What's your favorite movie cliche?

[Archae]

Mine is the "fruit stand."

Every car chase I've seen, one of the cars hits a fruit stand, and it doesn't faze them a bit. :-)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. The convenient news report and the disturbing phone call cliches.

Convenient news report: A character will turn on the TV, which will magically feature a news report concerning the very thing the character is involved in. And it will always start at the beginning of the specific news story -- never a commercial or anything before it.

Disturbing phone call: A group of people, anywhere from 3 to 100, will be involved in some sort of festivity. The phone will ring (and the shot will feature the phone in the foreground as the character approaches it), the person answers, a smile on their face, then their smile slowly fades into a horrified look as they are told of some calamity that has befallen them.

[Rob H.]

2. "Shaun of the Dead" does a great spoof of the convenient news report

while Shaun is flipping through TV channels before he realizes there's been a zombie outbreak:

(Channel 4 News)
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Though no one official is prepared to comment, religious groups are calling it Judgement Day. There's...
(VH1, playing "Panic" by The Smiths)
Morrissey: ...Panic on the streets of London...
(ITV News)
News Reporter: ...as an increasing number of reports of...
(Football)
Football Commentator: ...serious attacks on...
(Channel Five News)
News Reporter: ...people, who are literally being...
(Nature documentary, leopards eating a gazelle)
Documentary Narrator: ...eaten alive.
(Sky News)
Jeremy Thompson: Witnesses' reports at best are sketchy, but one unifying detail seems to be that the attackers in many instances appear to be...
(T4)
Vernon Kay: ...dead excited to have with us here a sensational chart topping...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. LOL!

They nailed it.

[Bucky]

4. The "Oh, you naive/childish/simplistic Americans with your cowboys and fair play" speech...

You know right after the European villain says this, he's gonna get his ass whooped or knocked into his own shark tank by the square jawed American hero. Priceless.

[bigwillq]

5. When a character is trying to run away

from a bad guy.....you just know they're going to trip and fall....:rofl:

[mike_c]

6. the disposable character who ALWAYS goes down into the cellar....

Or on Star Trek episodes, the hitherto unheard of character added to the team that beams down/away/whatever-- that's the person who gets killed, every time.

[QMPMom]

7. Don't know if this is exactly a cliche, but it is *always*

this way: It can be high noon and no clouds in the sky but if the police break into a house or apartment at that very time, it's always completely dark inside the house or apartment. ALWAYS.

And in that same vein: Ever notice on the crime TV shows/movies that even if the place is empty and they know it that they *never* turn on the lights? Never. Ever. There they are, processing the crime scene, and they don't turn on the lights. Instead they run around with flashlights. Stupid people.

[jobycom]

8. Doors that never close.

I've never understood why, but every time a character walks into a room he or she leaves the door open behind him. Sometimes you can later see the door closed, sometimes it stays open. Even in situations where the door should be closed (like a furtive love scene) the character never closes the door.

[mcscajun]

9. Entering the house/apartment through the *already-open* door.

calling out for a friend, family member, spouse, whoever "Honey, why did you leave the door open?" instead of making a run for it and calling the police.

They always get in trouble (choose one: hit on the head, tied up, stabbed, shot, knifed, raped, kidnapped) rather than finding they accidentally left the door open.

You know they shouldn't go in, Everyone in the audience knows they shouldn't go in, but they always do, and it's always bad.

[LostinVA]

10. Women running away from something/someone, ALWAYS fall

Drives me bonkers.

[Strawman]

32. And they're always wearing heels they have to take off in order to run

[NYCGirl]

11. That's in Roger Ebert's Glossary of Movie Cliches as "Fruit Cart!"

"Fruit Cart!"

An expletive used by knowledgeable film buffs during any chase scene involving a foreign or ethnic locale, reflecting their certainty that a fruit cart will be overturned during the chase, and an angry peddler will run into the middle of the street to shake his fist at the hero's departing vehicle. (Of all the definitions in the glossary, this has become the most popular. It has been gratifying to be part of an audience where people unknown to me have cried out "Fruit cart!" at appropriate moments. The movie SKI PATROL even contained a "Siskel and Ebert Fruit Cart.")

http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/tech/glossary/ebert_glos.htm

The rural version of "Fruit Cart!" is known as "Hay Wagon!"

My favorite is the old tried and true Idiot Plot as described by Ebert: "Any plot containing problems which would be solved instantly if all of the characters were not idiots."

[BarenakedLady]

12. Happy endings

The final scene where man/woman FINALLY realizes that he/she is about to lose the love of their life (who usually about to depart on a plane forever :eyes: ) Then the race to stop him/her before it is too late. With the obligatory traffic scene, obstacles, etc. and yet he/she always makes it just in the nick of time and then the embrace and kiss and fade to black....



.....just like real life. :eyes:

[Shell Beau]

20. I know what you mean! Pretty Woman or every other

romantic comedy. But I always hate when it doesn't end that way. Like in Closer. I want a happy ending dammit!

[Skittles]

13. people working mediocre jobs

living in huge loft apartments in New York City - yes INDEED

[bridgit]

14. aw, 'friends'...

:thumbsup:

[Recovered Repug]

15. Knowing every phone number.

I can't recall ever seeing someone looking up the number of the person/business that they're trying to call.

[Shell Beau]

21. Or the whole 555 prefix!

[begin_within]

16. There's a whole web site about this stuff...

http://moviecliches.com/

[begin_within]

17. Before someone dies, they make a profound revelation or great quote, then they suddenly go limp.

[begin_within]

18. To solve any mystery, simply stare through venetian blinds for 30 seconds.

[skygazer]

19. The convenient parking space

Movie people never have to drive around looking for a parking space - there's always one right in front of the business they need to go to, even in the busiest city.

[Broken_Hero]

22. I have to think on a favorite one, but I do have a hated one

Its the cliche, that happens in any scary movie/or intense movie where someboy is trying to flee, via the car...

Always, ALWAYS....The car never turns over immediately....the victim/actor is always sitting there for seconds/minutes trying to start their car, while the axe murderer inches closer....

Its like, all the cars in those movie's have crappy starters/plugs/wires....

[skygazer]

23. Oh, and the cocking of the rifle

The hero will be waiting for the evil villain/bad guy/enemy but he'll wait to flick off his safety or cock his weapon until the guy's right there, thus revealing his position. :eyes:

[flvegan]

24. Full frontal nudity.

I love it.

[ironflange]

25. "Let's get outta here!"

Most movies use it. Another good one: "What are you doing here?!?"

One more. It's always amusing the way movie (and TV) characters can figure out computer passwords.

[fudge stripe cookays]

26. You forgot...

"Come on, let's go!"

One of the most overused movie quotes of all time. :D

[ashling]

27. In a murder mystery (including every other Murder She Wrote)

If a woman takes off a clip earing to talk on the telephone at the beginnin, she did it ... her missing earing will aalways be found under the dead body. Case closed!

[bridgit]

28. monsters that won't die when you shoot'em...

x(

[azmouse]

29. Someone gets knocked out with one punch.

Everyone else in the movie can get beaten around for minutes without getting knocked out but one guy at the end of the fight throws one lousy litte punch and it's lights out for the bad guy!

[CBHagman]

30. And related to that...

...the hero goes through a bruising fight and shows no pain afterwards, except in cliche-buster TV movie Crazy from the Heart, which showed two middle-aged men getting into into a donnybrook and then groaning and bent double when it was all over.

Another cliche: The huge explosion in the background as our heroes/heroines run towards the camera and then are knocked flying. No one ever has so much as a singed hair or bruised knee afterwards. :eyes:

[azmouse]

31. And that all leads to the resurrected bad guy.

The one you think died in the explosion but reappears later to try to kill the hero of the story.

[pokerfan]

33. When the plain clothes cops spot their suspect

instead of just quietly sidling up to him, they always shout "Hey you! Stop!" or they get caught staring. In either case, a chase ensues.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

34. The hero's girlfriend always trips and falls when running away

from the monster/wild animal/bad guy, so the hero has to stop and save her, just bearly avoiding being eaten/shot/bludgeoned.

When running away from the bad guy, the hero always has his car keys ready; the door is unlocked and the car starts on the first try.

There are spooky noises in a dark house, and the hero decides to look around for what's making the noises instead of calling the cops.

[hunter]

35. Bullets and explosions everywhere, and only the bad guys go down, but not easily.

I hate that.

The very worst is guys leaping out of the way of huge absurdly slow explosions.

My favorite cliche is time travel.

[CactusJock]

36. loud sudden noises that are in there only to make the audience jump...

like when the heroes are nervously looking for the monster but they find the cat except the cat never just purrs hello it squeals at 130 decibels and runs off.

the worst variation i saw of this was in the motorcyle and gangs movie and all-round stinker Torque: the hero is having a contemplative moment IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESSERT when a motorcyle engine suddenly roars deafeningly right behind him, he spins round but luckily its just his girlfriend arriving. yeah, apparently she's wheeled her bike up right behind him and then gunned the engine purely with the intention of making him crap his leather trousers.

shame on you, lazy film maker whores.

[mitchum]

37. The motley crew of misfits and troublemakers brought together...

for a near suicidal mission