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* When a movie features a group of villains, like a criminal gang looking to commit violence or robbery, there will always be one member of that group with the heart of gold. Usually that person will be tasked with looking after a hostage, and there will be scenes where that person will eventually confront the leader that killing the hostage is not the right way.
* Suspenseful thriller type movies will always feature a scene where the protagonist cannot complete a cell phone call because there is no signal or the battery is dead.
* I don't see this too often these days, but once in a while in thriller movies, the protagonist or a loved one suffers from an illness that sets up scenes where that person needs dire medical attention before dying. A common disease is diabeetus, and the loved one slowly fades away as the hero tries desperately to get insulin or medical attention.
* Today alone I saw the exact same cliche in two movies I saw on Netflix, Next Three Days and Savages. This is the scene where the protagonist is driving under duress and suddenly a cop pulls up behind them. Agonizing minutes go by and then the cop suddenly turns on the flashing lights and swerves into the next lane and passes the protagonist (unrelated police call).
Yep! And oftentimes there is the prostitute with the heart of gold who gives the cops good information.
*In cop buddy movies, one cop is dating a woman involved in criminal activity. His partner has to convince him that she's "not what she appears to be." The other cop doesn't want to accept it, at first.
*Fire rescue! Just when you thought everyone got out. There's that one kid who got left behind in the burning house/building. The hero gets injured saving that last kid.
Need to escape fast in a vehicle (car or boat), and it won't start/move. First the fumbling around to get the key in the ignition and then the vehicle won't go due to the engine sputtering or wheels spinning in the mud.
They've got the "bad guy" down on the floor and they're holding a gun on him. Then instead of finishing him off they go into a long speech while he figures out how to get the gun away from them.
Or, like Clint Eastwood said in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, "If you're going to talk, talk; if you're going to shoot, shoot."
The male and female protagonists, who dislike each other, are going to have to spend the night together because of some kind of mix-up, threat or natural disaster.
Mom is worried about sweet toddler. Everyone tells her she is imagining things. The audience is the only one who gets to see him taking eggs out of birds' nests and smashing them on the ground. They notice the eggs and blame it on the cat. Etc.
A car with a woman in it goes off the road and rolls down a hill and catches on fire. She is unconscious. The man who witnesses it for whatever reason runs to rescue her. The flames increase. He manages to pull her out and starts carrying her up the hill. Then he stops, turns, and looks at the car at the exact minute it explodes.
Whenever someone goes to a grocery store, they come back carrying a brown paper bag with an unwrapped loaf of French/Italian bread sticking out the top. I suspect the same petrified loaf of bread has been used in films for decades.
* In action/thriller movies, there will typically be a torture scene or two, with variations as follows:
- The protagonist or protagonist's good friend or loved one will eventually be captured by the bad guys and after a nice little speech from the main baddie, the hero will be knocked out cold complete with screen going black. Then screen cuts to hero in a darkened room, sitting hogtied to a chair with a single light bulb above illuminating his face that is bruised and bloody. After yet another dramatic taunting speech scene by the main baddie, baddie will grab torture tools and start administering the pain. Typical methods of torture will be electrical shock or smashing fingers one by one. Hero is defiant, cursing out the bad guy until he passes out.
- One of the bad guys will be captured by the good guy, and the bad guy will be threatened to reveal crucial element. At first bad guy is defiant, telling hero to f**k off, until hero does something very dramatic like hang him over a building ledge, shoot him in the leg, or threaten to chop off his weiner, then the bad guy will immediately scream for mercy ("ok ok ok, STOP, I'll tell you what I know"). Also, the bad guy will ALWAYS state something along the lines of, "b-b-but I don't know where she is, I SWEAR, I KNOW NOTHING!!!." Funny how the bad guys seem to relent quickly to threats of torture or death, yet the hero defiantly refuses to give in no matter how bad the torture.
* In any genre of movie where the good guy and his peoples are in an all hell broke loose scenario and need to get away from the area and bad element ASAP, there will ALWAYS be that one 'hero' that decides to stay behind and engage the bad guys so that it will give time for the others to escape. Typically, that hero will be mortally wounded and asks for a weapon, and that hero's close companion will at first state that they will also stay with the hero. But eventually, after the hero and the others convince the person to leave, they will.
* I haven't seen any movie recently featuring this annoying cliche, but Roger Ebert once pointed out that any movies involving a family will inevitably feature a sequence where one or both parents must attend their child's school play.
* Fat people in movies are always obsessed with food and will never been seen without eating food or ruminating about it.
* Religious people are always portrayed as fundamental, intolerant, evil, and twisted individuals, always raging on and on complete with bible quotes peppered throughout their dialogue.
*Underwater scenes have clear visibility. Even in dirty water like NY's Hudson River - eww.
*Anytime someone is stuck or trapped on train tracks - a train comes round the bend!
*Someone other than the doctor or pilot has to deliver the baby or land the plane.
*Courtroom drama:
Someone cries on the stand!!
A witness who was expected to lie has an attack of conscience and tells the truth which determines the
outcome of the case.
The judge will smack his gavel at least once saying, "Order, Order in the court."
The bad guy spends so much time talking to his intended victim before shooting that the fuzz shows up just in time. Shut up and shoot already, and stop with the long-winded explanations!
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