Factual errors so outrageous
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tehck — 11 years ago(June 28, 2014 07:17 PM)
Welcome to Hollywood nihat. It's easy to overlook the kind of errors you're talking about when you are only vaguely aware of them, but almost anytime a movie features a subject that you do know a lot about you will recognize a similar total disregard for reality. Whenever you think you are learning about something you are not familiar with in a commercial Hollywood movie whether it's how to steal a car, how to dogfight a fighter jet, how to publish a newspaper, how to have sex, or even how to cook a pie you are almost always seeing a false, often totally imaginary or highly stylized, representation of whatever it might be. At least that's been my experience.
The thing is that, unless you do know something about the topic at hand, you don't notice the flaws unless you later learn the truth or try to apply what you have "learned" from Hollywood somewhere it matters. -
nihatb48 — 11 years ago(August 07, 2014 06:51 AM)
Hi Tehck,
Thanks for welcoming me to Hollywood, but you didn't need to. I lived in Maryland for six years, so I'm pretty familiar with the US movie industry..:). I am not against Hollywood's stylizing of all those things you listed above, well, to a certain extent at least, because sometimes it's necessary to make a movie entertaining and to secure its commercial success. It angers me, though, when they brazenly lie about facts as in this movie. It's totally unnecessary and does nothing but insult viewers' intelligence. -
MacCue — 11 years ago(June 29, 2014 07:10 AM)
Hey, why not make action movies completely factual? They could have shown the Albanians making a longer journey and going through sophisticated border crossings complete with bureaucratic machinations.makes for fascinating viewing. And why doesn't any character need to take a loo break? Ridiculous! Bad guys should be better shots as well, we'd get through more characters that way.
Of course the whole embassy-should-have-been-consulate thing was a joke, particularly when there were so many more obvious places he could have parked his daughter. Wait.no there weren't.
Movies have always made a habit of ignoring time differences, usually unnecessarily as he could have as easily woken his friend up. Actually, being on the golf course might have compounded the "error" as considerate golfers turn their phones off so as to not put off someone putting or driving with the unexpected ring.
But it was an action movie. Not a documentary. Enjoy, don't enjoy, but recognize it for what it is. -
brightmidnight71 — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 07:55 PM)
Hey Turkish dude. What rivers surround NYC? If you don't know (without google) I guess you can't enjoy The Godfather. How long would it take to run from South Philly to City Hall and then to the Philadelphia Art Museum? guess Rocky is out for you too. And Neeson didn't bring anyone Schindler's List, he played a part in it. You're thinking of a guy named Steven Speilberg. Get your head out of your ass.
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nihatb48 — 11 years ago(August 05, 2014 04:17 AM)
Hey Jersey dude, well, they were Hudson and East last time I visited, and thank God my geography is pretty good, so I knew that long before those two fellas came up with their invention. Pardon my ignorance on the distances in Philadelphia, I've been there only once, but I lived in Maryland for six years, so I do know which bay separates it from Virginia..:)) And don't worry, I enjoyed both movies..
Oh, you're right on Schindler's List, though, it was SPIELBERG who brought us the movie, Neeson only starred in it, not a big deal! And my head is where it's supposed to be, thanks for your concern !
Well, all these joking aside, the only reason I started this thread is because I believe that quality action movies (or other types) can be made without insulting viewers' intelligence. These factual errors didn't rile me just because they involved my home town, I would feel the same for any other city in the world. How would you react if in a movie Atlantic City were to be called as the State Capital as opposed to Trenton ? Or the same border crossing scene took place between Mexico and the US ? The list can go on and on. Would you let them all slide ? -
brightmidnight71 — 11 years ago(August 14, 2014 08:38 AM)
OkI came on too harshSorry for that.
And I didn't adequately make my point because of it, which is worse. Hollywood does this all the time, even when films are set in the U.S.
I brought up Rocky, because if he'd actually run by all the places he does in the film, he'd have to run over 26 miles. Not a morning jog.
They screw up Jersey geography all the time. Even The Sopranosa show filmed in NJ with a lot of NJ cast and crew, messed thing up fairly frequentlyusually distances. The Pinelands episodewas filmed in any forest BUT the pine barrens. They have a very distinctive look.
I think we have to suspend disbelief and let things go a bit in order to enjoy some filmssome stories. But, looking back on itthe mistakes in Taken 2 that you mention are pretty bad. Very bad. Enough to take you out of the movie, obviously. I guess the sad commentary is, most Americans wouldn't notice at allor wouldn't care. Or know the difference between an embassy and a consulate.
That being saidi think comedies can get away with it far easier. Harold and Kumar, since we're sticking with my localthe first onethe geography in that one is laughable. All over the place.
But, I concede, you're right on this one. If a Bourne movie had done this it would be unforgivable -
siargao — 11 years ago(August 01, 2014 03:09 AM)
I liked Taken 2, so much so that I was eagerly awaiting Taken 3 through to 23.
But now I feel cheated, deceived and demoralised about the Grand Bazaar not being where it was shown or the Not an Embassy being in another city or continent or something.
I was quite happy about all this until now because I didn't know about it, or need to. -
grimah — 11 years ago(October 01, 2014 07:46 AM)
Factual errors could be overlooked because it is fiction, if people didn't live in those regions then they wouldn't find these things you mentioned unbelievable.
What i found stupid was how he was able to shoot police officers and kill alot of people (2 blown up cars) and then after crashing into the embassy get let out to roam istanbul again. -
Brentano_Amaroso — 11 years ago(November 24, 2014 03:14 PM)
As "tehck " said, "Welcome to Hollywood nihat."
I grew up in
San Francisco
and am well acquainted with the layout of the city, generally. So, when they make a movie supposedly set in
San Fran
, I noticed some of the weird errors. For example, in
the "Dirty Harry" series
, I notice him driving in one part of the city and then suddenly they're way over in another part of the city but the way the movie goes you'd think he just drove into that area. And, I'm like that street doesn't go there. How'd he get to that freeway ? What the who ???
But, that's Hollywood. -
MontyBurns1969 — 11 years ago(December 27, 2014 09:32 PM)
I agree with you that this movie is an insult to human intelligence. Of course Hollywood doesn't take every fact into consideration when making a movie and most go unnoticed by the general public but it should be at least semi-believable or it just becomes a joke as with this movie. The old police cars and 3rd world looking city are probably made that way because they are stereo types of the American public, just like every Russian male is either named Victor, Igor, or Ivan and on and on.
The thing that gets me more is the ludicrous chase scene with the expert teenage stunt driver, the indestructible cab, the grenades tossed around the city, the cel phones with the dial tones, Rambo Neeson fighting off wave after wave of bad guys the things that even a child would say, "that's so phony!" When you see this generation watching shows like Third Rock and Two and a Half Men, you can see that they won't be caring about differences in time zones and where the US embassy really is
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lucianolvr — 11 years ago(January 11, 2015 10:58 PM)
just like every Russian male is either named Victor, Igor, or Ivan and on and on.
Victor? I thought they were all named Mikhail, (Misha), Alexander (Sasha or Shudick), Peter, Igor, Dmitri or Ivan. Well, now there are 7 names you can use in Russia!
Love me some Waltons -
LiamNeesonTrollHunter — 11 years ago(December 31, 2014 02:40 PM)
Be glad they actually shot the movie in Istanbul.
I remember in a movie called Hostel there was supposed to be a scene in Amsterdam, which was actually shot in some Eastern-European city (as if Eastern Europe looks anything like the characteristic architecture of Amsterdam). The same thing happened in one of the Bourne movies. Istanbul got off relatively well presented compared to that. -
yamxt600 — 10 years ago(May 10, 2015 03:27 PM)
well - in "James Bond - Tomorrow never dies" the BMW crashes through the wall from the hotel garage into the car rental. In reality between those two places in Hamburg there are about 2 kilometers. That's one hell of a flying car.
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clark_gillies — 10 years ago(June 29, 2015 04:38 AM)
Agree on the border scene. that was my first thought (as you said, they would have to go through either Greece, or Macedonia and Bulgaria. neither of which would be a single track country road).
Maybe they have been a little poetic, but Taken is trying to pass itself off as belonging in the Jason Bourne universe of more "realism" and accurate, yet seemed to come well short on this.