Audiences are used to seeing buddy action movies, slammin’ superhero films and other modern movie staples.
But here’s a short list of movie cliches I hope we won’t see for quite some time.
See if you agree … and please add a few of your own. Maybe we can shame screenwriters into taking a new direction now and then.
- The ambivalent hit man: Yes, “The Matador” gave Pierce Brosnan one of his meatiest film roles. But the conflicted killer routine is getting old, even if it didn’t stop George Clooney from tackling it anew.
- Young, hungry journalists: How many times do we meet a young, fetching female character who we quickly learn is a magazine writer/aspiring journalist/novelist in training? Wake up, Hollywood. Journalism as we know it has been read its Last Rites. Now, go find a new profession to exploit.
- Rom-coms set in New York: The U.S. teems with beautiful, photogenic cities. Heck, has any film producer seen Pittsburgh at night? It’s beautiful. Go find some new ones …. and leave the Big Apple to Woody Allen.
- Fill in the blank: What movie tropes drive you nuts?
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1. The veteran criminal who wants to retire, but is dragged back to commit one last crime that surprisingly doesn’t go according to plan.
2. The plain girl who is played by a stunner in eyeglasses.
3. Any character that is identified as a Republican must be hypocritical, stupid, or just flat out evil.
The Civilized Cosmopolitans vs. The Rednecks
The hip, smart, urban, cosmopolitan, well-educated couple that live in either Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago who somehow find themselves caught, lost, trapped, in hiding, whatever somewhere in flyover middle America (where I happily live) with a bunch of redneck, gun-toting, rural, uneducated, Sarah Palin-loving, unrefined, country bumpkins.
Man, that clash of cultures mold is just comedic gold and never gets old. It just writes itself…over and over and over and over and over…
Good stuff … keep it coming!
Many
First of all, why does anyone who lives outside of a city always come across as being somehow dumber than those who don’t? The only film I’ve seen where this is not implied was perhaps Crocodile Dundee.
Second, stupid lines. Like it or not I’ve always been bothered by that line from Apollo 13 where Jim Lovell’s son asks his mom “Was it the door?” It may have been the line or just the way the kid said it, but I always use that as the standard for stupid lines in films.
Third, period films that can’t get over telling you what time period it is. As if everyone who lived in the 60’s was always talking about things that happened there even though that reference has little impact on the current plot of the film. We get it’s the 60’s so quit referencing Vietnam, Kennedy, Woodstock, etc.
Along the same lines a montage of various landmarks when a setting is changed, while some company music is playing is annoying as if we aren’t supposed to know this guy is someplace he isn’t familiar with. At most it’s just an excuse to load up the soundtrack with songs that otherwise wouldn’t be in the film, and it is pandering at the very least.
Forth, in films, but I guess mostly on TV I hate it when a character who is supposed to know something asks a secondary character to explain something to them simply for the audiences benefit. Just write the characters true to themselves. If someone watching cares enough to want more information, they can find it themselves.
Fifth. Preaching for the sake of preaching. A character that spends much of his screen time talking about random left or right talking points but adds little else to the piece is only an attempt by the writers or filmmakers to get on their soapboxes. It is annoying and distracting. Unless it adds to the character it makes no sense.
Sixth, Not really a film critique, but I hate it when a funny or memorable line is put in the trailer’s for a film and TV spots and it’s played over and over again where the line isn’t really funny when you see the film. It would have been otherwise. Comedy films that take everything funny about them and put them in the trailer are annoying as well. It simply means that the films wasn’t that great an idea in the first place (i.e. Employee of the Month)
And these are just off the top of my head…
The family with ill and/or dying children and the tirelessly fighting against all odds parents who must convince the cranky but brilliant doctor that only he can save them.
The kind on the surface step-parent (or adopted child) who turns out to be a menace and/or killer – but only shows their true self to one member of the family.
Dang, drewster. That was just off the top of your head? You must wear a big hat. :=)
That was spot on with every point. I agree.
Drewster brings up a good topic:
“The worst lines in movie history that took you out of the moment or movie.”
I have several…
I agree wholeheartedly about the “ambivalent hit man” and “cosmopolitans vs. rednecks” cliches (and the latter cliche has gotten so tired that an entire film, the upcoming horror comedy “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” has been devoted to spoofing it).
Personally, the one that drives me up the wall is The Love Triangle. I am so sick to death of this cliche. Can’t any couple get through an entire movie without one of them being seriously tempted by somebody else? One of the reasons I enjoyed “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” so much was that they left this cliche out of the film completely.
1. Romantic comedies that center around one protagonist deceiving the other, then the other finds out about the deception and leaves the deceiver, but then they reunite just in time for the closing credits.
2. The Maverick [insert profession of choice: cop, pilot, doctor, plumber, etc.] Who Plays By His Own Rules.
And the number one cliche: The stupid bigoted violent dysfunctional Christian.
I was watching Die Hard II (Filled with cliche’s and I think it was intentional, it had to be) And I laughed out loud when Dennis Franz’s character comes out yelling, after McClain saved his life, that there is no room for a “Lose cannon” like McClain.
So, I would like to see an abolition of the “Lose Cannon” Cop Movie. Maybe the comedies can stay, but not the ones that take themselves serious (like Red Heat.)
As for the idealistic reporter movies. I think that is a setup. You will never see a movie as severe and controversial as “Absence of Malice” coming out in the current climate.
It really comes to the story and pacing.
The Spoof of spoof’s, All of the “movie” movies need to be taken to the vet and put to sleep.
The Based on a True Story. Especially like The Strangers, or Wolf Creek, where there is really no info whatsoever. Texas Chainsaw massacre never presented itself as “based on a true story” just “inspired.” which has a linguistic difference.
The Strong Woman movies, Ladies? I get it, my mom’s a tough broad, and all of the women I ever spent a significant amount of time with are tough broads and intelligent. Why does EVERY woman in EVERY movie have to be a “Strong Woman” casting off the chains of sexism?
and not a genre, but, STOP GIMMICKING EXPLOSIONS! In EVERY acttion movie, as long as the person next to an explosion, no matter how close, as long as they are in the air at the time of detonation they will survive with only bruises and minor scraps, completely ignoring the whole schrapnell thing. Indiana Jones 4 took this to an extreme, but it’s irritating cuz it happens in EVERY movie.
I agree wholeheartedly with @K. Christian Toto is stupid, bigoted and violent. Or is it violet? Yes, that’s what I meant, violet.
The one that continually drives me nuts is the mild-mannered everyman who turns out to have a long-lost action-star past as a spy or mercenary or whatever. When present-day trouble goes down, he suddenly has to trade in his friendly-guy-next-door lifestyle to kill and maim a ton of bad guys in brutal ways.
Granted, it’s been the hook to a lot of good movies, but a lot of awful ones, too. (Probably more awful ones, really.) I don’t mind it when there’s great artistry involved, as in the slight variation A History of Violence (ex-mob tough guy turns rural family man). But usually it just blows.
Just a few…
1] The dumb Southerner. If it’s a mix of people from different places, the Southerner is always the simple-minded one. Followed by the quirky Southerner, brimming with ‘charming’, homespun advice and anecdotes.
2] The devout Christian is a hypocrite with a secret vice. The devout person of any other faith is enlightened.
3] A couple breaking up at the alter. This one is soooooo old.
4] The over-the-top public declaration of love or marriage proposal.
5]The only good soldier is one who has become disillusioned with war and the military. All others are either psycho killers or just plain psycho(PSTD).
1. During a car chase a fruit/vegtable stand or truck is crashed into.
2. Everyone in a small town, regardless of where the town is located has either a southern accent or some version of the accent used in Fargo.
3. Ground Hog Day ripoffs.
4. Private detectives with oddball cars
5. Grizzled veteren cop,fireman,soldier who failed at some point in their job and people died. Now they’re teaching the young hot shot and ultimately sacrifice themselves to save the hot shot.
6. In modern chick flicks the women all doing a dance routine to some pop song at some point.
7. The anti-hero, I’m ready for just a plain, good old fashion hero.
Opus – on no. 6 the starlet has to sing into a faux microphone – a hair brush, etc.
My fave movie cliche comes from Roger Ebert, I believe. When a person comes home from the supermarket, there’s always a french bread loaf sticking out of the brown shopping bag.
Cliche movie line montage
http://tinyurl.com/29256uq
The race to the airport to stop someone from leaving. Cell phone, anyone? Or maybe just call them when they arrive?
Re: Rom-coms set in New York.
Not only have they been done to death, but “movie New York” looks nothing like real New York. Not every street is lined with shops with brightly colored awnings and sidewalk cafes. Cab drivers do not all drive checker cabs and are not the portly white guys with a newsboy cap.
The others are great, by the way. My 2cents:
1. Parking right in front of the building the character has to go in. Who EVER gets that spot except the fire department and the handicapped
2. This is common in Disney movies. Kids always are part of a fractured family (orphan, single mom, single dad, aunt raising them, etc.) Somehow, that disadvantage is critical to their independence. You know, two parent families can be interesting too.
3. The guy who talks about his girlfriend, wife, new baby, minutes before he gets killed. Just a cheap way to draw quick sympathy IMHO.
4. Bad guys who chamber a round in the middle of a gunfight–either to make a point to the guy on the business end, or to let everyone know they’re ready to shoot it out again. Automatics are called automatics, because they’re um..auotmatic.
5. The geeky, computer savvy sidekick that allows the main character to get through any high level security or intelligence obstacles that would make the CIA blush. A cheap way to make the character invulnerable.
I have another one; a comedic bit that has been done to death in countless movies and TV series.
A character is told he/she has to do something they don’t want to do. The character then goes on a rant” “No way! There is no way I’m going to do (insert unpleasant task here)! No! No! No!”
Smash cut to the character doing the thing he/she didn’t want to do.
Please. Stop. Doing. That.
How about this:
The racist white man/woman who learns the error of their ways from a wise person of color.
Yaaaaaawn.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
How about the funny fat kid. Every comedy has one — from Stand by Me to Goonies to John Belushi in Animal House…
Arabs as terrorists. Whoops, sorry, been watching a lot of 80s movies lately.
Arabs as terrorists. Whoops, sorry, seems I’ve been watching too many 80s movies lately.
You see, Eric, the way Hollywood works is, you can portray someone as being the bad guy in a movie, as long as we’re not actually at war with them at the time. Wouldn’t want anyone thinking Hollywood wants America to win a war, would we?
That’s why we got Arab terrorists in the 80s (Delta Force, To Live and Die in LA) and 90s (The Siege, Executive Decision), but then in the ’00s when we were actually fighting Arab terrorists, we suddenly got Eastern European terrorists (The Sum of All Fears, Bad Company, Next, etc.) and Nazis (Hellboy, Inglorious Basterds), even though WWII and the Cold War have been over for decades.
1. The hooker with the heart of gold.
2. The less-glamorous friends of the female lead in romantic comedies who stand by their friend and their whole lives revolve around someone else’s romantic life, and then at the end of the movie there is a throwaway seen where the friend meets a great guy and ‘everything is right with the world’.
2a. Unless the friend is a gay man – the gay friend never gets to meet a great guy at the end of the movie.
3, The way romantic comedies end with a grand gesture that actually does nothing to resolve the issue causing the conflict. Then it doesn’t appear to work and as the male lead walks away dejected (because it’s usually the male lead who screws up and has to fix things), the female lead makes a lame joke and steps out of the shadows and aww they are so in love.
4. The short battle after the ‘final battle’ in action movies where a minor bad guy who you think died 20 minutes ago suddenly appears after the main villain has been killed and usually one bullet puts him away.
6. Would it kill anyone to make a movie set in a normal small town? According to movies, every small town is either filled with a) dumb rednecks, b) seemingly dumb but actually wise rednecks, c) dumb and sinister rednecks, d) quirky rednecks, or e) kind farmers who raise the alien baby as their own son before he turns into Superman. In addition, there is usually the one hot girl in the small town who of course falls for the big city guy.
The cop drama where the “twist” is that it was (GASP) an INSIDE JOB!!! Ohmygod, the REAL villain was a corrupt cop! Who could’ve seen that coming…other than EVERYBODY? Hey, Hollywood, it ain’t a twist anymore if that’s what happens in seemingly EVERY SINGLE COP MOVIE FOR THE LAST DECADE. I’m now surprised only when the real villain is actually a serial murderer, drug dealer or terrorist. Especially if it’s a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist.
This one’s faded a bit lately, I think, but still: the line (or variations thereof) “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” You could make a drinking game out of that one.
The wife/girlfriend of a cop, fireman, soldier, etc., who threatens to leave him because “I never know whether you’re coming home alive.” An understandable feeling, but still: wasn’t the “might never come home” disclaimer in the “brochure”? He signed up to risk his life for us for a living, then she signed up to be with him. How ’bout standing by him, as long as he treats you right?
This is more along the lines of TV than movies, but I have three:
1. The child of uncertain parentage–the mother thinks that so-and-so is the father; child has an accident/illness and needs a blood transfusion, and that’s when they find out that so-and-so is NOT the father. Back in the 70’s the blood types didn’t match; these days, the DNA wouldn’t match.
2. The engaged couple has a fight and always–always!–it is the woman that breaks off the engagement and the man that does something to get them back together.
3. Character has an accident/injury/illness and other characters start reminincing about the past; complete with flashbacks from previous episodes of the series!
the real problem is that there is nothing new under the sun. with so many screens hours to fill we get to see that fact demonstrated daily.
Don’t treat the audience like they are idiots. There is no need to state the obvious and repeat the same thing over and over again. A classic example is Armageddon. Bruce Willis’ character says it over and over again, “we are at the NASA space center in Houston.” People are intelligent enough to have careers, make and manage their money and drive themselves to the movies. I think they can follow a 110 minute storyline.