Continuity mistake: In the scene where Monique is introduced to Ricky at in the movie you see Ricky remove the red cap of his nasal spray and drops it as he goes to spray it in his nose. When the Camera zooms in on the next shot of him snorting nasal spray you can see him drop the red cap again. (00:08:40)
Revealing mistake: When Lane becomes depressed he goes out to the garage and ties a red cord around his neck and to the ceiling to hang himself. He thinks better of it, but his mother opens the door and knocks him off the steps and he hangs by the cord. If you look closely you can see that there is no cord hung around his neck, he merely holds his hand up and mimics grabbing the cord around his neck. The cord seems to be attached to something on his back. (00:15:40)
Visible crew/equipment: The slimy goop Lane's mom puts on his plate at dinner begins to move when he pokes is with his fork. If you look closely, you can see the wheels of the stomper or rough-rider truck used to make it move, when it hops off the plate. (00:17:05 - 00:18:10)
Continuity mistake: For dinner one night, Lane's mom serves the family some strange green goop on a plate. In one shot, the goop lies flat on Lane's plate. In the next, it has become large and structured, like a brain (in order to move off the plate). (00:18:05)
Continuity mistake: When the paperboy comes around to collect his $2.00 plus tip, Lane keeps the door only open a crack. But when it switches to shots of the paperboy not only is the door wide open but the color has changed from blue to white. (00:22:00)
Continuity mistake: When Lane Meyer scratches the chalk and makes the squealing sound, the camera shows the class wincing in pain with their hair standing on end. There is a guy sitting in Beth's seat. (00:24:35 - 00:25:20)
Continuity mistake: In the classroom scene, Lane is called to the board to demonstrate a math problem. When he draws the first line, it screeches, and cuts to the class hollering with their hair on end. When it cuts back to Lane, the line is half the original length. (00:25:20)
Audio problem: Monique runs out of the house, holding Ricky's picture. She sits down and starts to laugh at the picture. Her mouth movements don't match the laugh that is heard. (00:39:10)
Continuity mistake: When Lane is about to kill himself with carbon monoxide fumes from the car in the garage, he passes out and backs up out the garage door..if you look close you can see a conscious stunt man sitting up as the car goes backwards. (00:39:35)
Visible crew/equipment: When Lane is spraying the deodorant spray into his arm pit and lowers the can you see the aerosol from the can move away from his body while simultaneously being replaced with a large blast of spray from a larger apparatus. (00:42:25)
Character mistake: After the dance when Monique and Lane meet for the first time, Lane says to Monique, "Hi, you're that French kid staying with the Dorkheads...uh...Smiths next door." But the Smiths live across the street, not next door, as evidenced by several scenes in the movie (i.e. Monique looking out her window upon arrival, Monique throwing fruit at the street sign, etc.). (00:47:40)
Continuity mistake: Lane goes to his first day of work at "pig burger". A closeup is shown of the owner's mouth as he snarls "Myers...". There's about 1/4 inch of facial hair all over his face. When they cut from the closeup and show the rest of his body you can see that he's fairly well shaven, only some 5 o'clock shadow. (00:53:15)
Other mistake: Lane comes home and sees a package addressed to his little brother, Badger. It's addressed to 1636 Virginia St., Greendale, CA 93065. The actual address of that house was 1636 Virginia St. in Glendale, and 93065 is the ZIP code for Simi Valley. (00:58:30)
Audio problem: When Lane plays his sax at the Pig Burger for Monique, the sound was obviously dubbed from a synthesizer. (01:20:20)
Factual error: After Lane finishes fencing with Ricky he carries Monique to his car - we see their feet as Monique gets into the car, then a split second later Lane gets into the drivers seat, the car starts and the they drive off. Trouble is, they are both wearing their ski boots, and there is no time in the sequence of shots for Lane to change footwear. Nobody, anywhere, any time, can drive in ski boots. (01:31:20)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when the French girl and Lane are at Dodgers Stadium you can clearly see bike tracks in the dirt and grass where the paperboy had ridden in previous takes. (01:32:45)
Factual error: A native French speaker like Monique would never mistake the word 'testicle' for 'tentacle'. The French word for 'testicle' is 'testicule' and the word for 'tentacle' is 'tentacules' - both are pronounced almost identically to the English form. She'd have to confuse the two words in French, and not even a non-English speaking French person would make a mistake like that. Monique's English is very good. She'd be perfectly aware of what she was saying.,.
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the film, during the chase scene between the newspaper boy and Lane, you can see the skis of the camera guy.
Continuity mistake: In the last skiing scene where Lane is being chased by the paperboy, when the camera is on Lane he has the sleeves to his vest on. The camera then goes to someone else and when it comes back to Lane, there are no sleeves on the vest, then they are back on again later.
Continuity mistake: During the various ski scenes, the weather changes frequently between shots - in some shots, the sky is clear and harsh shadows are cast. In other shots, it is heavily overcast and shadows are barely visible.
Answer: It was an idiotic diet fad in the mid to late eighties.