Can mistakes and "goofs" ruin a movie?

I hate continuity errors in editing, they distract me from the movie. When you pick up on such errors, they're impossible to forget. If you know that a certain film is packed full of editing mistakes, can you still call it a good film? I know of lots of great movies with obvious mistakes (I don't want to mention any in case it ruins someone's viewing of the film), as I'm sure you do too.

So when you notice any mistakes or "goofs", do you try to ignore them? Or do you take them into account when judging the movie?

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TOP 100 | "Don't let the bastards grind you down!"

Mmm...can't recall that a "goof" has ever kept me from watching a movie. Are you talking about say a character has a scar on his right cheek, but next scene its on his left? I will never ever notice that. All I'll notice is that there is indeed a scar. That's all.

Or some other ones such as a car is in an accident right before a chase, but then the car is new again. I will never notice until someone points it out. Ever.

So do I take them into account when judging the movie? Truthfully I can't :-p. But no, I don't. I accept the fact that nothing is perfect.

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Yeah, that and other things. Mistakes in editing are mainly in some sort of shot-reverse-shot conversation, where a character might have his arms folded one second, then suddenly they're not, then suddenly they're folded again. Know what I mean? That sort of thing really gets on my nerves.

i usually don't notice a thing until after the film is over and it's mentioned in the extras of the dvd...

so it doesn't ruin it for me...

yea I usually never notice those things. I really only realise things like this when the movie is boring me and im not intrsted in the story. I didn't even notice the obvious ones in Evil Dead 2 like when the "force" is chasing ash through the cabin and breaking down doors if you look up the cabin has no cieling nd u can see the lights and other things like that. also the henrietta costume has a giant tear in it. If it wasn't for the dvd i wouldnt have picked up on these. So goofs never hinder my love for a movie.

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"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission and the babysitter were worth it."
- Alfred Hitchcock

BladeRunner is one of my favorite movies in the history of cinema, and it is chock full of continuity errors - large and small. As another example, Stanley Kubrick, as careful and controlling a filmmaker as he was, has dozens of such "mistakes" in his works. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Basically I go with the theory that if you're noticing what angle a character's tie is at or how long their cigarette is from cut to cut during a scene, espcially on the first viewing or two, you can't be very involved in the story or filmmaking. In a bad movie where I'm bored anyway, I'm much more likey to notice these sorts of "errors" straight off. But in a good to great film, it doesn't really make much of a difference, and I only spot them on my tenth or thirtieth or hundredth viewing. If I'm watching a movie that much and that closely and still enjoying it, such details are truly trivial.


I think the first one I ever spotted by myself when I was eleven or twelve or whatever is in Stripes, which I saw in the theater and then probably fifty times on cable television. Never spotted it in the cinema, but by the time it hit television I noticed in the scene where John (Bill Murray) tries to go AWOL and Russell (Harold Ramis) tackles him to stop him, from one angle there's a duffel bag near Murray's head. From the other angle, no bag at all. Didn't notice it straight off, but even if I had it really makes no difference in how enjoyable and funny a movie it is.



I dunno. They're good for movie trivia geeks like us, but I don't find them to be a problem at all. Errors in internal logic in the plotting that are simply lazy and make easy outs when the film has written itself into a corner, those bother me. How much food is on the plate during a scene, I don't really care.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

In some films, the continuity mistakes help the film - The Evil Dead II

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Suspect's Reviews

Holden's nailed it - if the film interests you then you don't notice. If the film is boring, your eyes wander and you notice. If you can see the errors in a film you like, the film is still so good that you don't really care - in GoodFellas there's a bit where Paulie's cigar is constantly in and out of his mouth. That I don't mind.

However, the worst offenders are usually posthumous money spinners. Prime examples? Trail of the Pink Panther and Game of Death - two horridly goof-ridden films that should burn in bargain bins for eternity.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I honestly can't remember seeing ANY goofs in any film i've ever seen, probably because i'm paying attention to the film.

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I was going to mention the gallery of errors in Blade Runner, but Holden beat me to it, as usual. I love the film, and the errors along with it...

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Speaking only for myself, continuity errors and the like have to be pretty blatant to even get my attention, let alone snap me out of movie-watching-mode. Even factual references aren't really a problem, provided I don't know they're incorrect off the top of my head. If I do, however, then it can taint things just a little. I don't like to ever feel smarter than the movie I'm watching.

I don't usually notice them, thankfully. When I do, it can be rather Brechtian - and I'm no fan of Brecht.

In some things, as has been said, it makes the movie better. I remember a conversation in the tv show Moonlighting where every other take had a different arrangement of the bed covers that Cybil Shepherd was in.

It does bother me if they try to totally defy physics (Waterworld) or something.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

I don't know if this one counts, but the Mummy was kind of ruined for be because of all the historical stuff being complete BS. So I guess thats a mistake that kind of ruined the movie for me.

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"No, we don't have any needles here... Just a big f*cking gun"

The first error i ever noticed on my own was on my like millionth viewing of T2. In the scene with the T-1000 driving the helicopter if you look where his hands are then you can see an obviously noticable third hand from someone else on one of the handels

I think it all depends on the mistake or "goof" and also the movie. For example, one can be looking at an imensely exiting action movie and encounter a mistake that totally throws them off, or while looking at a serious action movie see's a mistake but is to taken up to even give it a thought.

On the other hand, even if one is not engoying the movie, a simple mistake can be "brushed off" , example: A dell computer running mac os.

yes

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Good question. I tend not to notice errors so much the first time round...but on a rewatch I tend to notice more things. If I like the film it wouldn't ruin it for me completely, but it does take the shine off. I would be more bothered if the film doesn't make sense from the point of view of plot coherence and characters' motivations...e.g. Why the hell is he doing that, that's stupid?

Top Secret had so many mistakes, I mean that cow was obviously a real one in some scenes and fake in others.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Editing mistakes and "goofs" are only natural additions to films. Making a feature-length film is very painstakingly hard and tedious. With everybody running around on the set, concentrating on certain things and making sure this and this happen, there isn't enough time to go back shot after shot and make sure their were no mistakes. Sure, there are people on the set who's job is to look for these "goofs" and make sure every shot is the same as the last, but even they can't pick up every little mistake or even have enough time to look at every shot.

I can call a movie a good or great movie if I know it had a boatload of mistakes and "goofs" because I know it is not really preventable. But if a movie has a completely atrocious and crazy amount of mistakes like 300, I may re-consider.

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"All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be." - Guido, 8 1/2

My first ever viewing of signs was marred by a few boom mics at the top of the screen, hovering in at the most dramatic moments. Im told this was a projectionist error- but it kind of took away from the whole experience. Got a few free movie tickets, though.