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March 28, 2024, 11:02:20 AM

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Film cliches you want to fuck off

Started by popcorn, September 25, 2017, 01:48:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: olliebean on July 01, 2020, 02:36:08 PM
The characters go to see the Aurora Borealis in real life and there, up in the real-life sky, is a time-lapsed version of the Aurora Borealis.

That's a mistake a lot of people make.  It really does move that fast.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: icehaven on June 30, 2020, 10:21:37 PM
"When I was a little girl..."
Not a film but I've been half-watching This Is Us while playing on games, and every fucking conversation is that.

"Hey, you okay?"
"When I was nine years old, my father told me..."

Everyone's got these nice little stories lined up to tell at the drop of a hat.

"Okay that's a large Big Mac meal with a chocolate shake, anything else I can get you?"
"Huh... You know, when I was a kid I had this bike. Cherry red frame. Man, I loved that bike..."

kalowski

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on July 01, 2020, 04:38:57 PM
Not a film but I've been half-watching This Is Us while playing on games, and every fucking conversation is that.

"Hey, you okay?"
"When I was nine years old, my father told me..."

Everyone's got these nice little stories lined up to tell at the drop of a hat.

"Okay that's a large Big Mac meal with a chocolate shake, anything else I can get you?"
"Huh... You know, when I was a kid I had this bike. Cherry red frame. Man, I loved that bike..."
One of these kinds of things I like:
QuoteWhen I was little... my father was famous. He was the greatest samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut off the heads of a hundred and thirty-one lords.

Brundle-Fly

When a character smugly says, "Oh, you don't think I know your dirty little secret?"

Fr.Bigley

When film producers knew the power of references and cast Schwarzenegger in the 90s/00s, everything up to and including the expendables and he glibly delivers one of his lines from terminator.


Icehaven

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on July 01, 2020, 07:16:28 PM
When film producers knew the power of references and cast Schwarzenegger in the 90s/00s, everything up to and including the expendables and he glibly delivers one of his lines from terminator.

They may not have had a choice. I had a glance through his autobiography in WH Smiths once and even though I only read about 3 pages he twice mentioned how a lot of the 'hilarious' lines he says in his films were his idea, he ad libbed them on the spot and the entire crew fell about laughing and slapped him on the back telling him how funny he was. Now obviously that's not remotely true but I can easily imagine him insisting on his shit jokes and Terminator references being shoehorned into scripts and the producers/directors not being able to say no.

kalowski

Quote from: icehaven on July 01, 2020, 09:09:40 PM
They may not have had a choice. I had a glance through his autobiography in WH Smiths once and even though I only read about 3 pages he twice mentioned how a lot of the 'hilarious' lines he says in his films were his idea, he ad libbed them on the spot and the entire crew fell about laughing and slapped him on the back telling him how funny he was. Now obviously that's not remotely true but I can easily imagine him insisting on his shit jokes and Terminator references being shoehorned into scripts and the producers/directors not being able to say no.
For some reason this reminds me of a story told by Steve Nallon abut Maggie Thatcher. One of her aides had written a speech with the line, "In many ways Labour remind me of Moses. They need to keep taking the tablets." Not a particularly funny joke, I know (not a joke in any way) but Thatch demonstrated her psychopathy by coming to her team and saying, "I've rewritten your joke to make it better. I will now say, 'In many ways Labour remind me of Moses. They need to keep taking the pills.'"
I wonder if it actually stayed in the speech?

magval

Quote from: icehaven on July 01, 2020, 09:09:40 PM
They may not have had a choice. I had a glance through his autobiography in WH Smiths once and even though I only read about 3 pages he twice mentioned how a lot of the 'hilarious' lines he says in his films were his idea, he ad libbed them on the spot and the entire crew fell about laughing and slapped him on the back telling him how funny he was. Now obviously that's not remotely true but I can easily imagine him insisting on his shit jokes and Terminator references being shoehorned into scripts and the producers/directors not being able to say no.

I've read this book and really enjoyed it, but I don't remember much of it as it was so long ago. I know that an awful lot of Arnie's lines in the earlier films were written for him by Steven De Souza (who wrote Die Hard), but those were the general quips and bits, not the callbacks to his old films (which he was doing as early as the Running Man if not before that).

El Unicornio, mang

This is usually only in teen comedies, but that thing at the end where they describe what happened to the characters "Jay went on to become a lawyer" etc even though it's not a true story, they do it at the end of Boyz n the Hood and it's just stupid.

notjosh

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on July 02, 2020, 11:31:30 AM
This is usually only in teen comedies, but that thing at the end where they describe what happened to the characters "Jay went on to become a lawyer" etc even though it's not a true story, they do it at the end of Boyz n the Hood and it's just stupid.

Yeah, I've never liked that. Especially when the reveal is just "they're all DEAD":
https://youtu.be/Ds8cKxtqvZw?t=212

Come to think of it, was
Spoiler alert
American Graffiti
[close]
the first movie to do this? I've always thought of it as an Animal House thing, but of course that was much later.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on July 02, 2020, 11:31:30 AM
This is usually only in teen comedies, but that thing at the end where they describe what happened to the characters "Jay went on to become a lawyer" etc even though it's not a true story, they do it at the end of Boyz n the Hood and it's just stupid.

Oh god, I HATE that adopted in fictional dramas except in
Spoiler alert
Stand By Me
[close]
(1986) which is extra heartbreaking because we know what did happen to some of the actors.

El Unicornio, mang

Yeah, that's a good example of it being used well, although I think it also works since it's the older narrator character telling it rather than just true story-style on-screen text.

kalowski

Just been reminded of an absolute cracker that I hate:

Police have a lead and set off to a house
Cut to bad guy at home, just doing his thing.
Cut back to police getting closer.
Cut to bad guy.
This continues until the scene where police put hand toward door.
Cut to: bad guy at home. Hears knocking at the door. Walks over tentatively. Slowly opens the door... it's his mate!!! The police are at a totally different house! They have the wrong man.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: kalowski on July 14, 2020, 09:36:10 PM
Just been reminded of an absolute cracker that I hate:

Police have a lead and set off to a house
Cut to bad guy at home, just doing his thing.
Cut back to police getting closer.
Cut to bad guy.
This continues until the scene where police put hand toward door.
Cut to: bad guy at home. Hears knocking at the door. Walks over tentatively. Slowly opens the door... it's his mate!!! The police are at a totally different house! They have the wrong man.

A staple ingredient of generic ITV crime dramas. The writers, the director, everyone involved in the production, they must know? I guess they just don't give a shit. That'll do, that'll lead us into the second ad-break. We're being paid, fuck it.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on July 02, 2020, 11:31:30 AM
This is usually only in teen comedies, but that thing at the end where they describe what happened to the characters "Jay went on to become a lawyer" etc even though it's not a true story, they do it at the end of Boyz n the Hood and it's just stupid.

I thought Beats did this quite well.

Puce Moment

Quote from: kalowski on July 14, 2020, 09:36:10 PMJust been reminded of an absolute cracker that I hate:

This is the legacy of The Silence of the Lambs, right?

notjosh

This is actually a film criticism cliche, but I hate when people say that the setting, or the soundtrack, or some aspect of production design is "like another character".

Oh, New York is like a character in the film? What happens in the end? Does it ride off into the sunset with Miami or settle down for a quiet suburban life with Philadelphia? Or does it just sit in the background looking pretty while the actual characters run around in it?

magval

Yeah, same here, I'd have no problem with them saying it HAS character, not that it IS a character.

Like That Fella Harvey Kietel's girlfriend in Pulp Fiction.

Puce Moment

THANK YOU!

This might need to be another thread related to lazy film criticism, but I especially HATE when people say that the location is like another character. I've been watching lots of Michael Mann films this week and if ever there was a Director associated with a location it is definitely him. But LA is not another character in his films - it acts as a location. He highlights LA in a way that other films do not, but it isn't a 'character'.

The other one is when an adaptation is a bit unfaithful in some ways to its source, but, and this is crucial guys, especially for those of us who love a bit of ignorant science or pseudo-supernatural content thrown into their humanities discourse - but the film is faithful to the spirit of the book or has its DNA running through it.

magval

Steve Schirripa said on his Sopranos podcast that Jersey was like a character in the show and I don't feel that at all when I'm watching it, although I suppose with somewhere like New York you have tons of famous locations that TV and film fans will recognize that give it that "it's a character" feeling. What's in Joisey that would make it feel like that? Nothing. So stop saying it just because everyone else says it, everyone.

neveragain

Puce, magval and notjosh - have you seen the romcom spoof They Came Together? If not, you'll certainly connect to the most prominent running gag.

Quote from: notjosh on July 15, 2020, 02:30:24 PM
This is actually a film criticism cliche, but I hate when people say that the setting, or the soundtrack, or some aspect of production design is "like another character".

Oh, New York is like a character in the film? What happens in the end? Does it ride off into the sunset with Miami or settle down for a quiet suburban life with Philadelphia? Or does it just sit in the background looking pretty while the actual characters run around in it?

Like a love letter to place/decade/cinema in general.

magval

Quote from: neveragain on July 15, 2020, 09:34:48 PM
Puce, magval and notjosh - have you seen the romcom spoof They Came Together? If not, you'll certainly connect to the most prominent running gag.

Love it to pieces.

Sebastian Cobb

The Zone was like another character in Tarkovsky's Stalker. Ahhhhhh.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: notjosh on July 15, 2020, 02:30:24 PM
This is actually a film criticism cliche, but I hate when people say that the setting, or the soundtrack, or some aspect of production design is "like another character".

Oh, New York is like a character in the film? What happens in the end? Does it ride off into the sunset with Miami or settle down for a quiet suburban life with Philadelphia? Or does it just sit in the background looking pretty while the actual characters run around in it?

In Doom Patrol there is a street who is literally a character, with dialogue and everything.

Puce Moment

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 16, 2020, 12:11:12 AMThe Zone was like another character in Tarkovsky's Stalker. Ahhhhhh.

I mean, in Solaris the planet is sentient so it is another character. And in Stalker there is that moment when we hear a voice and understand that something is there (maybe). But the ZONE is not a character. It is a space that falls out of the usual laws of physics and time (although it ostensibly seems normal in comparison to a knock-off like Annhilation).

But a character? Sounds cool and a bit clever and I imagine you picked it up from that hack Kermode, but soz nah mate.

olliebean

Seen plenty of films with characters that might as well have been scenery, mind.

magval

Probably in the thread already but the wide-eyed "wait a second - say that again" when a boffin needs a solution to a problem and someone says something seemingly unrelated that gives them an idea. Double score if they go back too far/not far enough and repeat some boring part of what they said. Just saw it in Dr Phibes Rises Again but it was in Independence Day as well.

olliebean

Quote from: magval on July 16, 2020, 08:56:22 PM
Probably in the thread already but the wide-eyed "wait a second - say that again" when a boffin needs a solution to a problem and someone says something seemingly unrelated that gives them an idea. Double score if they go back too far/not far enough and repeat some boring part of what they said. Just saw it in Dr Phibes Rises Again but it was in Independence Day as well.

Treble score if they go back too far and not far enough (or vice versa). i.e., "What did you just say?" - "No, before that." - "No, after that!"

Icehaven

Quote from: olliebean on July 16, 2020, 10:22:20 PM
Treble score if they go back too far and not far enough (or vice versa). i.e., "What did you just say?" - "No, before that." - "No, after that!"

Also if whatever they said was so inspirational you'd think the boffin would remember it and wouldn't need it repeating back a whopping 3 seconds later.