Stupidity: After a brawl with gunshots exploded in the cafe, and having just seen Jane pull from the backseat a huge gun, Elena is shocked that the bad guy is shooting at the car and even asks "OMG, is he shooting at us?" How does a line like that make any sense, already late in a chase with weapons involved from the beginning? (00:20:45 - 00:22:40)
Sammo
21st Feb 2020
Charlie's Angels (2019)
21st Feb 2020
Charlie's Angels (2019)
Stupidity: The bad guy who spies on Bosley is visible from the very beginning of the scene, when Elena is not even inside the cafe yet. The cafe does not have many customers and the bad guy is using a loud vintage typewriter with a big mirror mounted on top (!). The Angels are portrayed as being super smart and their setup is so careful, but somehow they managed to miss something amazingly obvious. Conversely, nobody would have ever paid attention to a laptop or any silent, modern-age device perhaps with a camera or something similar, so the bad guy chose the most blatantly conspicuous accoutrement for his spying job. Try showing up to a cafe punching the keys of a big clunky typewriter and literally everyone will be looking at you. (00:18:25)
12th Feb 2020
Common mistakes
Stupidity: A huge amount of movies and TV shows would be over in 5 minutes if only the person who just uncovered a horrible secret (such as who committed a murder) and is calling the good guys about it would quickly spill out of the gist of it instead of just setting up an appointment for a later meeting when they are supposed to discuss at length their findings, and which will only turn out to be the investigation of their own murder.
1st Feb 2020
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Stupidity: The super powerful Romulan commandos (no doubt with the help from the higher-ups infiltrated in the Federation) managed to touch up the footage of the fight in the roof so to remove every trace of the Romulan agents present. But Picard has been running, dodging blasts, ducking, and is knocked back by a huge explosion caught on camera and not deleted; we see it in this episode and it is unequivocally not caused by him. What is the point of going through subtly deleting every trace of the aggressors when it is transparent that something real happened and it's not all Picard's imagination? And the police simply take Picard back home from San Francisco to France without questioning him, not caring about investigating the explosion in the heart of the city involving a famous Admiral battling invisible enemies. If the conspiracy can erase anyone from the tape, why not erase Picard too, or the explosion and explain how he ended up K.O.'d differently?
31st Dec 2019
Batwoman (2019)
Stupidity: Batwoman not only drives through town the same bike as Kate, in full Batwoman garb including the cape, but at the beginning of the episode is driving to Wayne enterprises, right inside the employees entrance (clearly marked as such). Even funnier considering the fact that the series keeps referencing things such as security cameras and people taking Batwoman pictures with their phones, elements that were not a concern decades ago and that would if anything require more caution, not less. The old Adam West show with all its camp and obvious absurdities had him at least drive his car to the outskirts of town and come in and out through a secret entrance, not his home garage. (00:03:00)
31st Dec 2019
Batwoman (2019)
Stupidity: The gun stolen by the villain was designed by Batman, according to Luke Fox, in case the wrong person got a hold of the batsuit, which is bulletproof. As shown in the previous episode, the suit has electronic devices like a defibrillator implanted inside, which are remote controlled (huge security hazards, but never mind) and has obvious weak points, like the jaw, that a skilled fighter like Batman himself could exploit. It is not an invincibility suit by any means. So Batman built a super-gun able to kill himself and stored it into a simple warehouse while having already a perfectly working prototype (so he basically keeps 2 of them around); he is obviously an idiot who built a devastating weapon that any villain can steal and use against him (or anyone with body armor and more) for no real reason, a weapon designed to kill and not disable, even, contradicting his MO judging by the rest of the arsenal.
31st Dec 2019
The Dark Half
Stupidity: The protagonist removed a blood-stained bottle from the bloodied car where the murder takes place, and this may incriminate him. To avoid being found out by the police, he disposes of it where, he unironically comments "nobody will find it." Which is...the closet of his bedroom. It works.
31st Dec 2019
Batwoman (2019)
Who Are You? - S1-E4
Stupidity: Magpie in theory has the exploding pearls as diversion for her escape, but the pearls explode all too soon and in a room that she already emptied with the false alarm. Reality is that she has to face already zero security without the pearls being a factor, the moment she presses the alarm button. That's because for some reason every single Crow armed guard went to the exit to help the guests leave (in a most unprofessional way as they further crowd up the exit standing right in the way) and nobody remained behind to remotely keep an eye on the jewels. Also of course there is no alarm whatsoever on the jewelry cases, that can be opened at will. That is a serious joke of a security, and supposedly made by professionals, former navy seals, green berets etc.
30th Dec 2019
Lupin III (2015)
Until Sunset, the Full Moon - S1-E7
Stupidity: This is not quite 'stupidity' but rather a "movie logic", supposedly sharp deduction that is really just a wild and nonsensical guess. Zenigata knows for a fact that Fujiko is impersonating Elena because she knew right away where to get the first aid kit, while Elena hasn't been in the mountain house since her husband's death. That makes no sense; Zenigata has to assume that Elena was completely straight about that fact (if it was the treasure's hiding place as he suspected, she easily could lie), and a person can easily remember where they store their security items even after years, for a variety of reasons.
29th Dec 2019
Gemini Man (2019)
Stupidity: Spoiler. In a typical 'why didn't he do it before?' twist that kinda invalidates the rest of the movie, it turns out that the villain has had a third Will Smith clone all along, ready for deployment in Yemen and with fear and pain genetically removed, ready to blindly kill anyone, combined with so much body armor that even point blank AR-15 carbine shots barely faze...but he sent the 'prototype' he raised like a son instead, in a hoodie and baseball cap.
29th Dec 2019
Gemini Man (2019)
Stupidity: Despite the fact that the villains know exactly where Brogan is for the better part of the movie thanks to a tracer, and that they display constantly that they are able and willing to hit with bold military operations even to the point of hitting an urban area overruling law enforcement (apparently Clay has authority to do that too), Brogan is able to get undisturbed back in the US through his friend's plane. Considering he was officially marked as a rogue agent and killed 8 DIA operatives, it's hard to see how Baron's plane could ever land on American soil after a long intercontinental flight.
29th Dec 2019
Daphne & Velma (2018)
Stupidity: Daphne and Velma's adventure in the corridor behind the school lockers begins when they enter the theater backstage from a random door opened by a button that is lit up in the dark, effectively negating the "secret tunnel system" status. Why would anyone build a corridor with an entrance into school lockers so secret that it's invisible from the outside, and then put a button-activated entrance to it in another location, even making the button a fully lit one shining in the dark?
29th Dec 2019
Daphne & Velma (2018)
Stupidity: During the ghost chase montage, why would Velma look for her glasses with her hand in midair instead than on the ground? No matter how nearsighted you are, the closest wall, or obstacle, is meters away and you'll never find your glasses anywhere but the floor. She does it for a longer time than anyone would. (00:52:40)
28th Dec 2019
Batman (1966)
28th Dec 2019
Batman (1966)
28th Dec 2019
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Stupidity: Mercusio is looking through FBI files on his computer. The FBI has a horrible database then, since the agents' postings are listed all in random order (otherwise Ben would be working at the White House and not at the school - which is also suspiciously listed without any hint about its location). (01:11:30)
27th Dec 2019
Knives Out (2019)
Stupidity: Spoiler. The protagonist is a trained and competent nurse, paired with one of the greatest murder mystery writers. Neither finds strange in the slightest that after jabbing his vein with a dose of drugs 30 times the norm he is absolutely fine, not just conscious but even able to concoct on the spot a convoluted plot, speaking normally and quite at length, no trouble at all. He should be dead "in 10 minutes" sure, but it's not a time bomb. You'd think one would not be so blasé about slitting their own throat and the other would have to notice how amazingly unaffected and lucid the other appears to be minutes later. Not to mention that his plan would have never worked with the toxicology report, which should be routine in a suicide case also to assess the mental state of the person who left no note or anything behind.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: It is explained that the drug overdose will kill Harlan in 10 minutes based on the dosage. The implication is that Harlan's heart will stop, not that he will become gradually and obviously sick over those 10 minutes. Regardless, based on what they believe will happen, even if they did notice that Harlan wasn't getting sick they wouldn't have the time to test that theory. The fact that neither Marta nor Harlan thought about a potential toxicology report is a pretty major part of the plot, and it is perfectly reasonable given the circumstances. The plot was hatched on the spot within a few minutes and there are several holes in the plan that drive the story throughout the film. Although a brilliant man and a great writer, Harlan simply didn't think of everything.
She explicitly says "You'll feel symptoms in 5" and when he shuts her up putting a hand on her mouth she says "We have 6 minutes."Then his daughter interrupts them and more time is wasted. By the time when he begins his convoluted explanation of the big plan he should have already been disoriented, sweaty and the whole gamut leading to his respiratory failure. And he goes on for minutes after that. It's very true, it moves the plot along, but by what they say themselves (which is from I understand not medically accurate and contradicted also by what happens later in the movie with the second death) they should have realised that time has passed with nothing happening. You could even say it's Rian Johnson's intentional deconstruction of the artificial nature of the whoddunit contrivances! But also, just saying, one of those "Stupid actions and decisions people take in movies, which no-one would ever do in real life."
Even taking that into account, what you are saying is Harlan should have said "Hmm, a few minutes have passed and I haven't felt any symptoms, so I'm not actually poisoned. Carry on then, false alarm." It moves the plot along because Harlan isn't willing to risk Marta getting in trouble for poisoning him and they have less than 10 minutes to act. This would count as a stupidity entry if Harlan didn't care about who took the blame for killing him, but obviously he does. Remember, stupidity entries are not for poor decisions by characters, they are for minor plot holes. This being "an act no-one would ever do in real life" is kind of the entire point of the movie. Nobody believes Harlan would do this because, well nobody cares about their nurse that much. But he does.
The part I was quoting is the description of the category in the metadata on google, or if you prefer the hover text description just above this very page go by "Something just plain stupid. Not as deal-breaking as a plot hole, but something daft, like running upstairs with a killer behind them, instead of out of the front door." I call "slitting your own throat feeling totally fine after you yourself have been calling the minutes with precision earlier", pretty silly, to say the least. Again, this is all stuff the script itself unnecessarily calls attention on. If he didn't mention twice the time before, if she hadn't said that the symptoms happen after 5 but just "your heart is gonna exploded at the 10 minute mark", then, maybe, I would have simply reported the factual error that this is not how it works. It's the script itself that points out (Harlan himself says it twice) the exact minutes, and the symptoms and how they are gradual.
This still ignores the fact that they don't have time to test the theory. They would have to notice the lack of symptoms, and assume somehow that the lack of symptoms after 5 minutes must mean that Harlan isn't actually poisoned, and stop their plan right then and there. The audience knows that Harlan isn't really poisoned, but we don't find that out until later. I doubt very seriously that anyone watching this film for the first time believed, as you suggest, that Harlan obviously wasn't poisoned because he didn't show any symptoms and it was therefore stupid for him to kill himself. It seems to you to be stupid in hindsight, but I honestly don't believe, based on what the characters knew, that Harlan's action was so egregious that it constitutes a mistake in the script.
We definitely had a very different impression watching it the first time. The thought that this old man could be shot a big dose of morphine in vein and calmly think of perfect murder plans for the next minutes was 200% absurd on first view here. I could say that others thought the same but it's just anecdotical and I respect you having a different take. For the rest, it's again just the script itself drawing attention to it. From the mouth of the same character who nonchalantly slits his own throat feeling still fine. It seems egregiously stupid and contradictory.
But he wasn't shot a big dose of morphine. He got his normal meds, they only think he overdosed.
We don't know that yet. We know that, in their words, he was shot 100 mg instead of 3 (does not matter if true or not, we are fed this information and the characters believe it). Again, the whole scene would have worked if they didn't, themselves, add details. Makes the overdose sound huge, and inserting the 6 minutes mark (which means, barely 1 min till the symptoms show up) before the daughter arrives when more than half of the scene has still to be played, weakens it terribly. Some things are maybe just stupid in hindsight, like the fact that all he needed to do was to write in his own penmanship a suicide note saying he killed himself with an injection once Marta left, but the overdose bit felt absurd on first viewing.
18th Dec 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Stupidity: The commando mission to save Chewbacca starts gunning down a few Stormtroopers in the hangar. The heroes then go on leaving the troopers lying down on the floor in front of the ship, in plain view. They don't hide them nor ask the droids (who have enough strength and tools to pull them in) to, in fact they tell them to stay put. No wonder they are found out later (after a ridiculously long amount of time).
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Hiding the bodies would have been a waste of time, anyone who came to the hangar would immediately notice that the guards stationed there were missing and there was now a strange ship parked there.
The droids have all the time in the world, and people just passing by are "more immediately" bound to notice corpses in the middle of a hangar rather than possibly maybe question the fact that you don't see guards in that part of the hangar or investigate the ship - which could approach without anyone taking exception by appearance alone. At least remove the bodies directly in front of the damn ship!
Why would they be more likely to notice dead guards than no guards?
Anyone passing by might well thing the patrols were just out of sync, or a shift change. Sure they might investigate further, but they might not bother. Whereas a couple of dead bodies? Immediate red alert. Worth taking 30 seconds to hide them, surely.
Perhaps, but then it's made irrelevant 1 minute later as Finn and Poe run down a hallway blasting about a dozen stormtroopers.
For that matter, 1 SECOND later they kill stormtroopers in the far part of the hangar. They are killing people all over the ship during their mission and it's not like they hide every single one of them, but they leave two bodies *exactly* in front of their ship (and telling the droids to stay put). You can even see later that there is a stormtrooper with his weapon pointed exactly where those two corpses are, with the 'smart' commanding officer asking "whose ship is this?" at the sight of that. Maybe I am spoiled by a trope here, but it's the first time that I see someone in an action movie leaving corpses right in front of their only escape route/vehicle, that's so counterintuitive. (Did they even have an escape plan, actually? I don't like hypotheticals, but gee, if only she did the Jedi mind trick thing to those 2 guards who came over to inspect the ship instead of doing it later. But I digress).
23rd Nov 2019
Batwoman (2019)
23rd Nov 2019
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Stupidity: Mr. Soneji's class is so advanced that they use encrypted files to pass each other notes and whatnot, but their assignment, which takes them a long time to complete, is to "find the official website of Charles Lindbergh." Even in 2001 with search engines not quite well developed as they are now, it wouldn't take them the minutes it is taking here, especially with the whole request being designed as a contest.
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