When a review refers to every character in a movie by the name of the actor playing them

Myrmidon

This makes it harder for me to understand sometimes, because I feel like I'm expected to know who the actors are at all times.

Nyktos

Man.

I remember making this thread on the original IJBM.

Naas_Human

It's not too much of a problem if the review tells you which actor plays which character, though. But I guess it is annoying, in a "need to better separate fantasy from reality" kind of way... maybe?

Stormtroper

Yeah. Remembering celebrities' names is hard enough.

glennmagusharvey

I wonder if this is something that's more appreciated outside of show-analyzing fans like us, who might be more interested in the celebrities for celebrity gossip's sake and are sometimes interested in certain productions only because of interest in particular actors.

TheConductor

Eeeh, it makes sense really. A good movie review should be talking about (among other things) the actor's performances so they should be referred to as their real names. 

Noimporta

It usually depends on whether the actor or the character is more memorable. For popcorn flicks with big name actors, it's usually the former.

Nyktos

@TheConductor: I don't see any reason why they can't use the character names when talking about the plot and the actor names when talking about the actors though?

Bee

I'll be honest, I don't really bother remembering the name of certain actors' characters while I'm watching them.  Unless he's Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford is Harrison Motherfucking Ford.

Noimporta

And Han Solo.

Stormtroper

In my mind, Indiana Jones is played by Han Solo.

Myrmidon

Yeah, but when they are talking about what their characters are doing it's weird. Like "And then Stellan Skarsgård says such and such to Leelee Sobieski and then they drive to so and so" or something. No it's their characters doing that.

It's okay if it's "and Robin William plays this part as so and so even though he is clearly supposed to play it as such and such"

MillerCross

As Noimporta said, it really depends on the movie being discussed. There's almost no point in learning the name of whatever character bruce willis is playing when they are all a white big burly 40 year old who acts suspiciously like john mcclane.