Totally put me off....

[small_world]

What throws you off a film?
Is it a breaking of the 4th wall? Or maybe a very odd casting choice?

I've just seen The Boy With The Striped Pyjamas, and while it was great and a really moving story, I was put off when the Nazi tutor turned out to be Bishop Brennan from Father Ted. The look on his face at one point was the same expression he uses to show shock at Father Ted kicking him up the arse. So that totally put me off...

Also, and it's not as serious. But in The Rock, there's a scene where Nick Cage's character has a real go at Sean Connery's character for messing with one of the gas crystals. Once he's given him the bollocking, Sean Connery looks right at the camera. He does that, and makes a face like "oooohhhh.. HANDBAGS." It's the briefest brief glance, but it totally breaks the 4th wall.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Steven Spielberg's Girl in the Red Coat in Schlinder's List. Which screams LOOK! HERE! IT'S TIME TO FEEL! EMOTE! ETC.

Bruce Campbell - Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the man, but every time he appears I can't help but wonder just how much of the scenery he's going to chew on this time around.

[Necrophagism]

Steven Spielberg's Girl in the Red Coat in Schlinder's List. Which screams LOOK! HERE! IT'S TIME TO FEEL! EMOTE! ETC.

During some 'Film Studies' shite at Uni, I made some flippant remark regarding Don't Look Now and I was quite serverely admonished.

I usually get put off towards the end of a movie when they waste a decent premise and it descends into standard bollocks. Unfortunately, the only example I can think of at the moment was Chronicle - I dreamed about making a film with a similar conceit when I was younger but it went all shitty at the end. I'll try and think of something else.

[Serge]

One of the nineties Batman movies - I think it was 'Batman Forever' - had a shot where the camera was flying over Gotham City, and I thought, "Ooh, that's a good special effect." Never quite got back into the film after that.

[v00n]

During some 'Film Studies' shite at Uni, I made some flippant remark regarding Don't Look Now and I was quite serverely admonished.

I usually get put off towards the end of a movie when they waste a decent premise and it descends into standard bollocks. Unfortunately, the only example I can think of at the moment was Chronicle - I dreamed about making a film with a similar conceit when I was younger but it went all shitty at the end. I'll try and think of something else.

Yes, but the bit with the old woman and the knife, in the tower - that was good, wasn't it?

[Nuclear Optimism]

Actors who look like other people put me off. The Driver from Drive reminding me (and apparently half the fucking site) of Rodney Trotter was off putting. And every time I see Christoph Waltz in a film I just think "There's Uncle Ewan! Wait, why's he killing all those Jews?"

[small_world]

Yeah, some actors just ARE a certain role.

Equally look-a-likes, or "Isn't he that thingy from something" can really break a film. 

I'll spend 3 minutes wondering it, then possibly moot the point to whoever I'm watching it with, and then, if I'm met with derision, I'll often have to go and Google it. Most often that will lead to me being wrong, and then sulking for the rest of the film, or trying to convince my viewing partner, that "IT REALLY DOES look like him/her".

This was a huge thing for ages after I saw the film HotRod. I thought that the douche, rich, boyfriend of the protagonist's love interest, was the same guy who played the lead in Limitless also the suave one in the Hangover and the A-Team.

[samadriel]

You didn't recognise Will Arnett? I thought we were all Arrested Development tragics here.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Actors who look like other people put me off. The Driver from Drive reminding me (and apparently half the fucking site) of Rodney Trotter was off putting. And every time I see Christoph Waltz in a film I just think "There's Uncle Ewan! Wait, why's he killing all those Jews?"

This is why I'm slightly bewildered by all the female adoration for Ryan Gosling in that film. I mean, he looks like Rodney, he acts like a creepy loner with mild Asperger's, and he stomps people to death in elevators.

[CaledonianGonzo]

As I think I've mentioned before, the whole of Drive can be read as a bloated Hollywood remake of the sequence from OFAH Dates where Rodney goes out for an evening in the van with Nervous Nerys.

[Pete23]

At the beginning of The Thing (the new version) the CGI breath was really bothering me, but once the film got into its stride everything else (story, continuity, design, effects etc) bothered me more.

I also get annoyed at anyone who says "wanker" in a film - I have never heard any actor actually make it sound convincing.

[Nuclear Optimism]

This is why I'm slightly bewildered by all the female adoration for Ryan Gosling in that film. I mean, he looks like Rodney, he acts like a creepy loner with mild Asperger's, and he stomps people to death in elevators.

At the beginning of The Thing (the new version) the CGI breath was really bothering me, but once the film got into its stride everything else (story, continuity, design, effects etc) bothered me more.

Oh, there's dodgy CGI breath in The Social Network too. Has CGI breath ever looked real?

[Buelligan]

This is why I'm slightly bewildered by all the female adoration for Ryan Gosling in that film. I mean, he looks like Rodney, he acts like a creepy loner with mild Asperger's, and he stomps people to death in elevators.

I started to watch Drive and was so put off that I stopped.  Afterwards, felt there might be something wrong with me, everyone else seems to think it's such a great film.  Now I feel slightly better.  :)

Other things that put me off include - any film that has Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas or Sylvester Stallone in it.  And, of course, if it's called 500 Days of Summer.

[Stone Cold Jane Austen]

Pop culture references.

It was quite novel and interesting when Tarantino introduced characters who talked about movies and tv shows but now it's everywhere and it just annoys me now. The Judd Apatow movies (some of which I've quite enjoyed) are the worst for it. Whenever a fictional character says the name of a real life actor in a film, I find myself doing a 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' thing in my head, to prove that it's technically impossible for the two of them to co-exist in the same universe. I find that very distracting.

On a similar note, I can't stand it when a writer/filmmaker has a character talking about some band/musician that they're clearly a big fan of. In God Bless America, there's a scene in which a character extolls the virtues of Alice Cooper, which I find incredibly irritating (the film then called my bluff by having another character address her as 'Juno', which just confused me). The worst example of this is in Death Proof, where a hot sexy girl is talking fluently on the subject of "Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitch and Tich". Ugh.

Cameos.

I don't like cameos. They're occasionally acceptable in a comedy movie, but they rarely add anything. I was watching one of the Steven Soderbergh Che films (can't remember if it was part 1 or 2) and I was really enjoying it, getting absorbed in the storyline, what with all the jungle and the subtitles. Then, all of a sudden, Matt Damon shows up in a tiny role and a voice in my head went "HEY LOOK IT'S MATT DAMON". It completely took me out of the film.

When I watch a movie, if it's good I want to get lost in the story. I don't like being reminded of the fact that I'm watching a movie.

[v00n]

This is why I'm slightly bewildered by all the female adoration for Ryan Gosling in that film. I mean, he looks like Rodney, he acts like a creepy loner with mild Asperger's, and he stomps people to death in elevators.

My thoughts exactly. Appeared by permission of the Forestry Commission.

Tries to appear smouldering yet ice-cool, and ends up as Rodders.

[kitsofan34]

Cook'd and Bomb'd

For putting me off the very attractive Ryan Gosling.

[Cohaagen]

Obvious technical inaccuracies that are clearly a result of the writer being a lazy fuck and not doing their research, rather than characterisation. I am going to sound like one of those sad farts from the IMFDb here, but the one that always sticks out in my mind is the bit from Die Hard 2 where Bruno Willis says

"That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me, you know what that is? It's a porcelain gun, made in Germany. Doesn't show up on your airport metal detectors here and probably costs more than what you make in a month"

when talking about the Glock 17, an Austrian pistol made from high-impact polymer and X-ray-detectable steel, and which costs about $400 brand new. Strangely, despite this nitpicking, I had no problem with Willis outrunning an explosion with an ejector seat, wiping out a rogue commando unit single-handed, or taking part in a fight on the wing of a moving jumbo which ends with Kunta Kinte getting eaten by a jet engine.

[Nuclear Optimism]

Cook'd and Bomb'd

For putting me off the very attractive Ryan Gosling.

[danyulx]

The shit eating banquet about forty minutes into 'Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom'. It was all going so well up that point as well.

Also, I'm not that big a fan of over-the-top big, stupid twists in films, especially near the end. Either I see them coming a mile off or they come out of nowhere and make no sense, have been crowbarred in there to Wow the plebs. That the recent 'The Kill List' was a good example on how to piss on a perfectly decent film in this way.

The Social Network

The most overrated film ever made, bar none, which is saying something. The whole thing put me off. No film even comes close to the wanton, demented overration that film received from what seemed like everyone except myself.. except pehaps 'American Beauty' about ten years ago, which I'm sure everyone has now forgotten about. The first scene alone totally put me off for life, him having that 'awkward' chat with that girl in that bar. What a thoroughly average scene, that totally put me off. I knew I was in for a thoroughly mediocre piece of work from that moment on and I wasn't wrong.

Let's see how well that film holds up in about three years time.

Some people would argue that that film is not about Facebook per se at all , but is a "universal tale for our time" or something. And I would argue - in response - that if the tale of some American college kids getting rich inventing something shit up on a computer (a glorified Myspace rip-off), throwing a few poolside parties to celebrate, then falling out and suing each other, and that's about it, is "a story for our time", then the game is up.

[Mini]

Michael Caine. I mean he's great and everything, but these days he's thrown into a movie as a sort of in-joke. Like a knowing wink to the audience. It's like when Stephen Fry turns up in films. We're just expected to enjoy it because it's them. Like them being in it is clever in itself.

And Ryan Gosling is brilliant.

[v00n]

Michael Caine. I mean he's great and everything, but these days he's thrown into a movie as a sort of in-joke. Like a knowing wink to the audience. It's like when Stephen Fry turns up in films. We're just expected to enjoy it because it's them. Like them being in it is clever in itself.

Flavour of the month, for the 21st century, would seem to be Simon Pegg, at least for now.

And Ryan Gosling is brilliant.

No.

[Nuclear Optimism]

[v00n]

Palpable irony. Love it

[alan nagsworth]

Pop culture references.

Ugh god, what film is it where Natalie Portman's character declares that "The Shins will change your life"? Such a gaping hole for the director or whoever to just force feed his favourite band in. It'd actually be better if you just used them in the soundtrack, regardless of if the song fit the mood of the scene or not.

[Bad Ambassador]

Garden State, written, directed by and starring Zach Braff, just after he decided to stop being interesting.

[Nuclear Optimism]

Argh - I can't believe I spelt Gosling wrong in the Reliant Robin pic! Can't edit. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I started to watch Drive and was so put off that I stopped.  Afterwards, felt there might be something wrong with me, everyone else seems to think it's such a great film.  Now I feel slightly better.  :)

I should add, though, that I did really like the film, and liked Gosling in it. Just couldn't figure out where the sexual attraction would come from.

[Serge]

Argh - I can't believe I spelt Gosling wrong in the Reliant Robin pic! Can't edit. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

To be honest, I thought that was part of the joke....

[ziggy starbucks]

Argh - I can't believe I spelt Gosling wrong in the Reliant Robin pic! Can't edit. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

fixed it for you

[holyzombiejesus]

It's very rare that the mention of a real life band doesn't put me off a film (or book, for that matter), particularly if it's done to try and make a charcter seem hip. In fact the only time that I can think of that doesn't really get my goat is when Eric Catchpole gets tickets to a Guns'n'Roses concert in Lovejoy (not a film, unfortunately).

Similarly, when there's some fetishisation of the whole 'playing a record' ritual, I want to shout 'oh, fuck off' at the screen. I dearly love Ghost World but when Enid plays her records, it's really annoying.

Something that should annoy me but I actually really like is portrayals of punks and/ or nightclubs.