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Worst action movie clichés


Starlord

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I'm more bothered by inconsistency. If a movie starts out "realistic", usually with a dramatic cop stand-off with a hostage or villain that goes badly, traumatizing our protagonist... but as the movie goes on, the set piece actions scenes get more and more "unrealistic"... and I'm like "Dude... if you can jump 70 feet and dodge bullets and run through glass without being cut... why didn't you do that at START of this lousy movie and save me two hours!"

 

I can handle over-the-top cinematic if it is consistent for the film throughout, but I hate it when they can't make up their minds, and things change for supposedly dramatic moments. "I just ducked and dodged and shot my way through 20 guys with automatic weapons firing massive number of rounds, but now that the main bad guy pulled his revolver and pointed it at me, I better hold up my hands and drop my gun.

 

 

Oh... and the bad guy with a gun getting close enough to the unarmed hero to be disarmed with a sudden move!  ugh.

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Oh... and the protracted "shoot up the cabin" (or house or whatever) scene where every badguy shoots at the same height, while the good guys lie on the floor, then every single one of them empties their mags at the same time... then all of them take like a minute to reload giving the heroes plenty of time to get out through the conveniently uncovered rear of the house.

 

Oh... and named characters "out running" explosions... after the cliche of seeing the bombs all blinking with red lights one second before the button is pushed (really? all the bombs have to have red blinking lights to warn people?) and then... AFTER the button is pushed, and the explosions have started, somehow the hero or named villain can run fast enough across a room to jump through a glass window without being cut... before the next bomb in the series goes off. Somehow electrical signals and chemical pressure reactions are slowed to a crawl...

 

 

Both of these thigns happened back to back in the awful "Bullet to the Head" I've currently got playing in the background.

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48 minutes ago, RDU Neil said:

I could give or take car chases, they don't thrill me, but I don't hate them... but Ronin is one of my favorite movies... ever.

 

Ronin is a classic, written and directed by the groundbreaking master of car chase filming, John Frankenheimer.  Good car chases are hard to come by but they're still out there.  Recent examples include the opening sequence of Baby Driver, and the last 120 minutes of Furiosa and Max's Desert Road Trip.

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Quote

None of these cliches bother me any more than a Phillips head screwdriver bothers me

 

ZOMG, hecking Phillips head. I despise Phillips head screws; there is FAR TOO MUCH cam-out; only an undamaged high-quality driver in an undamaged high-quality screw works acceptably. Roberts drive, AKA square drive, is superior in literally every way, but for reasons I'll never understand (sheer market inertia? "not invented here" syndrome?) people are NOT switching to it in droves, like they should be.

 

If I ever get a time machine, Phillips had better watch have watched his back.

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48 minutes ago, Dr.Device said:

Emotional Teflon

 

Characters shrugging off the death of friends, mentors, or even loved ones after a moment (if that) of grief. Often celebrating wildly once they've "won."

 

 

Don't you understand male motivation? The only emotion we are allowed is anger, but the more nuanced of us can run the gamut from bitterness to rage. (Smug superiority is ok some cases.)

 

We are only allowed to cry if a famous sports personality dies, or our team loses a big game.

 

The death of friends, mentors or even loved ones are merely catalysts for our rage, which will ensure our victory!

 

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12 minutes ago, RDU Neil said:

 

 

Don't you understand male motivation? The only emotion we are allowed is anger, but the more nuanced of us can run the gamut from bitterness to rage. (Smug superiority is ok some cases.)

 

We are only allowed to cry if a famous sports personality dies, or our team loses a big game.

 

The death of friends, mentors or even loved ones are merely catalysts for our rage, which will ensure our victory!

 

 

Dang it, I never did get the hang of that back when I was pretending to be a guy. It's a wonder I lasted as long as I did. :)

 

 

 

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OH... more a suspense/horror cliche, but the scenes where a driver is being attacked or struggling with someone while never bothering to just take their foot off the accelerator, so the car just keep flying along... when everyone's instinctive reaction would be to lift foot and probably break hard. 

 

It is one thing when the scene is brief, hard violence, immediately followed by sudden loss of control of the vehicle... but those terrible, dragged out scenes of struggling for 30 seconds or more as the car keeps heading down the road... ugh...

 

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11 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah the "cop who breaks all the rules and is thrown off the force but solves the case anyway by killing all the suspects and destroying all the evidence in a cataclysmic series of explosions and fires" is my least favorite cliche.  Even in otherwise really well done cop movies, that tends to be the end, ruining the entire film.  I blame Die Hard, not so much for the film but because stupid writers and directors took all the wrong lessons from the movie.

 

Interesting point.  I liked Die Hard, but didn't care for any of the sequels.

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7 hours ago, Cassandra said:

Women running in high heels without losing their balance no matter what the danger is.

 

And there is my mother's pet peeve (well #2 pet peeve)

 

Mother: Take your shoes off! Even if you get some thorns in your feet it's better than breaking your ankle and getting eaten by the monster!

 

Her biggest?

 

During the climatic battle between hero and villain, the heroine who does nothing but cringe in the corner.  (Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie comes to mind)

 

Mother:  DO SOMETHING!!!!!

 

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3 hours ago, RDU Neil said:

 

 

Don't you understand male motivation? The only emotion we are allowed is anger, but the more nuanced of us can run the gamut from bitterness to rage. (Smug superiority is ok some cases.)

 

We are only allowed to cry if a famous sports personality dies, or our team loses a big game.

 

The death of friends, mentors or even loved ones are merely catalysts for our rage, which will ensure our victory!

 

 

Ehh, I cant say anything on that, since in real life, I don't really feel comfortable crying unless alone.  Being made fun of in elementary school, by the whole class, for crying when Old Yeller died will do that to you. 

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3 hours ago, RDU Neil said:

OH... more a suspense/horror cliche, but the scenes where a driver is being attacked or struggling with someone while never bothering to just take their foot off the accelerator, so the car just keep flying along... when everyone's instinctive reaction would be to lift foot and probably break hard. 

 

It is one thing when the scene is brief, hard violence, immediately followed by sudden loss of control of the vehicle... but those terrible, dragged out scenes of struggling for 30 seconds or more as the car keeps heading down the road... ugh...

 

 

What also aggravates on those is the oncoming drivers is their immediate reaction is too honk the horn.  I've had my own share of close calls and never was first reaction was to do that.  My instinct is to either brake or swerve.  I will not honk first.  

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4 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

The "death instinct" of slamming your foot hard down on the accelerator is a mystery as well.  

 

I'd actually like to see that in a movie when a villain is holding a gun on the hero in a car and making the hero drive him somewhere. "Sure, shoot the driver while we're doing 90 miles an hour. See how that works out for you. Or you can just wait until those traffic cops catch up to us."

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1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'd actually like to see that in a movie when a villain is holding a gun on the hero in a car and making the hero drive him somewhere. "Sure, shoot the driver while we're doing 90 miles an hour. See how that works out for you. Or you can just wait until those traffic cops catch up to us."

 

seems a long time ago, I watched a 70s era movie that actually did that

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33 minutes ago, Starlord said:

People on foot being chased by a vehicle down a road who run perfectly straight and don't zigzag or veer off completely.

 

People on foot running from a falling something or some such, who try to outrun the fall rather than go left or right.  I've heard it referred to as "Graduating From the Prometheus School of Running Away From Things"

 

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