Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Another cliche, if a character takes a moral stance against something in the first act, you know he/she is going to do a 180 on it later, i.e., The Dark Knight etc.
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BIG TECH BADDIE I think the Bill Gates/Elon Musk/Steve Jobs villain is now (e.g., Kingsmen, Don't Look Up, Venom) a cliche. Black turtlenecks, visionary statements, nefarious hidden plans, the Generic Steve Jobs is nice replacement for the Generic German or Brit or Middle Eastern Terrorist or Random Russian who was our convenient bugbear. |
Originally Posted by ironpony (Post 2278257)
Another cliche, if a character takes a moral stance against something in the first act, you know he/she is going to do a 180 on it later, i.e., The Dark Knight etc.
I hate that anything that gets held in the camera frame for an extra beat will turn out to be something that gets paid off with a surprise reveal. They hang a lantern on damned near every twist, surprise, and reveal such that you don't really have to watch the film to get it. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Cars are often able jump things. In reality, cars just tend to crash into any obstacles.
Like, say with a movable bridge that is opening - instead of the car gaining about 10 feet of air and then landing on the other side, it would most likely just crash into the other side, then fall into the water. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2278262)
Cars are often able jump things. In reality, cars just tend to crash into any obstacles.
Like, say with a movable bridge that is opening - instead of the car gaining about 10 feet of air and then landing on the other side, it would most likely just crash into the other side, then fall into the water. How many Chargers did they destroy for the old Dukes of Hazard TV show? Speed is a apotheosis of these one. Sure, a city bus will do an Evil Knievel jump. Just hitting a curb or a pothole can destroy a rim. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2278265)
How many Chargers did they destroy for the old Dukes of Hazard TV show? Speed is a apotheosis of these one. Sure, a city bus will do an Evil Knievel jump. Just hitting a curb or a pothole can destroy a rim.
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If it isn't city, it's sus' Don't go into the woods! The woods are filled with beasts and killers and ghosts and you will no bars on your phone (which is like being an astronaut without a space suit). Don't go to the country! Country people are crazy inbred dueling banjos-types! Don't go into the water. Muh'f'ck'n sharks are everywhere! Xenophobia, relative to a city dwelling writer, is basically everywhere that isn't the city. Thus every place that isn't the city is suspect. Sometimes it's played for comedy (in which case our City Slickers will learn of the virtues of being, say a small town doctor). When it is played for terror, it is all too common for the otherness of the setting to be the premise of the story (or a strong feature of the premise). |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
Going off-topic a bit, but has anyone noticed how close up close-ups are these days in tv streaming & movies? It’s slightly ridiculous having a screenshot of someone’s nostrils.
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Originally Posted by Stirchley (Post 2278631)
Going off-topic a bit, but has anyone noticed how close up close-ups are these days in tv streaming & movies? It’s slightly ridiculous having a screenshot of someone’s nostrils.
When the unforseen perils of HD meets the excess of verite docu-style steady-camming your boogers say, "I am ready for my close-up Mr. Demille." |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2274010)
THE MEGA MACGUFFIN There is the incidental MacGuffin, the thing which nominally motivates the action, but kind of falls away like a booster rocket (e.g., the briefcase in *Pulp Fiction*). There is a more developed MacGuffin which provides motivation to characters and which speaks to the content/tone of the story. Perhaps we would call this a medium MacGuffin(?), however, I am partial to the Sausage MacGuffin with Egg. Then, there is the MEGA MACGUFFIN which turns up the volume to 11 - Ultimate Stakes. Lord of the Rings has a MEGA MACGUFFIN. The Infinity Stones are a MEGA MACGUFFIN. The Mother Boxes in Justice League are a MEGA MACGUFFIN. The MEGA MACGUFFIN is a source of ultimate power and destruction. Usually a large powerful man with a lot of armor is after the thing with a group of heroes attempting to stop him from reunifying with what was once his. Usually no more meaningful than an incidental MacGuffin, this MacGuffin compensates by having everything in the universe depend on it. MEGA MACGUFFINS have a symmetry of form and content (it's a box, it's a rock, it's a ring that controls other rings) and purpose (elements of reality, folk-psychological states or purposes). It's a lack of talent in storytelling though, which is why everything is a sequel or a remake these days. Look at Transformers... first one was the All-Spark, which was destroyed at the end... so they just create new MacGuffins for the sequels. --- Look at Star Wars for instance though. Episodes 1-6 as far as I remember had no MacGuffin in the true sense. I mean, Destroy the Death Star/s, or a control ship, or a shield generator... or Anakin needs to win a race so Jinn can buy ship parts. But those are just regular missions within the stories. They're simply something brought up toward the end of the movie to band the heroes together for a common purpose/ending. Eps 3 and 5 especially didn't have any MacGuffin at all as far as I remember... nor some magic item that needed found for the plot to proceed. Episode 7 basically borrowed the best bits of Episodes 4, 5, 6... no writing needed. Just cherry pick the best bits of the original trilogy, and cram them into one movie. 7 did have the incomplete map to Skywalker though. Without it, the plot can't proceed. Episodes 8 and 9 though... code breakers, Sith Wayfinders, map pieces... MacGuffins that lead to more MacGuffins, and MacGuffins that lead to cameos who then point you to more MacGuffins that then lead to more MacGuffins... to eventually all roads lead to simply destroying a ship... ala; Episodes 1, 4 and 6. Then borrowing the finale from Avengers Endgame to wrap things up. --- I might be wrong, but wasn't LOTR the original MacGuffin though? |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
I'd contend that R2-D2 (or, to be more precise, the Death Star plans that Leia hid inside R2) is the MacGuffin in Star Wars. That drives most of the film as the Imperials pursue the droids to Tatooine to recover the plans, which in turn forces Luke to take on the mission to protect R2 and return the plans to Leia and the Rebels. The Force Awakens doesn't resort to a MacGuffin plot out of nowhere, it's just another instance of the film recycling an earlier installment's plot.
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This might have been mentioned already but after watching Nobody I'd like to add the ruthless Russian gangster. Scriptwriters should take a break from that particular trope.
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Cops Don't Want Partners (but get them anyway) The established cop is a legend, or just a competent cop/detective near retirement. He's either a lone wolf or just too for this shish. He does not have the time or the inclination to break in a new partner. The partner which is shoved onto the old hat is either a newbie (someone who seems weak or geeky, but who has hidden strengths and will prove his or her merit by the third act) or a lone wolf that no one else wants. If the former, then the rook is the audience surrogate ("Welcome to homicide"). If the latter, then the old cop is the audience surrogate (Riggs/Rust really is crazy?). From Dirty Harry to True Detective, this is the obligatory formula. I am hard pressed to think of a film featuring two investigators that doesn't mix oil and water in a partnership. Do you want to be Tango or Cash? Crockett or Tubbs? We will watch our odd-couple overcome their differences to get chewed out by the chief, and catch the baddie. |
Re: CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES
This one isn't current as it goes back quite a ways - but violent urban street gangs that commit heinous crimes against movie protagonists must almost always be interracial.
(This was obvious political correctness before that term existed, as movie producers didn't want to be accused of racism.) Take the Death Wish movies - I think in all of them (although I haven't seen the remake) the gangs of horrible rapists & murderers were always ethnically diverse. While most of us love The Warriors (1979) who, although a violent street gang, were all relatively honorable & chivalrous good guys (which in itself is kind of laughable) ;), such street gangs of racial diversity were extremely rare as most gangs operate along racial lines and oppose any diversity in their ranks. |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2279147)
Cops Don't Want Partners (but get them anyway) The established cop is a legend, or just a competent cop/detective near retirement. He's either a lone wolf or just too for this shish. He does not have the time or the inclination to break in a new partner. The partner which is shoved onto the old hat is either a newbie (someone who seems weak or geeky, but who has hidden strengths and will prove his or her merit by the third act) or a lone wolf that no one else wants. If the former, then the rook is the audience surrogate ("Welcome to homicide"). If the latter, then the old cop is the audience surrogate (Riggs/Rust really is crazy?). From Dirty Harry to True Detective, this is the obligatory formula. I am hard pressed to think of a film featuring two investigators that doesn't mix oil and water in a partnership. Do you want to be Tango or Cash? Crockett or Tubbs? We will watch our odd-couple overcome their differences to get chewed out by the chief, and catch the baddie. |
Originally Posted by Captain Steel (Post 2279153)
This one isn't current as it goes back quite a ways - but violent urban street gangs that commit heinous crimes against movie protagonists must almost always be interracial.
(This was obvious political correctness before that term existed, as movie producers didn't want to be accused of racism.) Take the Death Wish movies - I think in all of them (although I haven't seen the remake) the gangs of horrible rapists & murderers were always ethnically diverse. While most of us love The Warriors (1979) who, although a violent street gang, were all relatively honorable & chivalrous good guys (which in itself is kind of laughable) ;), such street gangs of racial diversity were extremely rare as most gangs operate along racial lines and oppose any diversity in their ranks. |
The Overly Intimate (and Possibly Violent) Interrogation There is no such thing as personal space in "the box," the mythical interrogation room in which scumbags (who never have enough sense to lawyer up) match wits with our detective and almost always fail. The detective will not only offer you a cigarette or soda, but get very very close to you, putting a hand on your shoulder, or on your knee, close enough that you will smell what the detective had for lunch in his accusatory exhalations. You may be slammed up against a wall if you get surly, buy don't worry, three other cops will peal the lead interrogator off of you after mortal threats are uttered. The grittier the TV show or movie is, the more violent it will get, so hang in there. The more high brow it is, the more likely that you'll just get the Sherlock Holmes treatment. But your space will be violated, frequently, consistently, and rather bizarrely. Never mind the guy with the steady cam who is spiraling around the room contorting to find the next close up in your awkwardly blocked shot, what matters is the grave reality of the interrogation you are facing, and the near inevitability that you will spill the beans right there without ever asking for a lawyer. https://youtu.be/Vy-YpLJLG5M |
Originally Posted by Corax (Post 2279296)
The Overly Intimate (and Possibly Violent) Interrogation |
Originally Posted by WHITBISSELL! (Post 2278823)
This might have been mentioned already but after watching Nobody I'd like to add the ruthless Russian gangster. Scriptwriters should take a break from that particular trope.
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Popular Pedantry and Moralizing aka "Cheap Gotchas!" I keep hearing people in film and TV correct others, by noting
"Frankenstein was NOT the monster but the man who created it!"
The pedantic factoid is a sort of stock "gotcha!" that establishes that one character is smarter than another or that another character suffers some sort of bias, which is corrected by the utterance. Gotchas! are often moralizing. "You are surprised, that I, a woman, am a medical doctor?" In this mode, they establish the moral credentials (or lack thereof) of our characters. They are sometimes there as limp red herrings for the audience, as if the audience is supposed to be surprised that a professor could be an African American male, and suddenly feel chastized for sharing the ignorance of one of the characters (I should have realized that BIPOC people can also pilot commercial airplanes! Mind. Blown! Lesson. Learned.). The pedantic factoid of the day will vary over time, as there always a fresh bit of trivia on the way
The moralizing will vary over time as well. A classic WWII film will prove that white people of all ethnicities and regions (Jewish, Italian, Brooklyn, Midwest, and even German although this one will be touchy to the boys) can get along in the same platoon. |
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