Viewing Thread:
"Movies on TV - my pet hates"

Television channels pay huge amounts for films these days, but you wonder if they really care about the things they’ve bought once the big licence has been handed over. The treatment that channels actually give to the movies that they show belittles the amount of effort they put in to actually advertising it (especially if it is a really new blockbuster).

At the moment my pet hates are many and all channels are guilty as charged, some being more guilty that others. Okay, I know some of the stuff I’m complaining about can’t be helped, but it still gets on my nerves and is probably the reason that I still buy DVDs.

Adverts
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Fine, I understand that ITV and Channel 4 are funded by the advertising, but surely major films don’t deserved to be chopped up into bite sized chunks, often stopping the action at key moments and spoiling the whole mood of the film. Yes, you can go and get coffee or go for a toilet break, but it really doesn’t replace the flow of the narrative. Sky are even worse, breaks seemingly every 40 seconds (well, on some channels anyway.)

Credit Cutting
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Grr, if you’ve just spent a lot of money on a film and are willing to show the whole lot (admittedly broken up by adverts) why the hell do you have to cut the end credits. This seems to happen mostly on films where I spend the whole time wonder who that supporting actor was and where I’d seen them before, or what song had been playing in the café during the fight scene. All these questions and more are brutally torn away from you as you watch the beginning of the credits dissolve into an advert or one of the Channel logos. Channel 4 have the decency to keep the credits on a lot of their movies though, so all credit (no pun intended) to them.

Swear Filters
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In the late 1980’s and early 90’s ITV was famous for its motherloving. Now if you’re confused by that statement, I’ll fill you in. Films such as Robocop were shown on ITV after the watershed, so you’d think that the violence and swearing would be left in, right? Well, no, and instead of leaving it blank, someone up in their little office somewhere thought it would be fun to have a go at filling them in with some slightly more savoury (if stupid) phrases. Hence, the sanitised version of Robocop went into history as the biggest comedy since Monty Python, with a ‘motherloving’ here and a ‘forget you’ there it was a right hoot and impossible to watch with a straight face. Who could forget the famous Die Hard quote of ‘Yippee Ki-Ai Keimosabe’ Hm, needless to say this was repeated with glee all over the country, especially by those who knew what the original words were.

Well, that’s my rant over with for now, I don’t expect any of these things to change in the near future, although the last one at least gives us some comedy to the proceedings. Maybe one day a TV channel will be created for film lovers and all these things will be in the past, until then keep watching you motherlovers.

The BBC paid LOADS to get Titanic the year before last, and hardly anyone watched it

Well what did they expect? It was on so early most people had it fresh in their memory from video and when it was on Sky every night

Seinfeld_Enthusiast wrote:
> That's why it boggles me that someone
> will say that they'll wait for it to come on TV, and some of them don't even
> have Sky. Waiting for it to come to BBC or ITV is like waiting for Godot. Those
> fools.
Yeah it takes about 5 years for a film to make the transistion from the big to the small screen for the terrestrial viewers.

Seinfeld_Enthusiast wrote:
Waiting for it to come to BBC or ITV is like waiting for Godot.

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Ah, I see someone else knows the play

Anyway, good thing about DVDs is you can pause them, go off for a slash and some food, come back in and resume. With TV you have to adjust your bladder so you only slash when the adverts come on

I must say that Sky are the only British broadcasters that seem to value films in their unabridged, unedited form, without breaks and showing the credits in full, though they do talk over them for about ten seconds to announce the next feature. Film Four deserve credit too, though I think only about ten people legitimately purchase it, my Sky Digibox being as hooky as a Zimbabwean election.

My pet hate regarding the filming of films on terrestrial television is not the editing however. What really winds me up is the way that families watch supposed 'blockbuster' films at Christmas just because they're on television and ...we..must..watch..whatever..television...tells..us...to...watch... Even though the film is normally Home Alone 10 or Honey, I Circimcised the Kids. For what it's worth, if I want to see a film, I'll go and see it, either at the cinema, rent it, or buy it. It's not difficult. That's why it boggles me that someone will say that they'll wait for it to come on TV, and some of them don't even have Sky. Waiting for it to come to BBC or ITV is like waiting for Godot. Those fools.

Eddie Murphy - How much is this painting?

Guy - *says some stupidly high amount*

Eddie Murphy (voice replaced by someone who clearly isn't Eddie Murphy) - Get the hell out of here!


And, yes, the edited version of Robocop made me laugh! "I don't have time for this baloney!" Bwahahaha!

Mr. Happy wrote:
> I would agree with you on the advert front as
> well. However, Sky, to their credit, don't advertise during films on their movie
> channels, and show the credits in full. Though they more than make up for the
> lack of adverts on other channels. I am in two minds about adverts though. I
> wouldn't mind a kind of interval ad break at some point so I could go and get a
> drink, or go to the toilet. I tend to miss pivotal plot moments when I go to the
> toilet, which leave me confused for the rest of the film.

Perhaps you should consider the "Male urinal" as advertised in the Betterware catalogues, both portable and convenient!

The mother off all cuts was made on Seven when that premiered on the BBC. Their editors managed to produce a far more butchered corpse than Kevin Spacey managed in any of his attempts, but then all of his attempts were cut, so there wasn't a great deal of competition.

I would agree with you on the advert front as well. However, Sky, to their credit, don't advertise during films on their movie channels, and show the credits in full. Though they more than make up for the lack of adverts on other channels. I am in two minds about adverts though. I wouldn't mind a kind of interval ad break at some point so I could go and get a drink, or go to the toilet. I tend to miss pivotal plot moments when I go to the toilet, which leave me confused for the rest of the film.

Nah, it'll just be about 40 seconds long.

Great topic by the way. :0D

Why do you have to get so technical, Ross? Damn you.

One day we'll get a 18 shown at 3 in the afternoon. A notice will come up.

"The whole film has been cut, for your convienience."

The_Vottanator wrote:
"He doesn't break it's neck. He stabs it as there is blood on the collar."

All the same, it's a scene from the directors cut, so it's not in all versions.