Another Hollyweird cliche...

He who dies in a gunfight is NEVER carted away by the guy that shot him. That's what villagers or undertakers are for.

Westerns are so cliche-ridden, it's a wonder we watch 'em. (I LOVE 'em!!!  :P :P :P)

EVERY western hero has a congenital idiot for a sidekick. Roy Rogers had Pat Brady. Gene Autry had Smiley Burnette. John Wayne had legions of 'em, including Chill Wills, Slim Pickens, and most especially Hank Worden, who appeared in 17 of Wayne's movies.

Anyone remember Brisco County? That was written using every possible cliche available, they may have even invented some.
But in any case, those cliches were also moral messages, heroes were always cool, so everyone wanted to be cool.
If you all remember, pretending to be the hero came with responsibility, you always had to be fair and do the right thing.

Nowadays, the hero is usually a nice guy wronged and seeking revenge. (think Dexter)
And we wonder what is wrong with todays generation.

Do all Hollywood writers sleep through science classes? Channel hopping came across Avatar, part where they were talking about the super, duper new power source. Uh guys, a little basic astrophysics. The sun and all the planets in any given star system coalesce out of the same cloud of dust and gas; which means if you find something on one planet in a star system, there is an excellent chance you'll find it on other planets in that star system. Not to mention that you're scientifically advanced enough to clone an alien species and travel all the way through space to get to this planet, but you can't figure out an answer to energy problems? Reminds me of a couple of other SciFi movies/series I saw. One was named Kronos - where a giant robot comes from outer space to steal Earth's energy. It converts energy into mass. So is there some reason those advanced aliens missed that big glowing ball of energy in the sky? Another was the series "V" - where they're here to steal the water. So let me see, these "advanced" aliens are going to lug Earth's water out of the planet's gravity well - as opposed to going to the Oort Cloud or the Kuiper Belt where there are literally planetoids of ice floating around in zero gravity.

Oh yeah. And why is it in these disaster movies plans are always set in motion to save important people - like politicians (Deep Impact) or giraffes (2012), but the rest of the population is always on it's own. They build some survival ships - IN SECRET - for a select few, instead of announcing the coming disaster and commencing a crash program to save as many as possible. And why do they always show problems getting out of cities. MILLIONS  of people travel in and out of major cities EVERY DAY and more on holidays. Cities are evacuated when ever a hurricane is in the offing. With all the roadways, bridges and tunnels going in one direction why do they believe it would be impossible to move these populations - especially when the plot has given them weeks of warning?

Next cliche. There's been a shootout. Somehow the hero - with a pistol - has managed to defeat numerous bad guys - with automatic weapons. Here's an idea, how about you pick up one of those automatic weapons and all that ammo lying around. Oh hell no - I'll just limp forward with this - damn near empty - pistol. Anybody who has ever played a video game knows to pick up the better weapons - but not Hollywood writers for some reason. Oh, and if the villain's vehicle is outside; maybe you should check before you go rushing into the building.

Why don't we have more ugly heros? We teach our children to equate being physically attractive with being a good person. Heros are never ugly and usually very handsome. Villans are often ugly or disfigured and generally worse dressers too. So if you want to be a good guy then you better be a good dresser and be handsome.

Also the good guys get the women. Totally unlike real life where women tend to prefer leather wearing alchoholics until their looks begin to fade and they become insecure and settle for the good guy.

I'd like to see that sort of male-female dynamic played out in a movie. I'd like to see a hero who was second choice with his romantic partner for totally superficial reasons.  :P

Quote from: Dan on August 30, 2011, 07:42:14 AM
Why don't we have more ugly heros? We teach our children to equate being physically attractive with being a good person. Heros are never ugly and usually very handsome. Villans are often ugly or disfigured and generally worse dressers too. So if you want to be a good guy then you better be a good dresser and be handsome.

Also the good guys get the women. Totally unlike real life where women tend to prefer leather wearing alchoholics until their looks begin to fade and they become insecure and settle for the good guy.

I'd like to see that sort of male-female dynamic played out in a movie. I'd like to see a hero who was second choice with his romantic partner for totally superficial reasons.  :P

Actually one of the greatest of Hollywood's old time stars - Bogie - wasn't what you would consider conventionally handsome.
As for the villains being better dressed, did anyone ever look better than the Nazi's? Let's face it, those black SS uniforms or the leather Gesapo trench coats, with matching fedora, were the "bomb"! 

Here's a few:

In horror movies, hearing the sounds of screaming and murder upstairs, and going upstairs to see what's going on ???.

In disaster movies, the bomb that was supposed to blow up the asteroid fails to detonate and the heroes have to activate it by hand (Deep impact, Armageddon).

In any movie that's set in any European country (France, Germany, etc.), the main characters always have British accents ???. 

Also, this is just one that personally annoys me: when they remake a Shakespeare play and set it in modern times, but keep the original dialogue (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet).

Quote from: CubaLibre on October 05, 2011, 05:20:54 AM
Here's a few:

In horror movies, hearing the sounds of screaming and murder upstairs, and going upstairs to see what's going on ??? .

In disaster movies, the bomb that was supposed to blow up the asteroid fails to detonate and the heroes have to activate it by hand (Deep impact, Armageddon).

In any movie that's set in any European country (France, Germany, etc.), the main characters always have British accents ??? . 

Also, this is just one that personally annoys me: when they remake a Shakespeare play and set it in modern times, but keep the original dialogue (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet).

And the latest in a long line of hollyweird bastardizing movies like the Three Musketeers and one of the Musketeers is now a woman?
PC run a muck!

Quote from: Solar on October 05, 2011, 07:08:19 AM
And the latest in a long line of hollyweird bastardizing movies like the Three Musketeers and one of the Musketeers is now a woman?
PC run a muck!

Just like how they're turning old fairy tales and children's stories into "twighight-esque" supernatural romances.
[insert gag smiley]

Quote from: CubaLibre on October 05, 2011, 07:17:03 AM
Just like how they're turning old fairy tales and children's stories into "twighight-esque" supernatural romances.
[insert gag smiley]

I hadn't noticed that, though I don't have kids.

I have an idea:


Throw two dissimilar cops together--I don't know, make one old, one young, or one black, one white, heck, even make one a dog!  They don't get along.  The one is a "procedure guy" and the other is a loose cannon.  They're on a case and one of them saves the life of the other, earning his grudging respect.  Towards the end, the second saves the life of the first and they solve the case.


I bet you could make a sequel...!

Quote from: Dan on August 30, 2011, 07:42:14 AM
Why don't we have more ugly heros? We teach our children to equate being physically attractive with being a good person. Heros are never ugly and usually very handsome. Villans are often ugly or disfigured and generally worse dressers too. So if you want to be a good guy then you better be a good dresser and be handsome.

Also the good guys get the women. Totally unlike real life where women tend to prefer leather wearing alchoholics until their looks begin to fade and they become insecure and settle for the good guy.

I'd like to see that sort of male-female dynamic played out in a movie. I'd like to see a hero who was second choice with his romantic partner for totally superficial reasons.  :P

Columbo???  But you are right today's hero's are either good looking or extremely buff (or both) and the women are all tall, size 0, with boobs.  Hair color is optional....   On some of these cop shows the women cops are wearing skin tight pants and cleavage showing tops which I am sure you would find at any local police agency.   :)

Exactly! And you can tell if the target market for a show is men or women based on the relative attractiveness of the men and women. When the woman is more attractive then it's a dude show. If the man is more attractive then it's a chick flick.

Quote from: Dan on October 09, 2011, 05:51:32 PM
Exactly! And you can tell if the target market for a show is men or women based on the relative attractiveness of the men and women. When the woman is more attractive then it's a dude show. If the man is more attractive then it's a chick flick.

Now that I think about it, almost all the people on the great cable shows look like normal human beings. Was there anyone on The Sopranos or The Wire you would have given a second glance on the streets?  BTW, has it occurred to all those Leftists out in Hollyweird, that they almost always show any large organization, with power, abusing it. Normally it's an individual hero that stops them. This from people who always want to suppress the individual, in favor of - drum roll please - the largest organization of all - government.