Bad Guy Crashes Through Thin Doorway in The Spy Next Door

Hong Kong's Jackie Chan is in another action-comedy movie called The Spy Next Door. It's like The Tuxedo in which an ordinary guy gets to become a spy. But in this movie, Chan is already a spy, but he has to do his duty while babysitting for a neighbor.

While being a doting neighbor to the kids next door, Chan unknowingly gets them in danger when the naughty kids mistakenly downloads a code that the bad guys are after. They literally crash into the house and go after the kids. But the kids are ready for them with spy gadgets that make the tricks done in Home Along seem like, well, child's play.

In one scene, a kid use a force gadget on a big bad guy that sends him crashing through the bedroom doorway. You will notice in the sequence that the doorway wall is as thin as cardboard. Ideally, it should be several inches thick and made of concrete. But since this is a comedy movie, it's kind of acceptable, but not very realistic. Such a thin wall wouldn't really hold a door that's at least two inches thick along the borders.


See some cool spy gadgets here.

Cracking Sistine Chapel Effect in 2012 Obviously Overlaid

In the sneak peek at the end-of-the-world movie 2012, there's a part that shows the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel cracking right through Michaelangelo's well-known fresco painting depicting a man reaching out to a bearded Godlike figure. The splitting ceiling special effect is just a few seconds long and seems convincing, but the cinematic magic loses it's charm the closer you look.

If you notice in the two frozen frames, the cracks were obviously laid over the footage or still picture using graphics software. Notice how in the second picture below, that a small portion of the blue outline at the middle-bottom part has been "accidentally" erased when the advancing cracks were being added. Look carefully by comparing the two screen caps and you'll see it. The erasure can actually be seen moving along with the crack in the trailer.

Computer-generated cracking effects are funny in how they are sometimes laid over a scene carelessly with little regard for lighting and how the surrounding visual elements are affected. More often that not, they are simply colored stark black, when in fact, they wouldn't really look that way in reality. Because of the quick editing, mistakes in such graphic effects like those used in the 2012 movie are not obvious. In fact, a lot of the effects you will see in this movie are superb, in spite of the reported budget cut on the movie.


See the 2012 solar eclipse special effects mistake here.

Delayed Reflection in Twilight Flight Sequence and Crumpling Car Door Effect

Twilight is a "horror" romance, thriller about a teenage girl who falls for a teenage boy who apparently lives forever, eats fresh deer for lunch, and has powers like flight. The teaser doesn't really tell us much about the story, except that maybe the boy is a vampire, or something similar (because he can go without harm under daylight). But, of course fans of the book series already know about the characters and the situation they are in.

In one sequence, where the girl, Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart) already knows that the boy Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson) is different, they go on a flight. But notice how their reflection on the glass of the door in the third still (bottom) comes in only after they are already way out the doorway? That shouldn't have been the case. But, then again, if you check how reflections are seen in a mirror, it just might be correct and this isn't a special effects mistake.


But here's another scene where our vampire boy stops a vehicle from slamming into his girlfriend. Notice how the surface of the door of the car isn't smooth - suggesting that it's made of some easy-to-crumple material instead of the usual metal. Just a little push on it and it would give like a beer can. It's a "mechanical" sfx.

Twilight is based on the novel saga by Stephanie Meyer.

In the Twilight movie, vampire Edward Cullen says he's been seventeen a while. His action figure is also made to look like seventeen, but it's sure to be a collectors' item for many more years. Order Edward Cullen now!

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Plane Snags Too Soon in Knowing Movie

In the movie Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage (also starring in Bangkok Dangerous) and Rose Byrne, disasters happen which are supposed to be based on something written into a time capsule in a school.

One of these disasters is that of a plane crashing near a highway. As the plane approaches, it breaks down power lines across a bridge, but it's really too far away to snag. You can compare the relative size of the plane to the trucks on the bridge. The power lines are really too close for the plane to hit them too soon. Notice in the third still that one of the power lines that should have snapped is still untouched.

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A Couple of Babylon AD Visual Effects Misses

Babylon AD is a new sci-fi, action thriller of Vin Diesel, who plays a tough mercenary of sorts, given the task of protecting a woman (Melanie Thierry) with special powers.

What follows are a couple of visual effects misses.

The city lights of the Americas (below) are very clear in this sequence as the viewer zooms in towards the Earth. The error is here is that there's not a single cloud blocking the view of the lights, although there are some in the day side. Also note the land masses to the left of North America (your left, actually) - unlikely because that's where the Atlantic ocean should be - or are they just brown clouds?


Here, Diesel throws a punch that connects with the jaw of his cage-fighting opponent, but it's really a clear miss even as the opponent reacts ahead of Diesel's punch.

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Effects Bloopers Revealed

Special effects using computer animation is a boon to the movie industry, making productions that used to need tons of set constructions and extras simpler and quicker. But the ease with which the movie mages do their thing can lead to carelessness. While some computer graphics errors can be made less obvious through good editing. Some can still be seen if you look carefully. Here are two from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Plane hits ground that is really way behind it.

Arrows rain on skeletal warrior army...

...but the arrows are falling rear-end first.
There are really a few others more, but they are not very obvious. Maybe you can find more.

Click here for a video on Brendan Fraser's new 3D movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The Last Legion special effects mistakes

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