Things that have been done to death in movies

Cafe Society
81

:rolleyes: That’s nice.

And, as I recall, the question wasn’t weather or not events and circumstances such as that Actually Happened in Life, but was what events and circumstances Have Been Chronically Overused in Movies.

For instance, all Alien Technology has been Organic-Based for the last decade or so, everything from alien clothing (If they even wear anything) to weapons and spacecraft. I blame Giger. I can’t remember the last time I saw a bolt or a lever on a movie spaceship, dagnabit.
Ranchoth
(“Nerd PRIDE, Geek-brothers!”)

82

One of the best things about Darkman was that it looked like this was exactly what was going to happen when Westlake held the villan dangling by his foot over the side of the building and after got done listening to the bad guy go on about how Westlake was too mcuh of a good person to let him fall he just drops him.

83

That’s SOOO true! I took my 13 year old stepson shooting for the first time and he just had to try this. I said “go ahead” and he let loose with a full clip and hit nothing! and the target was only 15 feet away. Man were we chuckling.

84

Small arms that cause people who are shot with them to be picked up and thrown by the impact of the slug. “last Man Standing” had some especially appalling examples of this. Basic physics tells us that if the weapon was that powerful, the shooter as well as the shootee would be thrown off his feet.

85

The noble end. Joe is wounded, and helping him walk is slowing down the party. He begs to be left behind with a machine gun and a hand grenade. The hero honors his request, clutches his shoulder, and they share a manly moment, just on the verge of a tear. Couldn’t you just see Matt Daimon and Ben Affleck…aw shoot, now I’m all cryin’ and stuff…

86

Sorry for the mild hijack, but can someone explain why the sideways grip doesn’t work as well as the normal grip? I’m a complete gun ignoramus. I live in England so, like most here, I’ve never even seen a real gun let alone tried one. It seems just from looking that the side on gripwould work just as well as ‘normal’. Educate me!

87

Art Vandelay and BMalion:

I saw an article from some California paper that the “sideways” shooting style is becoming “old hat” with the gang crowd, because it’s too popular in the movies now. Allegedly, the new “cool” style is to hold your gun completely upside-down.

Too bad we can’t make it cool to point it at their own heads and pull the trigger! :slight_smile:

Okay, back on the Overdone Movie Stuff topic:

Fight scenes where the “upper hand” goes back and forth, back and forth, from Good Guy to Bad Guy, as they beat each other beyond all human endurance… often with heavy and/or sharp objects… sometimes when one has a serious wound.

That annoying rattle that movie weapons make whenever they are moved quickly. There are no loose, rattle-y bits on guns!

The whole “human is raised by animals, so he has the powers of the animal” bit.

The closely-related “human is raised by animals, so he’s smarter, wiser, more morally-developed than the rest of us” bit.

Double-barrel shotguns that make the pump-action “chunk-chunk” noise when brought into action.

The girl who stabs the psycho and leaves her knife in his chest, so he can pull it out and use it against her.

Characters who work the action on their weapons repeatedly, in order to emphasize what they’re saying. In reality, this practice simply throws perfectly good ammunition on the floor!

People who twitch once, then instantly drop dead when stabbed.

Since all psychics in movies are real, the Tarot actually works, and the tribal shaman really can see the future in a pile of chicken bones, you’d think people would begin to listen to them after decades of consistently correct prediction… but nobody does.

In movies, ALL fringe belief systems are valid (voodoo works, Native American magic works, etc.), but the immensely more popular Judeo-Christian beliefs are nearly always shown to be useless.

The “ugly girl is just an incredibly beautiful girl with glasses and a bad hairstyle” bit.

The nerd who becomes heroic and/or popular, and suddenly doesn’t need his glasses anymore.

The person (usually a woman) who puts on glasses simply to show that she’s involved in serious mental work at the moment.

88

Ianzin,

When the gun is sideways, you can’t see the sights properly, as they are on top. You have to put your arm in an awkward position to sight.

Your wrist isn’t as strong in that position, so it’s harder to control the gun’s kick. Also, that position makes the gun kick sideways, which makes it more likely that the shot will miss a tall, narrow target (like a human).

With semi-automatic guns, the hot gases and used cartridges are ejected out of the right-hand side. Holding the gun sideways in your right hand means they fly up at your face. (Left-handers get hit in the belly or groin.)

I’m not going to say that it’s impossible to shoot this way, but guns are designed to be shot in the normal way, so they’re a lot easier to use when you use them correctly.

89

Also we are binocular, two eyes, and the sight is desifgned to work with one eye on each side to focus, so if you turn your head sideways no problem, but then there’s that pesky inner-ear…

90

-NO REPERCUSSIONS. How many freakin movies you seen where people do a HUGE amount of damage and show them getting arrested or jailed because they killed a guy (how the hell do the Police know it). Hell the last time I heard about repercussions it was the guys getting sued by every state, county, and city rep in New York from the Gozer fight in Ghostbusters 2.

-The ‘it has to rain’ when a car chase happens - this is the only way they can justify sliding turns.

-Shooting gas tanks causes them to blow up

-BAD AIMING FROM BAD GUYS. Jesus Keerist, someone hire a fucking merc that can actually SHOOT A DAMN. I mean how hard can it be to shoot a big ass meathead standing in front of a fireball in perfect silhouette.

-Heroes never EVER EVER go into shock after getting shot. EVER.

-Shooting out a tire while driving.

-Passcodes, passwords, security codes instantly broken by the great ‘decrypting’ program every hero has.

-Jumping, falling, or diving through glass never ends up getting the hero sliced to ribbons.

-And I don’t care who you are, bareknuckle fighting never happens like it does in the movies. If someone telegraphed a punch that much, he would be beaten up right quick. And when have you seen someone break their hand after punching someone?

91

Elementary. The slo-mo laser bolts are the Matrix bullet effect applied to photons. It’s become an industry standard…

:stuck_out_tongue:

Ob-tired cliche…

Good guy wins.

92

Or similarly when a 2 people were previously just friends, until the girl trips and falls, but the guy catches her in a tight embrace. Then they stare into each other eyes and realise they’re meant for each other! cue mad passionate kissing

93

  • Almost any scene taking place at night in a big city will have wet streets—even someplace like Las Vegas, which gets on the order of 4 inches of rain a year

  • Tension building…tension building…tension building…then a freaking cat jumps out.

  • Lovers getting out of bed right after a steamy lovemaking session…while still wearing their underpants

  • Or even better, when the aforementioned lovers kick back to enjoy that post-coital cigarette, they almost always have those special L-shaped sheets that reach the woman’s shoulders but only the waist on the man (I love that Vanilla Sky didn’t do that…mmmm…Penelope…)

94

What in the world makes you think that? I used to do it every chance I got as a kid.

Also, I used to work at this resturant several years ago, and one of the cooks did this to every single waitress at least once. The only time he ever got caught is when one of them got in her car and he stunk so bad she jumped out because she thought we had put a trashbag in her back seat.

My best friend and my sister have both done it to [different] girlfriends of mine, and I’ve done it to several of my friends.

Out of the dozens and dozens of times I’ve seen this old trick work, I’ve only seen it not work maybe two or three times.

95

This was actually a plot point in a recent episode of CSI. Gang killer had a burn on his face where the spent cartridge hit him, after shooting somebody while holding the gun sideways.

96

MAS*H (the movie). Elliott Gould punches Robert Duvall and doubles over in pain.

So that’s one, in 100 Years of Cinema.

97

Well, it’s also a common cliche that stuffy fancy-pants types who try to act tough and punch out the villain always end up rolling around holding their hand while the villain laughs dismissivly.

98

  1. When the protagonist enters a bar, the bartender is invariably in the act of polishing a bar glass.

  2. Staring at one’s hands in disbelief after killing someone for the first time

  3. SCIENCE FICTION: “That’s funny. My watch has stopped too.”

  4. SCENE: WOODS, NIGHTTIME
    SITUATION: A GROUP OF PEOPLE ARE BEING MURDERED ONE BY ONE

“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Me too.”
“Let’s split up.”
“Okay.”

99

The only repercussion is “YOUR SUSPENDED!!!” for violating some silly beurocratic rule that defies common sense and in spite of the positive outcome (like Segal rescuing the Vice Pres in Exit Wounds). Suspended cop or agent is reinstated for solving the crime at the end of the movie even though they caused 10 times as much damage as the action that got them suspended, probably got a few cops killed and conveniently ignored the fact that they should not be out fighting crimes while under suspension.

Bad guys can only be arrested for the big drug/gun deal that will occur at the climax of the movie . Any arrest for anything else, including shooting at the cops or murdering people, will onlly result in the perp being let back on the street in 24 hours (we’ll try to make it 12:D ) (see Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon). Seeing 8 suspicious guys loading a container ship full of cash and guns is not considered “probable cause”.
OUR SPECIES HAS JUDGED YOU HU-MONS TO BE A VIOLENT AND IMMATURE RACE! PUNISHMENT IS…EXTERMINATION!!!

100

O Fortuna. Incredible, yes, but used waaaaaay too much.