A while back I saw the trailer for the new Antonio Banderas flick, Take the Lead, and I couldn't help but laugh all the way through it. If ever there has been a cliched film trailer, this is it. It comes off like a total parody of this type of film, especially the quote that I have listed as the forth point below:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newlin...ler_large.html

-Yet another flick about a stern teacher who is given a class of the trouble makers, and everyone goes through a series of the typical ups and downs over the course of the school year. The teacher goes in, slowly starts to act cool to them, and the students learn from him and in the end he learns just as much from them.

-Scenes of random violence.

-"So nobody told you we were the school rejects?"

-"He thought teaching them would make a difference. They thought breaking him would be easy. Now, when his skill meets their passion, a new style is born.

-"These are the kids that needs the most help of all!"

-"We don't need your charity or anything."

-"Everyone expects nothing of you!"

-"You can get whatever you want!"

-Inspired by a true story!

How many more films do we need with this same exact plot exactly?

Not movies per se, but I pretty much HATE all cop shows.

I do agree, the ghetto kids that need discipline is a tired routine.

I'm sick of horror movies, it's not really a plot, more of a genre but still sick.

The entire deal with Take the Lead deal reminds me of all of the talk about Snakes on a Plane, and people coming up with sequels and different spins on that idea. It's like these goofs in Hollywood just got together and went something like:

"Ok, we need another flick about ghetto kids that need discipline but we want a new spin on it to make it seem like it's a fresh and new idea!"

"OMGWTF, I've got it boss! How about ghetto kids that need discipline...through the power of dance!!!!!!!!!"

"Consider it greenlit! You are a genious! You'll go places in this town kid!"

The next thing we know we'll see a film about ghetto kids that need discipline...through the power of cooking...on a plane or something. These flicks write themselves.

I hate romantic comedies that have the guy initially tell a lie (or keep something from the girl), and you know the girl will eventually find it out. Once she does, she leaves him, only to fall back completely in love with the guy once he says some cliched statement professing his love to her.

Blah, blah, blah...

So what you are saying is that you loved Hitch?

White cop: "Hiya, Captain! Officer Anderson, reporting for my first day on the job!"
Superior: "Where in the hell is Tyrone? BROOKS, GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"
Black cop: (winking at a girl as he enters the office). "Call me." "Sup cap'n?!"
Superior: "Brooks, this is Anderson. He'll be your new partner."
Black cop: "Awww shieeetttt, cap'n! You know I ain't need to partna."
Superior: "Shut it. We just got a call about a 308 on Cunningham Lane. Go."
--Cut to the two approaching the squad car--
White cop: "This is like so exciting. We'll totally fight crime together, my *****."
Black cop: "Oh no you di'nt just call me *****. Getcha ass in tha car."
White cop: (sitting down and fiddling with the radio) "Oh, Willie Nelson!"
Black cop: "Awww helllll no."

Bleh.

-JP

"Something has happened that we can't explain in space/underground/anywhereelse..."

"Nothing can stop it!"

"I bet a nuke can."

= J

Old character who's needed to save the world after the world fucked him over.
Old Character who knows it all and has to teach the n00b.


A YOU HEAR ME SEAN CONNERY!!!?!?!!?!

Yes!

The main good guy and the main bad guy somehow lose all their guns / bullets / whatever and have to have a long fight at the end of the movie and guess who wins. Zzzzzzzz.

Building off of that, guess who always find each other on huge battlefields strewn with destruction and other combatants ....

Any film that uses a cute catchphrase at the beginning that JUST HAS TO BE REPEATED BEFORE THE END OF THE FILM. Lazy-ass fucking screenwriting right there.

I hate the whole theif who retired but is pulled back for one last big score only to get screwed over by the person who pulled him back in, only to reveal at the end that he knew that he was being set up and has actually set up the guy that was screwing him, so he can live happily ever after.

I've gotten sick of a lot of "surprise" endings in which the whole film is only a dream or a hallucination or the main character is really dead or dying. It has been used a lot since The Sixth Sense and wasn't new when that film came out.

I also dislike that so many romantic comedies have one of the would-be couple engaged or even married to someone else, often someone who is perfectly nice but not as attractive or cool as the lead. There's almost always some breakup scene where the dumped person is far too nice about being passed over.

aka The Score?

I hate the whole "We have your [insert family member here]. Unless you help us [rob a bank/free a prisoner/kill someone] they will die." Then the hero gets mad after being jerked around a bit and fights back. "Give me back my [insert family member here]!!!!!!!"

Fixed

Tired old plots is one of the main reasons i didn't care for Jersey Girl. I really wanted to, and it really was a good film on the surface. It just seemed that Smith watched a lot of Romantic Comedies and then wrote and shot the film. What's funny is the Kevin Smith seems to agree.
So I guess the plot that kind of romantic comedy is my answer.

Can't forget the old "cop who's working his last day before he retires" plots.

= J

Really? Most romantic "comedies" have the ex-boyfriend have some huge character flaw that the woman doesn't realize until much later. It's like, they can't leave the audience up in arms about who she chooses, it has to be a clear cut choice, so let's make one guy a bastard and the other a loveable guy who's made a couple of mistakes, but loves the girl. What ends up happening is they make the ex so horrible, that you wonder how clueless the girl was to be with him in the first place.

I think the scenario you describe above is much more realistic... nice guys get dumped all the time and don't do anything about it.

Thank you, someone had to say it! There are certain movies that fall into this category that I can stomach and own, but this idea is overdone!

Cop goes outside system to avenge his murdered partner.

or any "buddy" cop movie.

I find "Inspired by a True Story" to be worse than Based on a True Story. The "Inspired" part pretty much screams sappy.

Plus the "A man that became a hero to unite a nation" plotlines are getting kind of meh.

Girl infiltrates a boys-only environment by masquerading as one of them. She becomes friends with the male lead character and later becomes romantically attracted to him. Awkward, confusing sexual tension builds until the big reveal.

Just once, why don't they make the male lead a closeted gay, who's afraid to come out? The relationship with the girl is his breakthrough and he gets totally disappointed with the revelation?

Evil corporation
Evil religious...