What plots are you sick and tired of?
 

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!!!?!?!!?! :grunt:

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 :up:

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...

i actually hate these flicks and won't see this, but something about the trailer in the theater gives me chills.

Drop dead gorgeous female character under the age of 27 who is…
High ranking detective
Expert computer hacker
Martial arts expert
Master criminal mind
PhD in ….
Or anything else

man vs man
man vs nature
man vs machine
man vs society
man vs himself

Any movie inspired fm Die Hard. Speed was good but the rest (including, sorry..Under Siege) was just very unoriginal.

How about "1 man brings down the mob". Or "1 man armed with nothing but a black belt and forked tongue brings down a select group of highly skilled assassins". Then there's always "Misunderstood geek get the hot chick".

Very realistic stuff.

How about "One of Hollywood's most famous villains as revealed through his cutesy boyhood years, including the outer space version of soap box derby!" Oh wait, I guess it was just once. Yet, strangely, it still sucked enough to qualify . . .

Misfit(s) in sports working against all odds to reach the big game.

Another one that really bugged me because it seemed I saw a bunch of films in a row a few years ago that used this: The hero's best friend gets killed in the opening scene. Years later the hero is working to infiltrate an evil organization and finds that their best friend didn't really die and now is in charge of said evil organization.

I'm getting tired of seeing two armies charge each other.

I believe that a lot of you aren't sick of the well-used plots, but tired of said plots used in a boring way. I enjoyed Inside Man, and I don't seem to be alone there. However, the film is yet another retelling of the well-used heist-hostage-situation-charismatic-villain-wise-negotiator scenario. But it's an interesting and fun retelling, and it's put to good use (takes forever for the film to end, but I digress).

Since Clerks, I've seen too many atrocious foulmouthed-slackers-in-deadend-jobs-discuss-life films, but Waiting... was silly fun.

Let's look at more recent films that use an oft-told plot. What is the well-reviewed Slither, other than a rehash of the same plot from Night Of The Creeps, Arachnaphobia and so on? What is Brick, other than a rehash of the same plot from Memento, Chinatown and so on? What is 2006 Best Picture winner Crash, other than a rehash of the same plot from Love Actually, Short Cuts... it's all in the spin you put on the story.

There's twenty-seven million ways to tell the Hero's Journey, or to reuse Shakespeare's you-may-lie-to-win-the-one-you-love-but-she'll-love-you-for-who-you-really-are ideas... I won't get tired of seeing the same plot used. I'll get sick and tired of, and frankly insulted by, BAD movies that use the well-used plot as a crutch instead of delivering something interesting, though.


I, too, think this is awful. It makes me dislike the leads, so what's the point?

Isn't the point of quite a lot of films that such a story doesn't usually happen in real life, and so is fun to see on screen?

Shakespeare once said there is really only 34 different plots for stories i recall.

suprised no one mentioned

"*gasp* it was the same person all along!" again, when done great, it's one of the better ones, when done horribly, it's one of the worst, i.e. usual suspects and secret window.

rotfl

lol, i see reading comprehension isn't a strong suit for you, allow me to explain

"when done great, it's one of the better ones, when done horribly, it's one of the worst"

this is what's known as a spectrum or a range if you will. this partiuclar range goes from best to worst if you didn't notice. now that you see we have a range to work with we have what is known as a correlation or a state of being related. now we use my initial range and correlate with another range posted.

"i.e. usual suspects and secret window."

now we are to assume that since the initial correlation was a range from best to worst, the second will be the same since they are related.

so we can safely assume

better = usual suspects

worst = secret window

let me know if i lost you since you didn't understand the initial post. rotfl

The use of the word "and" to join your two examples doesn't imply a contradictory relationship between the two. Rather, it implies a complementary relationship, and was the cause for the misunderstanding. My comprehension is just fine; it's your conveyance that's a bit off. Might I suggest that next time, if you want to be understood, you go with a more appropriate word or phrase ("versus," or "as opposed to" would work here).

Also, check the sarcasm at the door. You'll find that doing so will result in a sharp decline in the number of times your foot becomes lodged in your mouth.

:foot: :p

-JP

A basic movie plot I've learned to avoid at all costs:

"Retarded person (aka "mentally-challenged person" for the P.C. Police) learns to do something and, in the process, inspires and changes the lives of the people around him/her."

(EX. Rain Man, I Am Sam, Radio, etc.)