Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[Treadwell]

Fair point on slasher films, if that's what the filmmakers intend, but I don't think it's always the theme they intend.

This barely counts because it was an amateur effort, but I watched a horror short for a short film contest where the teens/young adults were in a haunted house, got to the front door, turned around and there was a monster clinging to the wall across the room. Instead of going out the door two feet behind them, they RAN UPSTAIRS. And if they meant that as a meta joke, they didn't communicate that intent well.

 

[batguy]

Horror scenarios, car chases, fight scenes, million-dollar heists . . . these things DON'T normally happen in real life. It's hard to portray a bunch of people behaving normally and ending up in those situations.

Hence, the script writers start having people doing unrealistic things.

It's much easier for writers to add extra stupidity to a scene than brains. Stupidity is more common. It's easier to write. It's easier for viewers to follow. It creates more opportunities for laughs.

 

[drusselmeyer]

Writers missing the obvious and doing something trite instead. This includes television!

 

[p51]

Well, characters being incredibly stupid to move the plot along in ANY show/movie.

I would say the same for contrarian characters. The type you tell them, "STAY IN THE CAR, do not follow me and I'll be back in five minutes," which ten seconds after that character leaves, the contrarian says, "F that, I'm following him" and gets the main character in a jam that never would have existed otherwise.
And the other character never understands the error they'd made.

 

[Treadwell]

I would say the same for contrarian characters.

Oh hell yes. When a character does the opposite of what they were told and gets the hero killed or whatever, that ticks me off no end.

 

[CB2001]

Oh hell yes. When a character does the opposite of what they were told and gets the hero killed or whatever, that ticks me off no end.

The only time I can recall there being an subversion of this trope was the Jean Claude Van Damme movie Sudden Death, JCVD leads his kids to a set of seats in the hockey rink, tells his son not to leave his seat. The kid remains in his seat the whole time IIRC, even when the rest of the rink was evacuated.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Yeah, I like the quiet, sneaky ones that just pops up and gets stuff done.

 

[Treadwell]

More of a TV thing than movies, but: the incompetent main character who bumbles everything but the goal is accomplished successfully due to the adept efforts of a subordinate who takes no credit. Works on the original Get Smart, since it was the first (or close to it?) use of the trope, but it was already wearisome by the time Inspector Gadget came along.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I would say the same for contrarian characters. The type you tell them, "STAY IN THE CAR, do not follow me and I'll be back in five minutes," which ten seconds after that character leaves, the contrarian says, "F that, I'm following him" and gets the main character in a jam that never would have existed otherwise.
And the other character never understands the error they'd made.

It's come to the point that I actively start rooting for those characters to die. One example that comes to mind is Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds.

I finally started the Daredevil Netflix series and it's pretty good. The thing that bugs the heck out of me is the fight scenes. The choreography is great, but in one fight he's fighting a guy with a knife. If you've ever taken any martial art, when you fight someone with a weapon, your first step is to knock the weapon away or get control of that hand and disarm them. He fights this guy for minutes before he does that. The other thing is fighting like five guys and he's sitting there boxing it out. When you're outnumbered you go for disabling blows to thin the herd. For example, hitting nerve clusters, breaking limbs, throat strikes, etc. By the time he took out five guys the first guys were getting up again. Then, and I don't think he has super powers (?), your hands would be so busted up you wouldn't be able to punch that long.

 

[drusselmeyer]

It's come to the point that I actively start rooting for those characters to die. One example that comes to mind is Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds.

I finally started the Daredevil Netflix series and it's pretty good. The thing that bugs the heck out of me is the fight scenes. The choreography is great, but in one fight he's fighting a guy with a knife. If you've ever taken any martial art, when you fight someone with a weapon, your first step is to knock the weapon away or get control of that hand and disarm them. He fights this guy for minutes before he does that. The other thing is fighting like five guys and he's sitting there boxing it out. When you're outnumbered you go for disabling blows to thin the herd. For example, hitting nerve clusters, breaking limbs, throat strikes, etc. By the time he took out five guys the first guys were getting up again. Then, and I don't think he has super powers (?), your hands would be so busted up you wouldn't be able to punch that long.

Yes: rooting for someone too stupid to live to have a horrible death.

I don't know how many times I've experienced this. You start out wanting the character to go in some favorable direction, who then goes in the obviously wrong direction and will probably get everyone else killed.

I usually tune out and watch something else.

I call it "my threshold of stupid". Once the story starts going in that direction, I'm out.

 

[Treadwell]

Come to think of it, the "didn't stay away like they were told and screws everything up" thing happened on Daredevil.

 

[simiouno]

How about 110lb women taking down 350lb 6'7" Russian baddies by doing the black widow climb on ! Blood splattered on to the camera lense from our POV and 5 55 phone numbers !

 

[Treadwell]

Yeah, I think I mentioned the black widow thing earlier in the thread, but it's so long! To do gymnastics using a person as a pommel horse, that person has to cooperate: he has to steady himself, remain rigid, flex muscles to counter the forces you put on, etc. Such accommodating bad guys!

Blood on the lens takes me out of the movie, because it's going out of its way to remind us that this is a movie shot with a camera (real or virtual).

Same with CG outer space effects, like in Orville, where there is digital "dust on the lens" that catches the light. I can go with the thought that there was a real cameraman out in space getting stock beauty shots of the ship to use in the show. I assume he's a professional and would clean the lens. Likewise, the outer space cameraman getting footage of ships in the Galactica fleet wouldn't be incompetent either.

 

[simiouno]

Yeah, I think I mentioned the black widow thing earlier in the thread, but it's so long! To do gymnastics using a person as a pommel horse, that person has to cooperate: he has to steady himself, remain rigid, flex muscles to counter the forces you put on, etc. Such accommodating bad guys!

Blood on the lens takes me out of the movie, because it's going out of its way to remind us that this is a movie shot with a camera (real or virtual).

Same with CG outer space effects, like in Orville, where there is digital "dust on the lens" that catches the light. I can go with the thought that there was a real cameraman out in space getting stock beauty shots of the ship to use in the show. I assume he's a professional and would clean the lens. Likewise, the outer space cameraman getting footage of ships in the Galactica fleet wouldn't be incompetent either.

No old school classic movies did this crap...it's the MTV generation of wet video directors who failed upwards ! Also, the never still camera and constant edits ! Too many toys in the toy box !

 

[greenmachines]

 

[greenmachines]

There is a trick to that. If you hit the crossbar just right, the reins will cross each other forming a pressure knot. If the reins are pulled, the knot tightens and grips the crossbar. The reins have to flip over the crossbar twice or it won't hold. The pressure then has to be released and the reins will let go.

A similar trick was used by stuntmen climbing down from a height. Once the pressure is released, the rope loosens and the rope will come right down when pulled.

If I remember correctly, it's called "swaddling" .

In Middle Earth, it's called elven rope.

Except the whole idea of slasher movies is to punish the dumb teenagers. Nobody is rooting for the teenagers, they just want to see the creative kills. I agree, that's dumb, which is why I don't really pay attention to slasher movies, but that's why they do it.

When the movie is over and you say, "That murderer was an artist. Those kids did not deserve to die so interestingly.... "

 

[blewis17]

I think it was mentioned before, but dumb characters in horror movies only acting dumb to get the plot moving. I would much rather watch smart people struggle to survive and succumb to fear and still fail. It makes both the victims, but also the "monster" appear more formidable and makes you care more about the characters.

THIS.

 

[blewis17]

Except the whole idea of slasher movies is to punish the dumb teenagers. Nobody is rooting for the teenagers, they just want to see the creative kills. I agree, that's dumb, which is why I don't really pay attention to slasher movies, but that's why they do it.

Any movies we can think of where the victims act "smart" get the upper hand on the killer?

 

[CB2001]

Any movies we can think of where the victims act "smart" get the upper hand on the killer?

Would Scream, especially the first one, apply to that?

 

[drusselmeyer]

In Middle Earth, it's called elven rope.

When the movie is over and you say, "That murderer was an artist. Those kids did not deserve to die so interestingly.... "

Here we call it "the cowboy way".