Annoying Movie Cliches

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 12:00am

Whenever a character is convinced that something huge will happen on a specific time and date, he will spend the entire film trying to convince his family/town/province/whatever that such and such will happen. When the date finally comes, the town is gathered around waiting for it to happen. Of course, the specific time comes and goes without anything changing. One person in the crowd scoffs the main character off as a loon and right when he finishes with the sentence, the THING finally happens in an overdramatically overdramatic fashion.
EXAMPLE: Evan Almighty

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 11:15am

When that title card come up that says The End.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 11:18am

"She loves you, kiddo. Now: Go find her."

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 11:43am

Or when the gay character suffers and dies so a straight character can get his/her life together.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 12:16pm

I think Hollywood is pretty much over this icky trend now (at least I hope they are), but I was REALLY irritated by the enormous wave of two-word film titles that all began with a gerund. It seemed so "cutesy" and cloying to me, even if SOME of the movies were good quality:

Finding Nemo
Finding Neverland
Finding North
Drowning Mona
Regarding Henry
Chasing Amy
Crossing Delancy
Owning Mahowny
Being Julia
Boxing Helena
Killing Zoe
Feeling Minnesota
Eating Raoul
Taking Lives
Pushing Tin
Swimming Upstream



Ugh.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 12:29pm

Only skinny straight white rich suburbanites can fall in love and be happy.

[MLE]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:06pm

Falling in love/getting married as a conclusion.

Even if the movie is about totally unrelated subject, more often than not, we end up at a wedding ceremony or witness a passionate first kiss before the credits roll.

Boring!

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:10pm

When people are on the phone and the person on the other end hangs up, you hear a dial tone.

And of course, every single bomb has a big digital readout so we know exactly how much time is left before the hero gets on the phone with some tech expert who tries to explain how to defuse it but gets cut off by some explosion or the cops bursting in to arrest everyone because the villain's convinced them the tech expert is a criminal so the hero has to make a split-second decision about what wire to cut and manages to cut the right one when there are approximately 3 seconds left. *phew*

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:18pm

In a comedy, everytime a pet or animal is present at a ritzy function like a wedding or gala, the animal will at some point escape from its owner and wreak havoc.

Also, in aromantic comedy when the two romantic leads are arguining in front of or near a fountain/pond/lake/etc. at least one of them will end up falling in at the climax of the argument (i.e: Princess Diaries 2).

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:19pm

http://www.moviecliches.com/

http://www.drivl.com/posts/view/473

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 10:19 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:48pm

You forgot BECOMING JANE, b12b.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/30/07 at 9:48am

I guess this annoying trend continues, SM2.

I hate it.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/30/07 at 11:26am

The romantic comedy where the two leads (who are so clearly right for each other that you've wasted eight dollars on the stupid ticket) are brought together by the cute and endearing little kid (usually, of course, a girl) who sits there smugly smiling.

Gah.

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/30/07 at 1:59pm

Ebert used to (and may still) have a good collection on his site. One of my favorites was that in order to let you know a scandal is getting national attention, someone will be watching a TV showing Jay Leno doing a joke about it.

[peach]

Posted: 7/30/07 at 5:19pm

-The fact that all movie people have answering machines, in a day and age when most people are using voicemail on their land lines.

-When you want to show improvement in a sport or challenging situation, you get better and better bit by bit in a montage set to an 80s life anthem-y type song. Actually, I don't find this annoying; rather it's one of my favorite movie cliches. The montage!

-The depressed chick scenario - always involves soap operas, Kleenex, sweatpants, not answering the door when BFF is knocking, and a box of chocolates like the kind you would get on Valentines' Day.

Updated On: 7/30/07 at 05:19 PM