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Cliches that need to stop — Page 2

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Another one I just thought of:

When someone (usually the hero) is firing away endlessly at something (usually a monster, alien or some kind of indestructable bad guy) and then one time when they pull the trigger, there's just a "click" sound and they look at the gun, pull the trigger again and again and again, with the "click" sound each time and then either drop the gun and run or try to reload (in which case they're either way too slow or they fumble the ammo and can't seem to get it in properly).

Another one is when the indestructable bad guy has gone down and the hero thinks he's dead or whatever, but then he starts coming back up and the hero just stands there and stares at the bad guy and doesn't even begin to turn around to run until the bad guy's already on his feet. A good example of this is in Terminator 2, when the T-1000 gets blown pieces near the end after being frozen, and then the pieces melt and slowly come back together. The Terminator (T-800) and Sarah and John Connor don't start to run until the T-1000 is already starting to form its human shape again.
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Originally posted by: Spyder X
Another one I just thought of:

When someone (usually the hero) is firing away endlessly at something (usually a monster, alien or some kind of indestructable bad guy) and then one time when they pull the trigger, there's just a "click" sound and they look at the gun, pull the trigger again and again and again, with the "click" sound each time and then either drop the gun and run or try to reload (in which case they're either way too slow or they fumble the ammo and can't seem to get it in properly).

Another one is when the indestructable bad guy has gone down and the hero thinks he's dead or whatever, but then he starts coming back up and the hero just stands there and stares at the bad guy and doesn't even begin to turn around to run until the bad guy's already on his feet. A good example of this is in Terminator 2, when the T-1000 gets blown pieces near the end after being frozen, and then the pieces melt and slowly come back together. The Terminator (T-800) and Sarah and John Connor don't start to run until the T-1000 is already starting to form its human shape again.


What i think should have been done at that moment,instead of shooting the frozen T-1000 he could have picked it off the floor and carried it right to the foundry.
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There's always the "I am a lousy screenwritter" cliches:

* It was all a dream.

* The 2001-ape-throwing-bone-to-the-sound-of-spoke-zaratrusta-or-whatever-its-called scene.

* "You won this time (hero's name), but I'll get you next time! Huahahaha!"

* Magical teardrops that make people ressurect, flowers grow, miracles happen (also known as the "Teardrop Deus Ex Machina" cliche)

* The first thing someone with amnesia says is: "where am I? who am I?"

* Teenage party getting out of control, and the owner of the house is desperadly trying to clean up thing before parents get back (95% of Wonder Years episodes)

* The substitute teacher who gets to teach in a classroom full of poor kids who listen to hip hop at the classroom, curse all the time and spray grafitti al over, and are too dumb to learne. In the end, the dumbest, meanest kid gets graduates and gets a diploma, all thanks to the alternative way of teaching of the substitute teacher (I've seen about 20 movies with this exactly same plot).

* Kid travels back in time to medieval-england-king-arthur-and-the-round-table-like era. He/she uses technology as if it was magic to save the day (ditto).

* "I have a bad feeling about this" (hmmnnn...)
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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here's some.

scenes where everyone is shooting at everyone else, but nobody gets shot. (happened in just about every episode of the A-team)

humans meet an alien culture for the first time. Aliens have never seen a human before and yet can speak perfect english.

when history is altared, yet the hero still remembesr the events as they originally were, so he can go back in time and put history back to the way it was.(happend all the time in Star Trek.)

when someone decides they want to go back in time to change the past, yet if they were successful in changing history, they wouldn't remember the original past so they would have no reason go back in time to change the original history to the perfered history and therefore the original history would be reinstated thereby creating a paradox
(perfect example is the Terminator. If the terminator killed Sarah Connor, John Connor would not exist and therefore the supercomputer would have no nowledge of John Connor and therefor would have no reason to send a termator back in time to kill Sarah Conner, and so John Conner would exist to defeat the terminators in future, thereby creating a paradox)

when a woman is able beat up a man who is multiple times her size, weight and strength.

when there is a misunderstanding between a romantic couple that could be resolved in seconds but the person who thinks she knows what happened won't shut up long enough to listen to person who knows what really happen and so, it takes the length of the movie to resolve the misunderstanding. (this happend in just about every Fred Astair/ Ginger Rogers movie)

when the good guy decides to take on the bad guy by himself when it might be wiser to call the cops.

when the bad guys take hostages and threaten to kill them if anyone tries to interfere with them, the hero stilll interferes, and even though the bad guys have the perfect opportunity to kill the hostages, they don't




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Originally posted by: Warbler
here's some.

scenes where everyone is shooting at everyone else, but nobody gets shot. (happened in just about every episode of the A-team)

humans meet an alien culture for the first time. Aliens have never seen a human before and yet can speak perfect english.

when history is altared, yet the hero still remembesr the events as they originally were, so he can go back in time and put history back to the way it was.(happend all the time in Star Trek.)

when someone decides they want to go back in time to change the past, yet if they were successful in changing history, they wouldn't remember the original past so they would have no reason go back in time to change the original history to the perfered history and therefore the original history would be reinstated thereby creating a paradox
(perfect example is the Terminator. If the terminator killed Sarah Connor, John Connor would not exist and therefore the supercomputer would have no nowledge of John Connor and therefor would have no reason to send a termator back in time to kill Sarah Conner, and so John Conner would exist to defeat the terminators in future, thereby creating a paradox)

when a woman is able beat up a man who is multiple times her size, weight and strength.

when there is a misunderstanding between a romantic couple that could be resolved in seconds but the person who thinks she knows what happened won't shut up long enough to listen to person who knows what really happen and so, it takes the length of the movie to resolve the misunderstanding. (this happend in just about every Fred Astair/ Ginger Rogers movie)

when the good guy decides to take on the bad guy by himself when it might be wiser to call the cops.

when the bad guys take hostages and threaten to kill them if anyone tries to interfere with them, the hero stilll interferes, and even though the bad guys have the perfect opportunity to kill the hostages, they don't


1. I believe I already mentioned this one but yeah its a bad one
2. Lilo and Stitch
3. Back to the Future
4. Technically in the Terminator universe the future cannot be changed. Fate. This one is not a cliche
5. Johnny Bravo
6. So many chick flicks. Why I can't stand chick flicks
7. Definutly
8. Countless Super hero cartoons
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That last one reminded me of one of my favourite scenes in Van helsing. One of the vampire brides is about to kill Anna Valerious and goes into a long soliloquy about how she's going to enjoy killing her. Anna manages to signal to the friar to throw her a stake and promptly stabs her in the chest, saying, "If you're going to kill someone, do it; don't just stand around talking about it." A nice way of subverting cliche.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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Originally posted by: GundarkHunter
That last one reminded me of one of my favourite scenes in Van helsing. One of the vampire brides is about to kill Anna Valerious and goes into a long soliloquy about how she's going to enjoy killing her. Anna manages to signal to the friar to throw her a stake and promptly stabs her in the chest, saying, "If you're going to kill someone, do it; don't just stand around talking about it." A nice way of subverting cliche.


I got a good laugh out of that one.
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Originally posted by: jimbo
Love it. Truely a classic Indiana Jones momment. My favorite has to be the guy with the sword. I couldn't stop laughing at that scene.
I personally find the story behind that scene better than the scene itself. I hope you've heard it, otherwise, I might have to slap you a little.
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
* It was all a dream.
Why do you think Star Trek Enterprise is doing so bad in the ratings. Just about everyone watching knows at the end of the show, someone goes back in time, resets the clock, and nothing in the entire show ever happened.

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Originally posted by: starkiller
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Originally posted by: jimbo
Love it. Truely a classic Indiana Jones momment. My favorite has to be the guy with the sword. I couldn't stop laughing at that scene.
I personally find the story behind that scene better than the scene itself. I hope you've heard it, otherwise, I might have to slap you a little.


Everyone has heard about the story behing this shooting.
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I haven't please tell. Come on.
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Originally posted by: jimbo
4. Technically in the Terminator universe the future cannot be changed. Fate.

if the future can't be changed, why does the supercomputer keep sending Terminators back in time to kill John Connor?

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Originally posted by: jimbo


1. I believe I already mentioned this one but yeah its a bad one


sorry, I just didn't know, my bad.

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Originally posted by: Warbler
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Originally posted by: jimbo
4. Technically in the Terminator universe the future cannot be changed. Fate.

if the future can't be changed, why does the supercomputer keep sending Terminators back in time to kill John Connor?


They only think it can. But most events of the movies show a time loop where everything is inevidible.

Examples

John Conners Concievment

Sarahs picture

The chip in the lab

The Terminators knowledge of Sarahs grave
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Originally posted by: jimbo
I haven't please tell. Come on.

if I'm not mistaken, they were planning a big fight between Indy and the sword guy, when Harison Ford said "why don't I just shoot the guy?" and they changed the scene to the classic we have today. please correct me if I am wrong.
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Originally posted by: Warbler
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Originally posted by: jimbo
I haven't please tell. Come on.

if I'm not mistaken, they were planning a big fight between Indy and the sword guy, when Harison Ford said "why don't I just shoot the guy?" and they changed the scene to the classic we have today. please correct me if I am wrong.


Actualy he felt sick at the time i think it was something intestinal not sure,well thats what i read.
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I've read on numerous ocasions that Harrison Ford was supposed to do a complex fight scene with that man, but he was not feeling so well - as most of the crew was sick too - and asked if he couldn't just shoot the guy. They all found out to be a very funny idea, and did it. I'm not so sure the story is real tough. Felt kinda scripted, didn't feel like it was improvised on the set.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
I've read on numerous ocasions that Harrison Ford was supposed to do a complex fight scene with that man, but he was not feeling so well - as most of the crew was sick too - and asked if he couldn't just shoot the guy. They all found out to be a very funny idea, and did it. I'm not so sure the story is real tough. Felt kinda scripted, didn't feel like it was improvised on the set.


Thats funny how such great cinematic momments can arise in such a way. I also love the look on Harrison Fords face like "I don't have time for this" after just killing a man. Its truely a classic sequence. In fact its my favorite part of the series.
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
I've read on numerous ocasions that Harrison Ford was supposed to do a complex fight scene with that man, but he was not feeling so well - as most of the crew was sick too - and asked if he couldn't just shoot the guy. They all found out to be a very funny idea, and did it. I'm not so sure the story is real tough. Felt kinda scripted, didn't feel like it was improvised on the set.


Thats funny how such great cinematic momments can arise in such a way. I also love the look on Harrison Fords face like "I don't have time for this" after just killing a man. Its truely a classic sequence. In fact its my favorite part of the series.
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If I recall correctly, it was also the end of a very long day of shooting (in addition to the illness). That "I don't have time for this" look on Ford's face is real. He wanted to finish up for the day and probably get right to sleep.

Since we are talking Indiana Jones and jimbo's almost apparent lack of BTS knowledge...

You do know how he kept the fedora on, right?
You do know Ford used a staple-gun on his head to secure that hat. If you don't believe me, I can get screen-grabs from the DVD set. They used footage of it in the menu system.

Also...
*slaps jimbo with a medium-sized fish, as mentioned earlier.
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hey Starkiller, what's amatter? You couldn't find anything better to hit him with that a fish?
next time use this -
*Warbler hands Starkiller a baseball bat.*

you'll get better results
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Well, in my experience, there is a long-standing tradition of using fish to slap people on the internet (chats, boards, etc.).

Besides, I couldn't show this, if I used something else:

Cannot get enough Python.
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I have never heard of a tradition of using fish to slap people on the net
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Maybe its just something big with the SWC people I know and hang around with.
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Originally posted by: Warbler
I have never heard of a tradition of using fish to slap people on the net


It's not unusual to see it on a IRC chat room something like "ricarleite slaps warbler in the face with a large trout".

And yes, it's from that wonderful silly fish-slapping Monty Python sketch.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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I still have to watch those Monty Python movies. and please, Ricarleite don't slap me with a fish!