From the Simpsons…
Miss Hoover: And so, as Abraham Lincoln sat in Ford’s theatre that night, John Wilkes Booth entered, drew his gun, and … (the bell rings) Well, that’s it. Have a nice summer, everyone.
(everyone leaves except for Chuck and Ralph)
Chuck: But what happened in Ford’s theatre?
Ralph: Was President Lincoln okay?
Miss Hoover: He was fine. (Chuck leaves) Go home, Ralph.
Which violates every piece of guidance on structuring lessons I’ve ever seen. I don’t know a single teacher who’d willingly allow such a thing to happen.
It was obsolete long before that. Strowger switches have been gone for decades.
For the exception that proves the rule, see We Own the Night. The car chase in that movie nearly had me peeing myself.
Hostile Dialect,
Hostile Dialect, Narcissist
It worked great as a device though in “Hopscotch”, because Miles Kendig (Matthau) wanted the CIA to trace his call, since he was holed up in Myerson’s (Ned Beatty) house, and wanted to thumb his nose at Myerson. There’s a great scene when the FBI is trying to flush out Kendig, and Myerson says, “What are they doing?!” Joe Cutter (Sam Waterston) says, with a trace of a grin, “They’re shooting up your house!”
Although there are three movies off the top of my head that feature classic car chases: Bullitt (of course), the French Connection, and the Seven Ups. I find none of them needless or boring, but of course YMMV.
I guess the corollary would be in a scene where the neighborhood/city is deserterd (a la the Omega Man, or some other desolate dystopia), there’s always a dog barking in the distance. And no matter which movie, it’s the same freaking dog. I love dogs, but hate that one.
I’ve been noticed! 
The overly precocious child. It seems like every movie has a little kid who is smart and wise far beyond his or her years. It drives me crazy.
Don’t think it’s come up yet… can we PLEASE stop having people crawl through air ducts to get from room to room?
At least Paul Blart has a funny variation on this theme.
Speaking of air ducts can we please stop hiding money/cameras/jewels in hotel room air ducts? Why? Because I have never been in a hotel or motel room with air ducts. They all have independent heating/cooling wall units.
My wife got pregnant the very first time we had unprotected sex, in order to try to have a baby. To be fair, the timing was right. We were very happy that we were cautious before.
For me, it is the fact that during the car chase scene the other drivers tootle along as if nothing were happening. No one stops and pulls over on the freeway, no one pays attention at intersections when a siren is wailing. People are dumb, but not that dumb.
Not to mention that there are never any consequences. The police department is never seen paying for the wrecked cars or anything.
I’ve seen movies which depict that a twelve-gauge shotgun is powerful enough to blow a gaping hole completely through someone. Unless I’m mistaken that’s a serious exaggeration.
Speaking of car chases how about an end to this cliche:
Hero and his female passenger are trying to escape, bad guys in hot pursuit.
Hero drives toward a gap that is slowly closing (a cargo truck backing up, a bus pulling up behind another bus, etc.)
Female passenger sees the gap closing “You’re not going to make it! You’re not going to make it!”
Hero manuveurs vehicle by the skin of it’s teeth through gap.
Gap closes and bad guys hit the brakes. Driver immediately jump out of vehicle, curses out the truck/bus driver and pounds his fist on the top of his car.
What movie was this? I can recall it from Death Becomes Her, which was set in an obviously magical universe; besides; Goldie Hawn was undead and decaying when it happened, so clearly she might have been a tad more brittle than normal.
Maybe they could make it more interesting by varying the formula… say, have an investigative team which consists of two women, and before the story’s halfway done they’re in the sack with each other…
Nitpick - Goldie wasn’t dead at that point, it was the shotgun that “killed” her.
I always took it that she had had already died and it was the shotgun blast that revealed her undead status, her death having occurred offscreen. But it’s possible I’m wrong.
My point is that the big gaping hole from a shotgun blast is hardly a cliche, as it does not happen over and over. And given the frankly magical effects of the potion Hawn & Streep’s characters partake of in this movie, complaining about that is like complaining that it’s impossible for anybody, Kryptonian or not, to set things on fire by looking at them.
BTDT. Both times my wife and I decided to have kids, she was pregnant within 10 days of going off the pill.
I just checked Wikipedia; you are right and I was wrong.
Usually I’d dispute that Wikipedia is a hard cite for something but if it’s proving me right then I won’t. 
It merely refreshed my memory. I was distracted by the thought of Goldie Hawn, as it immediately brought to mind Laugh-In and dancing in bikinis and…
what was I talking about?