Annoying Movie Cliches.

[Kotowboy]

What things in movies drive you up the wall every time they happen ?

For a kick off -

When someone is driving and listening to music and their favourite song comes on and they go f---ing mental. Air guitar - air drums singing really loud - headbanging - miming the words...

People don't do that !! It's just a song ! Calm down !

[Kotowboy]

Or - the very first girl the single, male protagonist meets in the movie - is the person he's destined to be with forever

[Bolsters]

The bomb countdown. Pisses me off more when it ends on two or three, because they think they're being clever not having the bomb be deactivated with only one second remaining.

[puppyonacid]

When I see a bomb countdown in a movie and you observe it at say 22 seconds to go, I carry the countdown on in my head. So if it's a really naff movie where there's a guy trying to defuse the bomb which is conveniently strapped to the love of his life, I love how they can basically sort out their entire relationship in 22 seconds, which isn't actually 22 seconds but somehow works out less because he defuses the bomb with one or two seconds to go......yet I'm still counting and the scene is already 3 minutes long!

You get the gist right?

[puppyonacid]

.

[Kotowboy]

I always do that. Just carry on counting when it's off screen and it never matches up ever . .


Oh I thought of another one.

When it's a big intense loud action scene and characters have to shout at the top of their voice to be heard..

..when it's a really important moment - they suddenly can hear each other talking really softly to each other.

Then as soon as the important poignant moment is over - they have to go back to shouting to be heard

[Kotowboy]

I always wonder about scenes when they say we have 5 minutes or whatever and it's always way way more...

Just film the scene and have the actor say we've got x minutes as a scratch take then ADR the actual time later when the film is done.

[Sycsa]

The comedic pause - when the music stops to emphasize a bad joke, sometimes accompanied with a scratching record sound effect - is by far the most annoying movie cliché I can think of. It's insulting, like the audience is so dumb, you have to give them a cue to laugh. It plagues movie trailers even more, watch any comedy trailer and it's bound to happen 3-4 times. It always manages to piss me off right before the movie starts.

[Kotowboy]

I agree but when it's done right it can be hilarious.

Especially when there's a pause for an intentionally awful joke - or when "the hero" is supposed to say something motivating or profound - and then says something really lame and everyone just stares at him.

[Sycsa]

3-4 times

Make that 9-10 times, I just watched five comedy trailers from the last couple of years to test it and apparently I was way too generous the first time around. Even The Wolf of Wall Street is a five-time felon.

I agree but when it's done right it can be hilarious.

Especially when there's a pause for an intentionally awful joke - or when "the hero" is supposed to say something motivating or profound - and then says something really lame and everyone just stares at him.

Show me one instance where it actually works and it's genuinely funny, because I can't recall ever seeing a single one of those. It always comes off as forced and just plain dumb. The scenario you just described sounds pretty cringeworthy.

[King Postwhore]

The slow motion walk away from an explosion with their back turned like it's second nature to have bombs going off behind and all around you.  I'd jump a mile if that happened.

[Kotowboy]

3-4 times

Make that 9-10 times, I just watched five comedy trailers from the last couple of years to test it and apparently I was way too generous the first time around. Even The Wolf of Wall Street is a five-time felon.

I agree but when it's done right it can be hilarious.

Especially when there's a pause for an intentionally awful joke - or when "the hero" is supposed to say something motivating or profound - and then says something really lame and everyone just stares at him.

Show me one instance where it actually works and it's genuinely funny, because I can't recall ever seeing a single one of those. It always comes off as forced and just plain dumb. The scenario you just described sounds pretty cringeworthy.

I agre it's usually awful in trailers but if done right can be good in actual comedy films where it's satirising the technique you mentioned.

[Prog Snob]

Ben Stiller

[Kotowboy]

The slow motion walk away from an explosion with their back turned like it's second nature to have bombs going off behind and all around you.  I'd jump a mile if that happened.

Just any characters doing anything stupidly macho for no reason.


I've seen a few films where people will be at a rock concert - at the front of the crowd - literally by the stage and they can quite happily chat away at normal volume.

[Kotowboy]

Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller  > Adam Sandler.

[Prog Snob]

Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller  > Adam Sandler.

No fuckin way.      Especially Sandler's older movies.  His newer ones aren't so great. 

Every movie in which I've seen Ben Stiller he was least funny character.

[BlobVanDam]

I have despised ever Ben Stiller movie I have seen, so I'll take Adam Sandler's 3 decent movies over Stiller's 0.

Or - the very first girl the single, male protagonist meets in the movie - is the person he's destined to be with forever

That covers about 99% of big Hollywood movies, and is one of my most hated cliches. As if they think people can only enjoy a movie if there's some flimsy love story shoehorned in, or that it will make it appeal to more people.
I also hate that they think some average relateable human story is needed in movies where the humans shouldn't even be the focus (mostly scifi). I have never once seen a movie and thought "gee this movie needs more humans doing human stuff" (well except maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey, but that was far from the biggest problem with that one )

[Kotowboy]

trailers are so predictable now - i was watching one for the first time once with my bro * and I was like

" millisecond clip of people kissing...NOW. " just as it happened.

Was that .05 of a second for the girls that may be watching to show them there's a romantic element involved ?


* first time seeing that trailer - not any trailer

[Chino]

What things in movies drive you up the wall every time they happen ?

For a kick off -

When someone is driving and listening to music and their favourite song comes on and they go f---ing mental. Air guitar - air drums singing really loud - headbanging - miming the words...

People don't do that !! It's just a song ! Calm down !

I do that at least 3 times a day...

[Chino]

- In car sequences when a car jumps and goes nose down into the ground. The next time they show the front of the vehicle, it's perfectly in tact.

- Lights flickering in a hospital.

- Mid evil people looking poor and disgusting but having amazing teeth.

- Bad guys walking after people running for their lives.

- Humans never lose.

- The head rests in cars are always (9/10 times) missing.

- The pot smokers are always portrayed as retarded.

- A woman puking is always the give away that she's pregnant.

- There's always a douche bag in charge of a prison.

- When someone goes to a front door, they have to knock like seven times before someone answers the door.

- All apartments in Paris have a view of the Eiffel Tower.

- Helicopters can take a lot of bullets.

- The storm is always directly over head (thunder immediately follows lightening).

- Knocking someone unconscious by hitting them in the head with any object.

[snapple]

The slow motion walk away from an explosion with their back turned like it's second nature to have bombs going off behind and all around you.  I'd jump a mile if that happened.

Well, cool guys don't look at explosions.

[jsem]

- Mid evil people looking poor and disgusting but having amazing teeth.

Medieval people having decent teeth isn't a complete fraud though. Sugar was a luxury resource, and the poor had little access to it, so they wouldn't damage their teeth as badly as the nobles would.

[Chino]

- Mid evil people looking poor and disgusting but having amazing teeth.

Medieval people having decent teeth isn't a complete fraud though. Sugar was a luxury resource, and the poor had little access to it, so they wouldn't damage their teeth as badly as the nobles would.

I don't buy that. I get it, but with lack of any real dental care, and diets consisting of mostly nuts and dirt covered food, I can't see sugar being the main cause of bad teeth. Even if that was the case, sugar doesn't make your teeth grow in straight.

[Jaffa]

- When someone goes to a front door, they have to knock like seven times before someone answers the door.

I'm actually more annoyed by the opposite - when someone instantly answers the door after the first knock.

[Chino]

- When someone goes to a front door, they have to knock like seven times before someone answers the door.

I'm actually more annoyed by the opposite - when someone instantly answers the door after the first knock.

Both are equally annoying and don't reflect real life. Everyone knows that you knock/ring, and then get awkwardly close to the door while you listen for someone walking around.

[BlobVanDam]

And why are people in movies and TV shows so impolite on the phone? Always hanging up without saying bye. Bastards.

[Prog Snob]

- When someone goes to a front door, they have to knock like seven times before someone answers the door.

I'm actually more annoyed by the opposite - when someone instantly answers the door after the first knock.

yeah, that always bugged the shit out of me too.  Like they have a chair by the door and they're just waiting for someone to knock.

[Fluffy Lothario]

The first Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean films both feature extremely highly in my least favourite films I've ever seen because it felt like the writers were trying to cram as many lame cliches from family adventure films as they could into one movie. (In case anyone asks, I've never felt the need to try the sequels for either, why would I, considering I've heard they're even worse, and the first installments were already unbearable.)

[Sycsa]

The slow motion walk away from an explosion with their back turned like it's second nature to have bombs going off behind and all around you.  I'd jump a mile if that happened.

The Other Guys had a nice take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNZZhTXw72M (I almost linked the trailer version, but it has the comedic pause. Phew!)

And why are people in movies and TV shows so impolite on the phone? Always hanging up without saying bye. Bastards.

That one always befuddled me. I can perfectly understand Tony Soprano never saying bye before hanging up, but in most other situations it feels weird. I guess they value their screentime too much to bloat it up with mundane politeness.

[gmillerdrake]

- Knocking someone unconscious by hitting them in the head with any object.

Along the lines of this. The single punch knock out.....just doesn't happen like that. It'd take a perfect shot really.

- Hot chicks biting thier lip in a flirty fashion
- Aloof / Absent parenting that allows kids to do whatever they want inevitably leading to mischief or the plot 'problem'
- Expert marksmanship from every main character who hasn't specifically trained with weaponry yet the 'bad' guys or element of the show can shoot hundreds of rounds that never come close to hitting anyone.
- Any 'love' scene is pretty much BS.
- 95% of the time the casting of couples is questionable as to if that hot of a chic would be with that guy

[bout to crash]

I rock out in my car all the time 

I have despised ever Ben Stiller movie I have seen, so I'll take Adam Sandler's 3 decent movies over Stiller's 0.

Aw come on, Meet the Parents and Permanent Midnight?!

[T-ski]

a giant plane of glass will always be broken.

[Chino]

Whenever something falls off a cliff, it explodes.

[KevShmev]

PG sex scenes where they are doing it under the covers (obviously done that way so as to not show any nudity and keep it PG).  I am always like, who does it under the covers??

[snapple]

Movie cliches don't bother me. It's when they're done without any sense of taste or timing.