Most annoying cliche in movies
- Thread starter Wandering hobo
- Start date
when the villian has the hero at gunpoint and can kill him instantly but decides to have a nice chat and BAM gets killed somehow. mostly by the hero's friend
There are many. Wet streets at night are my biggest complaint, camera-wise. But I think what really irks me the most is any exchange where one of the heroes is leaving after things get tough, and the other one tells him something like:
"Take care of yourself - I guess that's what you're best at."
"All you've ever cared about is your damn (fill in blank) anyway!"
"You never cared about (fill in blank)!"
Or some such variant.
You'd think that after Luke said it Han in front of a couple billion-billion people, filmmakers would at least try to phrase it a different way, just so it wouldn't be so obviously referential.
"Take care of yourself - I guess that's what you're best at."
"All you've ever cared about is your damn (fill in blank) anyway!"
"You never cared about (fill in blank)!"
Or some such variant.
You'd think that after Luke said it Han in front of a couple billion-billion people, filmmakers would at least try to phrase it a different way, just so it wouldn't be so obviously referential.
YES. I was just thinking this but forgot what it was called.chimpzy said:
I hate that, and I also hate the butch, tomboyish female character who "don't need no man" but ends up vulnerable and needy of male companionship before the film is through. That's not a well-rounded character, that's someone who's doing a bad job of pretending.
Cliffhangers and well horror movies now a days, why go to them? You know what is going to happen because it's all the same crap stab stab scream slice slice gag movie end.
There are very few instances I can think of where the cliche is played straight.Woodsey said:
Dallas is one of the most famous and egregious examples of it. One of the characters wakes up and it basically turns out the whole of the previous series was a dream, included the bringing back of a dead character.
Alice in Wonderland is another famous example of it. On the other hand, AiW doesn't really have much plot so to speak, its really just about a girl wondering around a strange world, listening to silly poems and making observations. You don't really get a sense that things have been "undone" when it turns out to be a dream.
Other than that, there are quite a few examples which play with/subvert the trope...
Original Nightmare on Elm Street:
The protagonist defeats Freddy Kruger, wakes up and it turns out the world has gone back to normal. Freddy appears again and kills them
Brazil:
In the final scene, the protagonist makes a daring escape from a Room 101 style torture, then goes on to a daring attack on the government, gets the girl and solves all the other plot threads. In the last couple of minutes, it is revealed that he never left the prison and the final scene all took place in his head
Rushmore:
The movie opens with a scene where the protagonist solves a maths equation and gains the respect of his peers, he then wakes up in an actual maths lecture
Pans Labyrinth:
Throughout the entire movie it hints that the fantasy world that the girl lives in may be just that, a fantasy to escape from the horrors of her real life.
Inception:
The whole thing
The protagonist defeats Freddy Kruger, wakes up and it turns out the world has gone back to normal. Freddy appears again and kills them
Brazil:
In the final scene, the protagonist makes a daring escape from a Room 101 style torture, then goes on to a daring attack on the government, gets the girl and solves all the other plot threads. In the last couple of minutes, it is revealed that he never left the prison and the final scene all took place in his head
Rushmore:
The movie opens with a scene where the protagonist solves a maths equation and gains the respect of his peers, he then wakes up in an actual maths lecture
Pans Labyrinth:
Throughout the entire movie it hints that the fantasy world that the girl lives in may be just that, a fantasy to escape from the horrors of her real life.
Inception:
The whole thing
This i don't know why everyone likes them they are so repetitive and cliche they are like horror or action movies but in those movies you see kickass actionNpPro93 said:
The good guy was actually the bad guy! It was all a dream hallucination! The protagonist and love interest get married and live happily ever after!
The plot of Every. Single. Damned. Romantic Comedy Movie. Out there.
Also, almost all of the horror movies in the same regard.
..And action hero movies.
Also, almost all of the horror movies in the same regard.
..And action hero movies.
What about Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, High Fidelity or (500) Days of Summer?NpPro93 said:
Not really a cliche. Its a common plot device, but that doesn't make it a cliche. It would be like saying "Some guys have to fight in a war... what a boring cliche!", "a man has to save his loved ones... Cliche!" or "the protagonist is in a situation...Seen it a million times before".Illusio said:
Also, if it didn't happen, you would probably be saying "Everyone in movies is trustworthy. Noone is ever looking out for themselves over their friends, noone has ulterior motives for working together, etc."
Obviously, betrayal can be done very badly in movies, it can be done in a cliched way, or badly crowbarred into the story. But it can also be done very well (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Resevoir Dogs, Hero, The Maltese Falcon).
A few I can think of off the top of my head:
The obligatory romance subplot in any action movie
Time Travel (note: it isn't that I hate Time Travel, it's just that this mechanic is way too complicated even for 10 hour videogames. A 2-3 hour movie has very little hope of using it right)
Betrayed by the clearly evil guy
Death games to pacify the general public (like time travel, including this always seems to end up badly, mostly because it's always the same plot. Protagonist isn't guilty and was set up. They escape rather than winning because the game is rigged. Villain is comically evil for no real reason, and he/she often is very boring.)
The worst I can think of is this: Clearly aiming to be "artsy." I can barely stomach this one, if only because a lot of times the fun is sapped out of it and replaced with "deep meanings" and political commentary.
Second place: Remaking an old film. (Strangely enough, this is like death games and time travel. It COULD be good, but it almost never is).
The obligatory romance subplot in any action movie
Time Travel (note: it isn't that I hate Time Travel, it's just that this mechanic is way too complicated even for 10 hour videogames. A 2-3 hour movie has very little hope of using it right)
Betrayed by the clearly evil guy
Death games to pacify the general public (like time travel, including this always seems to end up badly, mostly because it's always the same plot. Protagonist isn't guilty and was set up. They escape rather than winning because the game is rigged. Villain is comically evil for no real reason, and he/she often is very boring.)
The worst I can think of is this: Clearly aiming to be "artsy." I can barely stomach this one, if only because a lot of times the fun is sapped out of it and replaced with "deep meanings" and political commentary.
Second place: Remaking an old film. (Strangely enough, this is like death games and time travel. It COULD be good, but it almost never is).
