Topic: Film cliches you want to fuck off

[zomgmouse]

Bonus points if a hall of mirrors is involved. At least one of which will be smashed at some point.

To be fair this was great in The Lady from Shanghai.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

To be fair this was great in The Lady from Shanghai.

And in Something Wicked This Way Comes

[kalowski]

To be fair this was great in The Lady from Shanghai.

The first time is never a cliché.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Executive being told of some event where people get deaded responding by complaining about the coffee.

[icehaven]

Someone trying to figure out a problem getting their breakthrough/revelation from overhearing an innocuous comment etc.

[rectorofstiffkey]

Someone trying to figure out a problem getting their breakthrough/revelation from overhearing an innocuous comment etc.

Eurgh, yes. Think I might have mentioned this already but in police dramas any comment that starts with the words "this is probably nothing.." will have a 99% chance of leading to solution of the murder. So predictable.

[rectorofstiffkey]

Someone trying to figure out a problem getting their breakthrough/revelation from overhearing an innocuous comment etc.

And don't forget the rule that the problem-solver, on hearing said comment, has to do a sort of squinty fixed gaze for a few seconds just to show exactly how Hard they are Thinking.  If you've ever seen the da Vinci code film you'll know the one, it's the one Tom Hanks keeps doing.

[famethrowa]

Screaming and yelling in each other's faces in response to getting slightly surprised by something. It's the Hangover/Hot Tub Time Machine etc etc thing and obviously the yanks find it hilarious. I had to turn off some show on Netflix cause it was happening wayy too much.

[kalowski]

And don't forget the rule that the problem-solver, on hearing said comment, has to do a sort of squinty fixed gaze for a few seconds just to show exactly how Hard they are Thinking.  If you've ever seen the da Vinci code film you'll know the one, it's the one Tom Hanks keeps doing.

Taken to its extreme in my kids' favourite show, Death in Paradise, where Father Dougal goes into some sort of trance when the penny drops.

[BlodwynPig]

Someone trying to figure out a problem getting their breakthrough/revelation from overhearing an innocuous comment etc.

whispers *conwy castle*

[Cuellar]

Screaming and yelling in each other's faces in response to getting slightly surprised by something. It's the Hangover/Hot Tub Time Machine etc etc thing and obviously the yanks find it hilarious. I had to turn off some show on Netflix cause it was happening wayy too much.

Yeah - the early seasons of It's Always Sunny are guilty of this (not a film, I know)

[lipsink]

White guy has a black best friend who seems to know everything and gives him advice: "Dude, you can't be texting her straight away like that".

[zomgmouse]

White guy has a black best friend who seems to know everything and gives him advice: "Dude, you can't be texting her straight away like that".

Surely a variant on the Magical Black Person trope

[thecuriousorange]

And the BAME best friend of the white rom-com protagonist.

[Blumf]

Doesn't matter, they get killed by the baddy, so the white guy has a reason for revenge.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Someone trying to figure out a problem getting their breakthrough/revelation from overhearing an innocuous comment etc.

Yeah this.  Someone will make some trivial comment like "This  morning my daugther asked me why dogs don't wear shoes" and then our hero will do a glassy stare for a few moments before going "Oh My Gahhhhd!" and then he'll storm off without saying a word about where his strange train of thought has led him, when those around him who are helping him might have some insight, plus it'd be a good idea to tell someone else because if something happened to him nobody would know what his revelation was.

[gilbertharding]

Oh I've seen plenty of American stuff - more often TV than film, admittedly - where I have absolutely no idea what sport they're talking about. I don't mind most of the time as I wouldn't really care even if I did know.

"How 'bout them Mets, huh?" is fine... it's supposed to be place-filling small talk.

[gilbertharding]

Taken to its extreme in my kids' favourite show, Death in Paradise, where Father Dougal goes into some sort of trance when the penny drops.

Do all the detectives in that show do that? The Kris Marshall Years were great - his 'constipated' face 53 minutes into every episode was Must Watch TV.

[purlieu]

"How 'bout them Mets, huh?" is fine... it's supposed to be place-filling small talk.

True, but sometimes full conversations and even plot elements hinge on it.
It's especially difficult in Seinfeld as they seem to like All The Sports in that.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Yeah - the early seasons of It's Always Sunny are guilty of this (not a film, I know)

Yeah but by the later seasons not only have they stopped, they are satirizing it (“The Gang Tries Desperately To Win An Award, when Mac responds to Dennis by “giving it back to you”).

Great show.

"How 'bout them Mets, huh?" is fine... it's supposed to be place-filling small talk.

Seriously though... how ‘bout them Mets? Shit is crazy, I think their front office make trade decisions with a magic 8 ball.

It’s not unusual to know/like lots of sports in North America. Sometimes people will tell you “oh I don’t really follow the NFL” if you bring it up but you can move onto baseball or hockey. They’ll probably still watch the super bowl of World Series. The characters in Seinfeld follow this model - baseball fans primarily, but they still go to Tim Watley’s super bowl party and watch the Rangers (?) when Jerry gets tickets.

[EOLAN]

Seriously though... how ‘bout them Mets? Shit is crazy, I think their front office make trade decisions with a magic 8 ball.

It’s not unusual to know/like lots of sports in North America. Sometimes people will tell you “oh I don’t really follow the NFL” if you bring it up but you can move onto baseball or hockey. They’ll probably still watch the super bowl of World Series. The characters in Seinfeld follow this model - baseball fans primarily, but they still go to Tim Watley’s super bowl party and watch the Rangers (?) when Jerry gets tickets.

And looking to go to a Knicks game as well in the Limo. Wasn't the whole 'How about those Mets/Yankees?' line also satirised and driving a key plot point with the Doorman.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Talking of tickets.

"Honey, don't forget we've got tickets to the ballet tonight."

Not happening, mate. Gonna get caught up at work solving the crime/getting a scoop/sealing a deal/turning into a spiderman, causing stress and damage to the relationship in the process. For extra gravitas, make it a child's play/sports game. Sad child > frosty wife.

[gilbertharding]

It’s not unusual to know/like lots of sports in North America. Sometimes people will tell you “oh I don’t really follow the NFL” if you bring it up but you can move onto baseball or hockey. They’ll probably still watch the super bowl of World Series. The characters in Seinfeld follow this model - baseball fans primarily, but they still go to Tim Watley’s super bowl party and watch the Rangers (?) when Jerry gets tickets.

Same here - I mean I've given up now, but I used to watch the FA Cup Final on telly, often round someone's house most years. And nowadays my company takes a load of customers to Twickenham every year, and I missed out on a trip to The Oval (Surrey v Kent) a while ago courtesy of a contractor we work with. Another company we work with has a box at Dean Court... what I'm saying is, I'll bet at every decent sized sporting event in the country, a not insignificant percentage of the audience is there for some other reason than they are massive fans of the sport/team involved.

[gilbertharding]

True, but sometimes full conversations and even plot elements hinge on it.
It's especially difficult in Seinfeld as they seem to like All The Sports in that.

What - "So we're twelve down in the sixth quarter, all the bases are loaded, when their linebacker..."

Yeah, I zone out too - you just have to get the general idea. "We lost - I don't know: perhaps we won, whatever: it happened in an epic, almost unbelievable manner."

[JesusAndYourBush]

Do all the detectives in that show do that? The Kris Marshall Years were great - his 'constipated' face 53 minutes into every episode was Must Watch TV.

Yes, it's *very* formulaic.  When they changed the lead character the replacement behaved exactly the same as his predecessor.  You could literally interchange the two characters with each other and the scripts wouldn't need any changes whatsoever.

I've noticed a channel repeating the show, with the 60 minute shows being shown in a 60 minute timeslot including commercials.  That means they're editing them down to around 45 mins (give or take).  How does that work?  Surely each scene is vital to the already incomprehensible plot.

[olliebean]

I've noticed a channel repeating the show, with the 60 minute shows being shown in a 60 minute timeslot including commercials.  That means they're editing them down to around 45 mins (give or take).  How does that work?  Surely each scene is vital to the already incomprehensible plot.

If it's already incomprehensible, it doesn't really matter what they cut, does it?

[icehaven]

It’s not unusual to know/like lots of sports in North America. Sometimes people will tell you “oh I don’t really follow the NFL” if you bring it up but you can move onto baseball or hockey. They’ll probably still watch the super bowl of World Series. The characters in Seinfeld follow this model - baseball fans primarily, but they still go to Tim Watley’s super bowl party and watch the Rangers (?) when Jerry gets tickets.

I didn't understand this paragraph until I realised an obvious thing I only just realised: the Superbowl isn't baseball is it, it's American football.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I didn't understand this paragraph until I realised an obvious thing I only just realised: the Superbowl isn't baseball is it, it's American football.

Nor does it have anything to do with Bowls or Bowling. Americans just can't get their sport names right, can they.

[thecuriousorange]

And of course, "The World Series" doesn't involve any nation in the world that isn't the US.

[dr beat]

Isn't the World Series so-called because it was originally sponsored by a newspaper called the World? Nothing to do with any claims to it being a global event.