Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2293101)
I also enjoy both these things, but I wouldn’t refer to them as cliches.
In the second case (the what-ever-happened-to captions) it's just more of an epilogue, and in the first case it's just end credits with a visual accompaniment. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2293099)
Most clichés we criticize, but some aren't bad.
Everything is a cliche. That last sentence is cliched sentiment (and so is this sentence; what is more cliche than meta-commentary?), but it's also true. There are only so many plots and plot devices out there. The trick is not to do something truly original. Nothing is truly original. The trick is to make us forget that this has all been done before, to make us fall in love again, to rearrange the furniture to make the room feel fresh, to be relatively original (in terms or present expectations defined by prior repetitions. Cliches are a valuable shorthand. Stock characters, for example, are cliches, but they are also economizing. They don't need to be explained and we only have 90 minutes to get this s**t done. Cliches offer a nice coordinating matrix of meaning, right? "OK, we're here and we're doing this and this is the sort of person we have and they've got a familiar motivation." This allows us to focus on the stuff that is unfamiliar - what the writer wants us to pay attention to. Our cliches also express the politics of the writer. The evil or jerk cop who expresses collective displeasure with policing (Defund the police! ACAB!). On the other hand, there is the maverick hero cop who "does what needs to be done" because other cops are hamstrung by liberal bleeding heart laws (e.g., Dirty Harry). The "realist" film with a scientific view which expresses a sort of anthropological interest in it's characters - no one really right or wrong. The "spiritual" film with an axiological bent which commits to the goodness and badness of people. You don't have to "prove" your politics, if you can just "show" them as common visual "axioms" which are seemingly true (because they're so familiar). Let these commonplaces do the work for you, rather than read a manifesto as clumsy exposition.
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2293099)
Another variation on this that I enjoy (although it's usually limited to teen or college movies) is when they put up pictures of the characters at the end with a "whatever happened to" caption - telling the audience what the character went on to do or what became of them.
The first time I remember seeing this was Animal House. A common gag in comedies. However, was this aping/mocking this as a trend in historical biopics and documentaries? Did that come first? |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
If I'm remembering correctly, I think the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) did the "whatever-happened-to" thing, but they did it throughout the movie (opposed to at the end) as Roger Corman made it with a semi-documentary feel.
As to putting up the faces of the actors - I wish most movies would do this because (on average) we may recognize the first 4 or so names, then after that, we're often not sure who the rest are... and unless you remember the names of all the characters, then the names of the actors become meaningless (or at least non-associative). And with the speed cast scrolls go by these days (or the way they minimize them on TV so that they are unreadable) - it's sometimes very difficult to see who played who. At least with a face to go with the name, you can learn who the stars are and then recognize them along with their names n other films. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2293131)
If I'm remembering correctly, I think the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) did the "whatever-happened-to" thing, but they did it throughout the movie (opposed to at the end) as Roger Corman made it with a semi-documentary feel.
Well, that's a decade before Animal House. This is a way to offer a denouement, so it's probably been done and done and done - I wonder if this may have been borrowed from literature (pre-cinema)? |
The Incredible Graphene Nano-Monster!!! The gray cloud of stuff monster. Sometimes made of modern day drones. Sometimes made of nano-machines. Sometimes made of space robots. Doesn't matter. It's the gray cloud of crap that attacks everything. And it's everywhere. It has struck in many films, most recently Moonfall (don't worry, no one else watched it either). This beast has also destroyed the Starship Enterprise. We have seen the beast in the Transformers films (right? I am not going to rewatch these movies, so I am just going to let this ride). It's even attacked our best president, Morgan Freeman. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2290087)
I remember reading a translation of an old epic English poem where the hero was advised by his mother that if he should see a beautiful woman along the road that he should basically rape her. No big deal. Old school epic poetry advice from a mother to a wandering hero. Fast forward a few centuries and we're watching sexual assault played off as harmless schoolboy pranks on flickering screens.
Body Double uses the peeper-creeper as the premise, with our protag (who looks like Bill Maher's thespian sibling) being lured in with a telescope fixed on a woman who, for no apparent reason, does a strip tease every night in the privacy of her own home. Films offer us a little transgression, a little fun (Han did, after all, shoot first, that lovable scoundrel), but they do in a fantasy which can normalize. It's strange, people don't go on shooting sprees after watching The Terminator, but kids will lay down in the middle of the road when they see it in a film like The Program. People have enough sense not to try to fly like Superman, but they will copy a Jackass. It makes you cringe when you think of the jokey-date-rapey gags in films like Sixteen Candles and Revenge of the Nerds. |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2295642)
Is there perhaps a double standard if the genders were reversed? For example if girls set up a camera in a boys sorority room I feel people wouldn't be bothered by that near as much or if in Body Double, the peeping Tom was a female, peeping on a male, I feel it would't bother people as much. But people can be double standard on it seems?
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2295716)
Why on earth would a girl do this?
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2295844)
To laugh at the guys and see what kind of laughs they could get. I could see it happening.
Boys have not cornered the market on cruel pranks or sexual curiosity. I won't go into details, but I was once the target of such an "observational prank" myself. That stated, voyeurism (especially involving hidden cameras) is dominated by men. There are not a lot of stories of female school employees rigging hidden cameras in the boys room, but many stories of male teachers and coaches doing so to the girls room. I recall in high school that there were girls who used to giggle about a male gym coach whose member was regularly visible in his shorts when they would do stretching exercises for class (i.e., no undies under the shorts). In retrospect, however, it seems that that coach almost certainly knew what he was doing and that the girls were laughing, in part, uncomfortably while also getting a curious "peek" at the opposite sex. In short, I think it happens, but it's not the norm and not something that we depict in literature as "female behavior." In terms of cultural radar, the predominant "blip" is that of toxic female hierarchy (mean girls, usually named Heather). |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2295844)
To laugh at the guys and see what kind of laughs they could get. I could see it happening.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2296196)
LOL, we don’t need a camera to do this.
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
That's true, but in Revenge of the Nerds, the 'cool kids' are the antagonists of the story, where as the nerds are the protagonists. If the protagonist do not do anything instigative towards the antagonists, then there is no movie. So what do people want, the protagonists, to be nice to the antagonists, and not do anything instigative at all, but then thus there is no conflict?
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
In older movies from the early 90s or before, undercover cops would have ear pieces with wires coming out to communicate, but they were hoping that the drug dealers they are trying to survey, wouldn't notice this.
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2296298)
That's true, but in Revenge of the Nerds, the 'cool kids' are the antagonists of the story, where as the nerds are the protagonists. If the protagonist do not do anything instigative towards the antagonists, then there is no movie. So what do people want, the protagonists, to be nice to the antagonists, and not do anything instigative at all, but then thus there is no conflict?
Traditionally, as it were, the antagonists kickstart events by taking action against the protagonists, I would argue. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
If they remade Revenge of the Nerds today for example, would they flip it so the nerds were these sexually predatory antagonists, that the cool girls and cool girls' boyfriends have to defeat and we cheer them on instead, because they are getting rid of the sexual predatory outcasts?
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
We have to remember that Revenge of the Nerds was a revenge movie (and the ethical merits of revenge are certainly debatable).
But the Nerds had already been targeted by the Alpha Beta's (jocks) and their girls' sorority counterpart: the Pi Delta Pi's. So the Nerds actions were purely retaliatory as they had already been victims. We can reason that the Nerds would never have gone on the offensive if they hadn't already been virtually assaulted by the Alpha Beta's and humiliated & betrayed by the Pi's. As violating and unchivalrous as it was, the audience was able to rationalize that what the Nerds did to the Pi's was justified as the Pi's had it coming. |
That makes sense and in a movie like say The Punisher (2004) if we can cheer on guy for going on a murder spree out if revenge, is spying on naked women out if revenge worse?
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Your Psychologist is the Villain! (And you are dreaming!) Are you, dear protagonist, feeling confused, unsure, losing your grip on reality? Have you been having delusions of heroism and purpose? Fear not, for I, Dr. Badguy, will help you back to reality. Of course, Dr. Badguy is not a real psychologist and is not trying to help you and, in fact, the clinic/asylum is the dreamworld which you must escape by waking up. Episode 4 of Moon Knight visits this one, but we also saw it played out in Matrix 4 (Doogie Howser is Neo's head shrink). Our hero is trapped in a dreamworld where they are lied to and told that they are mundane. BtVS visited this one ("Normal Again") and so did Smallville ("Labyrinth"). Related to this is the general "dreamworld trap" plot which has been explored so many time on Star Trek (sometimes when that old holodeck goes wonky or when an alien species tricks members of the crew). Also related to this is the "Evil Shrink" (e.g., Hannibal Lecter). This cliche is one that features both the dream world and the villain as tormentor-pretending-to-be-helper (therapist). |
:) The Implausibly Virtuous Immigrant :) Quite frequent in "present year," this cliche is didactic, it teaches us how to see (properly). Additionally, immigration is a touchy issue globally and it is hard to depict certain demographics negatively without audiences inferring an untoward message to the demo itself. Some cliches are overcorrections. This is one of them. There is a story, which is a favorite on Reddit which sums of the intended sentiment/effect of this coding, which I shall quote below:Knives Out is the most conspicuous example I can think of for this category, as it features a hard working, underappreciated immigrant employee who will literally vomit if she tells a lie. Arrested Development features Marta, a prize neither Gob nor Michael deserve--that the show swaps out actresses playing Marta's played as a meta-touch on American indifference to migrants (interchangeability of dehumanized labor) and is also a nod to how Soap Operas swap actors at the drop of a hat (Marta's character was a soap star). The counterpart to this is the Implausibly Vicious Border/ICE agent (e.g., Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada).
Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some shit happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.
This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people's cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel. Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket." But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me. He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. ****. No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best ****ing tamale I have ever had. So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow... But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My ****ing $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to say is "Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor" with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English: "Today you.... tomorrow me." Is it a true story? As Sheriff Bell says, "Well, it's true that it's a story." And even if it is not true, it's the sort of thing we want to be true. After all, if we're not cooperating, then we're competing. This cliche embraces the notion that we should set fear aside and cooperate (e.g., that cliche moment on Star Trek when Kirk lower the shields as an act of trust). |
The Millennial Parental Apology Fantasy
Everything Everywhere falls into a suddenly popular subgenre of film I call the “millennial parental apology fantasy,” alongside a host of other movies, most of them animated. (See also: Pixar’s Turning Red, Encanto, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, among others — and that’s just in the last 12 months.) Instead of telling the time-honored story of a child learning just how much their parent has sacrificed for them, these stories tell its mirror image. Instead, they are stories where the parent has to realize how badly they’ve treated their child. The ability to heal intergenerational trauma lies at least in part with that parent, and as the film wraps up, they take real steps to doing so, usually as the child realizes that the trauma did not originate with their parent but much further up the family tree. Better able to understand each other, the parent and child end the film with a better relationship.
The millennial parental apology fantasy looks at this whole scenario through a radically different lens, one where the parent is more to blame than the child. The parent has to realize the need to take their child as they are; the child usually has to realize that their parent’s horrible treatment of them is rooted in something bad their parent experienced. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2298464)
The Millennial Parental Apology Fantasy |
Originally Posted by Wyldesyde19 (Post 2298500)
I wouldn’t call this a sub genre of any sort yet. Nor a cliché. It’s more of a trend currently.
Well, "genre" is just a fancy way of saying "type" or "class." There's nothing really mythical or sacred about it. At the very least, we can call it a "type" or "sub-type." It will not be a cliche until it is unwelcome because it is predictable. On the other hand, buy this meme stock now, and you will have huge hipster points later. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2298506)
Well, "genre" is just a fancy way of saying "type" or "class." There's nothing really mythical or sacred about it. At the very least, we can call it a "type" or "sub-type." It will not be a cliche until it is unwelcome because it is predictable. On the other hand, buy this meme stock now, and you will have huge hipster points later.
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Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2298506)
Well, "genre" is just a fancy way of saying "type" or "class."
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2298797)
Not true. And you can Google the two meanings as I don’t have time right now for a lesson in English grammar.
It's generally bad form to take offense at a comment that was not addressed to you and then protest that you don't have the time to offer refutation. |
The Salty Coroner Hero cop is trying to solve the crime, but the dead body isn't making sense. Enter the Salty Coroner to provide clues and convenient exposition. He or she cracks wise effortlessly, completely comfortable around death. Often he or she eats a sandwich or another snack while working on a cadaver. Sometimes, the salty coroner wears headphones and listens to their favorite tunes while working over the dead body. The Salty Coroner is a bit like the figure of death. Just doing a job associated with an outcome which is inevitable and quite indifferent to it all. We're meant to be impressed out how much the person has seen to be so casual about it all. That the person is forced to be so indifferent to it all suggest how hard the cruel world really is, how much some people are forced to see. This emphasizes that the hero cop has also seen a lot and been toughened up by it all, perhaps making us sympathetic to the cop's crusty exterior. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
The most common Hollywood movie cliches: from hackers to unsurvivable explosions
The average guy getting the hot girl. The shy, awkward girl gets the guy. ... Walking away from a crash that would have killed a normal person. The 'one last case' before retirement (Also known as: retirony) |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2298868)
It's generally bad form to take offense at a comment that was not addressed to you and then protest that you don't have the time to offer refutation.
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Someone in a movie saying they are absolutely not going to do something or will never do something...
Followed by the next scene showing them doing the exact thing they said they would absolutely never / not do! |
Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2299152)
“Bad form”?
Yes. Bad form. If you want to play, you'll have to play nicer. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2299181)
Someone in a movie saying they are absolutely not going to do something or will never do something...
Followed by the next scene showing them doing the exact thing they said they would absolutely never / not do! Good one, Captain Steel |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
When someone wants to get rid of their iPhone for whatever reason they drop it into a street trash can.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2300877)
When someone wants to get rid of their iPhone for whatever reason they drop it into a street trash can.
A few years back, everyone was snapping their flip phone burner in half. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
I liked the road construction worker in the Sopranos who threw Vito's cellphone under a steamroller when Tony was cursing him out! ;)
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Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2300929)
A few years back, everyone was snapping their flip phone burner in half.
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How do they destroy burners with today's phones? Just break it in pieces still?
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2301426)
How do they destroy burners with today's phones? Just break it in pieces still?
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Oh why not just break the phone like in Breaking Bad?
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2301521)
Oh why not just break the phone like in Breaking Bad?
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
That makes sense. Are there any movies or TV shows since Breaking Bad, where it has to show them smash a burner phone to pieces with a hammer or blunt object?
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2301975)
That makes sense. Are there any movies or TV shows since Breaking Bad, where it has to show them smash a burner phone to pieces with a hammer or blunt object?
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Please Kill Schrödinger's Cat The most overused pop-science metaphor in film is Schrödinger's Cat. The point of the thought experiment was to ridicule the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. It was not offered to demonstrate the weirdness of the world, but the goofiness of that interpretation, under which observation of quantum event cause the universe to take on macro-properties. The gag in the cat scenario was to point out that this could leave us in a ridiculous limbo as to whether a living creature connected to a quantum measurement was alive. Popular films, as they so often do, get it wrong, extending the metaphor to cover ANY case of uncertainty. The film will outline an epistemic quandary, wheel in the Cat metaphor, and conclude that all ontological states are rendered uncertain via our epistemic poverty, which goes beyond quantum queerness into sheer ridiculousness which is well-beyond the scope of the thought experiment. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2303825)
Please Kill Schrödinger's Cat The most overused pop-science metaphor in film is Schrödinger's Cat. The point of the thought experiment was to ridicule the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. It was not offered to demonstrate the weirdness of the world, but the goofiness of that interpretation, under which observation of quantum event cause the universe to take on macro-properties. The gag in the cat scenario was to point out that this could leave us in a ridiculous limbo as to whether a living creature connected to a quantum measurement was alive. Popular films, as they so often do, get it wrong, extending the metaphor to cover ANY case of uncertainty. The film will outline an epistemic quandary, wheel in the Cat metaphor, and conclude that all ontological states are rendered uncertain via our epistemic poverty, which goes beyond quantum queerness into sheer ridiculousness which is well-beyond the scope of the thought experiment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZmvleFtR1A |
One considerable cliche in action/thriller movies is the main character, who decides to tell one of the antagonists, to warn the others that he is coming for them. Tombstone (1993) and The Crow (1994), are examples.
But why does the main character want to alert his/her enemies, and thus ruin the advantage of surprise? |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2304432)
One considerable cliche in action/thriller movies is the main character, who decides to tell one of the antagonists, to warn the others that he is coming for them. Tombstone (1993) and The Crow (1994), are examples.
But why does the main character want to alert his/her enemies, and thus ruin the advantage of surprise? |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Well in Wyatt Earp's case, I thought it would be more logical to go after enemies that don't know you are coming, and they wouldn't expect it, rather than them going running and hiding and coming up with a plan. In The Crow's case, the main villains were able to get away and formulate a plan, now that the main character had tipped them off about who he was and that he was coming for them.
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2304432)
But why does the main character want to alert his/her enemies, and thus ruin the advantage of surprise?
It also speaks to a sense of chivalry, "You've been notified. Prepare yourself. I'm coming." Once again, get hype! I'm a manz and menz proclaim their planz! It's kind like a batter calling his shot to pitcher, pointing to the fences. Tactically, it's idiotic. It only makes sense in such case that your enemies have gone to ground and you want to shake the bushes to see if any of them rabbit. In these films, however, the hero is usually an underdog taking on a big bad gang of baddies, so the announcement is goofy. It's the sort of thing you should only say if you're actual plan is to catch the first train out of Dodge--pointing to the fences and bunting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaRRK-Cyoy4 |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Love that movie!
Weird thing is I have little interest in most sports, but I love most sports movies. I think that's because sports in sports movies are usually metaphors for much more important aspects of life & represent the application of deeper philosophies. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2304606)
Love that movie!Weird thing is I have little interest in most sports, but I love most sports movies.
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2304606)
I think that's because sports in sports movies are usually metaphors for much more important aspects of life & represent the application of deeper philosophies.
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Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2304581)
I think it is primal/emotional, the roar before battle, getting yourself pumped up to get it on. Counting Coup, the Haka dance, the Declaration of Independence. Get hype!
It also speaks to a sense of chivalry, "You've been notified. Prepare yourself. I'm coming." Once again, get hype! I'm a manz and menz proclaim their planz! It's kind like a batter calling his shot to pitcher, pointing to the fences. Tactically, it's idiotic. It only makes sense in such case that your enemies have gone to ground and you want to shake the bushes to see if any of them rabbit. In these films, however, the hero is usually an underdog taking on a big bad gang of baddies, so the announcement is goofy. It's the sort of thing you should only say if you're actual plan is to catch the first train out of Dodge--pointing to the fences and bunting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaRRK-Cyoy4 |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
The Pop Cultural Reference Hall of Mirrors
So many pop cultural references that Captain American has to announce when he understands a joke, which of course is now a meme with considerable currency. It seems that establishing the bona fides of a film or TV show requires a referential awareness of the recent works of fiction which are favored by the target demo of the film or TV show. These shows do the same, so we have self-referential paradoxes in which a story will reference another story as a fiction, but this show will also reference that show as a fiction. Here is a tool which is making the rounds on Reddit. https://jamiepinheiro.com/cyclic_tv_...aradox_finder/ |
DEUS EX BACTA-TANK We play rough with our toys. They get scuffed. Even our cherished Andy popped a seam. To create stakes we need a real sense of threat and what conveys a mortal threat better than an actual injury? And so our favorite toys are much abused for our amusement. But this leaves us with a logical problem. If our hero is hurt, how does s/he keep fighting? Enter the magical pool of goo. Seriously, get into it, you don't look well. Heal up! Be it, the Lazarus Pit (Batman), the Bacta Tank (Star Wars), the Recovery Room (Wanted) or whatever, the magical pool functions as a save game point, leaving you ready to move on to the next quest at full strength. And if you're on the go, don't worry, we may have a super pill or super shot (usually with glowing green goo inside) to heal you up. Go forth into the world and multiply your ass-whoopins. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2306874)
DEUS EX BACTA-TANK [left]We play rough with our toys. They get scuffed. Even our cherished Andy popped a seam. To create stakes we need a real sense of threat and what conveys a mortal threat better than an actual injury? And so our favorite toys are much abused for our amusement. But this leaves us with a logical problem. If our hero is hurt, how does s/he keep fighting? [font=Book Antiqua][font=Arial]Enter the magical pool of goo. Seriously, get into it, you don't look well. Heal up! Be it, the Lazarus Pit (Batman), the Bacta Tank (Star Wars), the Recovery Room (Wanted) or whatever https://youtu.be/tCylH-WzqrU |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
An over-used cliché is finding a stash of - whatever - under the floorboards. This is found by walking over that exact spot in the floor & causing it to creak. This happened in American Sniper where Bradley Cooper just happens to find a huge stash of ammunition & guns under a creaky carpet. Very implausible.
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
One cliche that drives me nuts is when someone is accused of a crime, and then instead of just acting innocent about it, the person will just go nuts and admit the whole thing. I could name examples, but not sure if I should spoil any movies for anyone who hasn't seen them.
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2310651)
One cliche that drives me nuts is when someone is accused of a crime, and then instead of just acting innocent about it, the person will just go nuts and admit the whole thing. I could name examples, but not sure if I should spoil any movies for anyone who hasn't seen them.
https://youtu.be/9FnO3igOkOk |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2310651)
One cliche that drives me nuts is when someone is accused of a crime, and then instead of just acting innocent about it, the person will just go nuts and admit the whole thing. I could name examples, but not sure if I should spoil any movies for anyone who hasn't seen them.
https://youtu.be/qLa5oIGsaVQ |
Originally Posted by StuSmallz (Post 2310666)
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How about "Schrödinger's C(h)a(rac)t(er)"? You know, when a character clearly dies in a movie, whether it be in a stand-alone original or part of an existing franchise, but then that movie and/or character gets iconic (or at least successful), the studio wants a sequel, and the filmmakers suddenly regret their decision to kill off them off, so they try a resurrection, either with a very flimsy explanation as to how they survived, or even nothing at all in some cases, meaning that the character is both dead according to the canon of the previous entry, and simultaneously alive in the next one; think Blade 2 with
https://youtu.be/ecPIX0ZShFQ ...which Resurrection wants us to believe was actually an innocent paramedic who couldn't speak because he had his larynx conveniently crushed by Michael, who then swapped his clothes with the guy and escaped, and somehow never bothered removing the mask to reveal his true identity to Laurie. Yeah sure, movie. |
Originally Posted by StuSmallz (Post 2311704)
How about "Schrödinger's C(h)a(rac)t(er)"?
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Originally Posted by StuSmallz (Post 2311704)
How about "Schrödinger's C(h)a(rac)t(er)"? You know, when a character clearly dies in a movie, whether it be in a stand-alone original or part of an existing franchise, but then that movie and/or character gets iconic (or at least successful), the studio wants a sequel, and the filmmakers suddenly regret their decision to kill off them off, so they try a resurrection, either with a very flimsy explanation as to how they survived, or even nothing at all in some cases, meaning that the character is both dead according to the canon of the previous entry, and simultaneously alive in the next one; think Blade 2 with
https://youtu.be/ecPIX0ZShFQ ...which Resurrection wants us to believe was actually an innocent paramedic who couldn't speak because he had his larynx conveniently crushed by Michael, who then swapped his clothes with the guy and escaped, and somehow never bothered removing the mask to reveal his true identity to Laurie. Yeah sure, movie. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
This is an old one and may have been mentioned already...
Every movie bomb (explosion, self-destruct, or whatever) that has a countdown can only be stopped at the last second. The "blue wire" can never be cut with two minutes to spare or a half hour in advance. Whatever the threat is, it must always be averted or escaped from only at the last second. We all understand the need for tension, but you'd think they'd break with such a predictable formula once in a while. ;) |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
One possible cliche I noticed in movies, people are arrested, but are able to escape, and I think maybe they wouldn't have been able to escape if the police or authorities actually handcuffed them behind their backs, rather than cuff their hands in front.
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If I hear the phrase, "It's complicated" one more time, I may have to go on a rampage...:rolleyes:
I don't know if writer's keep using that long hackneyed phrase because it's been used in so many films/series, or whether they can't think of any better dialogue. Sheesh!! |
Originally Posted by GulfportDoc (Post 2314946)
If I hear the phrase, "It's complicated" one more time, I may have to go on a rampage...:rolleyes:
I don't know if writer's keep using that long hackneyed phrase because it's been used in so many films/series, or whether they can't think of any better dialogue. Sheesh!! |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2310722)
This is one movie I was thinking I was thinking of yes. Perry Mason was always funny for that for me. I can spoil to others that do it if that's okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_jddH_0MI |
Originally Posted by GulfportDoc (Post 2314946)
If I hear the phrase, "It's complicated" one more time, I may have to go on a rampage...:rolleyes:
I don't know if writer's keep using that long hackneyed phrase because it's been used in so many films/series, or whether they can't think of any better dialogue. Sheesh!! |
Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2315673)
I find that people who aren’t in a relationship or in one that isn’t feasible very often say “It’s complicated”. In other words, their significant other doesn’t exist.
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Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2312566)
This is an old one and may have been mentioned already...
Every movie bomb (explosion, self-destruct, or whatever) that has a countdown can only be stopped at the last second. The "blue wire" can never be cut with two minutes to spare or a half hour in advance. Whatever the threat is, it must always be averted or escaped from only at the last second. We all understand the need for tension, but you'd think they'd break with such a predictable formula once in a while. ;) |
Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2315677)
Yeah, I really hate that one, might be top of my list. I don’t think it’d be any less dramatic/traumatic/tense if they had an hour to spare.
Have you seen the bomb disarming scene in The Manhattan Project (1986)? |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Another cliche or trope in older movies is that in a couple, the woman wants to have kids and the guy does not, but this seems a little odd nowadays since nowadays it seems it's the other around more often.
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2319329)
Another cliche or trope in older movies is that in a couple, the woman wants to have kids and the guy does not, but this seems a little odd nowadays since nowadays it seems it's the other around more often.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2319675)
Can’t say I’ve noticed that men want kids these days more than women do.
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Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2319681)
Right? No one does! :lol:
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Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2319730)
No one notices... or no one wants kids? ;)
I really wanted kids at one point. And then it… passed. 🤷🏼*♀️ |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2311949)
The Fast and Furious movies are bad for this as they ressurected two characters, who seemed pretty dead in the movies they died in.
If you don't see the body, they aren't dead. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2319737)
If you don't see the body, they aren't dead.
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Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2319741)
Then there is the old soap opera cliché - where the apparently resurrected dead person is the long lost twin brother or sister of the dead person.
If they really had stones, the would next kill off the twin and then reveal the triplet with amnesia the following week. |
I'm sick to death of characters in the movies saying "I get it." It seems to be present in all dialogue exchanges. Whatever happened to "I understand", "Okay", or "I see what you mean"...:rolleyes:
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Originally Posted by GulfportDoc (Post 2319781)
I'm sick to death of characters in the movies saying "I get it." It seems to be present in all dialogue exchanges. Whatever happened to "I understand", "Okay", or "I see what you mean"...:rolleyes:
Yeah, that one is pretty common. I get it. I really do. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
I've noticed "downrange" and "copy that" are in just about every macho shoot 'em up now.
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Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2319734)
I was getting at the latter. But could be either, I suppose.
I really wanted kids at one point. And then it… passed. 🤷🏼*♀️ |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2320023)
Oh well it's just my women friends say women having children is an ideal of the patriarchy, as men wanting children more in other words it seems, but maybe that is not correct.
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You're An Oper8tor? You're Boss is the Baddie Are you a person with "very particular set of skills" presently working for BIG AGENCY? Are you a gray man, Navy Seal, CIA Field Agent, or some other part of the ACME Badass Inc.? If so, your boss, or the boss of your boss wants you dead. Shocking, I know. But I assure you, it's true. The whole agency will be sent after you. And INTERPOL will probably be after you too and there will probably be a car chase in some Euro-town or city that will have a prominent TITLE CARD when we're shown the exciting exotic location. We will watch you in the BIG ROOM with lots of SCREENS as the Geek Squad tries to track you down across the globe. Your colleagues, especially those in the SUPER-SECRET PROGRAM that created you as an ultimate bad dude will be sent to kill you. Inevitably you possess some secret that would hurt BIG AGENCY if LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT found out (LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT would be scandalized to learn about all dirty things that have been happening!). You must survive so the truth about SUPER-SECRET PROGRAM can come to light and BIG AGENCY can be brought to heel by LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT. Only you can complete this mission. But take heart. This is a mission we've seen you complete, dear protagonist, so very many times by now. We'll warm up the popcorn popper. You stretch a little so you can do all that Parkour. |
Originally Posted by GulfportDoc (Post 2319781)
I'm sick to death of characters in the movies saying "I get it." It seems to be present in all dialogue exchanges. Whatever happened to "I understand", "Okay", or "I see what you mean"...:rolleyes:
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 1993879)
Then there’s the trope of the actress who doesn’t want to do nudity (which is fine) & who keeps half of her clothes on during sex.
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Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2319796)
I've noticed "downrange" and "copy that" are in just about every macho shoot 'em up now.
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Originally Posted by Iroquois (Post 2320349)
In what world is saying "okay" somehow less of a cliché than "I get it"?
Personally, I tend to use the word “fine” a lot in these cases, but never hear it in movies. |
Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2320694)
Indeed! I think “I get it” as a way of interrupting someone who perhaps is over-explaining etc. makes perfect sense.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2320700)
One of my very worse habits is trying to stop someone explaining something I already know. Especially mansplainers.
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Originally Posted by AgrippinaX (Post 2320701)
Exactly! I think that’s precisely the context for “I get it”, with a sprinkle of sarcasm.
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Moving on...;)
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Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
'Moving on' could also be used in place of 'I get it' or 'Okay' or even 'OK' but not 'K':D
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Originally Posted by Citizen Rules (Post 2320714)
'Moving on' could also be used in place of 'I get it' or 'Okay' or even 'OK' but not 'K':D
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One that really rubbed me the wrong way this morning is the protagonists in all kinds of sci-fi always needing to be affiliated/in contact with the FBI. Be that The X-Files (though to be fair, that’s one of the better examples), Travelers or whatnot. Obviously it’s a plotting gift for these groups to be able to easily legitimise themselves in their new reality/future/past/parallel world/whatever, but it’s unspeakably lazy. Also I can never suspend my disbelief that the FBI wouldn’t just tell them to **** off. It would be much more interesting (and provide the coveted stakes) for these people to be perpetually at risk of being shot/jailed/put in a psych ward by the powers that be.
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Lost Hope/Hell's Ball/Party Rockers In July 1518, residents of the city of Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) were struck by a sudden and seemingly uncontrollable urge to dance. The hysteria kicked off when a woman known as Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to silently twist, twirl and shake. She kept up her solo dance-a-thon for nearly a week, and before long, some three-dozen other Strasbourgeois had joined in. By August, the dancing epidemic had claimed as many as 400 victims. With no other explanation for the phenomenon, local physicians blamed it on “hot blood” and suggested the afflicted simply gyrate the fever away. A stage was constructed and professional dancers were brought in. The town even hired a band to provide backing music, but it wasn’t long before the marathon started to take its toll. Many dancers collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Some even died from strokes and heart attacks. The strange episode didn’t end until September, when the dancers were whisked away to a mountaintop shrine to pray for absolution. Breaking Bad - Jessie Pinkman, wracked with grief and guilt and trapped a job that literally has a dead end, starts a party at home as a distraction. It's a party he's paying for and a party he insists cannot end. Peaches had a song featured in Lost in Translation called F*** the Pain Away and Jessie is trying to party and dance the pain away. It's a desperate strategy which is doomed from the start. Elation gives way to exhaustion and the party becomes a grating marathon. This "upside down," this darkside of the bacchanal is mocked in Key and Peele's parody of LMFAO's Party Rockers However, one does not need to go to parody to find the themes of exhaustion and even possession in party rock videos. Consider the video to "Turn Down for What" in which people appear to be having the time of their lives, but who dance to exhaustion, completely enthralled with sensual passion even to the point of incestual contact, their engorged sex-organs literally leading them to spread the contagion to other revelers. The idea of the Ball of the Damned is also featured in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell at a palace called "Lost Hope" in the land of the faerie in which the man with the thistledown hair tortures the sleeping souls of his human companions with dancing revels that never end in his palace. In their waking hours they're exhausted and hope for death, but the party never ends. Perhaps the psychological roots of this terror come from the secret loathing people have of parties. Survey research has revealed that the average person does not feel socially comfortable at parties, and yet we all show up, at some point in our lives to sample what they have to offer. Perhaps it is the recognition of the futility of the death-denial implicit in such fertility rituals, the ritual itself hinting at the terrors that would come to us if we were eternally denied the release of the grave. As I see it, this one is not quite yet a cliche, but form which is lingering in our collective subconscious in some form or fashion. Most important, these repetitions bespeak the dangers of letting our youth taste dangerous enthusiasms, lest they be possessed and consumed by them. Specifically, "square" as it sounds, we must keep an eye out for defiant outbreaks of dancing among the teenage population as they may only be a few degrees of Kevin Bacon from damnation. Yours in Chastity, Rev. Shaw Moore |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2332559)
Perhaps the psychological roots of this terror come from the secret loathing people have of parties. Survey research has revealed that the average person does not feel socially comfortable at parties, and yet we all show up, at some point in our lives to sample what they have to offer. Perhaps it is the recognition of the futility of the death-denial implicit in such fertility rituals, the ritual itself hinting at the terrors that would come to us if we were eternally denied the release of the grave.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2332707)
Say what? :rolleyes:
I'd explain it to you, but you don't quite have a grasp on the concept of genre and you're about as much fun to talk to as a paper cut. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
I guess this isn't a current movie cliche, but it seems that every movie I have come across in the 80s that takes place in Chicago, has to have a saxophone dominating the soundtrack.
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Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2344175)
I guess this isn't a current movie cliche, but it seems that every movie I have come across in the 80s that takes place in Chicago, has to have a saxophone dominating the soundtrack.
The 80s had a kind of odd obsession with the sax. I think that there are instrument-cliches. Unaccompanied Piano -- We want you to feel sad. Seriously, please be sad or at least melancholy. Unaccompanied Electric Guitar -- Awe, general badassery. Unaccompanied Synthesizer -- Coldness, danger, fear, dystopia. Unaccompanied Saxaphone -- "It's Sexy time" or "I'm gettin' to old for this s**t." |
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