General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCliches in film you are sick of?
Chief of police always a wise black guy. Never a white jerk.
Teenagers that constantly disrespect and dismiss their parents. Slam bedroom door on them.
Mother who's got some important job literally running around in a kitchen with an island eating a piece of toast trying to make breakfast for everyone.
Polly Hennessey
(6,783 posts)and Ricky. Instead of toast she always had a coffee pot in hand or was pushing plates of pancakes on the guys. Did I mention she wore an apron perfectly tied in the back.
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...often accompanied by the gruff-hard case-older-male-partner with the heart of gold...
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Kate Winslet, is the tough cop.
Overdoing a PA accent. They literally have her biting off the top of a cheese whiz squirt can before she uses it.
She ignores her partner, the nice guy, on minute one by saying she's taking a smoking break. It is so typical I can see it coming. She will eventually love/respect the guy.
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)Edited to fix link.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)IHaveNoName
(94 posts)...is ALWAYS shortened to the most masculine-sounding form, like Jack or Alex, so we can tell she's not a girly-girl.
NewHendoLib
(60,006 posts)many More recent movies - MUMBLING by actors - can hardly tell what they are saying
Again, many more recent movies - short scenes, little character development, just about noise and action.
Response to NewHendoLib (Reply #3)
Hugh_Lebowski This message was self-deleted by its author.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)cuz it's cool? Always think... Nfw did an editor or producer ever try to watch as an observer.
Character development! Need more Columbo and less CSI.
betsuni
(25,367 posts)Nobody ever cleans their plate, either. There's always food left that goes directly into the trash.
mainer
(12,017 posts)You dont really feel like eating that cold prop food.
Wednesdays
(17,305 posts)Movies--or more specifically streaming drama series--where the actors talk so low as to be a whisper, where I have to crank up the volume to FULL to even hear what they're saying. And then it never fails, the scene immediately following: BOOM! An ear-splitting explosion or something else extremely loud. It's as though the director does that intentionally for shits and giggles.
Nay
(12,051 posts)Coventina
(27,049 posts)My husband has trouble with accents, and I'm just plain old hard of hearing.
Too many rock concerts in my misspent youth.
Trailrider1951
(3,413 posts)Cheating on your spouse is NOT romantic. Cheating on your spouse is ABUSE! Emotional abuse, abuse of trust, usually with financial abuse, and sometimes with physical abuse. A case in point is "The Bridges of Madison County". Holy cow! I love Meryl Streep, but that movie was a complete barf-o-rama!
oasis
(49,317 posts)to a total stranger.
MuseRider
(34,095 posts)then one of them gave it to me, told me I would LOVE IT!!! Short book, took a couple of hours. What a horrible waste of time. I totally agree with you and having just been cheated on I REALLY agreed with you. To this day I feel ill when I think of that crap book, then the movie and a Broadway show as well. I have never figured out how anyone could think cheating is romantic. There is another one that gets a lot of attention, The Waitress. I just do not get it.
dawg
(10,621 posts)Eastwood's character made her feel young again and "special".
Well, it's pretty fucking hard to make someone feel special for 20 years straight while simultaneously keeping all the bills paid and all of the cars all running.
It's also pretty fucking easy to make someone feel very special and "understood" for a few weeks, after which you go your merry way leaving a broken family in your wake. I could play that game, too. I'm just not the sort of total piece of shit who's willing to do it.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Then he's often the most corrupt Chief of Police ever, secretly in deep with the most evil characters on the show.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Skittles
(153,104 posts)if I ever said WHATEVER to my dad and walked away, all hell would have broken loose....I would never have even THOUGHT of doing that
Beatlelvr
(618 posts)Who is ALWAYS a pain in the side of the captain.
unblock
(52,107 posts)Skittles
(153,104 posts)seriously
unblock
(52,107 posts)Response to unblock (Reply #41)
Skittles This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cafe Cat
(18,748 posts)Roll my eyes? Forget it!!
Skittles
(153,104 posts)no fucking WAY
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Teens are not as afraid of their parents as we were... But don't think they are near as bad as depicted in movies?
C_U_L8R
(44,982 posts)Okay, it was creative and original the first time. But jeez, there are an awful lot of lazy writers and directors and producers who seemed satisfied to just crib other people's work, pounding tired cliches into the ground of mediocrity. Hey, we see you. Or rather, we won't.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)only for the cop or the criminal to be roped into some epic case or crime that goes horribly and epically wrong.
Usually an innocent wife and/or kid(s) suffer greatly because the man didn't quit earlier.
JHB
(37,152 posts)"We're supposedly racing from Point A to Point B, but the actual path based on visual cues looks like a 3-year-old being taught script at a bit-too-early stage."
Initech
(100,027 posts)Like when they show a shot of the London skyline with the caption "London, England". In case we confused it for London, Saskatchewan?
Tommy Carcetti
(43,138 posts)Jeff Goldblum and his dad have to get from New York to DC to warn the President the aliens are about to attack.
There are giant spaceships over both cities and everyone is panicking and trying to get out.
His dad takes his beat up old car and drives it at 40 mph.
Somehow he is able to get to DC in time, make his way into the White House, successfully convince the President to leave the White House, get on a helicopter to Andrews and then take off on Air Force One just in the nick of time before the aliens blow up the city.
And the amount of time all of this is supposed to happen?
Four hours.
He drives below the speed limit over 200 miles, presumably through Philadelphia and Baltimore, and through two cities that millions of people are trying to evacuate.
AND he is able to successfully convince the President of the United States to leave the White House and get on Air Force One.
All in four hours.
In real life he and his dad would probably have been blown up while stuck in traffic on the George Washington Bridge. If they were even that lucky.
Dont get me wrongIndependence Day is one of the most fun and enjoyable movies I can remember.
But its logic is so absurdly ridiculous.
Foolacious
(497 posts)tossing one clever / poignant line over the shoulder, then leaving.
oasis
(49,317 posts)dflprincess
(28,070 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)person being visited. That'd be a switch - for the person being visited to say the poignant line and kick the main character out.
unblock
(52,107 posts)In real life, the scene ends with the other person saying oh yeah, well f*ck you then.
JHB
(37,152 posts)...but the plan makes no sense for you to think that, other than to deny your earlier thwarting of the antagonist's machinations.
TlalocW
(15,373 posts)The impossible physics of being pushed back 10 feet after getting shot.
Being able to figure out alien technology in a few minutes.
The strong woman with a rewarding career and fun social life can't truly Stebe happy without a man and/or baby
Steven Spielberg not being able to do a movie without touching on his daddy issues
TlalocW
eppur_se_muova
(36,246 posts)Surely there's been an episode of "The Simpson's" or "Family Guy" where this has been spoofed. I'm sure FG would do the more tasteless, gorier version.
TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)some hokey shot of leaves blowing in a gutter in the dark.
TlalocW
(15,373 posts)Some plot device being announced with a bright light.
TlalocW
Ocelot II
(115,570 posts)The woman who's running away from the bad guy and falls down just when it looks like she's about to get away from him. The woman always falls down.
The protagonist in a hurry who always can find a convenient place to park, or when they are trying to go somewhere in a hurry they don't have to hunt for their car keys.
But the car doesn't start when they are trying to get away from the bad guys - until the very last minute.
The hero cop is chasing the bad guy in a car and just as he's about to catch up, a truck or a bus blocks the intersection.
The brilliant but hopelessly nerdy tech person who tries to explain to the clueless detective how he decoded something or salvaged data on a hard drive.
The couple who goes to the mountains on a skiing vacation and they get snowed in with an apparently nice person who turns out to be a serial killer.
Power failures at crucial moments.
Fire escapes that are actually usable, accessible from windows that actually open.
The villain who captures the hero and explains every detail of his evil plot instead of just killing him as a normal villain would do.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Laughed at " window actually opening"
unblock
(52,107 posts)Cars that explode, often with a hood flying 40 ft into the air, and often from one bullet into the fuel tank. Yeah, that could happen.
Hero close enough to be blown into the air and knocked down by the explosion, but not close enough to actually get hurt. Ok, maybe a bandaid from an emt while chatting about the case.
Sound propagating in the vacuum of space.
Biggest peeve of all is stereotypes. Hollywood leans heavily on stereotypes and does harm to society in perpetuating them.
The gangster is black
The organized crime family is Italian
The terrorists are Iranian or chenyan. Maybe irish.
The drug dealer is black if domestic or Mexican if foreign.
The accountant is Jewish.
The action hero is male so often they make a big promotional stink about it if they ever have a female hero.
It's annoying beyond the political angle. I enjoy seeing actual acting talent. I like seeing Ellen barkin as a man in a woman's body, or Dustin Hoffman as tootsie.
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)The Magic Negro trope is the worst. That one is as old as time. Hell,n they are putting magic Negros in movies that are otherwise without racial minorities. (Cough Frozen 2 Cough)
On a lighter note filmmakers who make sure that we know the characters are in Paris, France rather than some other Paris through the title card deserve a slap upside the head as well.
IHaveNoName
(94 posts)hatrack
(59,564 posts)The movie opens with a long aerial shot spiraling down over DC
The Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, then "Washington DC" appears on the screen.
Zoom in on the The White House - "The White House".
Brilliant!
LisaM
(27,791 posts)I'm from Michigan. No one does that. We open the door partway and make the person come in. If they won't, we wrap our arms around ourself and make being cold noised while stamping our feet.
betsuni
(25,367 posts)Standing there in front of open fridge doors eating or drinking, wasting energy. Oh, just remembered another one. When characters come home to an empty apartment or house and lamps and lights are already on.
Initech
(100,027 posts)They've already established that the character is a villain, but then the script must dictate that the villain be the most villainy character to ever villain.
A perfect example of this is the movie Baby Driver. Great movie but they really hammered John Hamm's badness at the end.
betsuni
(25,367 posts)or works for a magazine, and if she's a bad character in real estate. The man is a lawyer, doctor, in finance.
Gorgeous, huge spotless kitchens with fresh potted herbs, bowls of fruit. Always an island. It makes me intensely jealous. And no clutter in the house either.
Women friends drinking wine in tasteful living rooms sharing their problems. If a character's divorced or single and admits to not having sex for more than six months or a year, everyone gets hysterical and insists she MUST have sex soon. The obsession with sex, in general.
Everyone carrying bottled water or coffees as if they lived in a desert where they're in danger of dropping dead from dehydration.
Women characters wearing clothing without pockets walking around without purses/bags. Where do they keep their wallets, keys and stuff? Characters in wedding gowns or hospital gowns running out without any driver's licenses, money, or keys, jumping in a vehicle and driving off or somehow getting home.
Scenes in cars that are really commercials for big shiny new SUVs.
How phones are now important main characters. I'll watch a Netflix series and everyone's always texting or having sex or both.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)For hours and hours in any kind of weather. And all the while their hair stays perfectly combed and makeup perfect and they somehow have keys and money.
Driving I always notice people take their eyes off the road for way too long. In reality you could only do that maybe on a multi-laned, long straight deserted highway. Unless they insert ominous music... That's an omen for an upcoming crash.
Nay
(12,051 posts)heck do they run a tiny bookstore or bakery, or sell jewelry on the weekends, or knit cute baby clothes and sell them on Etsy -- and live in a big expensive apartment in downtown Seattle or Atlanta???
Coventina
(27,049 posts)Although, with the books I read, it's usually in an adorable little town.
(I'm a sucker for cozy mysteries)
Somehow they can run an adorable boutique in a tiny town and still have time to solve mysteries and fall in love.
All while keeping a business in the black when in reality, everybody in town would be going to the Walmart and Dollar store.
(Schitt's Creek is guilty of this as well. Rose Apothecary would never actually survive in that town).
I know it's an unrealistic fantasy, but I still love cozy mysteries anyway.....
Nay
(12,051 posts)wouldn't be able to live there, either, on the 'income' from some of these 'jobs.' But it's a real kick in the head to see them live in Seattle with a bitty bookstore income!! Ain't happening, unless you can moonlight as an escort or something . . .
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,852 posts)1. Bombs conveniently have clocks to indicate when they will detonate, mostly defused at the last second.
2. High-speed car chases through busy cities with no pedestrians killed despite numerous close-calls, such as street vendors getting their merchandise destroyed.
3. If a character only has one day left before retirement, the most traumatic events of their entire career will occur at that time.
4. Something menacing will appear in the reflection of medicine cabinet mirrors as they're closed.
Raine
(30,540 posts)and then come off as dirty old men
I also get sick of the bad guy looking like he's dead but can still get up and fire off another shot or take one more knife plunge before finally actually dying.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Silent3
(15,129 posts)Especially when someone is supposed to be trying to be sneaky, and they keep leaving doors the go through, and drawers and cabinets (and even refrigerator doors) wide open, making it plainly obvious they've been there and snooping around.
This extends to pretty much all things people would normally open then close, take out then put away, turn on and turn back off, etc., especially if they meant to cover their tracks.
LW1977
(1,231 posts)The killer is in the house, so the victim runs upstairs and hides in a closet instead heading out the exit and running to safety.
TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)Any cop show or anything, people running upstairs to get away from someone. That's just stupid.
frogmarch
(12,152 posts)wherein the coroner eats a sandwich or snacks right after an autopsy, with the cadaver in full view behind him through his office window.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)Thinks NO means stalk her. GTFOH
Blue Dawn
(892 posts)People shooting multiple times at a person (from not even a large distance), and not one bullet can hit their target. It amazes me.
This seems to happen all the time in westerns. My husband and I watch a lot of TCM, and often they play westerns from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. I always say to my husband, They are shooting off 500 rounds at some guy who is running from tree to rock, or rock to tree, or building to horse, or horse to saloon, and you are telling me not one person can manage to even graze this guy or anything?
This happens in science fiction movies, too. Laser guns being fired at close range somehow dont seem to hit anyone at all. Its a miracle!
I realize its just a movie and all, but it always strikes me as being ludicrous. Maybe it doesnt bother anyone else, but it just annoys me
LOL!
Lars39
(26,104 posts)So tired of it.
Wednesdays
(17,305 posts)Lars39
(26,104 posts)lanlady
(7,133 posts)This one always gets a guffaw out of me - no matter where, even in a busy city, the characters always have their choice of parking spaces right in front of their destination.
Or the opposite- when detectives go to interview a rich person living in a mansion with a long-ass driveway, they always park at the far end of the driveway. Why is that? So they can have a Serious Conversation before ringing the doorbell and delivering the bad news to the inhabitant, or something. It's weird. Even German cop shows (which I watch on MHz) do that.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)for sure. And people dropping their kids off at school. They always stop at the door and just stay and chat and see all their child's friends walk by. In the real world people would be honking for them to move in two seconds.
Nay
(12,051 posts)superpatriotman
(6,246 posts)Superhero and comic book movies
Gun violence with impossible or no consequences
Fist fighting (most real fights end quickly and painfully)
Masturbation (they film it like theyve never done it)
Sequels
Matter of fact most films are complete shit.
nuxvomica
(12,407 posts)The profligate use of the flashback to keep the audience in the dark and confused, but mostly to avoid the challenge of writing an engaging linear story.
Also, a lot of weird stuff happens and you wonder how it's all going to make sense but it ends with the main character is crazy or imagining it all or it was just a dream.
And finally, the use of songs to convey emotion in a scene because the writer or director couldn't figure out how to do that with dialogue and acting.
edit: sorry. This was supposed to be reply to the OP.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Super bad and NO ONE believes them. This is so annoying. And you know it's going to last for a while until things get incredibly bad. In real life, if I told my husband his best friend was following me and I found out he had killed someone I would be believed
obamanut2012
(26,038 posts)Or, a woman being raped to show how badass and tough she is coming back from it.
Basically, almost all rape trauma tropes, except for shows like The Handmaid's Tale.
Ghost of Tom Joad
(1,354 posts)and are instantly dry
Instant time travel, going distances in a matter of minutes.
hatrack
(59,564 posts)Also worthy of oblivion - the obligatory, worshipful weapons-prep magazine-stacking scene before the big showdown.
Any vehicle that crashes, then explodes.
somethingshiny
(31 posts)for simple dental procedures. All I ever got was Novocaine!
DVRacer
(707 posts)The never ending magazine
The suppressor that is so quiet nobody hears it in real life they still are as loud as a jackhammer also they never seem to be hot after use ala John Wick they get to several hundred degrees.
The car crash then it blows up
The fitness of police officers when a lot in real life are not actually everyone in general is always fit even the extras.
Last but not least background music so loud you cant hear the dialogue
JHB
(37,152 posts)Gotta send stuff flying, but the budget says it has to be cheap. So fruit.
Foolacious
(497 posts)greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)Come on.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)no rhyme or reason to any of it
TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)Do they really have the big clear storyboard thing? Maybe they do.
Another related one, usually in sci-fi, characters writing out huge math problems on clear boards.
Tommy Carcetti
(43,138 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Would take up a whole office of white boards. Not like he's going to have a line item on his balance sheet that says "due to oligarchs."
VGNonly
(7,480 posts)there is usually a southerner; a good old boy type or a pious gospel quoter. Somebody from Brooklyn, Boston or South Philly. A corn-fed midwesterner.
When paying for a meal or a cab, everyone always just throws a wad of cash, never a credit card.
Hookers with a heart of gold...always.
Henchmen are fodder, see Austin Powers.
No matter how well planned, babies always arrive about two weeks early, no time for anesthesia.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Coventina
(27,049 posts)STOP EATING SANDWICHES! They are clearly hazardous to a guard's health!!
Coventina
(27,049 posts)are going to be either killed or harassed by police.
Usually killed.
Teenagers clearly need better make out spaces.
Coventina
(27,049 posts)Is there like an agency or something?
"Please send 200-300 goons with glass jaws and poor aim for my nemesis to beat up on in his quest to vanquish me!"
bif
(22,678 posts)Last edited Wed May 26, 2021, 12:34 PM - Edit history (2)
Being chased=victim always falls down.
TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)When somebody hijacks another person in their car, and they're in the passenger seat holding a gun on the hostage driving. That piddly little gun ain't nothing compared to a 2 ton SUV as a weapon. Why not just floor it and say "shoot me!"?
Also, this conversation that usually happens between a grizzled veteran soldier/cop and a new recruit/rookie:
"Sarge, I sure am scared"
"So am I son. So am I"
That extra "So am I" or "So do I" kills me.
TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)The problem is identified, and then they come up with a plan. Cue 5 minutes of everyone looking busy, pointing at sheets of paper, drawing diagrams, giving instructions, all to tense music.
edhopper
(33,458 posts)bad guy holds a hostage, usually a partner, girlfriend or wife, with a gun to their head and standing about 3 feet from the hero. Tells the hero to put down they gun. And the idiot does it and he, the hostage or both get shot.
Well I have shot handguns in my life, not a crack shot, but I know how to handle one. I am not a trained officer or agent. At 3 feet I could put slug in someone's eye, without worrying about hitting the other person.
It is just stupid.
Tommy Carcetti
(43,138 posts)...of that city's most recognizable local landmark, just to establish that you are actually in that particular city and not in some random hotel off the interstate in Nebraska.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)Drives me nuts
Tommy Carcetti
(43,138 posts)Foolacious
(497 posts)TxGuitar
(4,174 posts)When they show the murder and have "reenactment" on the screen. Gosh, glad they did that I was sure wondering why the cameraman didn't intervene.
Sorry, replied in the wrong place!
liberaltrucker
(9,129 posts)Aristus
(66,274 posts)When you're firing a machine gun, you're concentrating too much on making sure the barrel doesn't overheat, or fighting the inevitable barrel-rise during continuous fire to try something as Hollywood-cliché as shouting Rambo-style.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)...but I am with Bill Maher on the comic book movie hate. Cant stand them. Shiny object, go!!!
Deadpool gets an exception for being R-rated and geared towards adults.
Brightburn gets a pass for being more horror movie than comic book movie; and the stone cold demonic in nature Superman idea is pretty cool.
Everything else is shiny object, go!!!
csziggy
(34,131 posts)One of the other of the cute males turns out to be the bad guy and the other is the love of her life from then on.
Yeah, that's the standard Hallmark/Lifetime channel plot line, but I've seen it in other places, too.
Demovictory9
(32,417 posts)father saving them all from earthquake / meteor / storm... brings them together.
Demovictory9
(32,417 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)he doesn't even know/recognize punlic or fear or panic..like directors/ writers do?
FelineOverlord
(3,571 posts)Someone deciding they dont want to get married.
But they always wait until they are actually going through the wedding ceremony when they announce they cant go through with it.