It really bugs me when I pay good money to rent a movie only to find out that it’s basically the same movie I rented last week, but with different pretty people to look at.
What are some plotlines you wish would just go away and never come back?
Here’s one of my most-hated :
Popular jocks are standing around making fun of an ugly girl (who is actually a fashion model with glasses and hair pulled up in a bun). One jock bets another jock that he can’t make the ugly girl into a prom queen/popular girl/whatever.
So the jock goes out with the girl and, of course, falls in love. Eventually the girl finds out about the bet and dumps him. At the end of the movie, they have a tearful reunion when she realizes that he really does love her.
TV sitcom plot:
Two people talking (usually roommates). Third person, hiding, eavesdrops and mishears the discussion. Mistakenly interprets that one of the individuals:
has a crush on them/wants to propose to them
has an incurable disease
is plotting to murder someone.
Spends the rest of the show frantically running around trying to solve the problem, elude the person, etc.
Direct lift from “It’s a Wonderful Life” - Major character wishes s/he were dead or didn’t exist, goes to sleep or gets knocked out and guardian angel shows them what life would be like without them. Character awakens, realizes it was all a dream, tells everyone around them how much s/he loves them, and hugs abound.
[Normally despised the show, but I did like the take “Married …With Children” did on this!]
Direct lift from “A Christmas Carol” - Crotchety character (boss, teacher, lonely next-door neighbor) is shown the errors of his/her ways and has major overhaul of bad attitude on {guess when} Christmas Eve. Said character shows up to the party/dinner (that in the beginning of the show they REFUSED to attend) the next day with presents for everyone! (Not likely they would have bought presents before hand, judging from the attitude displayed in the beginning of the show. When did they go shopping - 3 am at the Circle K?) I personally want to see these people 6 months later when the Christmas spirit has worn off.
A favorite of earlier days was the sitcom where someone 1) gets hit over the head and gets amnesia or 2) discovers that they aren’t legally married to their spouse. One particular show used those two plots for it’s first two episodes.
I get tired of the set of misfit athletes who manage to come together to win the big game in the end.
Ditto the psychological breakthrough film, where someone has a deep seated psychological problem and suddenly discovers the key to curing it.
The Enterprise encounters a) a rift in the space/time continuum, b) a hostile alien entity, c) a hostile alien race, or d) a hostile alien device. The crisis is solved by emitting a stream of tachyon particles thru the deflector dish.
The Enterprise encounters a) a rift in the space/time continuum, b) a hostile alien entity, c) a hostile alien race, or d) a hostile alien device. The crisis is solved by going back in time to avert the said crisis.
Young, good-looking guy is going through life apparently happy and successful but is secretly, perhaps unconsciously, yearning to make something meaningful out of his shallow, plastic existence. He has a “crisis of faith,” so to speak, and gets through it all with the help of a beautiful, sincere, loving woman who sees the true renaissance man beneath the cocky-bastard exterior. They live happily ever after.
This is basically the premise of just about every other Tom Cruise movie - one cocky bastard, one Oscar contender, one cocky bastard, one Oscar contender, etc.
One TV plotline that every show used to have, but that you don’t see very often anymore is the Las Vegas episode (or the Hawaii episode).
One of the characters is playing some casino game and really gets on a roll, winning all kinds of money. It all comes down to one final roll of the dice which will decide whether the person goes home broke or becomes a rich man. They always lose.
OR … one of the characters has an apparent gambling problem and bets away the family car. They spend the rest of the episode trying to get it back.
awww come on. These tired plot lines have been the basis for a lot of fun in my life (ok, so I don’t get out much :D)
A. Blame it on your evil twin.
B. When a particularly gut wrenching/hideous/maudlin news event happens: 1. Predict HOW LONG (remember the Branch Davidians -they were filming AS the siege was going on) it will be 'til the made for TV version comes out. 2. Predict HOW MANY versions will come out (remember Amy Fisher?) 3. Predict HOW MANY NIGHTS it will be on (some have been two or three parters!)
Guy is secretly crazy about girl. Girl re guy, ditto.
They sort of hook up. Seem happy, but won’t commit.
Misunderstanding occurs. Both are hurt.
Guy approaches girl, and stammers out true feelings, then turns and walks away.
Silence for about 5 seconds, girl says “Wait!”
Guy turns slowly.
Girl confesses love/say something endearingly sarcastic/leaps into his arms.
Cue music!
Tough, loose cannon cop has his A)partner or B)brother killed by ruthless crime lord. Spends the rest of the movie killing the crime lord’s henchmen and then kills the crime lord at the end.
or
Cop has strange murders happen on his beat. He finds an expert on the strangeness at the local university. The expert becomes his love interest. Together they defeat the ghost/monster/demon/psycho in dramatic fashion.
There are essentially four plots for “Flipper” (and I used to love the show when I was a kid):
[list=A]
[li]Someone is trying to hurt the environment;[/li][li]Someone is trying to take Flipper away from the family;[/li][li]Flipper saves Bud after his hare-brained money-making scheme goes awry; or[/li][li]Bud’s trapped in a cave, again.[/li][/list=A]
C. and D. can/are often combined into one episode.
[Didn’t like “Lassie”, so I haven’t analyzed those yet.]
girl (Or guy) goes through movie searching for true love, not realizing that their true love is their co-star. This person will either sort of hook up with said co-star, or ignore co-star completely, until main character gets burned by loser love interest. Then main character will finally see co-star as the noble, caring, sweet, perfect match. The two characters hug/kiss. Close credits.
A simular version involves a plot complication that keeps the two lovers from connecting: something about the co-star reminds the main character of his/her Ex True Love (Often diseased). Main character finally does enough soul searching to realize that co-star is STILL his/her True Love. They kiss, end credits.
Hell, this isn’t a tired plot line. It’s a tired movie genre!
Two cops. One is very straightlaced, the other…well, kind of a loose cannon. Crazy, but in a “funny” way. They must work together to accomplish Task X.
Whats even better is when they use the same damn actors in different movies with the same stupid plotline. For example…
1.) Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks
2.) Julia Roberts and Richard Gere
The movies are all the same… every love story is. Boy and girl get together, fall in love after some small hassle in getting there. Some catastrophe happens and the two break up… After much begging and pleading the guy gets the girl in the end… or else one of them dies… thats about the only shift in the plotline that I can see. Every love story in the world follows this plot. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY! The worst part is, women never get sick of it! How many times can they remake the same movie before you catch on?!?
Wholesome Midwestern teen is suddenly transported to a strange new place. Doesn’t fit in with the locals.
Decides to make it on her own in the big city.
Meets quirky strangers, who try to help her reach her goals, and end up becoming her best friends.
The usual hurdles stand in her way: talking trees, flying monkeys, etc, etc.
In the end, wishes for everything to be OK. It is!
Mom and dad go away for the weekend. Kids decide to have a party. Mom and dad come home early. After a stern lecture, kids are grounded, but learn their lesson. Mom and dad gives kids a reassuring hug. Cue applause. Cue music. Cue credits.
Has everyone forgotten the special “drug” episodes that sit-coms used to have? One of the characters would get in a situation where they are offered drugs, or are found doing drugs, and of course in the end everybody has learned their lesson that drugs are evil.
I can still remember the “Welcome Back Kotter” drug episode!
The highlight was Vinny Barbarino (John Travolta) chanting “Gimmee drugs. Gimmee drugs. Gimmee gimmee gimmee.”
Lead characters are castaways on an island inhabited by a man who enjoys hunting humans, because humans are superior prey.
Political leader dies and is replaced an actor.
Lost animals trying to get home.
(only a sub-plot) ugly but smart girl finally gets hero, after saving his butt, and changes her hair/loses the glasses to become “pretty”.
I DESPISE “A Christmas Carol” rip-offs. Back when I watched TV regularly I stopped watching ever December because every show must do A Christmas Carol.
Wring wrote:
>B. When a particularly gut wrenching/hideous/maudlin news event happens:
I’d like to add 1) how long before the cult leader’s longsuffering wife is portrayed; 2) how long before the cult leader is accused of having sex with minors; 3) how long before the “true-life” how-I-escaped-from-the-cult-leader interviews happen.