Rlvlk

17th Sep 2005

Hollow Man (2000)

Corrected entry: The pressurized tanks of flammable liquid that Linda uses to make a flamethrower are sitting unsecured in the lab. OSHA regulations require pressurized cylinders to be secured to prevent them from tipping over. The danger is that the top will get knocked off, and the tank will shoot around like a rocket. Any lab would have their tanks secured for this reason.

Correction: People do break laws and people do break OSHA regulations. It is not a mistake, but real life.

Rlvlk

12th Sep 2005

Sabrina (1995)

Corrected entry: It makes a nice happy ending to the movie that Sabrina's dad invested in stocks based on information he was told or heard as driver to the family and became rich. However, he almost certainly committed securities fraud by trading on inside information. I wonder if the director shot an alternative ending with him being hauled of to prison in chains?

Correction: People do commit crimes every day, including insider trading. Insider trading is never an easy case to prove. And they don't haul people away to prison in chains, especially for a non-violent "white collar" federal crime like that.

Rlvlk

10th Sep 2005

South Park (1997)

Cartmanland - S5-E6

Corrected entry: In this episode, Cartman's grandmother leaves him a million dollars that he immediately uses to buy an amusement park. This is not possible AT ALL. Firstly, Cartman is a minor. If his grandmother left him that much money she would have put it in trust and he wouldn't have been able to get it all at once until he was of age. Secondly, he would not have received the money that quickly. It can take from months to years before the payout on an estate begins. It is an extremely frustrating process (I would know, when my grandfather died it took almost a year before we saw a dime.) And even if by some miracle Cartman got the money that day, he would not have been able to buy an amusement park because, again, he is a minor. Minors cannot buy property in the state of Colorado. Also, he would not have received exactly a million dollars even if that is what his grandmother left him, as it would be taxed unless it was in a government bond, which was not mentioned at the will reading. Therefore, this episode is a COMPLETE impossibility.

Correction: It is a cartoon that has no ties to reality. Stan's dad ends up in the hospital because he "got served". Kenny used to die in every single episode and reappear in the next like nothing ever happened. Aliens visited and placed a satellite tracking system in Cartman's butt. Kyle underwent "Negroplasty" surgey (to become a tall black kid) and his dad became a dolphin. The laws of reality and the legal system of the real Colorado have nothing to do with South Park.

Rlvlk

All Good Things... (1) - S7-E25

Corrected entry: When Picard is in the past and encounters Data for the first time, he calls him "commander Data". But as can be seen by the insignia on Data's collar (two pips, where a commander has three), he is only a lieutenant at this point. But for some reason nobody corrects this, not even Data, who is exceptionally accurate on all Starfleet protocol.

Twotall

Correction: Data reported to the Enterprise-D as a Lt. Commander. Referring to him as Commander is an accepted practice.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: After Mr Murdock punches Mazzilli, Emerson (Mark's English teacher) rushes in and pulls them apart, saying 'what's wrong with this school?.' Mrs Cresswood arrives and threatens her with dismissal, and only a few hours later we see Emerson finding Mark to tell him goodbye as she 'was fired'. There is no way a teacher's dismissal, especially on such grounds, could occur in less than a day. Teachers who commit major crimes would be arrested and escorted from the premises; for others, there is a long procedure which must be followed before the teacher loses his or her job. (01:17:45 - 01:19:25)

STP

Correction: Was she a union teacher or non-union? Was it an "at-will" work law state or not? Was there a contract between her and the school or the district? If she is non-union, if it is an "at-will" state, if there is no contract, she can be fired at anytime for any reason (outside of discrimination based on race, religion, etc.)

Rlvlk

9th Feb 2004

Stalag 17 (1953)

Corrected entry: Even when POW's, Americans are still considered members of the military and subject to military laws and regulations. Accordingly, Lt. Dunbar would have taken command of barracks 4 as soon as he was assigned to live there. This would not have been an option but required not only by him but by Hoffy, the enlisted man and barracks commander, who would have immediately handed command to the higher ranking Dunbar. Also the Germans would not have recognized anyone but Dunbar as barracks commander by virtue of his rank.

Correction: Lt Dunbar was put in Stalag 17, barracks 4, only because he blew up a train and they could not get him to the officer's POW camp. Since he was temporary he might not have wanted real command of the barracks. The Germans ended up taking him away the first night anyway because he was a saboteur and no longer considered a POW.

Rlvlk

13th Sep 2003

Julius Caesar (2002)

Show generally

Corrected entry: Until the time of the Christian dominance of Rome, the Romans cremated their dead. There is no historical record that Caesar and Pompey buried their wives as depicted in the miniseries.

megamii

Correction: Actually, cremation was the preferred "burial" method, but burials (inhumation) did happen. After the 3rd century, burials became the preferred method. And since there is no historical documentation, the screenwriters are granted some artistic leeway. http://library.thinkquest.org/26602/ceremonies.htm.

Rlvlk

Kobol's Last Gleaming (1) - S1-E14

Corrected entry: When Raptor 1 is shot down over Kobol, her windshield is blown out when she begins re-entry. The pilot and crew are buffeted by the atmosphere and can barely breathe or see to land. Why aren't they wearing vac suits and helmets like they have in EVERY raptor flight up until this point?

Grumpy Scot

Correction: In addition to this flight, there have been about 6 flights where the crew, the passengers, or at least one crewman has not worn the helmets. The flight searching for water, no one had on helmets. The rescue mission to Kobol for the downed raptor, none of the rescue party had helmets. It is implied in the first episode that none of the passengers had vac suits or helmets since they were civilians. When Starbuck was shot down, the rescue of Hotdog had the crewman without a helmet. Even Hotdog had his off. When Adama et. al jumped from the Battlestar to Kobol, to reunite the fleet, no one had vac suits or helmets.

Rlvlk

7th Sep 2005

Beetlejuice (1988)

Corrected entry: There is never any point in the movie in which Adam or Barbara learn the correct pronunciation of "Betelgeuse". They simply begin to say it correctly, as if it were obvious, after first pronouncing it completely wrong. The only person to learn the correct way to say it was Lydia, and she never shares this information before Adam and Barbara learn how to say it.

Correction: There was a deleted scene due to socially unacceptable jokes in the script (by today's standards or the film owners). From memory, Beetlejuice plays charades with Adam and Barbara while flirting (jokes) with Barbara, until she guesses his name correctly. It's a very frustrating thing to leave out of the final cut since the storyline built up to that scene quite a bit. It was a funny scene too.

Correction: Betelgeuse is the name of a red giant star near the constellation of Orion and it is pronounced Beetle Juice. Many, many people know that name. The name was printed on his little signs in the model of the town. Their death "social services" worker stops them from fully pronouncing his name. Betelgeuse tells Lydia that he cannot tell her his name, but she has to guess it through charades.

Rlvlk

But they both saw his name written down and couldn't pronounce it properly. After they return from seeing Juno, Barbara says it perfectly all of sudden.

6th Sep 2005

The Simpsons (1989)

Simpson Tide - S9-E19

Corrected entry: During the opening dream sequence on the "Planet of the Donuts", we get our first glimpse of the monster donut that will eat Homer when his shadow looms over Homer. In this shot the shadow is of a "regular" donut, i.e., one with a hole. In the next shot we see that the monster's hole area has teeth and is filled in with black; in other words, its hole is a regular mouth. As such it could not have had light shining through it to make the donut hole in his shadow.

Correction: It is a dream. Dreams don't make any sense and are not bound by any laws of reality. The donut could have grown teeth and a mouth between shots.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: All the zombies must have lead in their shoes as they are walking on the bottom of the sea without floating up like corks.

Correction: Maybe they took loads of seawater into their stomachs and lungs. They are undead and have no need for air. Maybe there is something about becoming a zombie that changes their natural buoyancy.

Rlvlk

Conundrum - S5-E14

Corrected entry: The crew manifest lists Dr. Crusher's rank as "Lieutenant Commander", but her 3 rank insignia show her to be a Commander.

Correction: MacDuff, the alien, changed some computer logs. He inserted himself as first officer and dropped Riker's position. He could have altered Crusher's rank too. (They had no idea what the rank insignias meant. That memory was erased.)

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: Sam is found on the beach with nothing but a charm bracelet on her wrist and it shows no suitcase fall off the cliff with her. Later on in the movie she finds her old rifle hidden in her suitcase when she is at the hotel. How the heck did the rifle get there when it should be a standard suitcase. It's not her dreaming because she shoots the wall when she wakes up.

Spaceboy_007

Correction: The suitcase is picked up by Samuel Jackson from the old lady "Charly" used to rent from. She also pulls a postcard and a book from that suitcase while they are in the car, before they reach the hotel. Sam only took a bag with her and it went into the trunk.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: The ray-gun used by Retik, the ruler of the moon people, is of a very inefficient design, as it will only fire a single shot before needing to be reloaded, a process that takes a surprisingly long time.

tromatic

Correction: Much like the fire-locks, flint-locks and other muskets that were one shot and took a long time to reload. Who knows how technology advanced on the Moon for the moon people. Maybe that was their first creation of a ray-gun.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: When Jerry is in the hospital he gets Alice to switch the charts as he believes the government officials will try to kill him. The person who gets Jerry's chart has a suspicious heart attack in his sleep and dies. The next morning the government officials come back to detain Jerry. If they sent a man to kill Jerry why would they bother returning to arrest him if they expected he would be dead?

Spaceboy_007

Correction: 1) They could have been playing along to give themselves an alibi. If they send someone to talk to him, they can say they didn't know he was dead. 2) As soon as the hospital had identifed the deceased as NOT being Jerry, "they" realised the mistake and sent someone to detain Jerry.

Rlvlk

19th Aug 2005

Simone (2002)

Corrected entry: Viktor tells Elaine that Simone does all of her own stunts, "even the fall from the plane", but later when the studio heads invade the stage Viktor reveals Simone has a fear of heights. (00:32:50 - 00:50:50)

Correction: Simone isn't real and Viktor is having troubles keeping his lies straight.

Rlvlk

11th Aug 2005

Shrek 2 (2004)

Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie, when we see the shot of Shrek and Fiona in the mud pool breaking wind, the fairies in the bottles cough and sputter despite the fact that the bottles are well sealed from the outside by corks in the top. (00:04:35)

Correction: They can't be "well sealed" because the fairies would suffocate and die.

Rlvlk

31st Jul 2005

Die Hard (1988)

Corrected entry: When Bruce Willis throws the C4 (stuck with a chair and a computer screen) down the elevator shaft, the C4 explodes. C4 is very manageable and won't explode through physical force; even a bullet won't make it detonate. You'd need the blaster caps or some other explosion to set the C4 off. For more info on C4, read this: http://science.howstuffworks.com/c-42.htm.

Correction: My understanding of the scene was the monitor was there to ad weight to the chair and keep the C4 in place. The detonators set off the C4, not the computer monitor.

Rlvlk

The detonators won't randomly set off the C4. That's not how detonators work. The mistake is accurate.

Not "randomly". CRT screens / capacitors famously store a dangerous level of electricity for a long time after being turned off, and smashing the screen / damaging them will be enough to discharge it, which would in turn trigger the detonators and thus detonate the C4.

Corrected entry: While working in Antarctica, Dennis Quaid and the other scientists have nothing to cover their faces with. It is so cold in Antarctica that if this were to happen, their faces would literally freeze to death. Real scientists will wear two face coverings and goggles to protect them from the wind and cold.

Correction: The pictures and documenteries I've seen from Antarctica show the people living\working there with only the hooded hat from their coats on.

Rlvlk

Darmok - S5-E2

Corrected entry: When 'the entity' hits Picard, it swings its arm high, and Picard flies back as such. However, Picard is hurt across the lower chest in the next shot. Also, it's only a flesh wound which doesn't make sense because the monster was hitting to kill.

Correction: As to the second, Captain Dathon did not die in one blow. The entity appeared to have straddled him and pummeled him severely about the head and neck. It took him some time to die.

Rlvlk