Haven't seen "Knight Moves" but will make a point of it.  Now that I no for a fact that so many others notice the chess flubs, maybe I'll just laugh at them.  Thx everyone.

amac 7079 wrote:

              you should be thankful that there was a judas who could be bought for 30 pieces of silver otherwise the story never gets past the manger. by the way, i never heard of the chalice other than the holy grail being a chalice that was used at the last supper.

OK, now, we enter the theological and/or philosophical.

I'm sure many have put forth the view that Judas performed a vital service.  I, too, have given this some thought.  My conclusion is that if God's plan was for Jesus to die publicly and painfully on the cross to save us from our sins, and, according to the bible, it seems to have been, then that's the way it was going to be with or without Judas Iscariot.

I don't think religious or polictical items are allowed on the forums.

I agree,

and I for one believe that it is possible to have realistic portrayal of things without sacrificing the entertainment, too bad many people in hollywood don't feel the same. 

If the movies didn't get things wrong, then what would the Mythbusters do? 

I love how they proved that no matter how hard you try, shooting a car in the gas tank will NOT cause it to explode (but there's no way that Hollywood will stop perpetuating that belief - we all love to see things blow up!!).   

Evil_Homer wrote:

I don't think religious or polictical items are allowed on the forums.

I say:   Yes, and quite right too!  Everyone knows the top two on the list of things not to be discussed in polite company are religion and politics.  Although, when u think about it, they are pretty much the same thing.  And, if not, can u say 'hypocrite'?  Oops!  Did it again, didn't I?  Mea culpa, or in the current vernacular;  My bad.

Seriously, though, I started with a specific subject on which I really wanted some feedback (chess used as a prop in movies, made by people who obviously know zilch on the subject and are too insensitive and uncaring to ask a nephew to lend a hand.  got it, thx again).  It spread, quite naturally, to other subjects that the producers, directors, etc., get wrong, with specific (some funny as all get-out) instances.  Stay with me, now, just a little longer.  Please.

Imagine how much of this stuff young people are bombarded with every day and, since they haven't accumulated a lot of learning yet, they have no way of knowing they are being DIS-informed. 

I mean, if u had watched the third installment of "The Libraian", would u know you had just been infiltrated with dis-info?  This a small thing, tomorrow the world.

Spooky?  Scares the be-jesus out of me!!  (Oops! Did I just do it again?) 

yup! yup! most of the stuff that has value is being made out as if it's wrong or inconsiderate, especially kids programming, then ppl wonder why kids kill each other at schoool......

Amen, Amac!!  My philosophy on going to movies:  If it doesn't have stunts and/or Special Effects, what's the point?  I get enuf reality in my every day life.  I go to the movies to escape.

we know travolta ain't the smartest cookie in the box,

Aside from being able to completely reinvent his career several times he is certifed 747 pilot.  Owns and flies his own.

Does make me crazy when an out of the blue mate just stuns the victim.  Probably everybody that knows their 'niche' is bothered by similar ridiculous errors or misuses of what is 'real'.

Speaking of inconsistency, according to Wikipedia, the boards in "Tri-Dimensional Chess" depicted in Star Trek were sometimes not even aligned consistently from one shot to the next in the same episode. The sets shown were just props and no rules were ever given for this game, but in an interesting example of life imitating art some people have actually invented rules to make this a playable game.

Don't forget the mother of all bad science in science fiction: The Day After Tomorrow!!! LoL

Not really, gives us chess dorks a way to make fun of Hollywood.

So you guys are irritated because movies aren't realistic? Uh, if I want realism, I'll sit on my balcony and watch the neighbors argue in the parking lot.

On the other hand, I do own a Star Trek chess set.

One thing that does bother me: people making forums where the title is all caps.

Another movie with chess as a central theme is Fresh. Samuel L. Jackson plays a blitz master who plays in the park every day. I saw part of this on tv a couple of months ago. At one point, he's playing his son, and the son checks his king. Then Jackson gets a counterattack and checkmates the king, but it takes a few moves, so at least it's not a magical mate in one like some of the examples earlier in this thread. Most of it was pretty convincing until Jackson's character tells his son something about celebrating because it was the first time he's ever gotten him in check. (!?!??!) That one bugged me.

Overall, they were pretty realistic, though. They went back to the dad's home, and he had a few chess sets with positions from ongoing correspondence games going on, and he used the names of actual grandmasters to say who he was playing against. I can't remember who right now, but his whole attitude was very realistic about it. He was talking about how if you give these guys time to think, they'll beat him, but in blitz, with the clock running, they crack under the pressue and he can beat them. I'm sure his character couldn't beat those guys every time, but maybe some of the time, given how strong a blitz player he's supposed to be. The conversation was moderately realistic, with him probably exagerating his own skill slightly to brag.

What scares me is people who allow movies and television to educate their children.  People who don't teach their children the difference between reality and fiction.  Thats what really scares me...

The movie "Revolver", with Jason Statham and Ray Liotta, has a bunch of chess snippets in it.  I was paying attention to the dialog and didn't concentrate on the chess games themselves much, but I didn't notice anything that jumped out at me as horribly wrong.  The characters meet regularly in a chess club owned by one of the characters, so it gets a decent amount of screen time, kind of.

I saw Knight Moves. Absolutely terrible. Invented opening names, invented famous players and classic books. Not one thing in that film had anything to do with chess. There may be a worse film out there but I've yet to see it.

 that would depend on how many the prop gun can fire without reloading!:>)

I saw Gregory House from "House" kick the butt of a smart alecky chess prodigy on the chess board in 3 minutes flat. He's so great! He can play chess, play the piano, sing,diagnose and cure any illness and give you great painkillers....my ideal man...LOL

Life is way to short to get annoyed at movies that don't get chess right.  I do wish they would take the time to get it right though.  If you are going to put millions, tens or hundreds of millions into making a movie you should be able to get something like a chess game correct.