Movie Clichés

No matter what the movie genre, release date or plot, the dreaded cliché will inevitably crop up. Below follows some of the most prominent ones.

Villains are terrible shots. Even with hundreds of bullets flying everywhere the hero will escape unharmed, until the plot demands otherwise. Also, even after firing hundreds of bullets the bad guys never need to reload, unless a dialogue is called for.

Staying with the action theme; shooting the fuel tank of a car will make it explode. This cliché was busted by Mythbusters, as they proved in most cases it will simply not work. Mythbusters also disproved the cliché that a character will be violently flung back when hit by a bullet, as the bullet cannot possibly hold enough momentum.

Another action/horror cliché is that a killer will never die the first time, as my gaming boyfriend always says: “You must double tap.” Shoot once to kill and a second time to make sure the bastard stays dead.

The feminist cliché: When a woman goes to bed in the movies, she will always wear a full face of makeup and incredibly wake-up without so much a smear or a pillow stain. Through experience I can truthfully say that this cliché is most definitely false.

This cliché would most definitely be problematic in real life: Anybody running away from someone or something will immediately be blessed with the ability to hotwire a car. A car chase is after all a lot more interesting than a foot chase.

Another cliché which always confuses and infuriates me is when a hero/good guy is attacked by a mob of bad guys/ninja’s/villains - they will always politely attack one or two at time, rather than rush him altogether. Also, why do the bad guys always reveal their scheme? It is such a cliché, rather keep us in suspense, it’s a lot more thrilling than giving away the plot.

Then there’s the technology cliché: anybody, especially pimple faced teenagers, can hack into confidential government records; all they need is a laptop and some typing skills. To make it more believable their expression needs to be one of absolute concentration, a few seconds of furious typing and eye squinting and viola access granted.

By definition a cliché is a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of originality. Above certainly fits that description. If you can think of anymore clichés post us a comment and let’s see how many we can unearth.