# American movie stereotypes that I hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701 "2012-07-28T19:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/21 "2012-07-31T13:56:44Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > 1. Because sitcoms are where innovation goes to die. Also the wife is hot and the man is fat. Those sitcoms were cancelled several years ago. The only current fat husband is Mike from **Mike & Molly** , but she’s fat too. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/22 "2012-07-31T14:19:50Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > … 2) The guy who has no suggestions of his own but rails and nags at the other guy who tries to make some hard decisions in difficult circumstances. … i thought every office had one. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/23 "2012-07-31T14:34:24Z")
You know that every monster you think is dead is going to come back to life for one final scene. You also know that a robot is finally dead when the red lights it has for eyes dim and go out. For some reason, the robot (afaik) never comes back to life. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/24 "2012-07-31T14:44:48Z")
except for the one in Terminator 2. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/25 "2012-07-31T15:14:32Z")
Every high tech computer system on earth can be hacked by every single 15-17 year old gamer with a laptop, in less than two minutes. If necessary, all the data is also able to be downloaded on a single flash drive and later easily encrypted with one hand while munching on a sandwich with the other. BTW, most kids in the US apparently have multiple computers/laptops/screens in their bedroom that have every bit of software ever created, including software that has not yet been released to the general public…but those crazy kids still can’t put their dirty laundry in the hamper and that room is cluttered. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/26 "2012-07-31T15:18:13Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > What bugs me: bullets that always hit something near the hero, so you can see just how close they are to getting shot. But, if the shooter were halfway competent, the shots would be whizzing past the hero at torso-height, hitting things way in the distance, instead of splashing near his feet. That’s some mighty poor shootin’, Tex. > > One of the most serious offenders I’ve seen was the old miniseries **V**. In one scene, our heroes are escaping on horseback as villains chase after them and fire. Crazily, the villains’ shots never just whiz past them; they always, _always_ hit the nearest tree limb that the hero is riding by at that moment. If you’ve never shot a pistol before, it should be said: they’re very inaccurate at range. So in Spider-Man 2, he’s climbing on top of a skyscraper, and cops are shooting at him from 100s of feet away, their bullets landing 5-15 feet away. I don’t remember any rifles, at least. > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > You know that every monster you think is dead is going to come back to life for one final scene. You also know that a robot is finally dead when the red lights it has for eyes dim and go out. For some reason, the robot (afaik) never comes back to life. Or they shit their pants. A big annoying horror movie trope: they hit the bad guy once in the head, and then run away without finishing them off. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/27 "2012-07-31T15:32:14Z")
Nobody has mentioned the “talking killer” yet? The bad guy has finally cornered the hero, has his gun pointed directly at his heart, but can’t resist ten minutes of exposition before finishing him off, allowing hero’s buddy/girlfriend/cute-child-sidekick to arrive and rescue him. In _The Incredibles_, it was referred to as “monologuing.” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/28 "2012-07-31T15:37:26Z")
> [@TrisCarr](#): > > I personally love Woody Allen… He writes stories about everyday lives of romantics. I don’t find him cliche’ at all… What exactly is so stereotypical about him? He brought back Bob Hope’s “lovable coward” character with which the audience identifies, adding a Jewish & 1960’s counter-culture aspect to it. But his rise spelled the end of Peter Seller’s entirely unself-aware comedic type; submerged in its own oddness. Unfortunately, when the pendulum swing back to this, Jim Carey was riding on it. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/29 "2012-07-31T17:00:41Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > \ > A big annoying horror movie trope: they hit the bad guy once in the head, and then run away without finishing them off. I think it was one of the _Silence of the Lambs_ movies where both the bad guy and the good guy have been shot, and the good guy yells to (someone) “Shoot him again!” Finally! A smart hero! ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/30 "2012-07-31T17:37:41Z")
You can find variations on these kinds of tropes in pretty much every single movie released anywhere, not just the US. A “Tell me your favorite movie and I’ll tell you why it sucks” thread could be a lot of fun. Has it been done? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/31 "2012-07-31T17:50:25Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > 1. The guy who goes against specific orders or just common sense to jeopardizes the life of his family [SNIP] to save a family pet,[SNIP] (What’s the deal with Americans and their pets anyway?) snipping mine Pets ARE family. Why even have a pet if you don’t care enough for it to save it in a disaster? Now, the movies are gonna exaggerate just how far you’ll go for an animal family member at the risk of human family members, but movies exaggerate everything. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/32 "2012-07-31T17:58:15Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Of course he is, but at least he’s good enough to recognize it and play to type, when he does still act. And, to his credit, he pretty much stays behind the camera now, rather than casting himself as a romantic lead, as he did in his younger days. I think this calls for an important quote. > [@](#): > > In America today … we have Woody Allen, whose humor has become so sophisticated that nobody gets it any more except Mia Farrow. All those who think Mia Farrow should go back to making movies where the devil gets her pregnant and Woody Allen should go back to dressing up as a human sperm, please raise your hands. Thank you. > – Dave Barry, “Why Humor is Funny” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/33 "2012-07-31T17:58:35Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > What bugs me: bullets that always hit something near the hero, so you can see just how close they are to getting shot. But, if the shooter were halfway competent, the shots would be whizzing past the hero at torso-height, hitting things way in the distance, instead of splashing near his feet. That’s some mighty poor shootin’, Tex. > > One of the most serious offenders I’ve seen was the old miniseries **V**. In one scene, our heroes are escaping on horseback as villains chase after them and fire. Crazily, the villains’ shots never just whiz past them; they always, _always_ hit the nearest tree limb that the hero is riding by at that moment. I never watched it myself, but somebody once told me that in GI Joes, the safest place to stand during an attack was out in the middle of the corridor. Bullets would whiz past your head and you’d never get hit. The only time anybody came close to being hit was if he hid behind something, and then whatever he hid behind would get hit, right by his head. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/34 "2012-07-31T18:23:42Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > or any anime taking place in a time period where you might have seen both guns and swords at around the same time. One guy with a katana going up against 50 guys with muskets and slaughters them all. Yeah, sure, that would ever happen. Time period as in the ‘distant future’? Yes, I’m look at you every anime or anime-derived live action film where the hero or villian chooses to wade into battle with a katana in one hand and a Desert Eagle in the other. It is apparently standard practice at the CDC that whenever a suitably scary epidemic occurs, the 82nd Airborne Division will air assault into your town in full MOPP gear, quaranteen your town with a perimeter of mines, concertina wire, armed checkpoints and sinister looking flood lights and issue various treatments such as 4000mg lead injections, napalm and tactical nuclear warheads. The “good guy” is always an aimless, unemployed drifter and the “bad guy” is typically the most successful local businessman. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/35 "2012-07-31T19:00:36Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > \ > It is apparently standard practice at the CDC that whenever a suitably scary epidemic occurs, the 82nd Airborne Division will air assault into your town in full MOPP gear, quaranteen your town with a perimeter of mines, concertina wire, armed checkpoints and sinister looking flood lights and issue various treatments such as 4000mg lead injections, napalm and tactical nuclear warheads. \ And one idiot will sneak out the back way to infect the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/36 "2012-08-04T12:26:48Z")
Oh, and I hate those films where the main character goes through the entire movie to ultimately make a choice between “highly lucrative dream job” and “taking care of / having a family”. Yeah…that’s certainly great for your family to blow off that law partnership, book deal, CEO position, opportunity with the NY Yankees or whatever so you can make your 8 year old’s piano recital. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it in a few years when she has to go to Podunk U instead of Harvard. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/37 "2012-08-04T12:57:20Z")
The “hit & run,” a staple of horror movies but also common to any sequence involving a bad person pursuing a hero(ine) or otherwise innocent victim with nefarious intent: the pursued gets away momentarily, locates a blunt object and waits for the bad guy to come around a corner or through a door. When the pursuer appears, they score a crucial strike, then _immediately drop their weapon and run away_, and of course the bad guy, while momentarily stunned, just shakes it off and continues the pursuit. WTF?! Keep hitting them, dumbass! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/38 "2012-08-04T16:22:05Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > The “hit & run,” a staple of horror movies but also common to any sequence involving a bad person pursuing a hero(ine) or otherwise innocent victim with nefarious intent: the pursued gets away momentarily, locates a blunt object and waits for the bad guy to come around a corner or through a door. When the pursuer appears, they score a crucial strike, then _immediately drop their weapon and run away_, and of course the bad guy, while momentarily stunned, just shakes it off and continues the pursuit. WTF?! Keep hitting them, dumbass! Perfect (and refreshing) counter-example: _House of Wax_ (2005): Carly, the heroine, and her brother Nick are being chased by homicidal formerly-conjoined twins Bo and Vincent. Bo is about to kill Nick when Carly catches Bo across the face with a baseball bat, knocking him down… and then she hits him again, and again, and again… she swings for the fences 12 or 13 times on him, and he does _not_ get up afterward. There’s still Vincent to deal with, but I found the moment to be a welcome surprise in an overworked genre. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/39 "2012-08-05T00:27:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Perfect (and refreshing) counter-example: _House of Wax_ (2005): > > Carly, the heroine, and her brother Nick are being chased by homicidal formerly-conjoined twins Bo and Vincent. Bo is about to kill Nick when Carly catches Bo across the face with a baseball bat, knocking him down… and then she hits him again, and again, and again… she swings for the fences 12 or 13 times on him, and he does _not_ get up afterward. There’s still Vincent to deal with, but I found the moment to be a welcome surprise in an overworked genre. I can recall two horror movies where our heroes, after running over the bad guy with a car (or, in one case, with a monster truck), proceed to back up over him and hit him again. Actually, the example with the monster truck includes a time-lapse to indicate that he was continuously running over the bad guy with a big honking monster truck for something like 8 hours before he finally had somewhere else to be. Didn’t kill the bad guy, of course, but it’s hard to be afraid of a smeared puddle of goop at that point. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701/40 "2012-08-05T00:33:31Z")
An event has occured, like the dead rising from the grave thirsting for flesh. Time jump… Things have gotten really desperate, our characters could be the last humans alive in their state and hell maybe even the USA! Er does anyone else wonder what is going on in the rest of the world? I imagine some areas with geography VERY resistant to zombie attack(much more than the continental USA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-movie-stereotypes-that-i-hate/629701.md?page=3)