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As if

Started by Steve Lampkins, February 23, 2010, 04:36:40 PM

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When my friend and I were teenagers, while watching films, we'd invariably turn to each other and say 'as if' when implausible events or plot points occurred. This happened quite a lot, as we were teenagers, and we watched implausible films.

Here's someone totally not getting why we enjoyed saying that.

Quotephysicist Sidney Perkowitz suggested a new rule: every film should be allowed just one major suspension of belief for the sake of the story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8530405.stm

Marvin


Serge

I've possibly mentioned this before, but a girl I used to work with went to see 'Deep Blue Sea' with her boyfriend. I've never actually seen the film, but I believe there's a scene where a shark jumps out of the water to eat Samuel L Jackson, at which point my friend's boyfriend shouted, "Oh, fuck off!" at the screen. Which has become my default saying for anything wildly implausible in a movie or TV show.

So no-one could hear any of 'The End Of Time' at christmas, etc, etc.

Jemble Fred

Why did he shout it at the one truly brilliant bit of an otherwise completely forgettable movie? I knew it was coming, but that moment still shot me out of my seat. Everything else in the film is a blank to me.

Serge

He must have been an extraordinarily rational man, pushed too far.

Like me during 'End Of Time', etc etc.

boxofslice

I know they're Bond films so you have to suspend your belief anyway but that bit in DAD with the surfing, wtf?!!

Jemble Fred

I shout at films all the time, being mental, but I'm far more likely to take issue with a bit of bad plotting or characterisation than any science-based flim-flammery. I couldn't give a toss about bad science in movies, but yelling things like "YEAH, BECAUSE OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO GO BACK INTO THE CORPSE-STREWN DUNGEONS, AREN'T YOU, YOU FUCKING TWAZZOCK???" is not beneath me.

Cerys

Quote from: Serge on February 23, 2010, 04:47:22 PM... "Oh, fuck off!" at the screen. Which has become my default saying for anything wildly implausible in a movie or TV show.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this.  Although at least I'm not as bad as a friend of ours, whose lack of suspension of disbelief borders on the autistic.  Hence the number of times she's picked flaws in the logic of Monty Python.

An tSaoi

My preferred incredulous exclamation is "Oh for FUCK'S sake!"

ThickAndCreamy

I don't care about logical flaws in films really, unless I don't enjoy the actual film. I find flaws offensive if I find the film unlikeable. Plots can suspend any notion of realism or likening to reality, in fact often my favourite films are utterly illogical and conceptual nonsense. To constrict your mind to the boundaries of rational thought when watching films is the equivalent of reading fiction and complaining that the characters aren't real.

Saucer51

I actually like Independance Day but it's utter schlock. There are about 20 "fuck off" moments during the film, it's all neatly sewn up, with people hooking up randomly with people who are the relatives of people their own relatives have hooked up randomly for survival 1000 miles away. The biggest suspension of disbelief is when Will Smith's girlfriend was able to escape a fireball in a tunnel but standing in an alcove. The fireball obligingly just passed by and incinerated everyone else.

the midnight watch baboon

That bit in Knowing, where it went all
Spoiler alert
heaven/purgatory/marshmallow factory/whatever
[close]
...  I sure gave the screen a 'Knowing', look, hey!

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: Jemble Fred on February 23, 2010, 04:49:16 PM
Why did he shout it at the one truly brilliant bit of an otherwise completely forgettable movie? I knew it was coming, but that moment still shot me out of my seat. Everything else in the film is a blank to me.

Agreed, I especially liked how it was mid-sentence, mid-important "it's crunch time!" speech. A very funny moment, and you can't tell me they didn't know that (crap CGI aside maybe).

I see someone on there actually tried to deconstruct the science of an Arnie movie; a later day Arnie movie at that. Oy Vey!

Sherringford Hovis

The title of this thread is the punchline to the 'joke' I've used on at least three occasions to get me out of a tight corner with racists.

Treguard of Dunshelm

Quote from: Sherringford Hovis on February 23, 2010, 11:05:53 PM
The title of this thread is the punchline to the 'joke' I've used on at least three occasions to get me out of a tight corner with racists.

Worryingly, that joke is the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.


Serge

Quote from: Saucer51 on February 23, 2010, 06:14:09 PM
I actually like Independance Day but it's utter schlock. There are about 20 "fuck off" moments during the film, it's all neatly sewn up, with people hooking up randomly with people who are the relatives of people their own relatives have hooked up randomly for survival 1000 miles away. The biggest suspension of disbelief is when Will Smith's girlfriend was able to escape a fireball in a tunnel but standing in an alcove. The fireball obligingly just passed by and incinerated everyone else.

Funnily enough, I always thought they had their tongues firmly in cheek for that scene, especially as it ends with the dog jumping to safety in a fairly ludicrous way. I used to work with a girl who hated dogs, and would overlook everything else in the movie just so she could moan, "And the dog survived!"

I think 'Independence Day' gets away with it, for me at least, because I find it entertaining enough to overlook its many logical flaws (such as the fact that the aliens flattened major cities worldwide but obligingly left Sydney Opera House standing so you know where that scene's meant to be set). I think it's when you're not enjoying it that the flaws start to grate.

Did I mention 'End Of Time', etc, etc...

Quote from: Cerys on February 23, 2010, 05:23:23 PM
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this.  Although at least I'm not as bad as a friend of ours, whose lack of suspension of disbelief borders on the autistic.  Hence the number of times she's picked flaws in the logic of Monty Python.

Hmmm, yeah, I think that might be taking it a bit too far....though I have been known to nitpick about whether the bookshop in 'Black Books' is meant to be a second hand bookshop or not.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: Serge on February 24, 2010, 01:42:35 PM
I have been known to nitpick about whether the bookshop in 'Black Books' is meant to be a second hand bookshop or not.

Well it's clearly an independent shop which sells new and second hand books.

I like to save people from arduous nitpicking.

SavageHedgehog

I always assumed it was second hand.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on February 24, 2010, 01:53:47 PM
I always assumed it was second hand.

They definitely sell second hand books, because we see Bernard buying them from people. But they also had special sales of new books, for Ricky Grover's gangster and Julian Rhind-Tut's travel writer.

There's a shop in Ludlow that sells both second-hand and new books, but it's not as funny as Black Books.