Movie Cliches You Detest

When they think the bad guy is dead, start to relax, and then AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

"Snark," one-liners, and asides to the audience.

A memory of something you never saw in the first place.

I've mentioned this before, but it drives me crazy when explosions have the propulsive effect of blowing a character sky high, inches away from the fireball, but there is no damage to the actor. As if massive fireballs do not have ambient heat that would melt the person.

Every single person eating Chinese food straight from the carton perfectly with chop sticks.

When somebody falls or gets thrown out of a closed window, smashing the glass, then falling four stories and landing on top of a car and just getting up and walking away without so much as a scratch.

The second time in any show where someone says, "it's not your fault," or "I got you."

When one character asks a question about why something is happening and another says “I can’t tell you now! There’s no time!”

It’s always a screenwriting contrivance meant solely to keep information from the audience. It never makes any sense.

“I’ll see you in HELL”

[Quote]Every single person eating Chinese food straight from the carton perfectly with chop sticks.

Similarly, demonstrating to the audience that a character is a lonely/depressed workaholic by having them open the fridge to find nothing but a carton of Chinese food that fails the sniff-test (if it's a man, there will also be a few beer bottles, and for women, a bottle of vodka).

Have they even used those cardboard containers for Chinese takeout in the last 15 years?

Any time someone says "This ends now."

OPERATOR, get me the police!

Characters getting stuck in elevators together to force some kind of romantic tension or confrontation.

In 37 years of city living and frequent elevator-riding, I've never once found myself in a malfunctioning one.

A man quickly gets into a taxi and says to the taxi driver-

FOLLOW THAT CAR!

If a woman throws up, it means she's pregnant. If a man throws up, it means he's a high functioning drunk. If either of them cough or gets a nosebleed, it means they're dying.

"You just don't get it, do you?"

R15, and if a woman declines alcohol she’s pregnant.

Irrational sensitivity to normal speaking voices = hangover

Grand Central, and step on it!

R4 - I'd also add that the person blown sky high is seen propelled in slow motion.

Seconding the cough = death cliché. It especially stuck out in Finding Neverland (the Barrie/ Peter Pan bio flick with Johnny Depp)

Characters being whacked in the head (often with the butt of a gun) hard enough to be rendered unconscious for a significant amount of time, only to later regain consciousness without a brain-bleed, concussion, or even so much as a headache.

The psycho's secret lair wallpapered with decades of news clippings perfectly explaining their motivations and the full timeline of their obsession.

Opening scene of an alarm clock going off and our lead's morning routine, showering, brewing coffee....

Actually, Mommie Dearest opens exactly this way, but enough already.

I'm the destruction of billions of dollars worth of buildings in downtown Los Angeles/New York/Chicago

The last 10 years are littered with the corpses of guys standing in the road and pulverized mis sentence by a truck, bus or carriage

The first thing a woman does when she comes home is pour herself a gigantic glass of red wine. The first thing a man does is pour himself a scotch neat. If either of them are poor or established addicts, they crack open a beer and throw the bottle cap in the sink.

Coming home and walking in the dark.

R24 I secretly love a movie morning routine sequence.

The bad guy(s) being shot and it's always assumed they're dead. Bang! Dead.

R29 Like Shirley MacLaine's in Postcards on the Edge?

Almost all computer passwords are easily guessed.

^At least this is true in many old movies. One shot kills a person, one punch knocks them unconscious, when that's convenient for the plot.

NYC cab drivers are middle-aged white guys who talk like gangsters from the 1930s.

Average blue collar character's know the works of Dostoyevsky, Latin, opera, etc. but they grew up and live in a West Virginia mining town.

When people with large dogs have immaculate homes... in reality their homes would be unhygienic and barn-like.

r34 good one

It's something that takes place in the present day and office buildings don't have security in the lobby. People just walk in off the street and get right on the elevators.

I grew up in a poor area in the south. These people do NOT wear black suits and ties to church, weddings, funerals, etc.

A couple has just finished having sex and when one of them gets out of bed he or she wraps the bedsheets around them. Excuse me, you were just buck naked and fucking your brains out five minutes ago and now you're suddenly shy?

Of course it's because the actor/actress doesn't want to be fully nude or it's a network tv show with censors but it always just takes me right out of the scene.

Copious, loud projectile vomiting as a response to stress, bad news, or fear.

Somebody turns on the tv and it just so happens at that exact moment there's a news report about something that's essential to the plot. This one has been done so many times.

R5- I assume you mean every caucasian person eats with chopsticks perfectly in the scene.

A couple wakes up in the morning and they immediately start having sex. They never have morning breath or have to pee or take a dump.

The stars of the movie can't live in a nice, but modest home, or a regular appointment--it's always some 2 million dollar house, anything less and they're supposed to be poor.

r45 and the kitchen in the "middle class" house is the size of a helicopter hangar.

The main character incapacitated the killer and then hangs around long enough for killer to regain consciousness. In real life, the person would get the fuck out.

Also, killer gains entry, chases character up the stairs or down to a basement when a perfectly good back door or window is present.

R45 A regular apartment

R46 Exactly!

Finding a parking spot right out front.

A full Vegas breakfast buffet mom has prepared for the family where everyone has loads of time before school and work.

Pink bakery boxes.

R50 Even better when said family members ignore the giant spread and just run out with coffee and a triangle of toast.

*sits down at the bar*: "I'll have a beer."

Women who are not 4'9" and 85lbs being lifted up and fucked vigorously against a wall.

Trash cans getting knocked over during a car chase.

A 100mph car chase in the middle of fucking Manhattan and there is no gridlock. Nope, none whatsoever.

We're having a conversation in a speeding car. Let me turn my head 90 degrees and look at you for a full ten seconds while I'm speaking.

I loathe it when someone’s loved one has been killed and the person wants to run to them and see them and cops or friends or strangers hold them back as they struggle to break free.

I’d go all honey badger on them if someone did that to me.

“I’ll send for my things!”

Send whom?

People with sixth sense. There's something you're not telling me.

In the 90s, it was really funny for somebody to bump their head and immediately say, “I’m ok!”

Casual killing of security guards at a property you are trying to invade.

Car chases where regular people somehow drive like Nascar drivers.

The nerdy kid who sits everybody down and explains how everything works.

"It should have happened like this. BUT this other thing didn't happen, so now it has to happen like THIS.

"I thought it was supposed to--"

"You THOUGHT that. But NO. The moon isn't full. Because it's a LEAP year. And the crooks drove a Plymouth Valiant, not a Mercury Comet. Don't you GET it?"

That's the one part of The Matrix that I dislike, r62. Trinity shoots an overweight 60 year old security guard through his newspaper with an uzi. Total overkill.

When the male lead always picks the bland but down-to-earth and good-hearted girl over the more sophisticated, more interesting, and more socially compatible rival.

[quote]A 100mph car chase in the middle of fucking Manhattan and there is no gridlock. Nope, none whatsoever.

You'd be surprised how often this happens!

But R66 after you take off her glasses and let down her hair, the good hearted gal is a stunning beauty.

[quote]Average blue collar character's know the works of Dostoyevsky, Latin, opera, etc. but they grew up and live in a West Virginia mining town.

R35 Same thing with the bible quoting trope. People who just start quoting some obscure line from the bible with no previous clue to the audience that they are familiar with the bible.

r43 You are one sharp tack

R28 continued - the first thing I do is turn on a light.

R71 another of my most hated cliches. Strange noises wake you up? Let's get up and investigate in the dark!

r72 so true.

"Did you hear that noise outside? No, I don't think it could've been that serial killer/monster/werewolf who has already massacred 27 people in this town. It's probably something else but we'd better go outside to check things out.

Do they ever look out the window first?

In regards to walking into a darkened room — why is it that the crime scene guys in procedural shows dont’t turn on the fucking light? Instead, they use their flashlights. I’ve seen that so many times.

And one more: when someone walks through their front door home from work or shopping, they’re babbling to the person who lives there as they’re unlocking the door in a cheery voice and not looking up, only to find their significant other or whomever dead when they walk in the room.

I certainly don't walk into my home running at the mouth as I unlock the door.

When someone is caught in a lie you know there's more lies to come.

When a female police officer is seen in civilian clothes it's always something ultra glamorous for a night out.

Anytime anyone is at a bar or restaurant and they leave in a hurry the just leave some crumpled up money on the table without asking for the bill or checking how much it is, then leave. It drives me crazy.

Also, hate sex. 2 people hate each other but they inexplicably want each other 2 and proceed to fuck each other silly. Listen, its a hot idea and I actually enjoy watching it, but I guarantee you, in real life hate sex is just not a thing.

Also, the strong bad ass female character either 1-is trying to follow in her dad's footsteps or 2-was raised by her single dad. Bad ass women are always about their daddys.

Good find r79.

Some wise guy grabbing an apple as he leaves, delivers one more smartass comment, winks, bites apple.

Not a movie cliche, but I don't like that weird trend that has being going on in some films since the 2000s in showing the title until the end credits.

One of the good guys gets shot, but is able to carry on fighting, move around, and engage in banter, inset of being incapacitated by shock and pain

Indicating a woman is a mom by having her wear a rumpled blouse, messy ponytail, running around with a laundry basket picking up toys while talking on the phone.

Someone is on the phone and you can hear what the other person is saying too. Unless they are on speaker phone this is highly unlikely.

Alternative is when someone does not wait long enough to hear what the speaker is saying. "You want me to meet you at the corner of Park and Main Street, and wear a red baseball cap?"

Celery leaves sticking out of the top of a shopping bag.

r42, and the person usually doesn't watch the entire report, just the main headlines... when the newsperson starts to get into the details, the person turns the television off...

R86 dont forget the baguette and the spaghetti box.

When someone needs to access the internet they get straight in, without the need for login or downloading pages.

The above post about eating Chinese food right out of the containers it comes in - I have never in my life seen anyone do this. Chinese food is always put on a plate.

The corny "getting stuff done" montages in 80s films, usually set to some Motown classic or power ballad.

Serial killers who find a victim (usually a young woman who just had sex) and instantly slash their throat, but when they come face-to-face with the movie's hero or heroine, they hesitate to instantly kill them, giving the hero or heroine enough time to hurl a heavy object at the evil serial killer, then run away.

R92 Or serial killers with superhuman powers who can instantly snap the necks of the strongest men, but somehow can't manage to neutralize the 98-pound, 5'0" tall female lead.

R90 I mean, that sounds highly subjective. Unless I'm intentionally trying not to look like a fat whore in front of company, I almost always eat it right out of the containers--just not those adorable cardboard movie cartons, but the ugly plastic ones they actually come in.

Families who sit down to a full breakfast of pancakes, eggs, toast, and orange juice every weekday morning, but who don't touch the fabulous feast before them because they're running late and have to run.

Women who come home from the gym after working out. You know it's been an intense workout because their skin is dotted with small drops of perspiration and there's a lock of hair draping down the side of their face because it escaped the ponytail they're wearing.

To be fair, R41, I have seen that happen irl on [italic]The First 48.[/italic]

First time I saw it happen, I was legit shocked--"Wait... that actually HAPPENS?"

Then again, when I was a kid I was at a church funeral, and the murdered guy's mistress suddenly projectile vomited mid-service (no, she wasn't pregnant, though the man's widow was).

Guess you can't always account for human emotions.

r90 What? I've seen that a million times

Not so much a "movie" cliche but a TV cliche; Bad Guy (but good at heart) marries Good Pure of Heart Dream Girl and immediately intends to Change His Ways. 2-3 episodes later he fails & Dream Girl ends up dead because of him or takes their Perfect Children and leaves him. Bad/Good Hearted Guy spends multiple seasons moping over this (see Sons of Anarchy, Peaky Blinders, probably others I'm forgetting)

School buses that stop right in front of a family's home.

Male and female leads with incredible bodies who very clearly spend hours in the gyn daily, yet the only forms of exercise they're ever allowed to perform on screen are short morning runs (acceptable for either gender), or the occassional basketball pickup game for the men/occassional solo night swim for the women.

Whenever there is a birth, someone exclaims some variation of ‘It’s crowning!’ Writers love this line.

R102 Lmao. Also, invariably it is always "too late" for an epidural for one reason or another so that the audience can be treated to the most painful labor possible for the woman.

The switcheroo. Someone is being chased and stops. They sneak a look behind them but don't see the pursuer. When they look back the pursuer is in front of them.

and the bathroom mirror one. Someone swipe unfogs the mirror and guess who is in the reflection? Or they look down and when they look up again they see that someone in the reflection.

Someone stating "It's Showtime" before the big action scene.

[Quote]*sits down at the bar*: "I'll have a beer."

"One alcohol, please!"

A few more: Lighting a cigarette and almost immediately putting it out (more common in older movies, but now used to show that the character has inner conflicts).

A menacing-appearing Black man who ends up being of service and having a heart of gold.

The chopsticks thing -- such a lazy character key to employ. Why do people think that everyone uses chopsticks when eating Asian food? I always use a fork. (Anyone?)

The morning routine -- when brushing their teeth they foam like rabid dogs. Are they brushing with detergent?

Brooding characters -- almost always shot over the left shoulder at a 45 degree angle. There's probably even a name for that shot.

Female characters with freshly shaven pits no matter how deep into the collapse of civilization/wilderness survival they happen to be.

Cinematic devices used for a stage show. eg Easter Parade. Fred Astaire dances "Stepping out with My Baby" in slow motion, and we see Judy Garland in normal time watching him with pleasure from the wings.

Crystal-clear computer/phone videos and video chats playing at the exact same resolution and sound quality as the movie itself (even back in the late 90s).

Screaming profanity in the final throes of childbirth. Often played for "laffs," ignored or smilingly indulged by the harried medical team.

"We've got company!"

[quote]In the 90s, it was really funny for somebody to bump their head and immediately say, “I’m ok!"

I remember there were also several movies/shows where someone would exclaim after hitting their heads on something, "That's gonna to leave a mark!'

I heard it in everyday life, too, because I was a teenager in the '90s and a lot of my peers would say that whenever they bonked their heads.

I think it started with TOMMY BOY (1995).

If you run out of ammo, hurl your weapon at the assailant to stop him in his tracks. Especially if you are on a staircase above the assailant.

*That's gonna leave a mark!

[quote]Also, the strong bad ass female character either 1-is trying to follow in her dad's footsteps or 2-was raised by her single dad. Bad ass women are always about their daddys.

Was that trope started by THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)?

Clarice was both raised by a single dad AND was also following in his footsteps joining law enforcement.

R115 Also, in a pinch, a flipped over wooden table will easily shield you from many rounds of high powered ammunition.

People moving into another room to talk about the person in another room in an open floor plan. Like the person won't hear every word.

^Or right in front of a closed door while someone waits in the hallway.

I recently saw a movie where a group of women were held captive by a bad guy. The head woman was invited to meet with him. She was rescued by the good guy but insisted on going back to get her friends. She was given a nun's habit to hide her identity. She was allowed to visit the other women but of course the bad guy instantly recognized her.

In rom-com movies: Impossibly handsome and perfect bachelor chooses the ugly, sexually bland girl over the hot one -- and yet he's not gay.

In horror movies (Lord knows these dote on stupid cliches): Someone stabs the killer once, maybe in the arm, throws down the knife and walks away sure he's dead.

In action movies, the hero is hurled several yards by a huge explosion and isn't even scratched by the flaming debris.

R121 continued - We meet again,. my dear.

Anytime a character experiences a traumatic event, we immediately cut to them in a steaming hot shower (the man will be leaning against the tile, palms flat, the woman will be rinsing her hair over and over again).

The dog reaction shot.

555

Little children who are either cloyingly. treacly sweet or snarky, world-weary 40 year old midgets.

Characters leaning against the sink and looking intently at their own eyes in the mirror with a "get your shit together" expression. That's usually all they need to get their shit together. Sometimes also a cold splash of water in desperate situations.

R91 adjacent is the woman trying on outfits for a date or job interview montage.

or just for fun like Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy.

[quote]Little children who are either cloyingly. treacly sweet or snarky, world-weary 40 year old midgets.

My grandmother hated sage children in movies.

She said that children can't possibly be wise, because you need life experience to acquire wisdom.

Thus, a fiftysomething street bum will always be wiser than any child genius, who is only book smart

R34- Up until about 1982 that was the typical NYC cab driver.

{quote]Whenever there is a birth, someone exclaims some variation of ‘It’s crowning!’

And when you later see the baby after its born, it looks like it's several months old.

R95- I agree.

What really annoys me- The characters are sitting at the dinner table eating a sumptuous feast and they're so into their inane conversation and at NO point do they say- Mom this chicken parmesan is DELICIOUS!

Teenagers who talk like they're Jewish men in their thirties who live in West LA.

2 high school movies cliches I thought were dumb because it wasnt like that at all for me. 1-showering after gym. Maybe we were all a bunch of cruddy duddies but none of us showered after gym. No one, not once. For starters, those showers looked NASTY. And we would have been mortified to be naked around everyone else. Idk why they even had them, maybe they were for the school sports teams or something but regular gym students never used them.

2-"popular rich students were always the mean bullies" actually, NO. My biggest bullies were always either basic bitches that thought they'd become popular if they bullied or people as low if not lower on the popularity scale than me who punched down to feel better. The group that tormented me were a bunch of fat nerdy trekkies. Most popular kuds were popular b BECAUSE they were nice and chill to everyonw (and usually either well dressed or attractive, but generally nice)

[quote]Chinese food is always put on a plate.

Where do people come up with these ironclad pronouncements?!? People eat in their fucking CARS in real life. I assure you there are people who don't "always" put Chinese food "on a plate."

These threads are fun but there's always some queen going off the rails about something or other, like they have a universe-wide surveillance system in the Batcave in their basement..

R136 Maybe things have changed, but showers were mandatory after gym class when I was going to school.

"Maybe things have changed?"

When did you graduate, R138? What year? No one under 40 today ever took a shower after gym class.

When I was in high school in the early 90s nobody showered after gym class.

R138 perhaps. Maybe its a state thing or a district thing. It wasnt mandatory in Middlesex New Jersey in the early 90s. Thank god because again those showers looked gross.

R140 yes maybe that changed at some point. Thats when I went to.

Cutesy ukulele music in every romcom.

Every single cop in a movie, no matter where it takes place, speaking with a Brooklyn accent.

Yeah, I'm 37 and there was absolutely no such thing as showers after gym class. How much time exactly were the mandatory shower posters here actually allotted for all these luxurious grooming rituals? We were only given about 90-seconds to strip off our stinky gym clothes (that got stuffed back into our stinky lockers), get back into our street clothes and slap some on speed stick before the bell would ring for our next class.

^*slap on some

Not too long ago we had a thread on showering in gym class and the late 80s/early 90s was the point when the showers stopped. For whatever reasons, young men being naked around each other became "gay."

Anyway, back to the movie cliches.

On Showering

The hero getting hit by a car, slams into the windshield, rolls off the hood, lands perfectly on his feet, and starts shooting.

R139 I went to high school in the late '70s, and yes, we had to shower after gym class. We were given 10 minutes to shower and get back into our school clothes.

A guy gets into a major knock-down, drag-out fight with the villain, but walks away from it all with just a tiny cut on his lip.

Always finding street parking in New York City right in front of your destination.

Every Southerner has a thick, exagerrated drawl and talks like they are from GWTW. As someone who lives in the South I can tell you that the accents here are very different depending on region and state. Some of us barely have a drawl.

Neurosurgeons who look like they went to the Barbizon school instead of medical school.

Movie characters who have interesting, artsy jobs like composers or literary agents or public relations representatives. Nobody's ever a boring old accountant or data analyst.

Closing a door then slowly sliding down it and starting crying.

One more "showering" post: For me, as a high school student--back when the main danger on campus was a pterodactyl swooping down and making lunch out of us--it wasn't a matter of how much time one was formally allotted for showering and getting back into street clothes as it was simply the time left between the gym class coaches ending their/our PE doings for that period and when our class [italic]next[/italic] period would begin. In my experience the coaches were actually quite good at letting us have ample time for showering etc., likely because they'd catch hell from other (non-PE) teachers if the students didn't have enough time to make themselves decent for their math or history class afterwards.

Mildred Pierce has an accountant.

R158 Accountants are always only minor characters, though.

Showering after gym class definitely was a thing until the '80s or so.

Movies in the '90s and afterward have not depicted showering after gym class -- can't recall of any -- so it hasn't been a thing in movies in over 30 years.

I was in high school in the '90s and the showers were used by the school teams after practice or a game, but that was long after school was over for the day or on the weekends.

Single women in their 20s living in 2-story suburban houses.

Kent Smith in the dammed don't cry is an accountant.

R160 perhaps but as an 90s teen, the movies I grew up with and watched were from the 80s and below. The 90s werent big on teen movies (till the late 90s when they made a brief come back and I was already an adult by then).

R163 The Joan Crawford troll is with us today.

A TV thing as well, people always have way bigger/nicer apartments that they would be able to afford with their professions in real life.

High powered female executives who enter their offices in a commanding flourish of grandeur in what seems to be an hour after everyone else in the office hasn't gotten there.

In 1940s and 50s movies, naughty single gals were always waitresses in some greasy spoon diner, but the good girls were always secretaries working in plush downtown high rises.

I hate it when a person hits the killer only once and then runs away, when in reality, you should stand there and bash his head in completely. But I guess the movie will be over then, and there's always a need for one more scene of peril.

Besties doing the laundry together who stop to do a perfectly choreographed and synchronized dance routine when their favorite song comes on the radio.

Also a more modern cliche, the busy working girl (could be guy but for some reason its always a woman) who's late for work who's juggling a bunch of things in her hand, among them a fresh Starbucks coffee. Super stressed out and late but apparently had time to go to a Starbucks during their morning rush hour for a macchiato.

R169 That's the one thing I liked about Kyle Richards' character in Halloween Kills. She loaded up a pillowcase with bricks and pounded Michael Myers' head with it before she ran away.

You can always tell when a male character is working hard at the office, because the sleeves on his button-down shirt are always slightly rolled up and his tie is loosened.

When people are having a conflict, one character turns their back to the other, walks a few steps, and delivers their lines. The other character walks a few steps toward them, but still stands behind them and responds.

Never in my life have I had an argument or deep discussion with someone with my back turned toward them.

Characters who rattle off their plans and strategies while walking rapidly down an office hallway or stepping out of a cab.

Incidentally, actor John Barrowman, who moved from Scotland to the Midwest due to his father's job, has discussed on British TV having to take showers in high school in the '80s and how self-conscious he was about being uncut because everyone else was circumcised.

[quote] Incidentally, actor John Barrowman, who moved from Scotland to the Midwest due to his father's job, has discussed on British TV having to take showers in high school in the '80s and how self-conscious he was about being uncut because everyone else was circumcised.

Oh good Lord. This is John Barrowman we're talking about. What he really meant is, "I was so thrilled that in the showers every guy kept staring at my dick!"

Rewinding / forward winding a message left on tape, and they always hit exactly the right spot on the tape for the information they want to hear.

Bonus points for garbled sped up voices while they re/foward wind.

A long, boring shot of a car approaching and people getting out.

Old blues songs on the soundtrack to illustrate the burdens of being white, educated and upperclass.

Teen and grown females calling their father 'daddy'.

The big reveal at the end that it was all a dream or hallucination or magic spell, or that the main character(s) are ghosts who don't realize they're dead, or the person investigating the murder(s) realize they themselves are the killer.

Hospitals that have all the lights turned out and 1 nurse on duty during night scenes.

Action movies where the action hero is a 70-year-old man, or an actress who weighs like 100 pounds, and the hero easily beats up a bunch of young, strong guys who look like NFL linebackers

In thrillers or horror movies, the heroine has to investigate the ghost, monster, or serial killer while wearing a skimpy tank top or lingerie

The "we're so in love!" montage you see in romantic movies, where the hero and heroine do "cute" things together, like rowing on a lake, eating ice cream, or kissing in a meadow

The line " Can i talk to you in the kitchen for a moment?" signaling that someone’s about to drop a bombshell, start a whisper-fight, or deliver a heartfelt confession away from prying ears.

Aling the lines of the "hate sex" thing, enemies to lovers: fun to watch but completely unrealistic

The person getting strangled while on the floor and manages to find a heavy object or scissors or knife within reach to hit their attacker.

A character who is looking for someone who has been elusive, sees the person standing across the street staring at them, then disappears after a bus passes by them,

Character #1 has something urgent to discuss with Character #2.

Character #2 interrupts with his/her own news.

Character' #1 lets Character #2 go first.

Character #2 inadvertently says something that makes Character #1 reconsider saying anything.

When Character #2 is done, he/she usually asks, "Now, what is it you wanted to tell me?"

Character #1 then says something lame like, "I... I was wondering what you wanted for dinner?"

R181 that one is so ridiculous. I've never been in a hospital that didn't have lights blazing and staff running around all fucking night.

It's never the first guy they catch or suspect. That's always a ruse.

R94 Well, they used to come in white cardboard cartons (with a thin metal handle).

A character keeps trying to tell another character a very important piece of information, but the other one is preoccupied/talks over them/won't listen, so they just drop it. Would have ended the movie if the other character had known the info.

Try jumping or getting thrown through a glass window like people do all the time in movies and TV! Just once I’d like to see someone just bang into the window with a thud and then fall to the ground

[quote]A TV thing as well, people always have way bigger/nicer apartments that they would be able to afford with their professions in real life.

I think I could count on one hand the number of NYC apartments that would be realistic to the character's socioeconomic status in the movies/tv shows I've seen. Even working class NYers in movies/tv have apartments that would be ridiculously unaffordable IRL.

Supposedly epic, heart-breaking love stories where people really don’t have to be separated but are due to selfishness about their family, cause or career. If only we could be together! (Hint: you can.)

When one person is injured and the other leaves them in the remote jungle or desert during wartime to get “help”. As if.

(Might be more abused on TV but) 2 characters, always at odds, get stuck in an elevator. One starts panicking. The other tells them to get a grip. They call for help twice, sit down, and over the course of hours gain a deep understanding of each other and resolve all issues.

In a movie devoid of any deep ideas or witty dialogue, giving the lead female a book is supposed to make viewers believe she is a genius!

Making cops, FBI agents, or CSIs constantly quote Shakespeare and John Donne to show how smart they are.

Even the English professors I've known don't go around quoting John Donne at the drop of a hat.

"New York City" is obviously Toronto or Vancouver.

Don't they film a lot in NYC? Why do some productions go elsewhere?

Putting a beautiful head of romaine lettuce away in the refrigerators as is - not wrapped in plastic or washed and in paper towels. Just on the shelf left to wilt. ….. Don’t get me started on the open glass pitcher of milk or juice.

"Professional" women gathered around a kitchen island drinking wine out of glasses larger than a fishbowl.

I totally despise romance films (drama or comedy) where they glorify men or women who fall in love with their best friend or a relatives' partner.

Stressed confused down on their luck middle aged white women who escape their unhappy city lives and wind up in some flyover hick town. They walk into a diner ( bell on top of the door) and become the new rock star savior waitress at this podunk diner - complete with a sassy pink uniform and white apron. Suddenly their sad life becomes a happy Frank Capra movie. I am looking at you Alice, Vicki Lord Buchanan and Valene Ewing.

If you're the good guy, the bad guys can fire about 200 shots at you and won't hit you once

Constantly using the names of characters (or places or things) in dialog. Movies and TV shows both do this. It's to familiarize the audience, but it's totally unrealistic.

On that same note, I hate it when children act more like a peer to their parents, including using their first names in dialog. Instead of "I talked to your mom," it's "I talked to (character name)." That is not how people naturally speak.

When the masked killer is finally knocked down, the victim never tears off the mask to see who the hell it is.

This may also apply to tv shows- The husband gets home from work and his wife had put out a lovely dinner for him. He says- Honey I'm too tired to eat I'm going right up to bed. If one has had a long day then you're starving. It sounds fake and I hate it.

A cute, arrogant male in need of a comeuppance gets pushed backwards into a swimming pool. This always gets some clapping, hooting, and wiggling from big basic gals in the audience

R205 I’ve also seen plenty of shows/films that don’t do that and I never know who anyone’s name is.

r139 No one in my 2000s high school took a shower either unless we had swim class. Then we sort of had to.

r145 My school in the mid 2000s-- I am your age had gym be a double period. So almost an hour. We would end class early so we had time to change. That said no one use the showers unless we had swim class. Then we would end class very early so people had time to shower.

Rotate your handgun 90 degrees to the left for even greater accuracy when firing.

Two submachine guns, one in each hand, is more effective than shooting just one with your dominant hand.

Shooting guns while wearing dark glasses indoors enhances your accuracy.

Characters have to cut their vacation short and get to work because "our biggest client needs this report FIRST thing in them morning."

Someone should make a movie of all tropes.

When someone lives in a big house with a bunch of kids and it's spotless, with no clutter anywhere.

When running late, the character spills their coffee while drinking it on the street and (if female), gets their heel caught and their leg goes all wobbly.

Subway trains are always JUST arriving as they reach the platform. Some of the bad guys always manage to jump on while those in pursuit bang on the subway doors as the train exits the station.

The killer gets killed...but it turns out he's not actually dead! Then he gets killed for good

The old 1950s sci-fi films’ female scientist companions of the male leads, women all with those buliet bra figures who all end up getting chased by the featured monster, shriek, trip to the ground of course, and then get captured and need to be rescued because all their brains got them nowhere. What can we say, they were of their era. 👹

Siblings all call one another “little sister” or “big brother” so we will understand their relationship.

Whenever someone or some people are caught in the middle of their scheme, you hear a slow cocking of the gun and they turn around quickly, then the person with the gun says "Well, well, well - what do we have here?"

Good or bad guys, interchangeable. But they have to throw in that sarcastic line - they're just bitchy like that.

Rom com edition: straight laced (possibly reformed free spirit) professional woman is engaged to succesfull normie type of guy but she somehow ends up falling for his clownish/sloppy/stoner/scoundrel/ne'er do well loser brother/roomate/bff. She has a scene with said brother/roomate/bff where she either gets drunk or stoned and "loosens up" by literally letting her hair down, the implication that with brother/roomate/scoundrel she can "be herself".

^ The opposite of that is uptight straight guys falling for a manic pixie dream girl

Men are always forgetting their anniversary, then by some kismet, the universe saves the day when they stumble upon some unexpected gift or celebration later that night.

"Well, I didn't want to ruin the surprise!" as she hugs him and he looks over her shoulder and winks at his friend/assistant/whoever.

r241 That is what all of the wayan brother movie spoofs are.

r214 meant above for you. Also add the austin powers movies. And not another teen movie spoofs.

In the suspect's home,

CHR #1: Boss, you gotta see this. (Doesn't tell him over the phone/cell his cell, in a yell, through an intercom)

CHR #2 leaves the basement, walks up two sets of stairs, and climbs to the attic to be shown a wall covered with pictures of a (wife, partner, dog, child, group of children, etc.) Obviously, a wall of evil madness.

CHR #2: Where's (subject of wall pictures)

CHR #1: (Interviewing, surveilling, visiting, etc.) the suspect in (an obviously dangerous location).

Both Characters run to the car to get to the (subject of wall pictures).

No one thinks of using their (cell phone, landline, payphone, smoke signal, third party) to warn (subject of wall pictures). Despite previously establishing the scene of its availability.

Cutting straight from two people smiling vaguely at each other at a bar or restaurant straight to wild, screaming sex in a car or somewhere else “unconventional”.

Cleaning people or a floor waxer in the background to indicate the character is working REALLY late.

[quote] Hospitals that have all the lights turned out and 1 nurse on duty during night scenes.

We had three and a candy striper for two patients so you can fuck right off.

[quote] The psycho's secret lair wallpapered with decades of news clippings perfectly explaining their motivations and the full timeline of their obsession.

Don't forget the 100 lit candles. The expense and time to light would make anyone want to kill.

Characters (usually women) who are crying and just let the tears pour down their cheeks. No tissues or hankies or wiping them away with their hands.

“Actors don’t wipe their tears. People do.”

Everyone's eyeglasses are spotless, all the time.

Unless they have an accident, then one lens will crack, but they'll still wear them.

We always showered after gym class in the 70s where I was from, and the showers didn't look gross. Maybe because there were bigger budgets for schools, then? The school and the gym were pretty clean. I think it's funny when you read someone saying "we would have been mortified to get naked around each other then." We had to get naked to change into our gym uniforms, which was done in a locker room. Then we had to change out of our uniforms to take a shower, then we had to dry off and change into our clothes. It began when we were around 13, in junior high. Why are younger generations so mortified about being naked, around your own gender?

When the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) only had male members, boys/men swam nude in the pool.

That stopped sometime in the 1970s, when girls/women were allowed.

[quote]I'll start. I hate it when characters die and are brought back to life by some form of magic.

Fuck you, OP. It's all part of the show.

Does everything have to be Chekov's gun?

Can't we just have random shit laying around making it a more interesting place

"Chick flick" characters in small groups taking up the whole width of Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive, with 3 huge luxury brand shopping bags hanging from the crook of each arm. "Power girl" standard blasts on the soundtrack as they strut in step (often in slow motion).

I hate when they bring characters back to life.

If it's a gay film, there will be a scene of the lead character(s) swimming, so they can show the maximum amount of flesh without a sex scene.

Sassy:

1. gay males

2. Black woman (but she's also extremely wise)

3. Grandmas

R233 I dont let anyone except my doctor and my s.o see me naked. Hell I didn't allow my siblings to see me naked or my own mother. If it happened it happened but I wasnt about to do it freely. Why would I be cool with a bunch of yahoos most of whom I hated seeing all my goodies. Granted I'm a woman, idk if guys are less protective/prudish.

R234 I don't know why they incorporated females into the YMCA. They already had the YWCA. It's not like they got rid of it afterward.

I can't remember the shower status at my high school. I know we had them. But since I was always ducking PE with some transparent excuse I never had to use them.

I do remember using the local public pool changerooms with showers for swimming elective, that was compulsory. We left our clothes and bags in the locker room and some bastard stole the new school ties of mine and my best friend. That year they had introduced new style ties so we had to wear the old school ones from then on as they had no new ones left.

JFC, this is not a thread about showering.

(Related to R39)

A sudden death precipitates a sudden funeral wherein the family of our attentions, who are just barely scraping by financial, all --down to the youngest children-- appear in respectable and perfectly fitting black mourning clothes which are evidently kept at the ready for such occasions.

Fat, sad white chic + large wooden spoon + 2 pints of Häagan-Dazs+ Motown classic = Turn the drown upside down

"Chic?"

Chick, R247, but maybe you knew

The supportive gay friend who gives advice to lovelorn single women

If we're bringing in gay stereotypes we could be here forever.

Carrot greens trickling down the grocery bag like ivy on a Harvard building.

If the main character in a romcom is a college professor, what's she teaching will directly pertain to her fucked-up love life.

"Dowdy" female characters are usually just beautiful actresses with their hair pulled into a bun

When someone throws a lamp at a person’s head, who ducks, and the lamp shatters against the wall. If that person had slower reflexes they would have been killed.

Coming of age stories always having the (now) adult person narrating it. And it always end with some corny lines like " I'll never forget that summer, the lessons I learned, the friends that got lost along the way, and how much richer my life became because of them. Even though I'm a grown up now, I still find myself asking the same questions as when I was a 12 year old kid " cue sweet poignant music and an overhead shot of the small town the kid grew up in.

Along the lines of what r254 said, glass bottles smashed over people's heads. That's enough to kill someone. We don't see it as much anymore but it was commonplace in "the western saloon brawl"

Teachers who:

- refer to the students collectively as “class”

- walk slowly up and down the aisles as they lecture

- remind everybody that their term papers are due tomorrow once the bell rings

Two characters having an "intimate" conversation gazing at their reflections in the mirror. No one does this ever.

[quote] Two characters having an "intimate" conversation gazing at their reflections in the mirror. No one does this ever.

We do!

That was the way things were in the 1970s for me r257. They didn't march around the classroom every day but it happened during quizzes and exams. Also is behavior was off. This was usually when notes were being passed around and/or there was unexplained giggling.

You're right about the "class" part in my case though.

Term paper reminders were daily and loud.

Lead character, male or female playing a cop or detective, gets the shit beaten out of them by the bad guys (usually when going against orders and acting alone). After a couple of days of recovery, they return to the station with a single small bandage on the forehead.

The screaming female heard when a bar brawl breaks out. Women are usually seen fleeing the room so I really don't understand why they scream when they seem to be in no immediate danger. I CAN understand when it's a police raid in a prohibition era piece cos they will be arrested.

Lighting. Sound. Performers. Dialogue. Plot. Enough!

Guys who are home alone sitting on the couch and watching TV never scratch their balls or ass.

The final act of a horror movie after the killer reveals him or herself to the main character in some snarky or dramatic fashion, they then take ten minutes of dialog to explain their motive, but this curtesy is only given to the main character. Everyone else is brutally slaughtered without explanation until our heroine is the last one left.

Also, the killer's motive is always revenge for some long ago hurt that the heroine doesn't even remember anymore because the killer waited an entire decade to plan for this moment. After a struggle over the gun, which always lands in the hands of the heroine, she then proceeds to shoot the killer to death. Then she hears the faint sounds of sirens approaching because the cops always show up after the killer is dead. Fade to black as the catchy lead single from the soundtrack plays over the credits.