Movie short-cuts

In films nothing can be allowed to slow down the action, says Larry Williams in The LA Times. But sometimes movie short-cuts are just too clumsy.

When the customer pays for the beer, he never wants any change. I'm not talking about leaving it on the bar but pointedly refusing to take it: "Keep the change." That phrase is all over the movies, for it eliminates change-making, which might slow down the story for 10 seconds. For me, the story stops when a guy tells a 7-Eleven cashier to keep the change.

That is the problem with movie shortcuts. Sometimes they're so glaring that they snap you out of immersion in the movie. That happens to me whenever a driver in a car chase looks over his shoulder at his pursuer. Why is he not looking in his rear-view mirror?