Viewing Thread:
"Movie Cliches"

Films are loaded with 'em these days. "Ghost Ship" is one of the worst pieces of drivel, I've had to endure, and couldn't help but spot them everywhere. Let's hear some typical movie cliches that get on your nerves...

If the good guy is creeping around a building or peering through a door and an enemy/random person comes through the door, the good guy always manages to hide in the opposite direction from which the person walks and so remains unseen.

The geek always gets the girl.

The geek always saves the day.

There is the climax at the end where the good guy vs the tall evil strong boss type guy. It always looks like the bad guy will win but the (frequently bulletridden) good guy will stage an amazing comeback and kill the bad guy in a gruesome fashion, such as impaling him on a nearby forklift which is handily parked with its spikes facing up.

When the hero seems to have an infinite ammount of ammo until the final scene where he only has 1 bullet so has to get a perfect shot.


A team of detectives find it nearly impossible to catch a serial killer then 10 minutes from the end remember "a vital clue", usually leading to someone they know well.

A woman's being chased by a baddie. She hides behind a building. She dares to look back around the corner and the baddie is gone. She turns back to face where she just hid, and the baddie is a centimetre away from her face. Then she usually screams.

The person who is being chided for their incompentancy ultimatley prevails, often taking the place of their fallen comrade to complete the vital task. Who was the fallen comrade? The person who was chiding them.

One of my favourites is when a crew of a spaceship are all rendered unconscious by some unseen force, and they all wake up at exactly the same time, rubbing their heads and saying 'what happened?'

Films in which Aliens are friendly and speak English. Each film of this sort will have a scene in which the main Alien couple have dinner with the main human couple and the predictable dialogue will start with:

Male Alien "tell me what is this thing you humans call love? It is not known to us Rrllls"

The humans will tell the Aliens, the female Alien will claim that her matling isn't very romantic but they do perform the ritual of Bllaarghscreeeeee often.

Cue bemused looks from the Human couple.

Then the Male Alien will say something chauvinistic and an argument will ensue.

Cue wry smiles from the Human couple as they wonder off hamming it up for the cameras.

After shagging fifty women, managing to covince your lady-friend, it meant nothing and winning her over with a lil speech...come on man, we all know you need to get some flowers and reduced dark choc, she'll be like putty in your hands

Managing a 10 minute talk - "I love you!" and all that blah before someone dies.

Someone able to go on after being shot in the leg or stomach.. o_O Surely you would drop to the ground screaming in pain! Not exactly a good example of this, but Nicolas Cage does it best in Adaptation, "I've been shot! I've been shot! Haha! Oh, my God! Haha!".. Something like that.

Waking up not looking tired, no lines on the body, complete make-up, etc. Jeez, they should make them sleep for real at least. I think in the commentary on Final Destination, they filmed the first scene and Devon Sawa was really asleep.. but they should film them waking up! Must be hard to remember the lines, though.. :s

The main protagonist of the piece being a burnt out cop with nothing to loose after his family was massacred. Lives in an apartment that’s been left in squalor with empty pizza box’s and beer cans left lying around. Probably also attempts to commit suicide on occasions as well, but eventually find a new love interest and decides against killing himself.

The same cop again, loud mouthed, erratic and probably tortures bad guys to get information. Though he destroys everything in sight and kills armies of criminals, he’s left to his own devices because he “Gets the job done”. There may even be a point where he’s taken off a case and/or chased down by the FBI after he’s framed.

The computer expert who can hack into any computer system around the world by entering a password where the clues have stupidly been left around the immediate area. Passwords usually being the name of a loved one. The same computer experts who can also hack into CIA databases and download virus software by typing in C:/ Download Virus.

The Beautiful girl who’s considered ugly by many because she wears glasses, has her hair tied up in a ponytail and wears baggy clothes. Everyone but the viewer is then amazed when she later takes off the glasses, puts her hair down and wears a stunning red dress to a prom, upstaging all others in the process.

Bad Guys going through the trouble of getting an insider, gathering disguises and arming themselves with all kinds of top of the range firepower and equipment to kidnap the president/steal lots of gold/steal a nuclear bomb, yet failed to take into account that there may be one, renegade cop somewhere offing each bad guy one by one, ruining their plans.

When 50 highly trained super-assassin expert marksmen are shooting about 30 bullets each from machine guns towards the hero who's running away from them, in the exact middle of a perfectly straight corridor. Nothing touches him.

And when they always know that the enemy has seen them because a shot bounces off the wall / stair railing. Whereas in real life, you'd know the enemy had seen you because a shot bounces off your brain.