Charles Austin Miller

18th Jan 2016

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015)

El Jefe - S1-E1

Deliberate mistake: Inside the home that has been infested with Evil, the state police confront a possessed girl who attacks them. After some futile gunfire, the possessed girl is still standing. The female officer goes for her backup gun, which for some reason is a small over-and-under Derringer (meaning she has two shots maximum). She ends up firing the Derringer five times in just a few seconds, with explosive damage and without reloading. Director Sam Raimi probably staged the 5 gunshots on purpose, knowing that a two-round Derringer was a ridiculously-limited piece of firepower. Raimi probably did this as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Ash's bottomless double-barrelled shotgun from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

Charles Austin Miller

18th Jan 2016

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015)

El Jefe - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: The Michigan State Police arrive at a rural 2-storey home that has been overrun by Evil. As the police park in front of the darkened house, there is something like a million-candlepower flood light about 30 feet in the air, back-lighting a gnarly tree in the front yard and casting harsh light and shadow across the scene. The police exit their vehicle and, in one camera cut, the brilliant light has moved entirely into the backyard, now back-lighting the house. These can't be explained as yard lights: Upon entering the house, the police discover there is no electrical power on the premises.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When we first meet Rey, she is scavenging Imperial wreckage, and she slides down the sand dune on a makeshift sled (she left her speeder at the base of the sand dune, which means she trudged up that massive dune). When she reaches the bottom of the dune, her speeder is casting a distinct, dark shadow on the sand. As she fires it up and rides away, the speeder suddenly casts no distinct shadow on the sand, even after she reaches her destination and parks it. (00:12:00)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Marique summons the Sand Soldiers to attack Conan, a punishing blow knocks Conan completely off his feet and arcing straight backwards through the air. The camera even cuts to show the arc from slightly different angles and follows Conan almost to the ground, where he will certainly land flat on his back. But, at the point of impacting the ground, the camera cuts again and Conan lands face-down.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In the opening sequence, the camera pans down on a planet and moon that are three-quarters lit in sunlight (with the sun being far off-camera to the left). A battlecruiser then crosses the images as a silhouette, eclipsing the planet and moon in total blackness. Impossible. The battlecruiser should have been lit three-quarters in sunlight, same as the planet and the moon. Stranger yet, as the stormtrooper shuttles are deployed and cross over the battlecruiser silhouette, the shuttles are illuminated. (00:01:55)

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the ant-attack scene, why did the Russians decide to back their truck up to the edge of the cliff and then use ropes to escape over the cliff to an uncertain fate? This defies logic. They still had at least one working vehicle (the truck) that had just engaged in a high-speed chase - they could have easily jumped aboard the truck and quickly driven out of the danger zone.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The Ants could crawl over anything and everything at rapid speed. They knew it would be a long shot to drive past them without getting consumed.

Other mistake: While all the business signs in downtown Osaka are properly in Japanese, the local newspaper, The Osaka Times, is printed entirely in English.

Charles Austin Miller

6th Jan 2016

Man of Steel (2013)

Question: During the tornado scene, Jonathan Kent rescues the dog, Hank, and in the process injures his leg. With the tornado practically on top of him, Jonathan then waves off Clark, who is only about 50 yards away. The fact that Jonathan waves off Clark is proof that they BOTH knew Clark could rescue his dad, but Jonathan didn't want Clark to expose his super powers. Still, it was Clark's DAD in danger. Why didn't Clark simply go rescue his father at super speed? Certainly, the chaos of the tornado would easily cover Clark's actions, and there would be no reliable witnesses in the midst of such confusion.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: That, AND the fact that his dad is able to stand firmly on the ground whilst the tornado engulfs him, and we still see him standing to the very end as the debris in the tornado starts to hit him. That didn't make sense to me...correct me if I'm wrong, but tornadoes can and do pick up large objects like vehicles etc. and then toss them away WITHOUT the physical funnel of the tornado actually having passed over said objects. I thought once you're in the debris field, which is a separate thing from the funnel, you're already liable to be tossed up into the air and then flung out, but here, Jonathan remains standing on the ground unaffected the whole time, while the vehicle, being heavier than a human, had begun to float up in the air earlier when he went to get the dog, and then he remains standing even while the physical funnel begins to consume him - he should've been tossed up in the air long ago when the funnel was already within hundreds of feet of proximity to Jonathan.

It's certainly unrealistic but it was obviously an artistic choice. The fact that he is peacefully consumed by the funnel rather that violently tossed through the air was meant to be a poignant moment.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: While I could think of several different scenarios that Clark could have done to save his dad without his abilities/powers being seen (that don't involve him moving so fast no-one sees him), ultimately (as Clark said), he let his dad die because he trusted him. "My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they'd reject me... out of fear. I let my father die because I trusted him. Because he was convinced that I had to wait. That the world was not ready."

Bishop73

Answer: At not point in either Man of Steel or Batman v Superman do we see Superman use speed of the type people have suggested while on the ground. The movie makes a point of outlining his abilities and some of their limits. For Clark to use that ability in that instance and nowhere else in the film would be inconsistent, so the conclusion must be that this version of the character does not have the ability to move in that manner. He might be fast-er than normal people, but not, "blink and you'll miss him fast" - otherwise it would always be an option for him throughout the film and it is not presented as such.

We know from Man of Steel that Clark is entirely capable of high-speed feats: He leaps from a crabbing boat at sea and swims to a burning oil rig easily 4 nautical miles away in a matter of not minutes but moments; and, in the logging-truck scene, Clark apparently wadded up a tractor-trailer so swiftly that nobody inside the bar, just a few yards away, heard a sound or felt an impact tremor. These were certainly acts of super speed; and Jonathan Kent certainly knew Clark could save him from the tornado, which is why he waved him off.

Charles Austin Miller

Next to that we see the same Superman in Justice League move at the same speed as Flash whilst on the ground.

lionhead

Chosen answer: There were multiple witnesses under the bridge who may not have seen Clark, but would have seen Jonathan magically vanish and suddenly appear safe and sound a distance away.

Blathrop

Revealing mistake: In the Kentucky church-massacre scene, Harry briefly scuffles with a man in a light blue sweater. Harry elbows him in the ribs, sticks a grenade in the man's pocket, spins him around and delivers a crushing blow to his neck, then hurls him head-first into a wall. Throughout this sequence, the man is obviously a live human being. However, a fraction of a second before he impacts the wall, he transforms into a life-size rubber dummy before our eyes, in mid-frame, without any obvious camera cut. This demonstrates the complexity of the scene - it is a digitally-edited collage of action sequences almost seamlessly strung together into what appears to be one long traveling shot.

Charles Austin Miller

29th Dec 2015

Evil Dead (2013)

Factual error: Near the end, Mia discovers the chainsaw in the toolshed. Glancing around, she sees a clear plastic bottle of sparkling bright blue fluid that looks like window cleaner but is marked "Chainsaw Gas." Real chainsaw fuel is a 1:40 mixture of 2-cycle motor oil (greenish-black in color) and gasoline (pinkish-amber in color), which produces a fuel that is olive-green in broad daylight. In the darkened shed where Mia finds the chainsaw, the "Chainsaw Gas" in the bottle should not appear sparkling blue, but should appear very dark green, even with artificial light behind it.

Charles Austin Miller

28th Dec 2015

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Other mistake: Just as the preacher finishes stitching up Jake's wound, a shot rings out from the street, and everyone goes outside to find Percy Dollarhyde drunk and shooting up the town. Percy is right-handed but holsters his 6-shooter revolver on the left, and this appears to be his only sidearm. Even if he did carry another 6-shooter, that wouldn't explain how he fires 13 shots in this scene without reloading.

Charles Austin Miller

21st Dec 2015

Z Nation (2014)

Show generally

Factual error: Throughout the series, there are scenes of decapitated heads speaking with audible voices, in spite of the fact that they have no diaphragms, lungs or larynxes. Even if a decapitated head was somehow fully animate, it still couldn't utter a sound.

Charles Austin Miller

21st Dec 2015

Z Nation (2014)

Batch 47 - S2-E4

Question: In this episode, several teams of human "harvesters" wander through a greenhouse filled with vegetable-hybrid zombies, searching for specific seed pods that might cure the zombie virus. None of the harvesters survive very long inside the greenhouse, even though the translucent plastic/fiberglass greenhouse walls are never more than a few steps away. In fact, the prized "Batch 47" is discovered just feet away from the translucent wall. Why couldn't the harvesters escape from the zombies by simply charging straight through the flimsy greenhouse walls? Or, even better, why didn't they just tear out the flimsy walls from the outside and search for Batch 47 from around the perimeter? I mean, it's just a greenhouse, not Fort Knox.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: When the plant zombies would attack they would wrap people with the vines and hold them, so they couldn't escape.

16th Dec 2015

Cobra (1986)

Revealing mistake: During the big car chase (in the 1950 Mercury Monterrey), Cobretti throws the toggle switch for a nitrous boost, and the speedometer immediately leaps to well over 100 mph. However, all the exterior shots show that the cars are barely going 35 or 40 mph, in traffic.

Charles Austin Miller

The Ensigns of Command - S3-E2

Trivia: Due to a noisy aqueduct on the set, they had to go back and overdub virtually all of the dialogue in the pumping station scenes on the planet's surface. This is most apparent with the character of colony leader Gosheven, who was portrayed by guest actor Grainger Hines. After filming was completed, a schedule conflict prevented Hines from participating in the overdubbing sessions, so another actor rather mechanically voiced Gosheven's lines. The incongruous overdub was so obvious and so unflattering to Grainger Hines that he requested his name be dropped from the episode credits, and so it was.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Nov 2015

Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)

Continuity mistake: After the boys kidnap Rex Hanson and Rex proposes that they join forces to escalate the caper, Rex repeatedly bangs his own face into a desktop, resulting in a prominent bruise on his right cheek. Over the next several scenes, Rex's bruise changes shades several times, from dark red to faint brown and back to red, and then vanishes entirely, all within the course of one day.

Charles Austin Miller

30th Nov 2015

This Is the End (2013)

Continuity mistake: In the last scene, wherein Seth and Jay meet Craig in Heaven and then party with the Backstreet Boys, their angel halos are entirely inconsistent, appearing and disappearing from one camera cut to the next.

Charles Austin Miller

18th Nov 2015

The X-Files (1993)

Wetwired - S3-E23

Revealing mistake: In the opening sequence, a man who is hallucinating badly is apprehended by the police. They find a dead blonde woman in the trunk of the man's car. In a close-up of the dead woman, all the dried blood on her face is an added digital effect; however, the dried blood "drifts" around, seemingly out-of-sync with the video. Similar "drifting" digital effect problems are seen in other X-Files episodes.

Charles Austin Miller

18th Nov 2015

The X-Files (1993)

Avatar - S3-E21

Revealing mistake: As Dana Scully is examining the dead woman found in bed with Skinner, she observes a strange luminescent glow on the woman's nose and lips. It's apparent that this glow was added digitally; but the digital effect is "drifting" around the dead woman's face, seemingly out of sync with the video. Similar "drifting" digital effect problems are seen in other X-Files episodes.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In the opening boat chase scene, when Bond takes the Q-boat ashore at high speed and hurtles through city streets, we see that his hands are still steering the Q-boat, even though there's no external means of steering the boat on dry land. We get a good look at the Q-boat's keel a couple of times, and it has no wheels nor other steering mechanism aside from its jet-ski nozzle, which would be useless for steering on dry land. Its twin rocket thrusters, which are both firing in the street sequence, provide only forward thrust. But, remarkably, the Q-boat manages to change direction by as much as 90° without losing momentum on dry land.

Charles Austin Miller

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