A black mark for movie accuracy

Still you continue to unburden yourselves of your anguish at Hollywood’s treatment of computers, which – we can exclusively reveal – isn’t always terribly accurate.
‘My favourite typing in a film of all time was Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, who seemed to control all of his systems by hitting caps lock and return in quick succession,’ says Matt Norman at NHBC.
David Cartwright at Korana Technology renews the attack on one of the most technically ridiculous films ever created: Jurassic Park.
‘Being high-tech and innovative, the park had videophones. And sure enough, we see a call taking place on the “videophone”,’ he says.
‘Except the video phone application doesn’t half look like the QuickTime movie player, complete with the little indicator that marks the progress though the video – which is at the far left when the “call” starts and just happens to reach the far right at the exact moment the “call” ends. If I didn’t know better I’d think it was a QuickTime movie, not a phone call.’
That would be almost as ridiculous as putting a public loo in the bit of the park where the dinosaurs are.
‘I think your list has to start with high-tech computer screens which still make teletype printer noises with each letter when a message appears on a screen,’ says Michael Mertens at MERTENS-Consulting.
‘My favourites are ACCESS DENIED messages, which almost always fill the entire screen, are green and blink nicely. Then there is the fantastic ability of Hollywood’s digital image systems: one can zoom in [on CCTV images] 10,000 per cent without running into any image resolution problems.’
Keep sending them.