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    Movie/TV clichés

    Yesterday, The Lady I Walked To The Registry Office With watched The Thomas Crown Affair on DVD. I was in the same room, but wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on.

    At one point, Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo are having a ruck in the car and she tells him to stop the car and let her out.

    The Lady I Walked To The Registry Office With then said, “I bet she’ll get out of the car and stomp purposefully into a forest as though she’s in desperate need of a dump, and he’ll run after he as though she’s forgotten to take any paper with her” – which is exactly what happened.

    The Lady I Walked To The Registry Office With had never seen the film before, but claimed that’s always what happens when women insist that the driver stop the car to let them out. I have my doubts, but she insisted she’d seen ‘loads of films’ with similar scenes. She couldn’t actually name any, though.

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      Movie/TV clichés

      Reed John wrote:
      I can say, without any fear of contradiction, that I've never said or heard an actual human say "There's a war/storm coming" or "we've got company," except in a very literal sense.

      Come to think of it, I've never heard those used literally either. In the first case it's "I think it's going to rain," or maybe "The weather map shows a storm coming in from xyz" and it's said matter of factly, not with gravitas. For the war bit, it's just "I'm afraid this is going to turn into a real war." Or "we might end up going to war there." And "company" was a term for "visitors" or "guests" that I haven't heard anyone use in any context in about 30 years.
      I say "company" all the time, sometimes specifying "gentleman company" "female company" "Royal company" (my cat), and sometimes say "we have company" to signal danger in the vicinity, these days mostly when we are walking the chihuahuas and there's a Rottweiler trotting in from 8 o'clock.

      Then again, I'm old-fashioned.

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        Movie/TV clichés

        A sentient police car who has just quit the force to indulge in his passion for extreme motor racing tells his human cop former partner "Look, I'm re-tyred now!"

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          Movie/TV clichés

          A Spooks special: "Talk to me!"

          Usually met with empty static from the at-risk operative.

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            Movie/TV clichés

            The X-Men find a sex-tape and show it to Professor X who can;t understand what he's seeing. "There's Storm coming!" says Wolverine pointing at the screen.
            Reminds me of the Doug Loves Movies Leonard Maltin game topic, Into the Storm, which is movies in which Halle Berry has sex.

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              Movie/TV clichés

              It was touched on above, but there's also the typecasting element. Michael Ironside has been done.

              J T Walsh? Sleazy, probably corrupt authority figure.

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                Movie/TV clichés

                It was touched on above, but there's also the typecasting element. Michael Ironside has been done.

                J T Walsh? Sleazy, probably corrupt authority figure.


                Denzil Washington: fine, noble, upstanding, John Everyman, boring.

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                  Movie/TV clichés

                  Not in Training Day nor in Flight.

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                    Movie/TV clichés

                    Slightly Brown wrote: Whoppi Goldberg in Jumpin’ Jack Flash in an excellent example of this.
                    Haha, I judge my crap typing almost exclusively against hers in that film.

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                      Movie/TV clichés

                      A character who suffers any sort of malady / accident / bite / infection midway through a film will suffer a fatality by the end of it.

                      Especially if they say, "Oh, don't worry it's nothing."

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                        Movie/TV clichés

                        Conversely, as a general rule if characters get really messy/wet but have no time to stop their adventure, it's OK. Within a few scenes all hair, clothing and make-up will be immaculate again.

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                          Movie/TV clichés

                          A character who, mid-film, says to their lover, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can do this anymore" always ends up shagging the person they say it to before the film ends.

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                            Movie/TV clichés

                            Not in Training Day nor in Flight.

                            There are exceptions, true, but Washington seems to follow a line in well-played but humourlessly stoic leads. He's becoming a sort of Gene Hackman type, playing variations of himself with some conviction and style, but missing the flexibility of choice of roles Hackman had, especially lighter ones. When you get Washington, you get thumpingly-serious Washington and nowt else.

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                              Movie/TV clichés

                              I'm going off a very small sample size here, but I've noticed that — in any sort of action film — when our heroes have to do some hasty, DIY hairdressing on themselves, in order to fashion a disguise, it always comes out looking like they've spent two hours in Vidal Sassoon.

                              See Harrison Ford in The Fugitive and Franka Potente in The Bourne Identity. Are there any more examples of this?

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                                Movie/TV clichés

                                Stumpy Pepys wrote: I'm going off a very small sample size here, but I've noticed that — in any sort of action film — when our heroes have to do some hasty, DIY hairdressing on themselves, in order to fashion a disguise, it always comes out looking like they've spent two hours in Vidal Sassoon.

                                See Harrison Ford in The Fugitive and Franka Potente in The Bourne Identity. Are there any more examples of this?
                                None specifically, but said hasty hairdressing will have begun with rough hacking at their mane with a big pair of scissors.

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                                  Movie/TV clichés

                                  ian.64 wrote: Not in Training Day nor in Flight.

                                  There are exceptions, true, but Washington seems to follow a line in well-played but humourlessly stoic leads. He's becoming a sort of Gene Hackman type, playing variations of himself with some conviction and style, but missing the flexibility of choice of roles Hackman had, especially lighter ones. When you get Washington, you get thumpingly-serious Washington and nowt else.
                                  Not really. He was more upbeat and jovial in that recent thing with Mark Wahlberg. It was an action film, but still.

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                                    Movie/TV clichés

                                    Sits wrote: None specifically, but said hasty hairdressing will have begun with rough hacking at their mane with a big pair of scissors.
                                    Well, there's also the trope of cutting your own hair to signpost mental anguish.

                                    See Jodie Foster in The Accused or Béatrice Dalle in Betty Blue.

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                                      Movie/TV clichés

                                      Stumpy Pepys wrote: Béatrice Dalle in Betty Blue.
                                      Hold on, I thought Betty Blue was a five-minute short? There's more after that opening scene

                                      On a broad point, I love that these cliches exist: it gives you a wonderful jolt when a film bends or subverts them. That said, the "downbeat" ending itself has become something of a cliche.

                                      oooOh, best endings for average films:

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                                        Movie/TV clichés

                                        News reports on TV. These are always done extremely badly, even when they get real newsreaders to do them.

                                        Saw one on a repeat of The Bill the other day. No real newsreader.

                                        "They're calling the man The East End Ripper".

                                        Given that the original Ripper was from the East End, that would be unlikely.

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                                          Movie/TV clichés

                                          Tubby Isaacs wrote:

                                          "They're calling the man The East End Ripper".

                                          Given that the original Ripper was from the East End, that would be unlikely.
                                          ha-ha that tickled me.

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                                            Movie/TV clichés

                                            ian.64 wrote: It was touched on above, but there's also the typecasting element. Michael Ironside has been done.

                                            J T Walsh? Sleazy, probably corrupt authority figure.


                                            Denzil Washington: fine, noble, upstanding, John Everyman, boring.
                                            That's Will Smith.

                                            You got your black actors mixed up. Samuel L. Jackson won't be happy.

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                                              Movie/TV clichés

                                              Samuel L. Jackson, now there's a cliché merchant, to the point of caricature. Though whjen he drops that too-cool-for-school shtick he can be an impressive actor.

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                                                Movie/TV clichés

                                                Hero is investigating something fishy. He's a martial-arts-savvy ex-cop or ex-special forces man who left the police department/special forces because they were all corrupt bureaucrats who didn't appreciate a maverick who gets things done. His field work finally leads to an apparently respectable but corrupt businessman.

                                                Hero irrupts in his office.

                                                Secretary springs up from her chair. 'You can't go in there. Mr Moneybags is busy'.

                                                Secretary runs after hero in an unsuccessful attempt to stop him.

                                                Hero storms into the inner sanctum. 'I'm sorry, Mr Moneybags. I told him you were busy' says her secretary in a mawkish apologetic tone.

                                                'It's alright, Helen. I'll handle this', says Mr Moneybags.

                                                'What do you want?' he asks hero. His expression has changed from condescension to a chilly stare. You know the man doesn't like to be fucked with.

                                                'People like you sicken me', says hero, and indeed his face shows repulsion. 'You think you can do as you please just because you have money'.

                                                Mr Moneybags clearly doesn't care much for moral lessons and he lets it be known with some sarcastic retort. 'Get out of here or I'll call security', he finally says, having run out of patience.

                                                'That won't be necessary; I'm leaving', says the hero before issuing a threat. He's clearly not scared of Mr Moneybag's money and power.

                                                If it's a martial arts film, some ninjas on Mr Moneybag's payroll will appear out of nowhere, ready to teach the hero a lesson. They attack hero one by one in an orderly fashion. Hero gets rid of them without breaking sweat and calmly leaves Mr Moneybag's office not without addressing an ironic one-liner to him. Mr Moneybags looks slightly startled.

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                                                  Movie/TV clichés

                                                  That wins the thread.

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                                                    Movie/TV clichés

                                                    News reports on TV. These are always done extremely badly, even when they get real newsreaders to do them.
                                                    Indeed, and said rolling news always seems to be on the TV in the corner of the bar - miraculously becoming super-audible as soon as the relevant story about local murder or imminent disaster/alien invasion comes up.

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