they look nothing alike, especially with the predominant design aesthetics of the housing stock), but the whole show is filmed with a yellow filter on the picture. Honestly, why is everything so damn orange in "Miami"? Trying to turn smoggy skies into "sunny" ones? Or is "Miami" stuck in a perpetual twilight? Anyone who has ever watched Miami Vice (TV show, not the awful movie) knows what Miami looks like, and how bright and vivid everything is, especially the BLUE sky.

[Hudson]

Most recently ... the TV show Life On Mars is supposedly set in 1973. Except...I spotted a 1977 Monte Carlo....

I can still remember watching CHiPs when they were chasing a guy in a older (1967-ish) Ford pickup as it veered off the highway and down an embankment. Switch the camera angle and the truck going over the side was a NEWER Ford pickup. I've never understood that one.

[!!!TED!!!]

I can still remember watching CHiPs when they were chasing a guy in a older (1967-ish) Ford pickup as it veered off the highway and down an embankment. Switch the camera angle and the truck going over the side was a NEWER Ford pickup. I've never understood that one.

How about RoboCop the series.

Toronto as Detroit (end credits even have him passing a streetcar!).

Everytime a Taurus police car (second gen cars used for the series) gets damaged or blown up, the car taking the abuse is a first gen!

[trinacriabob]

Tell me about it. LA is everywhere. You want to know where that car commercial was shot? If it's in a tunnel, it's the 2nd St. tunnel downtown (Cadillac CTS). Several of the recent Saturn commercials? 2nd St. tunnel, 4th St. "freeway," 4th St. viaduct, 6th st viaduct.

LMAO. Agreed.

The car commercials are either in that tunnel....or on Flower or Figureoa in the Financial District. Never fails.

In fact, in one truly disgusting violent movie ("Seven"), it was supposed to be in an Eastern city and then, in the end, when "the box" is delivered, they are in the desert outskirts of Los Angeles. Now, come on, if you can afford Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt, then you can afford NOT to make such a blunder that any reasonably well-traveled person would identify.

[knightfan26917]

I can still remember watching CHiPs when they were chasing a guy in a older (1967-ish) Ford pickup as it veered off the highway and down an embankment. Switch the camera angle and the truck going over the side was a NEWER Ford pickup. I've never understood that one.

That reminds me of an episode last year of Friday Night Lights. One of the main characters and his Dad took a mid-'70s (1975-1976, iirc) Caprice wagon to torch it ... and, while it was burning, it turned into a '77-'79 Caprice wagon! Aye.