How have movies gotten something wrong about your home town?

Post by **haas mark** » 2003-06-06 09:49am

Again with Roswell, although I don't live there anymore...

"Roswell" TV show, based off Melinda Metz' "Roswell High" books.

- Roswell and Clovis are two hours away
- "The Launchpad" is in Albuquerque.
- Downtown does not look like a saloon, there ARE buses, and there's a giant park in front of the courthouse.
- The sheriffs don't wear hats like that.
- It's not that dusty. THE ROADS ARE PAVED.

~ver

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-06-06 09:56am

Pretty much every summer my hometown is used as a movie location.

Last year they filmed part of the movie "Timeline" (released this November) in my hometown. Evidently its a medieval village and site of an assault on a castle or something like that. Dang, are they WAY off!

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-06-06 10:46am

28 Days Later
Budgens on TCR was never fully stocked with food, even before the apolcalypse. The chances of it being stokced with food a month after an apocalypse are non-existant

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-06-06 11:09am

There are so many things they get wrong about New York, I won;t get into it, but Sex in the City is a fairly accurate portrayal of the nightlife and the women that frequent it. You hear their innane vapid conversations when you walk down Fifth Avenue. I particularly hate when they try and pass another city off as NYC. Vancouver I guess being the prime culprit. It is so OBVIOUS when you're not filming in NY.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-06-06 11:12am

Stravo wrote:There are so many things they get wrong about New York, I won;t get into it, but Sex in the City is a fairly accurate portrayal of the nightlife and the women that frequent it. You hear their innane vapid conversations when you walk down Fifth Avenue. I particularly hate when they try and pass another city off as NYC. Vancouver I guess being the prime culprit. It is so OBVIOUS when you're not filming in NY.

Since I doubt very few shows took place in Elmont, I'll go with Stravo on this one.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-06-06 11:14am

A few nitpicks:in the remake Rollerball some scene supposed to be in Russia were filmed in Montreal,i noticed that cause the street sign were in french,another scene when they go to an arab country the building is the Montreal casino on Notre-Dame island.

In the movie The Jackal with Bruce Willis also filmed in Montreal,near the end when he escaped through the subway the station he enter and the one he come out are really far apart,the first station is Radisson the second is Lionel Groulx.

Here`s a link to the Montreal subway map MAP look at the green line

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-06-06 11:45am

According to the movies, my hometown doesn't exist. This is entirely inaccurate.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-06-06 12:08pm

Not my hometown anymore but the state I grew up in.

I don't recall ever seeing wheat fields in Iowa (sure there's tons of corn, soybeans and sorgum but no wheat, and certainly not winter wheat).

There are NO mountains in or near Iowa. There are some nice bluffs bordering the Mississippi but there are no snowcaped mountains visible from Iowa.

Also, while there are hicks in Iowa they don't generally wear cowboy hats. They are more likely to have on a John Deere, Catapillar etc... baseball hat or a hat with the name of some brand of grain, feed, herbacide etc.. on it.

By the way. I don't like Field of Dreams and can't stand The Bridges of Madison County. Not too keene on The Music Man either.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-06-06 01:15pm

1) Hillbillies aren't that backwards or stupid!!

2) X-files used settings in Canada for West Virginia on many occasions. There are no coal mines that have that huge metal building set into the side of the mountain in WV. Quinnmont, WV (where Mulder caught up to the 'Alien Autopsy' railcar) doesnt have trains just parked there, it's a crossroads for rails, not a storage depot. Quinnmont is located in the New River Valley, a very steep-sided forested gorge.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-06-06 01:18pm

I don't remember anybody working with gamma radiation at Berkeley. Maybe it's just kept quiet.

J · Post by J » 2003-06-06 02:33pm

Antigonish is in Nova Scotia. It's not a fishing town in Scotland, nor is it a seaside cove in Wales. It does not have a harbour with 50 shiny new multi-million dollar yachts docked in it. We do not speak with a thick bastardized Scottish accent.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-06-06 02:34pm

The only movie I know of filmed in Tampa was "Cop and a Half" but it's been so long since I've seen it I'll need to watch it again.

And "Punisher" is coming to Tampa! So I might have a few things to say there, depending on what city they try and pass it off as! Finally, the big time.

Oh, and I don't suppose it matters, but Police Academy was filmed up in Canada but they pass it off as an American city.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-06-06 02:41pm

innerbrat wrote:28 Days Later
Budgens on TCR was never fully stocked with food, even before the apolcalypse. The chances of it being stokced with food a month after an apocalypse are non-existant

Also, the power was on, when it was off everywhere else. There were also nowhere near enough wrecked cars everywhere, there shouldve been loads on the motorway too, Cumbria was right though, which was quite cool, cos my dad lives up there.

Just got that on dvd btw, i think it's really cool personally, the overall englishness of it sets it apart.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-06-06 02:51pm

"Jingle All the Way":

The Holidazzle parade in Minneapolis is about a week before Christmas, not the day before.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-06-06 02:53pm

oh, and Reign of Fire - the Docklands ight Railway does not go from Euston Square

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-06-06 03:01pm

Every Pro IRA movie that ever mentioned Belfast. Belfast is not a war zone. We only riot one month out of 12. The other 11 months we all get on fine unless Glasgow Rangers are playing Glasgow Celtic.

Also the horrible Brad Pitt movie "In the Name of the Father". His chatacter says his dad was a "Fisher man in Belfast". I got new for the guys who write this shite. The only fish in Belfast live in fish tanks.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-06-06 09:37pm

Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.

That's all I could think of.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-06-06 09:51pm

There was at least one movie filmed in Haverford, but I can't recall the name. I can't bring to mind any inaccuracies regarding films set in Philadelphia, either, though I'm sure there are some(come to think of it, I can't bring to mind any films set in Philadelphia, period...)

Although, you know in Zoolander, when the miners are walking into the coal mine? I've been there, its a few hours north of where I am. The mine is actually a zinc mine, not a coal mine, and they stopped mining sometime in the eighties. When I visited they still had the little sign that said 'coal mine' hanging up.

Of course, that *wasn't* the main entrance. That's a dinky little side-passage they showed in the movie.

No idea why they didn't just head down to Scranton or Lackawanna County...plenty of coal mines there...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-06-06 09:53pm

Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.

That's a damned lie. I've met plenty of Australians and every single one of them has had that same stereotypical accent.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-06-06 10:00pm

HemlockGrey wrote:
Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.
That's a damned lie. I've met plenty of Australians and every single one of them has had that same stereotypical accent.

I've been an Australlian for almost 18 years, and seen many depictions in noon-Australian movies, that's nothing like us.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-06-06 10:01pm

Gandalf wrote:Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.

That's all I could think of.

Funny, my professor from Australia speaks like they do in the movies. Maybe just a little softer.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-06-06 10:03pm

neoolong wrote:
Gandalf wrote:Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.

That's all I could think of.
Funny, my professor from Australia speaks like they do in the movies. Maybe just a little softer.

Likewise. And not only did my Aussie prof speak in the stereotypical way, he also had a striking resemblance to Mel Gibson.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-06-06 10:08pm

HemlockGrey wrote:
Australians do not speak the way they do in the movies.
That's a damned lie. I've met plenty of Australians and every single one of them has had that same stereotypical accent.

Agreed.

Anyways, there was a Lifetime movie made about some sort of intrigue involving sexual harassment at my high school many years ago. I'll be damned if I'll ever see it, but I'm sure it got everything about Santa Clara High School wrong. For one thing, they didn't film it here.

Any movie that depicts the San Francisco Bay Area as being a seaside Mediterannean metropolis (a la LA) is wrong. I think Men At Work (that garbageman movie with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) depicts it in this manner, among others. Also, the Bay Area is very far from Los Angeles. The Graduate does a good job of conveying this, though other movies fail at it.

The movie to get the Bay Area most right (the whole area, not just SF) is probably Sneakers.

FaxModem1 · Post by **FaxModem1** » 2003-06-06 10:24pm

Texas is not a huge desert with a bunch of hicks who wear cowboy hats and don't have a good vocabulary.

North ticked me off so much.

The X-files movie does this too and LA does not look like Dallas.

That's all I can think of for now.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-06-06 10:25pm

Robert Treder wrote: I think Men At Work (that garbageman movie with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) depicts it in this manner, among others.

They never claimed it as being in S.F., IIRC.
It was, however, filmed in Redondo Bch. and Hermosa Bch., and while not my hometowns, I did go to High School at Redondo. That movie makes me homesick as hell, I have vivid memories of almost every place onscreen. They even call The Esplenade by the right name.