Goofs : All time greatest clichés part 2

with the first thread being closed for some reason http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000004/thread/49923 and being unbelievably long I'm starting it up again. I credit the original thread the poster by the name of Good-Will.
edited: looks like they eliminated the thread.

I'll start it out with the definition of cliché:
–noun 1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.
2. (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.
3. anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.
4. British Printing. a. a stereotype or electrotype plate.
b. a reproduction made in a like manner.

–adjective 5. trite; hackneyed; stereotyped; clichéd.

So if you've noticed something in a movie that has been used, abused, and over used please add to the list.

I'll start it out with something I call Time passage measured by facial growth. This device is used to show how much time has passed by measuring the growth of beard and/or mustache. The growth usually doesn't last very long passed the initial scene with the character in it. It is a favorite used by television shows. It can be used with females and a new hairstyle but less successfully.

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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If the police investigate a strip club, a woman has to go in undercover as a stripper. Not a patron, batender or waitress, but a stripper.
For that matter, no lead who strips in a movie is really a stripper. (In older movies, they would proudly be a stripper, but not strip.)
In the older list, someone wrote high schools only teach American History or Literature. The hero teachers teach these subjects in costume.

The exact bit of information pops up even when the search would return 999,999,999 matches.

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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If people are writing something they will always narrate what they're writing for the benefit of the audience

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

nobody ever says goodbye when they're finished talking on their cell phone.
instead, they close the phone after they've barely finished a sentence, get a determined look on there face and walk off like they're on an important mission, even if they're not.

TEAM HENRY =]
- youtube

OMG the show "Life" (which i liked a lot) everyone always hung up on each other!! Ever since then I've noticed that exact same thing you described. :D

I eat.

This happens in all war movies - A chopper mows down perfectly lined enemies running towards the chopper, with dirt splashing up just in front of the enemies. If dirt shot up, didn't the bullet miss? 7.62 rounds aren't grenades.

In future movies when people fire lasers, why is there recoil?

And finally, computers making stupid cartoon sounds in movies when characters are trying to do something serious on the computer completely ruins the mood. If computers all beeped or chirped when we hit a key or switched internet sites, Dell would be bankrupt.

The computer making the ol' "beep-poop-deep" sounds is something that drives me bonkers. I know why the sound editor does it, but it is a ridiculous reason. "ZOMG we can't have silence ever!!!! Music must play at all times and we must have SFX at all times otherwise our narcoleptic audience will instantly fall asleep!"

I eat.

Every tech who ever fixed a problem with my computer did so with a combination of right-left clicks of the mouse - and *maybe* tapped five or six keys. On screen, hackers/computer geniuses clatter away furiously on the keyboard, with no mouse in sight. And I do mean CLATTER. Loudly.

When two males fight over something and a female is present the woman reduces the argument snidely down to testosterone poisoning.

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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If a movie is about how great the FBI are then the locals cops they take over from are a bunch of bumbling idiots who know nothing, however if it's being told from the locals point of view then the FBI are a bunch of ego-maniacs who have high-tech stuff but don't know how to deal with people.

Once I would like to see actual realistic portrayal of two police forces -- no, they don't have to get along but don't make one force look like a charicature.


I'm sure this has been mentioned:

when the man and the woman hate each other they will end up having sex right after the building blows up or the exhausting car chase is over........

along with the computer popping up the exact right info when you need it, bad guys turn on the news to the exact info they need then flip off the TV, phones ring 1 1/2 times-- (this one I don't mind cause I don't want to be annoyed by a phone in a movie either)

Someone else mentioned ( a long time ago, on a thread far far away) that if any character coughs in a movie they will have a terminal illness.

all knives/swords make that metal on metal sound regardless of whether it was touching any other metal.




it's possible

along the lines of someone coughing having cancer cliché there is the cliché if a woman pukes she's pregnant.

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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or water breaking at an inconvienient time. but that is mostly on T.V., but i read somewhere that not all pregnant women even have their water break, or in such a dramatic way.

And when a woman goes into labor it is always the quickest labbor in history. It's always so quick that there's no time to get to the hospital or get out of whatever location they're in. About the only exception I've seen to this is on Murphy Brown where she was in labor for hours and hours. But usually you never see anyone spend hours in labor

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

And if a pregnant character so much as falls three inches from a beanbag chair onto thick carpeting, she *will* have a miscarriage. Of the heir to the throne, or in some other way change the course of the story.

not only in movies haha

In any movie involving the removal of a bullet from someone, no matter what the location may be - the safety of a hospital, or an emergency situation in a battlefront foxhole or desert sand dune, etc. - right after they pull it out you hear a loud "CLANK!" because magically someone always provides the guy removing it with a heavy duty metal bowl.

But very oddly, no medical journal in the world has ever mentioned that there must be a large metal bowl on hand in order to properly remove a bullet from any wounded patient. Go figure!

That's an interesting one. Especially the metal bowl. Like Greys Anatomy for instance of course does the same. Always that loud clank

That's the point, those movies should not be made. They are all stupid cliche action movies.

The high school basketball/baseball/football team full of rebellious athletes gets a new coach whom they initially hate. But then they all bond and the team wins the tournament.

My 2006 pick for best flick:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/

It's been done a million times in disaster movies. There is a earthquake or a tidal wave or a swarm of killer bees or well, you get the idea. The hero goes to the man in charge who laughs at the absurdity of the warning. The man in charge doesn't want to cause a panic or lose money so he blows off the warning and people die. The hero comes up with a wacky idea that nobody thinks will work and saves the day.

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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Classic examples: "EarthQuake", "The Towering Inferno", "The Posiden Adventure", just to name a few.

The car/helicopter/motorcycle/bicycle/ship/dirtbike/paper bag/ microwave oven/cell phone or whatever always blows up right after the hero gets out of it or away from it. So dramatic!!

Let's not forget the massive fires caused by explosions in space.

Isn't Oxygen part of the fire triangle?????????

8-)

Fun topic Ceer!!!

"Regular" fires are. But oxygen is only one kind of fuel. Guns, bombs, missles, etc. all work in space because they have there own airtight fuel/detonation source. Also, what do you think our star is? It is a fusion explosion... of fire.

I eat.

The Hollywood writers strike should last forever and they should just go away forever. Their lame excuse for being so grossly unoriginal over the last few decades is always "there are only five main film plots, anyway" - which is total baloney!

That's funny, since from 1930 to 1970 they sure had no problem coming up with many more than "five main plots" !!!

Today's writers are just hacks, that's all.

Meanwhile, a recent cliche has been the awful Bowling Pin Choreography used in everything from MTV videos to bad teen prom flicks. None of them can really dance, but they've obviously had some weak form of training, which is even worse then letting them dance naturally. A certain song plays at some party, and boom - everyone suddenly falls into place and starts doing the Bowling Pin bit, copying each others' bad Bob Fosse moves in an overly-rehearsed looking way. Yuck!

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The man in charge doesn't want to cause a panic or lose money so he blows off the warning and people die.

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Don't forget: The man in charge always leaves the hero to take the blame for those people dying due to his ignoring the hero's warning. After all, he doesn't want to lose the next election.

Don't you just love the military always being portrayed as mindless automatons — unable to act without orders even with all communications lines cut and the monster-or-disaster coming right toward them?

And then there's the wannabe-hero: "Those three cannons couldn't kill the monster but I think I can kill it with my handgun if I can just get close enough."

(I like your signature, btw. Reminds me that Halloween = Christmas.)


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"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things,"
Of atoms, stars and nebulæ, of entropy and genes.
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I wonder if the slapping is procedure. Any ambulance drivers out there?

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There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those that don't.

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haha im not an ambulance driver, bu ti think it's like saying ok, door's shut, ready to go..sorta thing

ox.katie
Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song.

I was an EMT like 30 years ago. There were always two people in the crew, a driver and an attendant who rode in the back with the victim. We had communication between each other through an open door or window (depending on whether the ambulance was a van or a truck type. It's been a while, but I don't ever remember a slap on the door. The driver was usually aware if the attendant was busy (checking vitals, etc) and would wait for him/her to say the word to go.

In a movie when a smart, kind of cool teacher starts a new job at a high-school in a really poor, rough neighbourhood full of gang-bangers (a cliche in itself) they think they can change the lives of all the troubled students in their class, usually through literature, and actually do start to make a difference and change the way these gangsters think about their lives, but the worst bad-ass in the class always gets whacked just when he's starting to turn his life around for the better.

People who shag in horror movies almost always get killed.

Quite often when a bad guy is about to 'off' the hero of the film, he/she is out of bullets.


I love lamp.

Here's one. No matter how large and well-armed the man is, he will always be beaten by the tiny, unarmed female. EVERY SINGLE TIME! And in passing, in film, every time a man makes a suggestive, or smart aleck comment to a woman, this entitles her to kick him in the gonads. No one ever questions this, but I DON'T think it happens around the water cooler NEARLY as often as on film.

There are so many! Here are just a few off the top of my head:
I get peeved when I see groceries being carried in and there is a baguette sticking out of the bag.
I also never eat Chinese food out of paper containers but everyone in TV and movies do.
Cars speeding down an alley always seem to crash into stacked boxes which seem to be empty.
People who land in dumpsters don't get hurt and never land on a piece of lumber or an old chair.
People will drive great distances looking at their passenger without getting in an accident (try this sometime!)
A well aimed punch or blow to the back of the head will knock someone out (try this sometime!)
If a hero is taught how to operate a piece of heavy machinery at the start of a film, the same equipment will be used to fight an enemy.
People who don't say hello or goodbye when using the phone in action movies and TV shows.

One more...If a womaan has been victimized throughout a film an dfinally gets a weapon aimed at the bad guy...she will always warn him to not come any closer or otherwise talk to him instead of just immediatly shooting him.

I just love spinning newspaper headlines, used to convey information.
Likewise, the close-up of the headline on the top of the bundle of papers just thrown off the truck.
Also running out of bullets and throwing the gun at your adversary.
Violins playing those little scale passages to portray a big city, while the trumpets imitate car horns.
Quick recovery form being pistol whipped.

Same when a bad guy has the good guy cornered at gunpoint with "no escape!" Instead of shooting, he will gloat and talk to him for so long about how he can't wait to kill him that back-up will arrive/the good guy will come up with a way to disarm him.

This always gets me mad. I will use "She's All That" as an example. When Taylor pours her drink on Lanie at the party. This scenario always happens where the popular girl bullies the unpopular girl and gets away with it. I don't know if that's what happens in High Schools across America but where I'm from that sh*t doesn't fly. Either the geek you just bullied would fight back and get beat down anyway, report you to a teacher or get an older brother or sister to come and sort you out.

Bullied kids will never tell anyone especially their parents until its too late and someone ends up dead.

Also, what is it with siblings in teen movies never getting along until the end of the film? One is always popular and one is a geek.

every small town has a deadly secret and they never "take kindly to your kind around ere".

cops can't solve a case until "they've handed in their badge and gun".

there is always a snitch that a suspended cop can beat on to get the information he needs to solve the case he was banned from investigating.

this doesn't really happen so much anymore but there is always a hero who grew up on the streets/has mafia connections but has chosen the straight road for the past 5-10 years or whatever and ends up having to rely on those same people to help him fight the good fight.

every huge crime has a rich white guy behind it.

there is always someone who needs "to do this one alone"

there is always someone who is "getting too old for this sh*t as if 5 years ago he wouldve said "I am exactly the right age for this sh*t (this one is not mine, found it on the net someplace)

anyone know why in almost every action film the bad guy always kidnaps the hero's wife or child as "security" and usually its a daughter who hates their dad but loves him at the end or a wife who was "sick of wandering if her husband was coming home alive each day" and was on the brink of divorce?

Sometimes

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I get peeved when I see groceries being carried in and there is a baguette sticking out of the bag.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say I get peeved, but yup, I know what you're talking about.

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I also never eat Chinese food out of paper containers but everyone in TV and movies do.

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I eat directly out of the container frequently, although usually it's when eating the leftovers.

The big Chinese food cliche is that when the containers are on the table, they have chopsticks jammed in there 90% of the time. (Yes, I'm nerdy enough to have counted.) I know people who will use chopsticks when eating out, but I can't ever remember anyone doing that at home. The only reason I can think of for including them onscreen is that whoever sets up that table is thinking, "It's really important that the audience knows that they're eating Chinese food. Just having the white, uniquely-shaped containers isn't enough. Jam chopsticks in there!"

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Cars speeding down an alley always seem to crash into stacked boxes which seem to be empty.

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And you know what's coming up when there's a huge, elaborate produce stand along the side.

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People who don't say hello or goodbye when using the phone in action movies and TV shows.

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I usually just start talking if I know the caller. And I usually don't explicitly say goodbye, either, and I don't think it comes across as rude, either. I'd bet there are more people like me than you think.

I worked in grocery for 13 years. That one drives me crazy too. Plus nobody ever, ever places eggs on their side with cans or cleaners in the bag of produce

In the slacker's/stoner's apartment every surface is covered with bongs, clothes, dying houseplants and other, less-identifiable stuff... yet when the pizza guy arrives, there is always plenty of room on the coffee table for an outsize pizza box.

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I'm writing all this down in my memoirs so if I grow up twisted & warped, the world will know why.

In the slacker character's apartment, every surface is glutted with bongs, wrinkled clothes, coagulating food, dying houseplants, exotic pets... yet when the pizza guy shows, there is always plenty of room on the coffee table for an outsize pizza box.

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I'm writing all this down in my memoirs so if I grow up twisted & warped, the world will know why.

OK, here are a couple of mine:

1) When a movie hero answers the phone, he never says "Hello". He usually just grunts "Yeah?" or states his surname (whatever that may be). Also, when he's finished on the phone, he never says goodbye; he just slams it down, presumably leaving a very confused partner/girlfriend/boss on the other end.

2) The hero's best buddy always talks about how much he loves his family / his wife's about have a baby / he's going to retire and sail round the world / his daughter is about to graduate from college. Then he is shot. Boy, didn't see that one coming!


Me like pie!

1) There is always a dial-tone on cell phones after the person on the other end hangs up.

2) Taxi drivers seem to know where to go when yo say home.

3) Every time a medicine cabinet is opened there is always a stick of deoderant, a tube of toothpaste, a tootbrush, and a razor.

4) If you are a rapper in a horror movie, you will live.

http://groups.myspace.com/hottrakzmusic

This has probably been discussed before: whenever a character in a war movie (I'm talking vintage WWII-Korea) starts talking just a little too much about life back home--apple pie, visiting Aunt Eula out in the country, walking his girl-friend home on a warm summer night,--anything like that--he's a goner. He's usually picked off by a sniper before the movie's even half over.

Whenever a cop in a crime-detective-thriller sort of film comes off as a little too dumb, a little too rough, a little too clueless, you know there's something up with him. He'll rally in the end, he's a good, capable guy after all, not so dumb as most people think, and a pretty good shot, too.

Also older films: college professors, scientists and the like, anyone we'd now call nerdy or geeky, never seem to have set foot in a pool hall, don't know how to handle alcohol, are physically awkward, tend to wear glasses, keep their ties on even when not at work, don't play tennis or golf, don't know about the Dodgers and the Yankees, and think that "Jitterbugs" are some kind of insect.

More older movie stuff: characters with prejudices, usually in supporting parts, who aren't pathological about it, always do an about face, usually in the last ten minutes of the film, when they invariably say something likle, "Gee, you (fill in the blanks: country boys, city boys, Limeys, flyboys, truckers, southerners) aren't so bad after all", or something to that effect, as they realize the hero or some other major character is really a pretty good guy. If, however, a character doesn't overcome his prejudices he's an out and out rotter and usually proves unreliable, untrustworthy, cowardly or downright evil.

No matter how young and fit the bad guy is, Barnaby Jones (the 70 year old private detective) can run after him for a mile or so and not be too out of breath to shoot him dead.

Fat kids who play the tuba in band.
Also New Jersey jokes.

When there's a struggle with a knife, the villian ALWAYS ends up on top of the hero with the knife inches from hero's face. It stays like this for a minute or so until said hero decides he can hold off villian with one hand while he reaches for some object with his other hand to save him.

Yet, he wasn't able to stop the villain from further pushing the knife down with two hands, but he can keep the knife in one place with one. The object he grabs is always some form of debris from the scuffle / an explosion.

- In every rough neighbourhood, there's always at least one person who wants to "go somewhere" and wants to "be somebody".
- Whenever two characters sleep together at one of their homes, when they wake up the next morning and kiss they never seem phased at all about each other's inevitably reeking morning breath.


I love lamp.