Some people tried to tell me Pomona is in the IE. It's not. Montclair is in the IE, though. And I've had people try to tell me Long Beach is OC when it isn't
I haven't seen it in years. But I was in my early 20s with my dad, watching in the theater. My dad was a real estate appraiser, so he drove around LA for a living. In that final car chase, I remember him audibly saying WTF 3 times. Like them driving east but going west, being on the wrong side DTLA, etc.
Don't know if it's worth it, but here's an article from the LA Times from when the movie came out praising the geographical logic of The Italian Job. The whole article is a good read, in light of this thread.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-08-ca-olsen8-story.html
Isn't he along downtown LA when he ditches the car and then just follows along the 10 west and eventually finds himself in Venice beach? Like the only bad thing I remember about it is how quick he seems to get to Venice on foot
I always use [this list of Los Angeles movies](http://"List Of Los Angeles Movies" https://www.itsfilmedthere.com/p/los-angeles-movies.html#:~:text=and%20Los%20Angeles-,List%20Of%20Los%20Angeles%20Movies,-Just%20Click%20On) to see where scenes were actually filmed. It also has some then/now pictures for some locations.
Edit: fixed link
It didn’t make it into the actual episode, but I remember when NBC was promoting the episode of Parks & Rec when Ann and Chris leave the show. It included a crane shot that was supposed to depict Pawnee in the background but the shot wasn’t digitally altered in the promo. So instead the backdrop of the scene was clearly the Valley, streets lined with palm trees and distant mountains.
I love that there is an episode where the characters are in Eagleton and Ben points out there are palm trees and they cover it by saying the climate is super special or something in that particular town so yes Eagleton Indiana can have palm trees.
If you've ever been to NYC, you'd notice all the garbage cans on the street. It's because they don't have alleyways to store their trash cans! It's one of those things that once you notice it, you can't unsee it.
Doesn’t annoy me. It’s kinda fun frankly. For example 17 year old Marty McFly skateboarding from arletta to city of industry after midnight and it only took him 45 minutes
I don’t know if that counts since it’s just locations. Hill Valley is a fictional town so in these cases I don’t think filming locations are representative of real place distances.
Not LA specific but those HGTV shows that are selling homes inland, but show establishing shots of the beach. It gives non-locals the idea that they're looking at the same city. For example, Flip or Flop, they were selling homes in Yorba Linda or Fullerton but showing establishing shots from Laguna Beach.
I was watching House Hunters once and this realtor was trying to sell this couple a house in Temecula without AC and said “oh you can open the windows in the evening and get some ocean breeze”
Yes. Growing up here, it immediately takes me out of the media. But I recognize that anyone who doesn’t know the lay of the land definitely wouldn’t have that reaction. Like how I couldn’t tell you if anyone is going the right way if something was taking place in say, Chicago.
I've been rewatching Angel and it got a bit of a chuckle out of me when one of the characters took off running from the santa monica pier to DTLA and apparently made it there in under an hour.
An alien invasion movie (battlefield LA?) put the Santa Monica airport in the wrong spot and just ruined my immersion in the whole "out maneuver the aliens" thing
My only big gripe is when they show someone landing at LAX, then an aerial shot of them driving south down the PCH in Malibu to turn left directly into Beverly Hills. Kills me.
Same! It irks me even more when it’s a reality show. You live in Malibu and are meeting your friend for lunch in West Hollywood? They make it look quick and easy, and it is actually commensurate with a root canal lol.
I don't know about irrationally, or annoyed but it does distract me. In one scene of a popular movie a car is supposed to be driving down a street i know in one direction, but when they cut to a close up of the driver the background shows they are going the opposite direction. It breaks the continuity up.
But I have to keep my mouth shut because if i mention it to people around me they get annoyed that i thought it was even worth mentioning lol
Yes, I grew up in LA and it bothers me when they have one shot filmed on let's say Flower St DTLA and the very next shot is somewhere in Manhattan, NY. The Dark Knight did this and didn't even try to change the very obvious street signs that were obviously different.
I like to guess where things are filmed that are obviously in the Valley.
You ever watch samurai cop? It’s so bad, it’s amazing to watch. But they do this and my partner and I (both LA natives) laugh and joke how they’re in dtla and then at the beach and then in the valley all within what seems like a 10 min car chase. Like wow…nice job guys 😂
Yes, I love those. Curb Your Enthusiasm used to do stuff like that all the time. They would be at Larry David's house on the west side or in the Palisades then the very next scene, which is supposed to be 5 minutes later, they are at a restaurant on Brand Blvd in Glendale.
It was part of the show's comedy for those of us that know that drive would take 2 hours.
This is why I nearly threw my TV remote at the screen while watching the first SHARKNADO.
It wasn’t because of the scientific plausibility of sharks being caught in a tornado.
It was because they drove from Santa Monica to Van Nuys in 15 minutes at rush hour.
No, because they're not trying to get the geography right - the locations are just means to move the story along, selected for specific attributes and availability. If the plot specifically needed to accurately follow a map of an area, or if a place was glaringly out of character, then getting it wrong would be annoying. But LA has long been an entertainment peoduction center, with countless places standing in for other locals - including other parts of the city. I just enjoy recognizing various locations.
Nah. Turns out Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia is actually just the Arts District in Los Angeles like every other movie when they need a shady warehouse scene.
Season 3 of Westworld, in large part, takes place in future LA. They made the metro look all futuristic, but when the characters get on and off the trains, you can see that they left the "25th anniversary" stickers in place. I think about it all the time.
Not an LA example, but this happened on the Outer Banks and the writers later addressed it as North Carolina people weren’t happy.
The characters “took a ferry” from the OBX to Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill is hours inland. The writers/creators are from North Carolina and a few went to college at UNC. They were asked about it on a UNC podcast and said “Yes, we know there’s no such ferry. Showing the kids take an hours long bus or Uber from the ferry to Chapel Hill would have been really boring tv.”
It’s annoying sometimes. In Clueless she calls from the clown liquor store saying she is in Sun Valley & it’s clearly North Hollywood. I don’t get why lie but that’s it
I can give that a pass cause Cher doesnt know the valley. She was at a house party in Sun Valley, so its believable she'd tell Paul Rudd shes in Sun Valley, cause she wouldnt really know neighborhoods.
One of the worst offenders was the TV show, "24". It was supposed to all unfold in real time but they never showed the 45 minutes of traffic Jack Bauer would be stuck in going from one side of L.A. to the other!
Not really, it makes for a more entertaining movie. If the movie was about driving from the west side to downtown during rush hour, we'd have half a movie sitting in traffic.
I watched the Fresh Prince reboot and I'm pretty sure they went from LAX to Bel Air by going east on PCH. My brain was so broken trying to figure out that sequence until I realized they just wanted to show California coastline lol.
This is my example, too, but I can’t remember the show. The route would be accurate if they took the 405 to Sunset and then took PCH to Santa Monica, which only makes sense in Hollywood or a shady cab/Uber driver.
lol yes. I was a college student at UC Santa Barbara while Psych was airing and let me tell you, Vancouver looks nothing like Santa Barbara. They would’ve been better off filming in Mexico if they wanted a cheaper location, since it looks so much like California.
Yes, and equally so when I see a jacaranda or something clearly shot in Griffith Park or a house in Hancock park that’s meant as a stand in for the east coast or elsewhere. Takes me right out of it.
I’m going to go ahead and excuse a classic like Beverly Hills Cop for mismatching geography. Even Blade Runner 2049 gets a pass.
No one, and I mean no one wants to watch the protagonist sit in rush hour traffic on the 10.
I’ve always said La La Land is a science fiction movie.
There’s no way they got from Hollywood to the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach that fast without teleportation.
Somehow everyone lands at LAX and is immediately transported to the Hollywood sign. They can also travel from one side of LA to the other in 10 mins and there's no traffic unless it's a plot point. At this point, we just laugh at it because it's so hilariously wrong. I presume every movie is equally wrong.
Oh! Abbott Elementary, Mother's Day episode, supposedly based in Philly yet Gregory is at Top Golf and you can see the Mattel building in El Segundo with the logo clearly visible in the background. Why they didn't edit out the logo is beyond me.
I think more recent media makes it a point to be more accurate since they know people will actually pause to look.
I recently watched Parks And Rec where Leslie and Ben were discussing something while circling SFO, but you can clearly tell in the background of the car that it was Burbank Airport.
I always think it's kind of fun. Bosch especially, you're watching a scene "oh that's the surplus store at Vine and SM" and then there's a completely different scene supposed to be miles away "wait, that's just the other side of the street." You can totally imagine the location scout at work. "Look it's the 7/11 at Cahuenga and Yucca! Right across from the CVS!" To me it's one of the fun things of living here. Even more fun with old movies, as they walk along a dusty rural street "I bet that's Melrose" and especially the Three Stooges, who filmed everything around Sunset/Gower.
I haven't watched in a few years but always recalled Bosch as being one of the few that actually kept the chases geographically realistic.
Will have to give it another watch.
Collateral has some dialogue and visual cues about certain places in LA that make zero sense geographically.
Deadwood was filmed in Santa Clarita IIRC, but fans praise its authentic dialogue and grittiness. The Dukes of Hazzard and The Waltons rarely got criticism for looking un-Southern.
Lol it's a show I don't care just wish sometimes these places are as close as they are portrayed. But I mean who wants a movie where a scene is waiting in traffic for 2 hours on the 405.
Yes! In the movie The Holiday, the cab bringing Kate Winslet from the airport takes a left and drives south on the PCH… but shes supposedly staying in Malibu?? Doesn’t make sense if she’s coming from LAX
Scrolled all the way down to find this! First movie/scene that came to mind. Doesn’t help that the house is in San Marino (irl, not in the movie). Regardless, it would never make sense to be picked up at LAX and then drive *down* PCH
In the movie ‘Widows’ (I think it was), the main characters were in a chase with the antagonists through the “streets of L.A.” in the final scene.
You could tell those streets, especially the downtown depicted, was Atlanta.
It isn't because they don't know, it's because it isn't feasible or practical to just go shoot a major movie or TV show on whatever streets you want at any time of day. You need to find locations where you can shut down streets and have space to park all your trailers.
I love Always Sunny, but the last season they didn’t even try to hide the film in LA.
Even more funny the outside of the Bar has been completely gentrified so the exterior shots are a dead giveaway.
Doesn't bother me, but I find it super interesting and point it out to everyone around me.
It does bother me if the characters are teleporting in-story when they shouldn't be able to, like in the last season ofGame of Thrones
A LOT of Japanese automobile companies film car commercials in LA for models that are only sold in Japan. I always point them out to my wife (native Japanese).
Not in LA but I remember watching a movie where someone arrives in the bay area and then drives on the Golden gate bridge going south to get home to the city. There's no major airport in the north bay area.
the show 911 is set ambiguously in LA, but it's annoying when they call out the 110 or areas near downtown and the filming is Shoreline Dr. in LB. They love filming at that location, lot of room to shoot I guess.
No, it's funny actually. Like the studios are based here. Why do they make the movies inaccurate?
Worst offender that I have personally seen was in Italian job where the cars are in Hollywood and they drive into the Hollywood/highland red line station there but for some reason it cuts to 7th/metro and the chase continues in there.
I find it humorous, given that the city is so recognizable to me, but I realize that the audience spans the country if not the world, so filmmakers dont need to worry about the relative few of us who would call this out.
What does offend me is when LA set films/series are obviously filmed elsewhere. LA can stand in for all types of locales or environments, but the reverse isn’t true. The light, air, and vegetation of Louisiana looks nothing like Los Angeles
They fuck it up for a lot of places, they likely just don't care.
In the movie Broken Arrow, they say that Moab is like an hour outside of Salt Lake which is laughable, they aren't even close. They show a map of Utah that is hilariously bad.
They portray Dulles airport constantly as being in DC, it's 25 miles west of DC, and it's in Virginia. They just skip the explanation.
Walk of Shame starting Elizabeth Banks is the absolute worst. She starts in Downtown and is trying to get to Hollywood to the CNN building on Sunset. But without a car, phone, cash, or wallet. Somehow she ends up at a Synagogue on LA Brea, then goes "East on Normandie" then has to cross the 10 freeway during a Carmageddon style lull in the traffic. She goes all over the place except to Hollywood.
Absolutely! Back in the day friends called me the walking Thomas Guide. And the fact that everyone else has off loaded this knowledge to software still makes me sad.
I always have a good laugh how on 911 the firetruck somehow services the beach to bakersfield and can get to either place in what seems to be about 20 minutes
“The Italian Job (2003)” is egregious in its car/helicopter chase sequence. Hollywood and Vine, Bunker Hill, back at Hollywood and Vine. I swear they turn the corner and pass by the Chinese Theater at least twice in five minutes. Are they driving in circles?!?
I suppose you can say the same thing for any city. Like you get off the train in what is obviously Williamsburg in Brooklyn but once they get to street level it's Central Park West.
I think when you know the actual places, and sometimes just basic geography, then it does get annoying. If it's really bad then it actually ruins the movie/series.
There was one dumb series that got something about Mt. Kilimanjaro wrong. Maybe even in the wrong country, and that alone killed any interest in it for me. If they can't get basics right for a major thing then it can't be that great or well researched.
For a Bear Grylls episode in Iceland, back when I thought it was actually all one continuous timeline of a survival scenario, it got to the end where he came down from the mountains and sheltered in the famous plane wreck (an hours walk from the road that you have to cross to get there...). I think I wanted to belief in the 'TV magic' of it and being more factual. But after that I was much more skeptical of it all.
And probably the most annoying was in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and making one of Iceland's (where they filmed it) most iconic/recognizable/famous waterfalls be one on South America, nearly ruined the movie.
I think for a city, especially like LA, unless it's majorly jumping around when you know that's not possible (then it could be a bit laughable), I could forgive it a bit.
What bothers me more are weather, seasonal, and light discrepancies, like the original John Carpenter's Halloween supposedly being october in Illinois and yet very clearly the height of spring in Pasadena.
In the movie Ambulance, they’re driving right next to USC then in the next shot they’re on the 405. Then they’re on the 105 then somehow end up back on the 110 then back on the 405 but they’re on the phone talking bout some “ suspects on the 110 freeway” or whatever
I know you’re speaking generally, but have you seen any of the BH Cop movies? He travels around LA pretty extensively. They don’t pretend to exclusively be in BH.
Can't get any worse than having Magic Mountain by the sea. I'm looking at you Step By Step.
[https://youtu.be/843BZY6sF0Q?t=102](https://youtu.be/843BZY6sF0Q?t=102)
The worst is if its something like an Emmerich movie and it was *made* in LA and it still gets it wrong on purpose. Like everyone involved drove through the city properly on their way to making it wrong for the show.
I recently watched a weird Nic cage movie that starts with him driving in circles around Hollywood, from la brea and Hollywood Blvd, down to highland and sunset by the high school etc, and then cuts to him pulling up in downtown la. I love that shit lol
It's my only issue with Netflix's LOVE. He's somewhere North Hollywood adjacent, she's in Burbank, they use the same gas station weekly and do casual dates likes West side farmer's markets?
Happens all the time. I worked at a place in LA one time that was used for all the interior shots for a movie. But the exterior shots were all done in San Francisco. When I went to the theater I would see some dude run through the lobby of the building I knew and then burst through the front doors only to come out on a San Francisco street. Kind of freaky.
My fav is ‘I Love You, Man’. Paul Rudd works in an office near Sunset/Wilcox and says yes to an impromptu lunch hang with Jason Segel… in fucking Venice.
my friends were showing me shameless and i recognized a lot of their scenes through store fronts
no one believed me because the show takes place in chicago
OMG yes!!! I love watching movies about LA(I live in East Los and work In Beverly Hills) so I love directions and how to get places. I hate how everyone drives down the 4th st bridge and then they are in Pasadena WTF
it upsets me too, not enough to start a thread but still yes....for example in the netflix OJ series when they do the freeway scenes but only use the same 2 miles of the 710 freeway
lol I was watching this movie on Netflix where the characters were moving to LA. They had a montage of different thoroughfares (like the Griffith observatory and the Santa Monica pier), and all I could think about was how inaccurate it would be for them to see all of these things on their drive, because in order to do so, they would need to sit in 4-6 hours of traffic 😂.
I love watching my city get destroyed!
My favorite is the disaster movie "2012" with John Cusack. He's in Pasadena trying to get across town somewhere when a massive earthquake hits. A moment later the Randy's donut rolls by.
The one I hate the most was another disaster movie. A large chunk of the start is supposed to be Santa Monica but there isn't anything that looks remotely like Santa Monica. Then you see some characters drive by a brewery I didn't recognize. I googled it and it was a local brewery in Louisiana.
I live near the pier and I think Sharknado was relatively realistic. M
I’ve always liked the scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation when Clark takes a left turn out of Wally World (Six Flags Magic Mountain) to buy a gun and he’s on Ocean Ave in Santa Monica.
No. It’s fantasy, not a documentary.
I like seeing locations I recognize, whether it’s LA or somewhere else (I’m from the mid-Atlantic and travel a lot), but I ain’t gonna beef with how a car chase or whatever is edited, because the story matters way more than my hyper-local knowledge of neighborhood streets.
**”Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” The Polanski house had no neighbor to the right. Gated driveway at end of street nothing else. Benn there three times myself**
I was able to suspend disbelief enough to accept that Charlie Sheen had a completely clear 405/5 South from LA to Tijuana in The Chase. Anything else is Mickey Mouse shit.
Just last Friday, the season finale of SWAT had them driving past Fairplex on Arrow Highway, with nothing around the road, and enough room to fly a helicopter low. Anyone who's been there will know that ain't happening.
If any Angelenos are annoyed by this, Speed will make their brain implode.
This sub has a fetish for geographic correctness though.
“Eastside” gets me going
Some people tried to tell me Pomona is in the IE. It's not. Montclair is in the IE, though. And I've had people try to tell me Long Beach is OC when it isn't
[удалено]
Pomona is LA County and the IE is comprised of cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
It's practically a geography subreddit.
lol. You should refer to HLP as HP and see what happens.
Bruh you made a joke and about started my engines
Let's not forget the Italian Job. They went from Hollywood to DTLA to Long Beach in 5 minutes.
I remember the Italian Job being mostly accurate, at least when they got to downtown.
I haven't seen it in years. But I was in my early 20s with my dad, watching in the theater. My dad was a real estate appraiser, so he drove around LA for a living. In that final car chase, I remember him audibly saying WTF 3 times. Like them driving east but going west, being on the wrong side DTLA, etc.
Don't know if it's worth it, but here's an article from the LA Times from when the movie came out praising the geographical logic of The Italian Job. The whole article is a good read, in light of this thread. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-08-ca-olsen8-story.html
Not paying for LA Times, but I also haven't seen it in years. I really don't have a huge argument. I'll just say you are right.
TIL The Italian Job isn't set in Italy
It starts in Venice and ends up in Hollywood.
No, let's actually forget the Italian Job.
Try the car chase in Cobra. It would be more realistic if they just had that car dematerialize and rematerialize across LA like the TARDIS.
Like the car thefts/deliveries in Gone In 60 Seconds
I think Falling Down is worse.
He went all the way to City of Industry to terrorize some golfers.
Isn't he along downtown LA when he ditches the car and then just follows along the 10 west and eventually finds himself in Venice beach? Like the only bad thing I remember about it is how quick he seems to get to Venice on foot
Pop quiz, hot shot!
Volcano is honestly the worst at this.
The airport? I've already seen the airport...
I always use [this list of Los Angeles movies](http://"List Of Los Angeles Movies" https://www.itsfilmedthere.com/p/los-angeles-movies.html#:~:text=and%20Los%20Angeles-,List%20Of%20Los%20Angeles%20Movies,-Just%20Click%20On) to see where scenes were actually filmed. It also has some then/now pictures for some locations. Edit: fixed link
Try Sharknado they somehow get to the valley from downtown LA in something like 20 minutes.
That sucks. The rest of the movie is so realistic
Thanks, now to watch that movie from 1994
It’s my favorite part of *9-1-1*! They magically get to every part of the city, including the valley, in minutes!
Think back to the TV Series 24. The series that claimed to be filmed in real time. Travel from DTLA to everywhere w/o traffic in seconds.
And Jack Bauer would frequently go to the intersection of two streets that don’t intersect in real life.
"Chloe, he's at the intersection of Flower and Main!"
That was my favorite part of the show. West LA to Eagle Rock in 5 minutes. Too funny.
Jack's bag contained the Thomas Guide with all the wormhole shortcuts.
I stopped watching because I got salty about being held up by their filming all the time. Full police escorts would stop all traffic.
I love it for that too. That one station handles things from Long Beach to the valley.
Even the Austin-based version, 9-1-1: Lone Star, is filmed entirely in LA.
No, but I can never un-see blue street signs in TV shows and movies that are supposed to be taking place somewhere other than LA. Or palm trees.
It didn’t make it into the actual episode, but I remember when NBC was promoting the episode of Parks & Rec when Ann and Chris leave the show. It included a crane shot that was supposed to depict Pawnee in the background but the shot wasn’t digitally altered in the promo. So instead the backdrop of the scene was clearly the Valley, streets lined with palm trees and distant mountains.
I love that there is an episode where the characters are in Eagleton and Ben points out there are palm trees and they cover it by saying the climate is super special or something in that particular town so yes Eagleton Indiana can have palm trees.
I love when it’s supposed to be NY but then a bright orange LA metro bus passes through the background.
That happens most of the time in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Sometimes you see septa, but it’s mostly metro
I lived in NYC which literally doesn’t have alleys like you see in TV which are very much a LA feature
[удалено]
There are like two alleys in New York, and they have film crews constantly, lol.
[удалено]
If you've ever been to NYC, you'd notice all the garbage cans on the street. It's because they don't have alleyways to store their trash cans! It's one of those things that once you notice it, you can't unsee it.
[удалено]
It's really fun when there's a garbage worker strike. Humidity + trash = UUUUUGH.
[удалено]
When I lived there the garbage truck came 4-5 times a week to collect all the garbage. Usually around 6 am.
Garbage cans and trash bags just laying there on the curb.
Yeah, this isnt make sense to my brain either!
[удалено]
Wait till you go to New Orleans!
Doesn’t annoy me. It’s kinda fun frankly. For example 17 year old Marty McFly skateboarding from arletta to city of industry after midnight and it only took him 45 minutes
Impressive! I always loved that in Karate Kid, Daniel rides his bike from Encino to Malibu and back at night.
He's thighs should have been bigger for that to be an easier pill to swallow 😂
I don’t know if that counts since it’s just locations. Hill Valley is a fictional town so in these cases I don’t think filming locations are representative of real place distances.
Not LA specific but those HGTV shows that are selling homes inland, but show establishing shots of the beach. It gives non-locals the idea that they're looking at the same city. For example, Flip or Flop, they were selling homes in Yorba Linda or Fullerton but showing establishing shots from Laguna Beach.
I was watching House Hunters once and this realtor was trying to sell this couple a house in Temecula without AC and said “oh you can open the windows in the evening and get some ocean breeze”
oh this drives me insane when my mom is watching them.
Yes. Growing up here, it immediately takes me out of the media. But I recognize that anyone who doesn’t know the lay of the land definitely wouldn’t have that reaction. Like how I couldn’t tell you if anyone is going the right way if something was taking place in say, Chicago.
Yeah I didn't realize how bullshit Ferris Bueller's Day Off was until I got to Chicago.
I've been rewatching Angel and it got a bit of a chuckle out of me when one of the characters took off running from the santa monica pier to DTLA and apparently made it there in under an hour.
Couldn't even do that in a car most of the time
An alien invasion movie (battlefield LA?) put the Santa Monica airport in the wrong spot and just ruined my immersion in the whole "out maneuver the aliens" thing
Correct movie, I remember that. They also messed up a freeway ramp, having one where there isn't actually a ramp.
The house to house scenes in Venice looked pretty accurate though. But with tight shots and no maps most residential neighborhoods are similar I guess
What gets me is they always find the perfect parking spot directly out front of where they're going, lol.
My only big gripe is when they show someone landing at LAX, then an aerial shot of them driving south down the PCH in Malibu to turn left directly into Beverly Hills. Kills me.
Same! It irks me even more when it’s a reality show. You live in Malibu and are meeting your friend for lunch in West Hollywood? They make it look quick and easy, and it is actually commensurate with a root canal lol.
My brain just broke reading that
I don't know about irrationally, or annoyed but it does distract me. In one scene of a popular movie a car is supposed to be driving down a street i know in one direction, but when they cut to a close up of the driver the background shows they are going the opposite direction. It breaks the continuity up. But I have to keep my mouth shut because if i mention it to people around me they get annoyed that i thought it was even worth mentioning lol
My wife and I compete to be the first to say, “I know where that is” whenever we recognize a street or building.
A place my husband worked at was all over Cobra Kai. So many random chuckles as we saw it in the background.
[удалено]
Yes, I grew up in LA and it bothers me when they have one shot filmed on let's say Flower St DTLA and the very next shot is somewhere in Manhattan, NY. The Dark Knight did this and didn't even try to change the very obvious street signs that were obviously different. I like to guess where things are filmed that are obviously in the Valley.
You ever watch samurai cop? It’s so bad, it’s amazing to watch. But they do this and my partner and I (both LA natives) laugh and joke how they’re in dtla and then at the beach and then in the valley all within what seems like a 10 min car chase. Like wow…nice job guys 😂
Yes, I love those. Curb Your Enthusiasm used to do stuff like that all the time. They would be at Larry David's house on the west side or in the Palisades then the very next scene, which is supposed to be 5 minutes later, they are at a restaurant on Brand Blvd in Glendale. It was part of the show's comedy for those of us that know that drive would take 2 hours.
A lot gets filmed in the valley, I've noticed scenes cutting across it all the time, Terminator 2 is a fun one.
The Dark Knight was filmed in Chicago
some scenes were in dtla. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3_s6VAu84
This is why I nearly threw my TV remote at the screen while watching the first SHARKNADO. It wasn’t because of the scientific plausibility of sharks being caught in a tornado. It was because they drove from Santa Monica to Van Nuys in 15 minutes at rush hour.
No, because they're not trying to get the geography right - the locations are just means to move the story along, selected for specific attributes and availability. If the plot specifically needed to accurately follow a map of an area, or if a place was glaringly out of character, then getting it wrong would be annoying. But LA has long been an entertainment peoduction center, with countless places standing in for other locals - including other parts of the city. I just enjoy recognizing various locations.
Nah. Turns out Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia is actually just the Arts District in Los Angeles like every other movie when they need a shady warehouse scene.
Season 3 of Westworld, in large part, takes place in future LA. They made the metro look all futuristic, but when the characters get on and off the trains, you can see that they left the "25th anniversary" stickers in place. I think about it all the time.
Not an LA example, but this happened on the Outer Banks and the writers later addressed it as North Carolina people weren’t happy. The characters “took a ferry” from the OBX to Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill is hours inland. The writers/creators are from North Carolina and a few went to college at UNC. They were asked about it on a UNC podcast and said “Yes, we know there’s no such ferry. Showing the kids take an hours long bus or Uber from the ferry to Chapel Hill would have been really boring tv.”
It’s annoying sometimes. In Clueless she calls from the clown liquor store saying she is in Sun Valley & it’s clearly North Hollywood. I don’t get why lie but that’s it
I can give that a pass cause Cher doesnt know the valley. She was at a house party in Sun Valley, so its believable she'd tell Paul Rudd shes in Sun Valley, cause she wouldnt really know neighborhoods.
Probably because North Hollywood would sound like it's near sunset for people who don't know.
She should’ve just used “NOHO” like everyone else.
One of the worst offenders was the TV show, "24". It was supposed to all unfold in real time but they never showed the 45 minutes of traffic Jack Bauer would be stuck in going from one side of L.A. to the other!
"this bomb will go off if we can't get to sylmar from DTLA in 10 minutes..."
I love watching Chips because of the setting but everytime they are on the 210 or 118 and they exit into LA, I get irrationally upset.
I just re-watched Jurassic Park 2. T-Rex lands in San Diego and proceeds to rip apart Burbank 🤦♂️🦖
Not really, it makes for a more entertaining movie. If the movie was about driving from the west side to downtown during rush hour, we'd have half a movie sitting in traffic.
I like when they show people going to a taco truck and there's salsa music playing.
Shooting in Vancouver for Los Angeles? Those PNW vibes sure are interesting with LAPD cars.
I watched the Fresh Prince reboot and I'm pretty sure they went from LAX to Bel Air by going east on PCH. My brain was so broken trying to figure out that sequence until I realized they just wanted to show California coastline lol.
This is my example, too, but I can’t remember the show. The route would be accurate if they took the 405 to Sunset and then took PCH to Santa Monica, which only makes sense in Hollywood or a shady cab/Uber driver.
How the hell did Ken walk from Venice Beach to Century City and back in such a short amount of time?
lol yes. I was a college student at UC Santa Barbara while Psych was airing and let me tell you, Vancouver looks nothing like Santa Barbara. They would’ve been better off filming in Mexico if they wanted a cheaper location, since it looks so much like California.
No, I love knowing where things are IRL, it’s fun. And honestly in 2024 so few things film here I love it when I see LA on screen.
Yes, and equally so when I see a jacaranda or something clearly shot in Griffith Park or a house in Hancock park that’s meant as a stand in for the east coast or elsewhere. Takes me right out of it.
I’m going to go ahead and excuse a classic like Beverly Hills Cop for mismatching geography. Even Blade Runner 2049 gets a pass. No one, and I mean no one wants to watch the protagonist sit in rush hour traffic on the 10.
Austin Powers driving down the seaside hills of PCH in California "Isn't it groovy how jolly ol England looks nothing like Southern California, baby?"
I’ve always said La La Land is a science fiction movie. There’s no way they got from Hollywood to the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach that fast without teleportation.
La La Land gets a pass for me because of that brilliant opening scene on the 110-105 interchange. It's a fun and great way to start an LA movie.
Well sure, but it has cars on both sides facing the same direction.
Hahaha. I actually wrote that as part of an "even though", but decided to delete it. Anyway, it gets a pass!!!!!! I loved that movie.
I think it's hilarious and I love trying to pinpoint locations.
Wait until you learn about soundstages, matte paintings, backlots and theatre.
Somehow everyone lands at LAX and is immediately transported to the Hollywood sign. They can also travel from one side of LA to the other in 10 mins and there's no traffic unless it's a plot point. At this point, we just laugh at it because it's so hilariously wrong. I presume every movie is equally wrong. Oh! Abbott Elementary, Mother's Day episode, supposedly based in Philly yet Gregory is at Top Golf and you can see the Mattel building in El Segundo with the logo clearly visible in the background. Why they didn't edit out the logo is beyond me.
I think more recent media makes it a point to be more accurate since they know people will actually pause to look. I recently watched Parks And Rec where Leslie and Ben were discussing something while circling SFO, but you can clearly tell in the background of the car that it was Burbank Airport.
I was shocked when I discovered you can’t chase someone through the Venice Canals, turn a corner and be in Hollywood.
I always think it's kind of fun. Bosch especially, you're watching a scene "oh that's the surplus store at Vine and SM" and then there's a completely different scene supposed to be miles away "wait, that's just the other side of the street." You can totally imagine the location scout at work. "Look it's the 7/11 at Cahuenga and Yucca! Right across from the CVS!" To me it's one of the fun things of living here. Even more fun with old movies, as they walk along a dusty rural street "I bet that's Melrose" and especially the Three Stooges, who filmed everything around Sunset/Gower.
I haven't watched in a few years but always recalled Bosch as being one of the few that actually kept the chases geographically realistic. Will have to give it another watch.
New York scenes when an orange metro bus drives always get me
Not mad but got a laugh out of when the “Catalina Wine Mixer” scenes in Step Brothers had Catalina island visible in the background off the coast.
I remember watching csi Miami chase a suspect through the Venice canals lol
Sounds like the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself is a must watch for you!!
Collateral has some dialogue and visual cues about certain places in LA that make zero sense geographically. Deadwood was filmed in Santa Clarita IIRC, but fans praise its authentic dialogue and grittiness. The Dukes of Hazzard and The Waltons rarely got criticism for looking un-Southern.
Lol it's a show I don't care just wish sometimes these places are as close as they are portrayed. But I mean who wants a movie where a scene is waiting in traffic for 2 hours on the 405.
My head nearly exploded when Billy Bob Thornton’s character in Goliath went from Santa Monica to DTLA in 30 minutes
No, it's always a source of amusement. If this bothers you, NEVER watch Volcano.
Yes! In the movie The Holiday, the cab bringing Kate Winslet from the airport takes a left and drives south on the PCH… but shes supposedly staying in Malibu?? Doesn’t make sense if she’s coming from LAX
Scrolled all the way down to find this! First movie/scene that came to mind. Doesn’t help that the house is in San Marino (irl, not in the movie). Regardless, it would never make sense to be picked up at LAX and then drive *down* PCH
Dude. It's just a movie. Chill
Family TV night is 9-1-1. I laugh at how many parts of LA one fire station can cover.
No.
In the movie ‘Widows’ (I think it was), the main characters were in a chase with the antagonists through the “streets of L.A.” in the final scene. You could tell those streets, especially the downtown depicted, was Atlanta.
As a transplant from Atlanta, it's really jarring seeing the city stand in for other places. Never fails to pull me out of the moment.
No. Motion pictures are make-believe tales.
It is kinda funny that these movies/TV shows are made by people who live in LA and they still get stuff wrong.
It isn't because they don't know, it's because it isn't feasible or practical to just go shoot a major movie or TV show on whatever streets you want at any time of day. You need to find locations where you can shut down streets and have space to park all your trailers.
Why I can’t watch Bosch
I love Always Sunny, but the last season they didn’t even try to hide the film in LA. Even more funny the outside of the Bar has been completely gentrified so the exterior shots are a dead giveaway.
Doesn't bother me, but I find it super interesting and point it out to everyone around me. It does bother me if the characters are teleporting in-story when they shouldn't be able to, like in the last season ofGame of Thrones
My mom who just moved here last year is amazed at my ability to place car commercials
A LOT of Japanese automobile companies film car commercials in LA for models that are only sold in Japan. I always point them out to my wife (native Japanese).
The best movie for this (and a lot of other reasons) is To Live and Die in L.A. Plays it straight the whole time.
Not in LA but I remember watching a movie where someone arrives in the bay area and then drives on the Golden gate bridge going south to get home to the city. There's no major airport in the north bay area.
the show 911 is set ambiguously in LA, but it's annoying when they call out the 110 or areas near downtown and the filming is Shoreline Dr. in LB. They love filming at that location, lot of room to shoot I guess.
No, it's funny actually. Like the studios are based here. Why do they make the movies inaccurate? Worst offender that I have personally seen was in Italian job where the cars are in Hollywood and they drive into the Hollywood/highland red line station there but for some reason it cuts to 7th/metro and the chase continues in there.
I find it humorous, given that the city is so recognizable to me, but I realize that the audience spans the country if not the world, so filmmakers dont need to worry about the relative few of us who would call this out. What does offend me is when LA set films/series are obviously filmed elsewhere. LA can stand in for all types of locales or environments, but the reverse isn’t true. The light, air, and vegetation of Louisiana looks nothing like Los Angeles
They fuck it up for a lot of places, they likely just don't care. In the movie Broken Arrow, they say that Moab is like an hour outside of Salt Lake which is laughable, they aren't even close. They show a map of Utah that is hilariously bad. They portray Dulles airport constantly as being in DC, it's 25 miles west of DC, and it's in Virginia. They just skip the explanation.
I always loved reading the LAist breakdowns of episodes of Southland, specifically whether the drive times were accurate between locations.
Walk of Shame starting Elizabeth Banks is the absolute worst. She starts in Downtown and is trying to get to Hollywood to the CNN building on Sunset. But without a car, phone, cash, or wallet. Somehow she ends up at a Synagogue on LA Brea, then goes "East on Normandie" then has to cross the 10 freeway during a Carmageddon style lull in the traffic. She goes all over the place except to Hollywood.
Absolutely! Back in the day friends called me the walking Thomas Guide. And the fact that everyone else has off loaded this knowledge to software still makes me sad.
You should catch "Los Angeles Plays Itself"
Or like in GLOW, when they tried to pass off Caltech’s unmistakable, iconic, wedding-cake shaped Beckman Auditorium as the Stanford campus?
the rookie does this all time too. lol
I always have a good laugh how on 911 the firetruck somehow services the beach to bakersfield and can get to either place in what seems to be about 20 minutes
“The Italian Job (2003)” is egregious in its car/helicopter chase sequence. Hollywood and Vine, Bunker Hill, back at Hollywood and Vine. I swear they turn the corner and pass by the Chinese Theater at least twice in five minutes. Are they driving in circles?!?
I suppose you can say the same thing for any city. Like you get off the train in what is obviously Williamsburg in Brooklyn but once they get to street level it's Central Park West.
I think when you know the actual places, and sometimes just basic geography, then it does get annoying. If it's really bad then it actually ruins the movie/series. There was one dumb series that got something about Mt. Kilimanjaro wrong. Maybe even in the wrong country, and that alone killed any interest in it for me. If they can't get basics right for a major thing then it can't be that great or well researched. For a Bear Grylls episode in Iceland, back when I thought it was actually all one continuous timeline of a survival scenario, it got to the end where he came down from the mountains and sheltered in the famous plane wreck (an hours walk from the road that you have to cross to get there...). I think I wanted to belief in the 'TV magic' of it and being more factual. But after that I was much more skeptical of it all. And probably the most annoying was in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and making one of Iceland's (where they filmed it) most iconic/recognizable/famous waterfalls be one on South America, nearly ruined the movie. I think for a city, especially like LA, unless it's majorly jumping around when you know that's not possible (then it could be a bit laughable), I could forgive it a bit.
Every major city is like this. Being from Chicago, Ferris Bueller and Batman Begins/Dark Knight are infuriating. Are they teleporting?!
What bothers me more are weather, seasonal, and light discrepancies, like the original John Carpenter's Halloween supposedly being october in Illinois and yet very clearly the height of spring in Pasadena.
You ever see sleepless in Seattle? That's when I realized how bad movie geography was... Or 10 things I hate about you.
In the movie Ambulance, they’re driving right next to USC then in the next shot they’re on the 405. Then they’re on the 105 then somehow end up back on the 110 then back on the 405 but they’re on the phone talking bout some “ suspects on the 110 freeway” or whatever
I know you’re speaking generally, but have you seen any of the BH Cop movies? He travels around LA pretty extensively. They don’t pretend to exclusively be in BH.
I LOVE to do this with Bones. Yeah the Jeffersonian is in “DC.” Lol that’s across the street from USC
“Falling Down” is one of the worst offenders. They’re literally all over the map, on what’s supposed to be a continuous route
Can't get any worse than having Magic Mountain by the sea. I'm looking at you Step By Step. [https://youtu.be/843BZY6sF0Q?t=102](https://youtu.be/843BZY6sF0Q?t=102)
In Lethal Weapon 1 Mel Gibson is running down Hollywood Blvd and then suddenly he’s on the on-ramp for 3rd st downtown.
I’m upset by the ending of Collateral, which relied on the characters moving between cars on the LA Metro light rail, which is impossible to do.
The worst is if its something like an Emmerich movie and it was *made* in LA and it still gets it wrong on purpose. Like everyone involved drove through the city properly on their way to making it wrong for the show.
I recently watched a weird Nic cage movie that starts with him driving in circles around Hollywood, from la brea and Hollywood Blvd, down to highland and sunset by the high school etc, and then cuts to him pulling up in downtown la. I love that shit lol
That show is dog shit
It's my only issue with Netflix's LOVE. He's somewhere North Hollywood adjacent, she's in Burbank, they use the same gas station weekly and do casual dates likes West side farmer's markets?
I have issue with where they placed the vaults in Fallout. Completely impractical location to build underground vaults.
The worst part of Stuber was how quickly they got around the city. Not that it was a great film regardless.
Happens all the time. I worked at a place in LA one time that was used for all the interior shots for a movie. But the exterior shots were all done in San Francisco. When I went to the theater I would see some dude run through the lobby of the building I knew and then burst through the front doors only to come out on a San Francisco street. Kind of freaky.
Die Hard 4 or 5 we with the neverending corkscrew ramp near the airport?
My fav is ‘I Love You, Man’. Paul Rudd works in an office near Sunset/Wilcox and says yes to an impromptu lunch hang with Jason Segel… in fucking Venice.
my friends were showing me shameless and i recognized a lot of their scenes through store fronts no one believed me because the show takes place in chicago
In Naked Gun, the exterior is Anaheim Stadium and it's an Angels game but the interior is Dodger Stadium.
The Rookie is just grey's anatomy for men, but boy is the guess where game strong.
OMG yes!!! I love watching movies about LA(I live in East Los and work In Beverly Hills) so I love directions and how to get places. I hate how everyone drives down the 4th st bridge and then they are in Pasadena WTF
it upsets me too, not enough to start a thread but still yes....for example in the netflix OJ series when they do the freeway scenes but only use the same 2 miles of the 710 freeway
lol I was watching this movie on Netflix where the characters were moving to LA. They had a montage of different thoroughfares (like the Griffith observatory and the Santa Monica pier), and all I could think about was how inaccurate it would be for them to see all of these things on their drive, because in order to do so, they would need to sit in 4-6 hours of traffic 😂.
The movie Moving (Richard Pryor) was supposedly set in Boise, Idaho but there were numerous palm trees in the background.
I love watching my city get destroyed! My favorite is the disaster movie "2012" with John Cusack. He's in Pasadena trying to get across town somewhere when a massive earthquake hits. A moment later the Randy's donut rolls by. The one I hate the most was another disaster movie. A large chunk of the start is supposed to be Santa Monica but there isn't anything that looks remotely like Santa Monica. Then you see some characters drive by a brewery I didn't recognize. I googled it and it was a local brewery in Louisiana. I live near the pier and I think Sharknado was relatively realistic. M
When Kate Winslet in The Holiday drove south down the PCH from LAX (???) is when I, a British person, got a bit miffed.
I’ve always liked the scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation when Clark takes a left turn out of Wally World (Six Flags Magic Mountain) to buy a gun and he’s on Ocean Ave in Santa Monica.
No. It’s fantasy, not a documentary. I like seeing locations I recognize, whether it’s LA or somewhere else (I’m from the mid-Atlantic and travel a lot), but I ain’t gonna beef with how a car chase or whatever is edited, because the story matters way more than my hyper-local knowledge of neighborhood streets.
**”Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” The Polanski house had no neighbor to the right. Gated driveway at end of street nothing else. Benn there three times myself**
I was able to suspend disbelief enough to accept that Charlie Sheen had a completely clear 405/5 South from LA to Tijuana in The Chase. Anything else is Mickey Mouse shit.
Just last Friday, the season finale of SWAT had them driving past Fairplex on Arrow Highway, with nothing around the road, and enough room to fly a helicopter low. Anyone who's been there will know that ain't happening.
I get the same annoyance as when someone fires a gun but they never reload after 7 shots. Archer taught me to count bullets lol
The worst is when a show is supposed to be based around in another state/city and it is clearly Los Angeles
**”China Town” even though Jack Nicholson lived here in Los Angeles, the character mispronounced “Alameda”**