Phaneron

24th Sep 2014

The Maze Runner (2014)

Corrected entry: Early in the movie Thomas asks Newt why the Gladers simply can't scale the walls of the maze, and Newt says it's because their ladders are not tall enough. The Gladers build everything themselves, so there is absolutely no reason why they can't build a ladder that will reach the top of the walls. It's established that most of the Gladers want to escape and they have no idea that they are being watched, so there is no reason to not try, especially when Newt says they've tried everything to escape.

Phaneron

Correction: Newt never says their ladders are not tall enough, he says the vines don't reach the top. Ladders won't work for that height anyway, as they would break or fall over. You would need to build scaffolds. There's probably more than 1 reason why they can't scale the walls, not just because of the height. Like Newt said; they tried everything.

3rd Oct 2013

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Corrected entry: When the sisters are about to be hanged, the lynch mob can see that Winifred is casting a spell to allow them to come back to life, yet the mob just politely allows her to finish the spell before finally hanging them. Bear in mind that this scene takes place at a time when people genuinely thought witchcraft was real, so the townspeople had no reason to let her recite a spell.

Phaneron

Correction: Two things about this. 1. They had just been singing, which could in itself have been a spell to disorientate the people enough to prevent them from trying to stop their next spell. 2. Mr. Binx had just told everyone not to listen to them, and most of them covered their ears. Also, it's likely that if anybody was in a position to stop them, they could very well have just been too afraid to try.

Knever

Corrected entry: Peter Parker is able to sidearm throw a football from a seated position several dozen yards away at a field goal post so hard that it bends one of the uprights. Several of his schoolmates witness this, yet none of them act like this is a strange occurrence. They just carry on as if that sort of thing happens every day.

Phaneron

Correction: Actually, everyone on the field stares slack-jawed as they look to each other for confirmation that they just saw what they think they saw, some vocally exclaiming in disbelief. The film just doesn't dwell on any of this.

Phixius

11th Jun 2013

Pain & Gain (2013)

Corrected entry: The scene where Paul Doyle has one of his big toes shot off while he is underwater is not possible because, as has been demonstrated by the Mythbusters, bullets completely shatter when they are fired into deep water.

Phaneron

Correction: The mythbusters episode in question demonstrated that bullets fired at high velocity did come apart upon impacting the water surface. Bullets fired at low muzzle velocity not only broke the water surface, but penetrated the ballistics gel.

26th Jun 2012

Blade (1998)

Corrected entry: When Blade is rescuing Karen from the hospital, the police mistakenly believe he is kidnapping her and proceed to open fire on him while he is carrying her, and then again when he jumps to the rooftop across the street. Police officers would not fire freely at a suspect when his supposed hostage is in such close proximity due to the obvious risk of accidentally shooting the hostage.

Phaneron

Correction: Blade mentions later to Karen that the vampires own "half of downtown" and we also see that at least one cop is a familiar. So it's not unlikely that the cops in the hospital are also familiars and know who Blade is, and therefore have little regard for any "hostage" of his.

Correction: And Whistler even mentions to Karen that the vampires "own the police."

Joey221995

21st May 2012

Home Improvement (1991)

The Karate Kid Returns - S6-E14

Corrected entry: The episode's plot hinges on Randy retaliating against a fellow student for refusing to write a retraction concerning a defamatory article he wrote about him for the school newspaper, after which Randy writes an article explaining the error of his vengeful ways. Both aforementioned articles are full of biased commentary, with the former also being an example of yellow journalism. The first rule of journalism outside of gossip publications such as TMZ is to never publish biased or defamatory articles, and as such the editor of the school newspaper wouldn't run either article, nor would the school administration tolerate them being printed.

Phaneron

Correction: You think that a high school newspaper follows the exact same standards of the New York Times? These are just teenagers writing for a high school paper. There is plenty possibility for high school politics and teenage cattiness to play a part. As well, both students could simply be writing commentary pages as opposed to news articles. Commentary writers are not bound by the ethics against biased writing - that's what they are there for.

LorgSkyegon

Corrected entry: When Marty begins playing "Johnny B. Goode", the guitar tone is suddenly distorted whereas it was clean in the prior song without him ever adjusting the amp or the guitar's volume knob. The guitar also becomes more distorted during the guitar solo.

Phaneron

Correction: Turning a knob on a guitar takes almost no time at all. He could have easily turned it between shots, or when his back was turned toward the camera.

MasterOfAll

13th Mar 2012

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Corrected entry: During the final battle, Shang Tsung morphs into Liu Kang's dead brother Chan to cause Liu Kang to let his guard down. Not only does Shang Tsung clumsily do this right in front of Liu Kang, but Liu actually at first believes it to be his brother.

Phaneron

Correction: He knows his brother's soul was consumed by Liu Kang, so he knows Chan is "in there" somewhere. That combined with the pure emotional shock of seeing his dead brother standing before him, led him to doubt his next move. Perfectly understandable.

Phixius

Corrected entry: When Charlie's teacher is giving a lesson on percentages, he tells Charlie that he will use the number 200 as a means of calculating a simple percentage because can't figure out what percentage 2 out of 1,000 yields. This is simple to figure out even without a calculator. As someone who is sanctioned to be teaching mathematics, he should know this.

Phaneron

Correction: Yes, he should, but apparently he is either lazy or not a very good teacher, so he simplifies the lesson. It's meant to be humorous.

wizard_of_gore

Corrected entry: Batman couldn't possibly have his own credit card. Obtaining a credit card requires proof of identification and a billing address, neither of which Batman would submit for obvious reasons. Nor would it be a credit card that he issued himself through Wayne Enterprises because the credit card company would see that a Wayne Enterprises Corporate credit card was used at a charity event that was attended by Batman and would subsequently reveal his secret identity (not to mention that Batman intends on using the card for a $7 million purchase, which is not a price anyone is going to turn a blind eye to), which is not something Batman would risk. And although the Bat-credit card may be a jokey reference to the 60s TV series, Batman still demonstrates his intent on using the card to secure his bid for a date with Poison Ivy, which means that in the context of the film, the credit card is functional.

Phaneron

Correction: In a world where Batman would actually carry his own Bat-Card it must then be that Bruce Wayne started his own bank with the sole purpose of providing credit to Batman. It being his bank, he can decide whom to lend to, with or without the standard identifying information.

Phixius

Correction: Granted that the movie takes place in the real-time calendar year 1997; keep in mind that major federal banking laws were not enforced too seriously at the time, plus this was the time way before the USA Patriot Act was created and strictly enforced after the September 11 terrorist attacks. I can understand that even if Bruce Wayne did manage to have his own bank and provided a line of credit to Batman still like everyone else he had to submit to US federal banking laws (FCRA, ECOA and the like.) Let alone the general public will find it too suspicious why a private citizen would give a line of credit to a superhero in the first place. Either way, it's all within the DC World fantasy.

joshtrivia

I would be too young to remember, but prior to online shopping, weren't people usually required to present their ID when making a credit card purchase? When I had my first job, if someone was making a purchase with the credit card, our boss required us to check their ID. I mean, if I was holding a fundraiser and someone pledged $1 million, I would want them to provide valid ID in case they decided to welch on the payment.

Phaneron

Ironically Batman doesn't have to show ID.

lionhead

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