Tiresome/stale movie cliches

Whenever the main character makes up his mind about romancing someone, that someone leaves for France or some other faraway destination a day, 12 hours, or 3 hours early.

 

Every time a character goes into a grocery store-the shelves have everything fronted up just perfect-row after row after row.

When a quiet scene changes using a bird or flock of birds FLAPPING LOUDLY as the transition between scenes. I call them Turbo Birds.

And awful Southern accents used by a Yankee or foreign actors.

 

I do not like those awful Southern accents

 

The villian, or one of the villians, isn't really dead at the end of the film, and arises to threaten our hero(es) one last time before he or she's gunned down for good, so the audience can vicariously enjoy killing him or her twice: see FATAL ATTRACTION, LETHAL WEAPON, DIE HARD, etc.

 

And every car destroyed on that show was usually a 1960s or early 1970s American car ... I can't recall every seeing a Japanese or European car rolled or smashed.

This is still true, in a lot of newer TV shows and movies, too. I can usually figure when I see a big old American car (usually in mint condition! ) in a movie, it's bound to be wrecked by the end, or flying up in the air when it explodes!

 

How about the rogue cop who knows what's really going on in a certain case, but the hard-headed police chief won't listen, and even orders him off the case, or demands he turn in his badge and gun? Of course, the hero defies orders and continues to work the case anyway, until it's solved.

A variation on the theme is the rogue scientist who nobody will listen to, until it's too late--see, for example, The Day After Tomorrow.

 

No matter what kind of computer system you use (from Jurassic Park's UNIX control system to ID4's extra-terrestrial computer remote - controlled by an Apple Macintosh) someone is bound to guess the passwords with a few clicks (Jurassic Park "I know UNIX" ) or do whatever he / she wants with it.

 

And then he has to chase her onto the vehicle: ie, jumping off a dock into a harbor and swimming after a ship in a ludicruous display of foolishness and impending pneumonia; or, in a chilling portrayal of lax airport security, dashing onto a plane without a boarding pass or displaying proper identification. Such acts of near-terrorism are apparently quite attractive qualities in a man.


Computer "hackers" in movies are never content with just a monitor, keyboard/mouse, and text. Inefficient and complex graphical displays on multiple linked monitor systems is the norm.

Indeed- I believe this imagery is partly reponsible for the continued propogation of pseudo-scientific quackery, allowing any nut/crook to sell his propoganda by playing the victim and claiming that evil mainstream science isn't allowing him/her to express those ridiculous theories.


Super-villains are always British.

 

Guys, some of your complaints/observations are valid, but others are simply part of dramatic conventions going back to Homer (of Greece, not Springfield).

 

Every Asian guy knows martial arts.

I am such a non-conformist.

 

I'm not complaining. I watch and enjoy these movies, just like everyone else.


Another one: the evil people may be smart, superior, better skilled and equipped, but they lost because they don't have "heart," or some other intangible qualities.

 

It's absolutely true. It reflects. We watered down the streets for the night shots on the movie I'm working on now, "Grilled." Sometimes it's REALLY obvious like the MTV-blurb joke in "Naked Gun" at the end of the "Something Good" video... It almost looks like he's going to slip when he clicks his heels! Also they do it to dirt roads during the day. Looks better and prevents the dust from flying into the shot.

JEFF!

 

I actually thought about developing a movie called "Cliche" about a guy whose life is governed by movie cliches, but then I figured it would work best as a short. And of course, it would include a big celebrity cameo where he plays against type as a favor to the director.

JEFF!

 

I can't believe no one's mentioned it (or maybe I just missed it), but how 'bout that the bad guys are always lousy shots (even when they're presumably trained gunmen) while the good guys (who've often never held a gun before) are crack shots. Take Star Wars for instance...

 

These days it seems as if a director simply can't help himself (or herself, although it's maybe less likely in this example.....) in the editing suite when it comes to explosions. Seeing as lots of effort went into getting the same explosion taken from every angle simultaneously with a bunch of cameras they just can't resist playing each different shot of the same event one after the other .

 

Or there's at least 4 guys standing around with guns waiting to have the crap beat out of them by the star instead of shooting.

 

A classic cliche from the old George Reeves days of Superman.....they'd shoot him till the bullets ran out, then throw the gun at him! If the friggin bullets won't hurt him, what's THAT gonna do? I think I saw that quite a few times too!

 

Once the hero is caught, they keep him in a locked room to be "killed later". Of course, he always escapes.

Another thing, whenever there is a movie set in the past, EVERY car that they use is STONE MINT! There were never any old, rusted, dinged up cars in the past!

 

That's to avoid confusing the audience or introducing clumsy methods of translation. The Star Trek writers who originally were the largest offenders were well aware that it's not realistic. It's covered in the original show's writer's guide.

The Hunt for Red October dealt with this quite effectively, I thought. (In the sense of multiple languages, not alien life forms.)

 

The grocery bag thing is typical. At one time there was always celery or carrots with the ends on them sticking out of a grocery bag. Then in the 80-90s it changed to a baguette.

 

Man, you are so right on that one. It's just stupid.