A Cinderella Story (2004) - 52 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: When Sam is giving Carter a lift to school, after Carter closes the passenger door, just as the camera moves in closer the reflections of moving equipment (likely the boom)) and a crewmember are visible in the triangular window.

Continuity: When Sam is at Carter's house to give him a lift to school, Carter (in his Snoop Dizzle look) is holding the script in his left hand and the bag's strap falls off his right shoulder when he sits down. Next shot, the script is in his right hand and the strap is back up on his shoulder.

Visible crew/equipment: Just before Sam and Carter show up at the pool for Carter's Zorro reveal, when Shelby, Caitlin and Madison are walking towards the camera as Caitlin says, "He was so mysterious, but really obvious...," the shadow of the crew's equipment moves forward with the trio, on the ground behind Caitlin. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Continuity: After Sam loses the two parking spaces to Shelby and then Austin, when it cuts to Shelby, Caitlin and Madison walking down the corridor pushing everyone aside, Madison is holding her textbooks with the books' spines facing forward, then facing the opposite way, and finally back again.

Continuity: When Sam and Carter arrive at the pool, before Carter reveals himself to Shelby, the poolside gate and banner cast a shadow on the ground, to the right. After Carter is belittled and splashed, when he joins Sam the shadows cast are now longer and farther back. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: In the diner's parking lot after the dance, when Carter slams the Mercedes into the sign pole, in the close-up of the car's front end the reflection of a crewmember is visible on the chrome grille.

Continuity: At school, when Austin is putting up the Cinderella fliers, he tapes the fourth flier on the bulletin board under the word "pep" and over the letters "Fri" in the word Friday. Next shot, the flier has moved to the left, and is taped beside both words "pep" and "Friday".

Continuity: After young Sam has carried the box of her belongings up to her new bedroom in the attic, she lies down on her bed and as the camera pulls back the window shade is all the way up. It cuts to a wideshot as the camera still pulls back in the rain, and the shade is lower now.

Continuity: After young Sam loses her father in the Northridge earthquake (noted in voiceover), she appears alone on the ball field, at home plate. In the close-up much of the area is in shadow around her, but in the next wideshot the entire area is in sunlight with only the fence/backstop casting thin shadows.

Revealing: After the dance, during the Mercedes vs. Jaguar "race" back to the diner, much of the entire scene takes place at the same intersection of Victory Blvd and Olive Ave, filmed from different angles. Note the Jiffy Lube and Enterprise (cars) on the corners, which are actually across the street from one another.

Continuity: After the dance, when Fiona and the twins are in the Jaguar, and Carter and Sam are in the Mercedes, all driving to the diner, the views of the side streets they pass change back and forth, between close-ups and wideshots.

Visible crew/equipment: When David and Ryan force Austin to participate in the bachelorette 'Dating Game', the CD player sits on the bench beside Austin. When David introduces bachelorette 2, a yellow tape marker suddenly appears on the bench in front of the CD player, which promptly disappears in following shots. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Continuity: When Carter is splashed as the twins jump into the pool, only one side of his head/hair is wet. In the next shot, all of his hair is wet.

Visible crew/equipment: At the pool, when Sam brings the salmon plate to Fiona, just as she rushes down the stairs, the shadow of the boom mic and pole is seen moving from right to left, along the grass.

Continuity: When Austin is putting up the Cinderella fliers with Ryan and David, his hair is considerably shorter than the following shots, such as when he goes to the diner and talks to Sam at the counter.

Continuity: At Rhonda's house, when Sam says, "You sure do have a knack for taking something simple and making it beautiful," the red bowl is beside her. After Rhonda shows Sam the white gown, the camera pans back toward the table top and the lace mask suddenly and deliberately appears and is leaning against the bowl.

Continuity: When Sam is taking batting practice during school, she hits a ball at Carter's feet. If you look at the way she hits the ball, she pops it up. Then the very next pitch she check swings and crushes the ball to Austin Ames.

Continuity: When Sam is sitting on the friendship circle you can see that her legs are crossed the entire time. When she texts Austin you see her legs and they are not crossed. In the shots before and after this one her legs are crossed.

Continuity: When Austin is putting up the "Have you seen Cinderella?" fliers, in one shot he puts up the second flier on the blue door on the lower left side of another flier, but in the following shots, the flier is near the center, then to the right, and then back near the center again.

Continuity: During Sam and Austin's dancing outdoors, Sam's hand shifts. In one shot it is completely over his shoulder and in the next shot it is on his shoulder. We see her hand the entire time so there is no time for her to move it without seeing it.

Continuity: When Austin is typing to Sam from his bedroom, the very first book on the shelf in the background keeps changing, over and over again. This occurs near the start, when they are still unknown to each other, and also when he tries to write to her after the pep rally incident.

Continuity: At the start of the pep rally, Mr. Ames takes a seat behind Austin in the close-up. Next shot facing the crowd, when Coach steps up to the stage, Austin's father is gone - his seat is empty, but a couple of shots later Mr. Ames is still there. Additionally, Sam and Carter are also gone in the crowd shot.

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie when the younger version of Sam is blowing out her candles, the amount of ice cream in the cup next to her changes within seconds.

Visible crew/equipment: As Sam and Rhonda have Fiona's car confiscated, when Fiona runs out shouting, "I can pay for those parking tickets!" the crew's black mat is laid out on the walkway, but in the overhead shot when she tries to run away that mat is gone. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: When David and Ryan force Austin to sit on the bench and meet the bachelorettes (with 'Dating Game' music playing), the white actor's mark is visible on the ground before Austin covers it with his foot. Also, when David introduces bachelorette 1, then bachelorette 3 and after Mrs. Wells says hi to Ryan, the green actor's T-mark is visible at David's feet. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: When Austin is putting up the Cinderella fliers at school, just as he tells David and Ryan, "The phone's locked. I keep getting messages like...," the red actor's mark is visible on the floor behind Austin and the white actor's T-mark is visible on the floor behind Ryan. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: As Austin is putting up the Cinderella fliers at school, David tells Austin that he listens to him but promptly gets distracted by a girl. At the start of the next shot, as the girl walks forward the red actor's mark is visible on the floor behind her, where she was standing until she got her cue. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: When Austin is putting up the Cinderella fliers at school, in the first shot as he, David and Ryan walk forward, the blue actor's mark is visible on the floor behind Ryan, where he and David were just standing. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Continuity: When Fiona picks up the twins at the dance, the rearview mirror on Fiona's Jag disappears on the way back to the diner, but reappears when she pulls into the diner parking lot, then it disappears again.

Visible crew/equipment: At the start of the first scene in the diner, just as we hear Sam begin to say, "At Hal's, everyone felt like family," the actor's green T-mark is visible on the floor, where Eleanor was just standing. (Visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Continuity: After the twins enter the car wash, in the first shot when Gabriella walks through the vertical black cloth strips, with squeegee in hand, she is wearing the large hoop earrings. When it cuts to the next shot, as she shouts, "Bri?," her earrings are suddenly gone. This occurs before Brianna climbs onto Gabriella's shoulders.

Visible crew/equipment: During the football game, in his close-up when Austin shouts before the hike, "Down, set 28 guarding..." the large white reflector screen is reflected on his helmet.

Continuity: When Fiona and the "Siamese" twins are at the diner, Sam pops up from behind the window counter with some flour on her baseball cap, but in Sam's next close-up in the kitchen there is instantly much more flour on the cap.

Continuity: At the start, when Sam is at school and texts "We talked this morning", her cell antenna is pulled out, but next shot the antenna is suddenly back in, though Sam's hands are in the same place.

Continuity: At the start, when Sam is reading the text message from Austin stating "Where have u been? We haven't talked...", on the cell display there are two bars in the battery icon in this close-up, but as she replies "We talked this morning", the battery icon is empty in the semi close-up. Then, when she reads his reply in the close-up, once again there are two bars in the icon.

Continuity: At the dance Sam is wearing silver non-platform stilettos with silvery nail polish on her toenails. As soon as Fiona and the "Siamese" twins leave the diner, in the kitchen a much relieved Sam shifts her white gown and she is wearing white platforms and her toenail polish is quite gone now.

Continuity: When Austin is forced to sit on the bench to meet the bachelorettes, the large words "friendship circle" are above the bench. In the wideshots Austin sits in front of the "ship" part of the words and Ryan is in front of "circle", but in the close-ups Austin's in front of "friend" and Ryan's in front of "ship", about 2 ft to their right (viewer's left).

Visible crew/equipment: In the last scene, when Sam and Austin are at the San Fernando Valley overlook, at the start of the close-up of the Princeton decal on Sam's restored Mustang, the reflections of two crewmembers are visible on the car's surface above the decal. One on the left wearing a white shirt (with arms crossed) and one on the right that joins the one on the left.

Continuity: When Gabriella chases Brianna into the car wash, Brianna knocks over a large metal bucket, yellow pails, etc onto the ground, but in the last shot one yellow pail is back against the wall and the metal bucket sits upright, among other changes.

Continuity: At the car wash, when Gabriella grabs the window squeegee and threatens Brianna, she holds it with the sponge edge facing away from Brianna, but next shot as Brianna runs away the sponge edge suddenly faces the opposite direction.

Other: When Sam is texting Austin, she gets the reply the split second after she sends her text. There isn't enough time for Austin to read the text and reply.

Continuity: When Brianna and Gabriella are in the car wash, they get covered in soap suds. When they fall on top of the car, they are noticeably drier.

Factual error: During the opening credits, as Hal and 9 yr old Sam are driving down the street they pass several 2004 cars, including a Chrysler convertible. However, the opening scene takes place before the '94 Northridge earthquake, which is specifically noted in Sam's voiceover during the earthquake, and 8 years prior to the rest of the '04 film.

Audio problem: When the twins are practicing in the house pool, one of them farts and you can hear her say "whoopsie" but her mouth doesn't move.

Factual error: Toward the end of the movie just as Austin and his team start the football game, the camera shows the scoreboard counting down from 15:00 minutes, the problem with this is high school football games are played in 12:00 minute quarters not 15:00.

Continuity: When Sam is running away from Austin at the dance, the bottom of her dress is very dirty, it's almost black. When she runs inside and runs up the stairs, her dress is white again. This is confirmed on the commentary.

Other: During the pep rally scene, when Shelby is staging the play, Gabriella comes out wearing a bridal gown. A couple of seconds later, she comes out wearing the "diner girl" outfit, complete with roller skates. There was not enough time for her to change so quickly.

Continuity: When Fiona is opening Sam's college envelope she puts a magazine and papers under her arm, but in the next shot there are only papers.

Audio problem: When Hilary Duff is Text Messaging her "Secret Admirer" the sounds of her pushing the phone's buttons don't match up with her fingers pushing the buttons.

Revealing: In the beginning of the dance scene, when Sam gives Carter her phone so he can set the alarm, the phone isn't even on when he is programming it.

Continuity: Right after the twin's swimming instructor says, "Push it ladies," three times, Gabriella reaches for Brianna's hands and grabs them. In the shot right after the fart, Gabriella is still reaching for Brianna's hands.

Continuity: When Rhonda tells Fiona that she is going to find a place to put her six dollar pedicure, she puts her hand on the counter. In the next shot (from the back), her hand is down by her side.