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    Hypnosis is almost always successful and works very quickly.

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      Originally posted by tee rex View Post
      I watched (bits of) two of the newer Star Wars movies recently - Rogue One and some other re/pre-boot (they blur after a while).

      Anyway they both included the sci-fi staple of a space vehicle landing on flat, empty land, several hundred metres away from their destination. Then the cast got out and walked, for no reason except to build tension. Very poor parking.
      And they can't possibly use any of their high tech scanners when they've parked. They have to get out and look.

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        Originally posted by Sits View Post
        Hypnosis is almost always successful and works very quickly.
        For persuading people to watch the Star Wars sequels?

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          We may have remarked on it before, but the tendency of space explorers to crack the seals on their helmets or their quarantine bubbles before being a hundred percent certain it's safe.

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            Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
            We may have remarked on it before, but the tendency of space explorers to crack the seals on their helmets or their quarantine bubbles before being a hundred percent certain it's safe.
            Watching Alien Covenant were we?

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              Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
              Watching Alien Covenant were we?
              They did it in Prometheus as well.

              I was so angry about Alien Covenant when I left the cinema. It was so, so terrible and I felt absolutely furious with what an awful, lazy, stupid film it was.

              I thought Prometheus was terrible for several reasons, but Alien Covenant was just a new level of turgid idiocy.

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                Villains’ cars are particularly susceptible to getting a broken rear light (or tail light to use the proper vernacular) and shall be pulled over by the police and will be carrying guns, drugs, a body or all three.

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                  The most common last words of a murder victim appear to be "oh, hello, what are you doing here?"...

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                    A cliche I've seen enough times is one of the heroes meeting their guiding mentor/ oldest friend/ wise boss and telling them all about the evil plot/ scheme/ villainous activity, only for the person they trusted to say "I wish you had never told me that" before revealing they are in on the plot / scam / treachery.

                    This then can go in four ways
                    1) if the hero character is a minor supporting hero they get killed
                    2) if the hero character is the love interest of the main character they get captured for the hero to rescue
                    3) if it's the hero proper, they escape and their mentor becomes the next big bad of the movie
                    4) or the hero proper is forces to kill their mentor - with the optional minor twist that they may shed a tear afterwards

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                      Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                      The most common last words of a murder victim appear to be "oh, hello, what are you doing here?"...
                      Or on less well scripted dramas: “You!”

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                        Originally posted by Sits View Post

                        Or on less well scripted dramas: “You!”
                        The "oh hello..." usually means the victim didn't know the murderer was a baddie, and usually results in a quick death.

                        The "You!" usually means the prospective victim knows there is something afoot, and often produces the next trope of the murderer delaying the hit while they set out some explanation, and once we've got that far, more likely than not we're going to see the next trope of someone thwarting the murder (preferably someone assumed to have been killed in a previous scene).

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                          The alternative with both “oh hello” and “you!” are that those lines are the end of the scene, and we don’t see the visitor. The next scene will be the body.

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                            After an arrest, the suspect always needs an officer to push their head down so as not to bang it getting into the car.

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                              Originally posted by Sits View Post
                              After an arrest, the suspect always needs an officer to push their head down so as not to bang it getting into the car.
                              Police vans barely feature in TV or movies yet I suspect people are more likely to be chucked in one of them.

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                                Vera Alert: Vera and sidekick prepare to eat fish and chips (and peas) in the Land Rover... emergency! None eaten.

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                                  There are some very effective hypnotists around, who have a stellar success rate in helping people remember details of crimes.

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                                    Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                    Vera Alert: Vera and sidekick prepare to eat fish and chips (and peas) in the Land Rover... emergency! None eaten.
                                    I thought it was set in Northumberland?

                                    Arf arf, etc.

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                                      Oh God.

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                                        This is a tired old cliche from movies and cartoons that never really happens: escaping from a high window by tying bed sheets together.

                                        And then it happened:

                                        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...t-of-bedsheets

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                                          I hope he did it like Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves interrupting Marian and the Sheriff's wedding – i.e. leaping out of one window on the rope of sheets and crashing in spectacularly through the window below.

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                                            Just watched Terminator. Holds up better than many of us at the age of 36.

                                            Anyway, right at the end (Sarah Connor at the gas station) there is a non-ironic use of tumbleweed. Big bugger, blows across the screen, because "there's a storm coming". Got me wondering when the first piss-take use of tumbleweed was, and conversely, if it's still highlighted to add atmosphere to a scene, or would that get cut when the focus groups start sniggering?

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                                              Originally posted by tee rex View Post
                                              When hiring security goons for your nasty business (criminal or veneer-respectable) make sure they have no interest in sports, particularly soccer. Watching the game on TV is a guaranteed distraction, leading to death of guards and/or escape of hero.

                                              In Taken 2 (yeah, sorry) Liam Neeson's plans are greatly assisted by the entire group of baddies watching a game, and because it is Istanbul and to prove they are very uncivilised men who will not be missed, the game is in black and white.

                                              (Edit: forgot to add ... at a very helpful moment, there will be goalmouth action, and increased audience engagement).
                                              This turned up again in Snatched (Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, missable). South Americans this time.

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                                                Maybe I mentioned this before, but Deutschland 89 shows its international. Whenever one character suspects another character of being a spy or otherwise undercover for a government agency, they always have to make it a mulitple choice question.

                                                "Who do you work for? CIA? FBI? BND? KGB? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!!!"

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                                                  Similarly I may have mentioned this before but a while ago I tortured myself by sitting through 30 minutes of some truly terrible action adventure film in which the very fine actor Willem Dafoe demeaned himself by playing the treacherous vice - prez and without a hint of irony gave a henchman an instruction which ended with the words "make it look like an accident".

                                                  * The film was 'XXX State of the Union'
                                                  Last edited by Tony C; 14-01-2021, 20:19.

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                                                    I'm sure I've mentioned Goons and Henchmen before. I'm not sure it's a "cliche", but it's something that continuously bothers me. If there's some mastermind trying to make money - running a drugs scam or whatever - it's bizarre to me how many goons and henchmen seem to be willing to die for them. They're surely all mercenaries, so at the first sign of serious risk you'd think they'd just fuck off somewhere else rather than charge into the gunfire after seeing all their colleagues shot already.

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