New game -- "The Cliche Game"

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by thomashton

Any movie that Cameron Diaz agrees to appear in has a clause in the contract that states she must dance around in her panties or at least a bikini bottom that is the size of or smaller than panties.

Nothing wrong with that cliche.

[WAID]

Originally Posted by DavidCantu

Whenever there's a gay character, they always make him seem like some pansy sissy that loves Barbara Streisand and has a real Nancy voice. Not all gay people are feminine....or much less, like Babs

This one is really funny to me because my wife and I notice that this happens all the time on TV reality shows! The exception seems to be the gay cowboy on the current season of Big Brother, and it should be this way more often simply because it shouldn't be so obvious all of the time. It would be great to find out that some guy just eliminated has a boyfriend at home and nobody would have even guessed he was gay.

Instead, the token gay guy is the one who wears the Speedo, has no athletic skills, talks with the lisp, or the girl with the butch hairstyle who is out to prove that women can beat the men (that last one is a bad example because women on these shows always seem to band together to defeat the guys). You'd think that GLAAD would be upset that these shows constantly perpetuate negative stereotypes about the gay community but maybe that's the paradox: they want gay people to be represented but how do you know that there is a gay character unless he wears just a jock and a half-shirt? For gay stereotypes, see: "Project Runway," "Survivor," "The Amazing Race," "Big Brother," "Will and Grace," etc.

[Brikar99]

Originally Posted by WAID

maybe that's the paradox: they want gay people to be represented but how do you know that there is a gay character unless he wears just a jock and a half-shirt?

[Monterey Jack]

The nice thing about Brokeback Mountain was how it depicted two gay men in one of the most stereotypically "macho" professions (cowboy) without turning them into limp-wristed sissy caricatures. Granted, the time period(s) the movie was set in made it impossible for Ledger and Gyllenhaal's characters to be openly gay, but still.

[Monterey Jack]

Not really a cliche, per se, but who else finds it distracting whenever a PG-13 movie has a character utter the one usage of the expletive "fuck" that the rating will allow (current example: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button)? Every time that happens, I always find myself dragged out of the film for a second while I think "Well, there's the obligitory sole F-Bomb..."

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by larphillips

At night, the roads are always wet and shiny.

I was going to mention this, but I see it was already taken. But I think it is the most pervasive movie cliche around.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by ganthc

I was going to mention this, but I see it was already taken. But I think it is the most pervasive movie cliche around.

Especially noticable/funny in movies set in rain-free environments like Las Vegas.

[Monterey Jack]

When a character is dying of thirst, and finally gets some water, he'll always spill half of the container of water all over his chest and neck as he greedily guzzles it down, no matter how much he needs to conserve his water supply.

[Monrozombi]

When people make a date for the following day and they just decide on the location and never a mention of the time they'll meet.

"how about that french place downtown tomorrow night?"

"Ok"

End of conversation.....how the hell do they know when to show up?

[Mikado]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned: the big strong tough black guy that is brought to tears by puppies, kittens or something touching. Michael Clarke Duncan for example.

[Monterey Jack]

Also (and I swear this isn't a racist thing), every bodyguard to a gangbanger black character always weighs about 300 pounds (True Romance, Righteous Kill). Yeah, big, fat guys look intimidating, but I'd personally prefer someone who can fucking move guarding me.

Unrelated cliche...every movie featuring a primarilly canine cast will either have "Who Let The Dogs Out?" or "Bow-Wow-Wow, Yippie-Yo, Yippie-Yay" playing in it's trailer or TV spots (Hotel For Dogs, ect.).

[Monterey Jack]

Any French character is required by law to insert the phrase "How you say...?" into their dialogue at least once during a movie.

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Any French character is required by law to insert the phrase "How you say...?" into their dialogue at least once during a movie.

that is so true.

[Shawn Watson]

Any film about a secret government agency will be about one of the agents selling secrets to the enemy/double agent/traitor etc.

(all Mission: Impossibles, Get Smart, many Bonds, Bournes)

[Monterey Jack]

Whenever someone is smothered with a pillow over their face, they'll always succumb and lose consciousness/die within 15 seconds or less. Other forms of strangulation/suffocation can be greatly prolonged, but using a pillow guarantees death within fifteen seconds (Bride Of Chucky is a rare exception).

[ganthc]

In TV shows, moreso than movies, comic book/computer geeks are all ripped underneath their baggy clothes. Where do they get the time to work out when they spend all their time reading comics and hacking?

All identical twins are beautiful people. You never see ugly identical twins, and that's somewhat true in real life too.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by ganthc

In TV shows, moreso than movies, comic book/computer geeks are all ripped underneath their baggy clothes. Where do they get the time to work out when they spend all their time reading comics and hacking?

Most people in movies are pretty well-toned, except for people whose fatness is a plot point. While I walk everywhere, I don't do any real exercising beyond that, and believe me, it's obvious. Unless a character is a teenager (who tend to have a pretty high metabolism), really skinny/ripped people past the mid-20's are pretty rare unless they work at it.

[Monterey Jack]

Whenever someone fast-forwards or rewinds a VHS tape, everyone's voices will suddenly sound all high-pitched and chipmunky, when in real life, you don't hear anything on the soundtrack, just the "whirr" of the tape. Saw this in Primal Fear this morning.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Most people in movies are pretty well-toned, except for people whose fatness is a plot point. While I walk everywhere, I don't do any real exercising beyond that, and believe me, it's obvious. Unless a character is a teenager (who tend to have a pretty high metabolism), really skinny/ripped people past the mid-20's are pretty rare unless they work at it.

Yes, but the geeky people should be pudgy and white from all the time they spend indoors doing their WoW, hacking, and reading comic books. They definitely shouldn't have ripped abs and big arms. It always makes me chuckle when they get really attractive guys/girls to play nerdy roles and stick glasses, and baggy clothes on them to make them suddenly nerdy.

[ganthc]

I didn't bother searching through the previous posts, but I am always annoyed that no one ever shuts the door when they are about to make out or have sex. The one person opens the front door to see the other come in and quickly kiss that person, and they usually fumble backwards towards the couch or the bed. No one ever shuts the door.

[ganthc]

If someone has to make an emergency pee or change of clothes while driving, there will always be a family that drives by with shocked parents and gawking kids.

[Monterey Jack]

It doesn't matter how long a character is tied up or held hostage...they'll never have to pee after being freed.

[Monterey Jack]

Over the past several years, once a movie series makes it to the fourth entry, said forth entry will have almost exactly the same title as the first film in the series, only adding or subtracting a subtitle or a "the" (see The Fast & The Furious/Fast & Furious, Rambo: First Blood Part II/Rambo, Final Destination/The Final Destination, ect.).

[Monterey Jack]

Whenever a movie depicts a character both as a child then as an adult during two different time periods, the filmmakers will introduce a physical mannerism or action performed by the child actor that will be replicated later by the adult actor, to help especially dim audience members grasp that they're the same character (see Contact, where Jodie Foster's character tucks her hair behind her ear both as a child and an adult, or the "Nala Flip" in The Lion King).

[Monterey Jack]

Whenever a character falls to their death from a high-rise building, they must fall onto a car when they hit (usually setting off the car alarm). This happens twice in the first season of Fringe. No one ever hits the sidewalk.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Whenever a character falls to their death from a high-rise building, they must fall onto a car when they hit (usually setting off the car alarm). This happens twice in the first season of Fringe. No one ever hits the sidewalk.

This wasn't true in Heroes for Claire's roommate. However, I know what you mean.

[Monterey Jack]

Whenever a composite sketch is created in a crime movie, the resulting picture is always a virtually photographic likeness of the actor playing the criminal in question. I'm sorry, but if I witnessed a crime, and the police asked for my help to describe the perpatrator, I'd be toally at a loss. "Uh, well he was white...kinda chubby...that's all I've got."

[Monterey Jack]

The trailer for that upcoming Gerard Butler movie reminded me of this old chestnut..."I'm just getting warmed up!"

[Monterey Jack]

You can outrun/drive/fly anything in a Roland Emmerich movie (giant fireballs, the weather, earthquakes, ect).

[Monterey Jack]

In sequels to monster movies, there's the inevitable early scene where one of the survivors of the original is enticed to lead a new team to wipe out the remnants of the monsters from the first movie. Their useful advice about how dangerous said monsters were/are is inevitably ignored by the new batch of soon-to-be-lunchmeat monster-killers. See Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Jeff Goldblum in The Lost World, Fred Ward in Tremors 2, ect.