I thought it was,: Cars in a date/Date cars/Cars dating. I’m thinking that son should get a newer car than his 87 Camry for getting a date.
Triedaq, “My recommendation is that the studios either use a 1947-52 Studebaker or a 1957-1959 Chrysler product where the rear view mirror is mounted on the dashboard.”
Oughta be a bunch of these cars. But can you get enough of the mice to move out of seats and unto the treadmill?
@Trideq: I think they remove the rearview mirror in those old movies to eliminate the possibility of glare from the lighting or an inadvertent glimpse of the people filming in the back seat. In newer movies they simply compensate for it better. It also may be to avoid a broken off mirror becoming a projectile during stunts.
As far as classic screw-ups in movies, there’s a scene in “Gone With the Wind” where you can clearly see the electrical cord coming from an oil lamp.
If they’re actually shooting the people in the real car as they really drive it (many of these shots are done with a car mockup in a sound stage, and many shots are done on a real car that’s being pulled by a tow rig, and the windshield has been removed to prevent glare) then the mirror gets removed to make it easier to set up camera angles. Rather than remove the mirror only when it would be in the way of the angle the DP wants, they just remove it so that it’s not appearing and disappearing between shots (though sometimes they forget to remove it until partway through shooting, and you get the magic appearing/disappearing mirror).
I don’t know if any of you remember Bullet with Steve Mcqueen, A friend of mine noted he lost 5 hubcaps, I was not counting and enjoying the movie. Sure it is a movie, and sure we have all heard about a guy in a western wearing a wrist watch, and kudos to people for picking out the flaws, but most of us just watch ignorant of technicalities. I did try and watch for things for a while, but after seeing so many sideswipes of truth dismissed the whole movie world as fiction that cannot be changed and not worth the bother to note.
I did try and watch for things for a while, but after seeing so many sideswipes of truth dismissed the whole movie world as fiction that cannot be changed and not worth the bother to note.
You have to ignore the technicalities. If you just looked for the technical blunders you’d never enjoy the movie.
Two movies come to mind that had so many technical inaccuracies that if you concentrated on them you’d never enjoy the move.
- WarGames - Staring Mathew Broderick.
- Independence Day.
I LOVED both movies…there are so many technical problems…Impossible to keep track of them all.
@MikieInNH I think the modern movie with the worst departures from accuracy would probably be Twister. Almost nothing they said about tornadoes or chasing them was remotely accurate, and they actually caused those of us who chase for real major problems for awhile there as a ton of yahoos watched the movie, took it as an instruction manual, and made things much more dangerous in the real world.
The Fast and the Furious series were pretty spectacular in their BS levels too:
“You almost had me? You never had me - you never had your car… Granny shiftin’ not double clutchin’ like you should. You’re lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn’t blow the welds on the intake! You almost had me? Now, me and the mad scientist got to rip apart the block… and replace the piston rings you fried.”
The thing you have to remember about movies is that they are MOVIES. They aren’t real, everything is made up. Its all acting and special effects. I still want to know why a sheriff would wear his badge over his right breast though-it must mean something.
Too many people forget to remember that. I remember when The Program came out, it had a scene where the coach made the football team lie on the road along the yellow stripes while cars whizzed past them on either side. And some idiots who were old enough to know better saw the movie and tried it themselves and got killed. People sometimes have a very hard time distinguishing between fiction and reality.
and they actually caused those of us who chase for real major problems for awhile there as a ton of yahoos watched the movie,
I didn’t have a problem with twisters…because I know NOTHING about storm chasing. Computers on the other hand I have a great deal of experience with…so those stand out to me. But the movies and tv shows have gotten it so wrong for so long…I have to put blinders and just try to enjoy the show. One show that actually gets it right MOST of the time is “The Big Bang Theory”. I can’t comment about the Physics…but their information on computers have been very accurate.
Their physics stuff is accurate too - a UCLA physicist serves as their technical adviser for that, even going so far as to make sure all the equations on the whiteboard are correct.
The neuroscience stuff is accurate too - but then that’s helped along because Mayim Bialik (Amy Farah Fowler) has her doctorate in neuroscience.
It’s only in bio-lab procedures that they fall a little flat, but usually in the name of comedy taking precedence over accuracy - I’m thinking specifically of a scene where Fowler dissects a brain between bites of her sandwich. 
One reason I find Big Bang Theory so funny is because it’s so accurate. Love the scene where Sheldon is in a place like Best Buy to buy a present for Lenard and he’s helping out the customers. One guy asks him a question and Sheldon asks “What kind of computer to you have…and don’t say White one”. But every answer he gave to the people he helped was very accurate.
I’m quite sure they have a very technical staff.
Having worked at Best Buy in the pre-internet days, I particularly enjoyed that scene. It happened to me more times than you’d expect.
My wife, who thinks like Amy Farah Fowler but looks more like an older version of Bernadette Rostenkowski, says she works with a couple of guys who remind her a lot (two words) of Sheldon.
@Shadowfax, please check your inbox at the top of this page.
@MG McAnick - got it. Sorry I missed your last PM 
Yep,Triedaq noticed that too,but its just entertainment.CHIPS was bad about inconsistencies also-Kevin
I used to think that if a car ran into the back of another one that they’d both crunch up and bend, but CHIPs taught me that the car in the back will actually launch into the air diagonally (as if there’s a ramp) and then tip over and burst into flames. As far as glaring errors go, at the beginning of the movie “Awakenings”, right after it says the time is 1969, Robin Williams parks his car next to a 1972 Chevrolet Impala. Throughout the rest of the movie there were many cars that were post 1969.
I do have a question for you guys, does spotting these non-conformances ruin the show for you or is it just a little additional entertainment? I spot a few of these from time to time but normally I don’t let it ruin the story.
Re: the badge location; it may be intentional. Some municipalities require the badge to be worn on the opposite side to differentiate the actors from the real cops during shooting. Real cops are there along with the actors for people control and security.
I think there were two different Peugeot convertibles used on Columbo, the police detective played by Peter Falk. One Peugeot had a light top and the other a dark top. Also, these Peugeots had dents in different places.