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    #76
    Movie/TV clichés

    "Do you have the disc?"

    And, strangely, never:

    "Yes, and I made some copies just in case, you know, we might lose it."

    Comment


      #77
      Movie/TV clichés

      Not so much a cliché but a tribute of sorts to a cliché in Blazing Saddles (the day I stop laughing at this film will be a sign that I have lost the will to live) when Taggart shouts ‘We’ll head them off at the pass’ as Sheriff Bart and The Waco Kid try to make their escape.

      ‘Head them off at the pass? I hate that cliché!’ states Hedley Lamarr who then shoots Taggart in the foot; brilliant.

      Otherwise, if there is a scene in a liquor store/off-licence then it usually leads to a robbery, murder or both. Best scenes were in Alex Cox’s Repoman (a movie I enjoyed in spite of Emilio Estevez).

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        #78
        Movie/TV clichés

        I remember an architect emailing the Kermode-Mayo show, complaining that architects were always handsome, brooding and idiosyncratic types — think Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead or Paul Newman in The Towering Inferno.

        He pointed out that he'd personally spent the last few weeks drawing toilets for office buildings.

        Comment


          #79
          Movie/TV clichés

          Cliche one: Evil Bad Guy has somehow managed to recruit several goons to do his bidding / look menacing.

          Cliche two: Evil Bad Guy gets annoyed and offs one of his own goons in a fit of pique, even if they are a Useful Goon e.g. top assassin, highly trained spy. (For soem reason Evil bad guy has had a shark tank installed for just this possibility.)

          Cliche two point one: Evil Bad Guy has a technical expert build him a new kind of weapon and asks technical expert if anyone else can programme the weapon / stop the weapon / replicate the weapon. When technical expert says No, Evil Bad Guy shoots him.

          Cliche three: none of the other goons seem to react to the Evil Bad Guy killing one of their fellow goons or even reconsider their chosen career as goons. They seem very accepting that being killed by your boss is one of the risks of goonery.

          Cliche four: When a mob of goons face down the intrepid hero they attack him one at a time until they get bored, then rush him in a group and subdue him. But then they hold him in such a way he can bash two of them together, break free and start beating up the rest of the goons.

          Cliche five: A hero can take a bullet in the shoulder and carry on fighting. A goon takes a kick to the face and is knocked out stone cold and effectively removed from hostilities.

          Comment


            #80
            Movie/TV clichés

            The brilliant and sadly buried series 'Outlaws' played really inventive and sharp-witted games with the kind of cliches Geoffrey mentions. Almost every court-room scene involved really petty misdemenours, the defendant had always been cajoled by the police to admit to more crimes than they'd done in order to reduce their crime list and in exchange for a reduced sentance. The whole thing was done with the collusion of the CPS and was emphatically a box-ticking exercise.

            The thing is a genuinely good programme about criminal justice will ultimately end up being essentially about politics or at least having some kind of political perspective and the kind of shows Geoffrey is talking about aren't about that are they? They're just anodyne human interest stories about nice men and women with feelings and boring shite like that.

            Comment


              #81
              Movie/TV clichés

              Carnivorous Vulgaris wrote: When hacking into something it's usually the IRS database or MI5 mainframe in order to strike a blow for democracy or to shunt millions of dollars into the pockets of the needy. This is usually displayed as an interactive process, their fingers flying across the keyboard like lightning as they tersely announce "They're onto me!" (usually followed by a voice over their headset saying "You've got five seconds before they zero you!"). Should their hack be successful, the screen will dissolve into a swirling black hole of data, accompanied by an appropriate "swooshing" sound, before a graphic or icon helpfully announcing something like "IRS Database, Department of Treasury" will appear, cueing triumphant exclamations of "I'm in!"
              All true. However, any director showing someone endlessly hunched over a Linux terminal window, entering stuff on the command line would be getting his P45.

              Comment


                #82
                Movie/TV clichés

                An assassin has his target in his sights, the crosshairs in his scope fixed on his victim He always never gets to shoot his intended hit as something will always get in the way, foiling his plans.

                Comment


                  #83
                  Movie/TV clichés

                  Have we done the always reliable — and entirely counter-intuitive — scene where when a gang, or individual, is under siege in an office building they inevitably head for the roof. I mean would you?

                  Comment


                    #84
                    Movie/TV clichés

                    In most cases, when someone has found themselves at the centre of some horrible incident which is not their fault, they will automatically be accused of having caused it and be given no time to argue their case, and, furthermore, be bitterly pursued by people who really can't be bothered to check the facts out thoroughly first.

                    Comment


                      #85
                      Movie/TV clichés

                      Talking of pursuit, characters may be chased after villains in long and arduous sequences of high-speed running, where they display unusually high levels of fitness that would envy even the most accomplished of professional athletes.

                      You wouldn't have to even look to sense that someone you were looking for is hiding only a couple of feet away from you behind a crate. But that's okay. If you were in a movie, you'd stop, look around you instead of looking down (and instantly finding them) and, instead of being really painstaking about it, would just call it a day after a few seconds, then leave.

                      Comment


                        #86
                        Movie/TV clichés

                        The villain is shot dead, but he kindly ensures to drop down in front of the camera to reveal the person who killed him, who stands, strategically placed, right behind him.

                        Comment


                          #87
                          Movie/TV clichés

                          This thread is making me sad because it's making me like movies less.

                          Comment


                            #88
                            Movie/TV clichés

                            Cliche three: none of the other goons seem to react to the Evil Bad Guy killing one of their fellow goons or even reconsider their chosen career as goons. They seem very accepting that being killed by your boss is one of the risks of goonery.
                            I dunno, that one can work.

                            Comment


                              #89
                              Movie/TV clichés

                              In war films a platoon of soldiers will always walk along the top of a ridge, artistically silhouetted against the setting sun/full moon which, in the real world, would make them a target for every enemy soldier with in a 10 mile radius.

                              Also, human bodies, plaster walls and millimetre thick car doors will stop high velocity rifle bullets unless, of course, the hero is such a crack-shot that he can shoot a hidden target through the wall.

                              Oh and baddies will always shoot the goodie in the chest, not considering the possibility that he/she is probably wearing body armour and that the sensible thing to do would be to blow their head off whilst they've got the chance.

                              Comment


                                #90
                                Movie/TV clichés

                                Jongudmund wrote: Cliche four: When a mob of goons face down the intrepid hero they attack him one at a time until they get bored, then rush him in a group and subdue him. But then they hold him in such a way he can bash two of them together, break free and start beating up the rest of the goons.
                                Baddies queuing up one-by-one to fight with the hero is a given. But then it is cinematic.

                                What I never understand is when it's something like the start of Terminator 2, when Arnie's fighting the bikers in the bar. It's obvious after he dispatches the first two or three that he has superhuman strength, but they still queue up to be thrown through windows or have their arms broken.

                                Comment


                                  #91
                                  Movie/TV clichés

                                  A detective will always miss an important family engagement and is accused by his wife of always putting the job first. He'll never bother explaining that he was late because he was caught up in a gunfight.

                                  Consequently, a good detective must always be divorced or on the verge of marital breakdown.

                                  One more - When two characters have an argument over a misunderstanding, one will leave the room. The other character will go after the first to try and explain but stops when the door slams back in their face. They never bother to open the door and continue their pursuit, thus missing the chance to iron out the original misubderstanding. Lazy.

                                  Comment


                                    #92
                                    Movie/TV clichés

                                    ian.64 wrote: Talking of pursuit, characters may be chased after villains in long and arduous sequences of high-speed running, where they display unusually high levels of fitness that would envy even the most accomplished of professional athletes.
                                    That's just reminded me of the scene in the first OSS 117 film where the titular character chases a suspect through the night time alleys of Cairo. Its a sequence of sprint to a junction, look around and then sprint off again, reach a junction look around and then sprint. It's very funny, but the whole film is brilliant.

                                    Comment


                                      #93
                                      Movie/TV clichés

                                      What I never understand is when it's something like the start of Terminator 2, when Arnie's fighting the bikers in the bar. It's obvious after he dispatches the first two or three that he has superhuman strength, but they still queue up to be thrown through windows or have their arms broken.
                                      It's the biker code, duh.

                                      Comment


                                        #94
                                        Movie/TV clichés

                                        Mat wrote: The brilliant and sadly buried series 'Outlaws' played really inventive and sharp-witted g
                                        There's another less brilliant film called "Outlaw" with Danny Dyer.

                                        On the plus side, it did give rise to the worst tourist promotion video of all time.

                                        Comment


                                          #95
                                          Movie/TV clichés

                                          What's Gloucester like? The one in Mass is attractive, but very harsh. The one in Virginia is the sort of place where you can imagine selling your soul to the Devil at the crossroads.

                                          Comment


                                            #96
                                            Movie/TV clichés

                                            Carnivorous Vulgaris wrote:
                                            When hacking into something it's usually the IRS database or MI5 mainframe in order to strike a blow for democracy or to shunt millions of dollars into the pockets of the needy. This is usually displayed as an interactive process, their fingers flying across the keyboard like lightning as they tersely announce "They're onto me!" (usually followed by a voice over their headset saying "You've got five seconds before they zero you!"). Should their hack be successful, the screen will dissolve into a swirling black hole of data, accompanied by an appropriate "swooshing" sound, before a graphic or icon helpfully announcing something like "IRS Database, Department of Treasury" will appear, cueing triumphant exclamations of "I'm in!"
                                            None of these systems ever has MS Windows. More likely an entirely black screen with large red text, or similar.

                                            Comment


                                              #97
                                              Movie/TV clichés

                                              90% of snarling-spittle-flecked-bug-eyed bad guys/what-the-fuq-are-you-looking-at grizzled army officers are played by this guy (brilliantly, as it happens):

                                              Comment


                                                #98
                                                Movie/TV clichés

                                                What I don't get is that no-one - no-one - in the history of movies who sports the pastel-coloured-sweater-over-the-shoulder look has ever been portrayed as anything other than a colossal d-bag. And yet, I still see people rock this style (accompanied by some sort of boating shoe, of course) in real life. Said finery-fanwahs must either a) rise above it, dismissing it as a mere cultural frivolity of which their kind has no time for; b) enjoy the arch, archer's accuracy of the representation and agree to be "the good chap"; c) never go to the movies, preferring instead the crisp social buggery of the regatta or the quiet, hushed blood-lust of butler-baiting. Or maybe they are head of Bain Capital and don't give a flying fuq.

                                                Jocks, on the other hand, have no excuse. They need to attend movies so they can get some over-the-sweater action with Mary-Lou. They must therefore know exactly how they are portrayed in movies. And yet, everyone of their ilk I've met (barring a few) behaves in the exact same way. Maybe they don't care: they get to fuq the prom queen, after all. Wait, I think I've gone all meta: am I writing the nerd's blog in some Pretty in Pink redux? Nah.

                                                Comment


                                                  #99
                                                  Movie/TV clichés

                                                  Slightly Brown wrote: 90% of snarling-spittle-flecked-bug-eyed bad guys/what-the-fuq-are-you-looking-at grizzled army officers are played by this guy (brilliantly, as it happens):

                                                  Indeed. No casting director ever got fired for hiring Michael Ironside.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Movie/TV clichés

                                                    Stumpy Pepys wrote: Indeed. No casting director ever got fired for hiring Michael Ironside.
                                                    I dunno, I think Ang Lee was right to wonder whether he was quite right for Mr Ferrars.

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