Dumb Movie Cliches (1 Viewer)

[Garrett Lundy]

A few more.

Ninja using straight swords (example: Shogun, The Last Samurai,or The Hunted). This is a historical error. After 1200AD or so almost all of the long swords in japan were manufactured "curved" as a result of a better method of heat treating. Professional assassins would want nothing to do with an antique inferior weapon, especially when their "victim" is almost always a well-armed samurai. Yes I am a martial arts geek.

If a car gets wrecked, damaged, or destroyed in a movie, 9 times out of ten its a Ford Mustang

Modern-day christ avatars must be long-haired peacenik-types.

Grocery bags must have bread & celery sticking out the top

What asian character doesn't know Kung-Fu/Karate?

You can't eat at a diner in the southwest unless you're wearing a plastic-mesh trucker cap.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

this goes with the adam sandler/chris farley one. The attractive girl will always fall in love with the male lead, even if he's disgustingly unattractive (George Costanza "SEINFELD" who always had these attractive girlfriends...) a slob, or as shallow as a puddle.

Bugs exposed to radiation or atomic bombs always grow to enormous sizes with bizarre abilities and attack only the main cast members and those connected to them. Yet, despite the deformities, they still stick to a basic formula designated to their species, so that the scientists can figure out a pattern and stop them.

The young spunky scientist has a theory that is proven with the bugs, but isn't believed until it's too late.

Couples tend to have sex with the covers over all of the revealing parts of the body, no matter how hot and steamy...

Girls at sleepovers are always supermodels, and always wear bikinis and have pillow fights.

Ghosts always will appear to a single person, who doesn't take much convincing to believe in the phenomenon.

Serial killers always attack on a particular date, even if it's not their motive (friday the 13th, halloween. Did michael myers PLAN to be moved to a new hospital on Oct. 30th in Halloween 4?) Did the opening of a new camp in f13th part 2 have to be on a friday the 13th weekend?).

High school students never have pimples or are designated to particular cliques, unless it's necessary to the plot. They're also all about 10 years older than every other high school student. (sometimes it's only the main cast that's in their 20s, but the extras can be regular aged)

The awkward shy girl will get the guy in the end.

Nobody has a baby unless it's important to the plot. Other than that, no children present.

Murderers and evil people like to explain their motives, but only to the main characters. You never see the first murder victim go "Why?" and get an answer.

 

[Beau]

In this situation, a police detective would figure this out on his own, and when telling his Cheif, the Cheif would be sceptical and give the detective 48 hours to prove it, or else the mayor is gonna have his ass.

 

[andrew markworthy]

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Whenever someone drops a bag of groceries on the sidewalk, there are boxes & cans but never any glass jars to break.

 

[StephenA]

There's also loose fruit like apples, oranges, and pears when a grocery bag is dropped and broken open. The fruit is never put in the bags that the produce section provides.

 

[DouglasRobert]

Maybe a more used clcihe in the 50's or so.

The scientist or doctor who thinks he can talk or communicate with the creature/ alien or monster and always gets killed by it. And usually they either discovered it or created it as well.

Maybe mentioned already:
In fight scenes the bad guys rarely attack all at once, but one at a time.

 

[WillG]

A bad guy, thinking there is no way he can lose the fight offers the protagonist "One shot" at him, which always proves to be a fatal mistake.

 

[Danny Tse]

Apparently no one in the movies uses their parking brakes....whenever a car stops and put into "park", the car always moves forward a tiny bit, letting the audience know that the driver forget putting on the parking brakes.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Douglas,

The "there are things man was not meant to know" cliche is most often associated with 50s sci-fi, but has been used as recently as STAR TREK III when David Marcus pays the price for his recklesness.

 

[Todd Phillips]

I never use my parking brake either...am I a cliche?

 

[John_Bonner]

In a foot chase you'll always hear one of the good guys (not the hero) say "go on without me"

 

[Nick Sievers]

I'm sick of characters who are having a bad day and then someone drives through the puddle right next to them. Of course this never happens when they are having a great day.

 

[Lars Larsen]

If you are fleeing on a motorcycle, always head for the congested downtown trafic. Makes for great inter-weaving shots.

Hero and rescued young lady are always hetero and a perfect match.

Airport security is actually quite sloppy. If you run fast enough you can actually get past security, gate check and any personel who might be standing there, even if you don't have a boarding card, and on to the plane to say sorry to the love of your life. Only resistance you will encounter is a woman saying: "Sir, you can't go in there...!"

If you are in the middle of a car chase, don't worry - you are not likely to run out of gas, although you are probably doing 2-3 mpg with your driving style.

If the point of collision in a "rear-ending" is obscured from view, the car is likely to magically go over the other car, rotate 180 degrees and land on the roof.

Tracing a call is always very slow.

 

[EricW]

in racing scenes, when the guy's trying to go as fast as he can, he takes 10 seconds to switch up to each gear (Days of Thunder)

 

[Rob Gardiner]

THE MOST OVER-USED MOVIE CLICHE OF ALL TIME

An entire genre of film is based on this:

Boy meets girl. They hate each other. He thinks she's stuck up and she finds him annoying. Then they go on some wacky adventure, and 90 minutes later, they're in love.

 

[Matt_M]

How aboout when you see a glass jar full of marbles it will always end up spilled with somebody tripping over them. However, first they will
A: Run in place as if on a treadmill
B: Take a giant leap before landing on their back

 

[BretWeaver]

How about possibly the most cliched of all shots... appears in over half of movies I would imagine.

A character is left alone in a room to poke and prod around... meanwhile we see someone else comming towards the room (by parallel editing) and while we think they are going to get caught! Right as the second character opens the door the first character is sitting calmly in the chair having completed their task without the alert of anyone... JUST IN TIME!

Wow that bugs me.

 

[Holadem]

...and you know their first lead, if any, is a bust. Why do they even bother?

--
H

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I can't remember the Simpsons episode, but it involved a traced call

Wiggum: "Let's see, five-five-five, oh man, this thing has got to be fake"

wads up phone number and throws it away.