The Top 10 Worst Movie Clichés

Bonus points for making the most true statement in #2: Fade to Black. I've tripped so many times during trailers thanks to that cliche.

Actually... Whenever there is a time sensitive situation, the car won't start. That is the law of nature.

sorry to point this out James but you have actually used some of these cliches yourself, namely the record scratch......by the way i've watched all of your videos at least 3 times each (your awsome) and i'm really looking forward to the movie (hope it gets into the theatres).

I think using the song "I've got the power" should have been on this list. I just HATE that song and every time i see scene with it i start hating the movie too.

Great video, great ending. I love the good the bad and the ugly and i cannot think of a better scene in any movie to get your point across.

I hate the trailers cliches, its in all movies damit!, the bad joke, the fade in black, man, the 80s movie trailers were the best D:

Not to to be racist, but when you did "Fading to black" you faded to a black guy. Was that on purpose maybe?

Anyone know what's the music during the 360 degrees shot cliche?

@people asking about the music played during 360 shot. That's Monte Carlo Nights by Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods's

Excellent Video, Amigo! Now let's go get taco's!

huh someone actually metioned the film kung pow thats the one with the cow shoting milk in bullet time, the film is hilarious

@Dennizjoon Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees

The one where people trip in the face of danger, first off adrenaline kicks in and you don't think of anything but running very fast AWAY. Secondly when you do fall, the only way to get up (in a paranoid mind) is to put your back towards them and that makes you vulnerable (in their mind) to them lunging at you, My guess is the film makers wanted to make this realistic.

I find most of your cliches defendable except the 360 camera and the talking villain. I agree that villains should just kill, but it goes to show that theyre so insecure that they want the hero to know why theyre dying yet being one step behind as usual. The 360 camera, yea at certain times its annoying but in the dark knight it was letting us know at an all around view how evil and messed up the joker was, I loved it.

How about guns that have almost infinite ammo? Ya know, that revolver that popped off 20 rounds?

yeah fucking hate that matrix shit over and over again

1 What is the song in the beginning named xD 2 Great video James!

@Yeroc1337 The movie is "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"

Blade started the bullet time not the matrix.

#4 The False Alarm: Reminds me of when I was watching "I know what you did last summer" in the theatre. One reason while this movie just sucked ass was that it was really abusing this "technique". It became totally predictable. You (well, I) could always tell when it was false alarm or not. I got so bored that I used one of those moments to shock my seat neighbor friend. It was so perfectly timed, that she screamed out loud and the whole audience got shocked ^^. Well, she didn't speak to me, the rest of the evening...

#1: Love that scene with Tuco because I always thought of it as spoofing this whole cliché. And it's Eli Wallach! He's just so great in this film, cause he's a real scumbag, but somehow naive and childish at the same time. The scene when he's paying back on Eastwood, chasing him through the desert and euphorically laughing like a child is one of the most memorable scenes.

The "Jump Scare" cliche is a bit old.

My favorite is that in movies trained soldiers are so dumbass they can never hit a target and the dozens of them can be easily eliminated by a single person :D

whats the song used for the 360 shot cliche?

Whats the song in the backround when its the 360 shot cliche?

@Yeroc1337 the one at the end is from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" i think

I noticed that you used "Cujo" as an example of the "tripping and crawling" cliche. I thought it might be worth pointing out that in the book at least it's an important part of the story because that trip gives the main charachter an opportunity to finally kill the dog. I also think that the "car won't start" cliche shouldn't apply to "Cujo" either for obvious reasons. Thanks for using it though, Ive never seen it used anywhere let alone a proper review

I find that there's a cliche that happens in superhero or action movies or shows:

There's a hoard of similar enemies (or maybe identical, robots or clones):

The first bad guy is tough, or they all start out tough, and then at some point the good guys plough through them like they're nothing.

Maybe they just want to show one cool looking, elaborate fight, but often it is just something people notice and complain about.

@B. C. Masters Oh, you mean the "dolly zoom" (aka vertigo shot). I actually like it a lot, if it's used well. But true, it wouldn't be the same if it was used over and over again.

Let's not forget the cliché in which a character is thought to be killed but comes back right at the end. Seriously, do they honestly expect us to go "oh my gosh, he's alive! Oh joy! I didn't see that coming at all!"

I hate a couple of the cliches in this list, but you know, if you kill all of the cliches, there will be nothing left but straight on, uninteresting shots. Sometimes a cliche can at least be familiar, though most are way over used. I think there is a place for most of them, when appropriate. The problem is, directors seem to have no idea what moderation is, or when a good time to use one is.

some of the points mentioned are not really cliches, more like cutting- or camera-techniques.

the two trailer-"cliches" are proofed working ways of catching an audience that´s still talking or sorting beer and pop corn.

and the fades to black are simplifying the cutters work cause they can cut together whatever pictures they want as long as they´re seperated by black. would be a much harder task to do that well if you can´t use that trick...

seems to me maybe you should do a list "top 5 things that i hate about trailers" (4 - showing the 3 only funny scenes of a whole movie) and to maybe update this list in a way that really only "MOVIE cliches" will remain.

otherwise some really dumb cliches out of tv-series or even commercials must be added...

Thanks James for these clichés! it's true we keep seeing them time and again, and just like the "fade-to-black", we, sometimes, do not even pay attention to them anymore...

thinking of the clichés, that reminded the sounds that we keep earing, time and again, just as shown here:
http://listverse.com/2009/09/25/top-10-movie-sound...

I don't know if you have talked about it in another of your video, but I remembered it when you talked about the ring bell :) Especially for the Wilhelm scream!

The comedic pause also reminds me of how annoying I find laugh tracks on TV shows. I stopped watching sitcoms because it's like they think we're too dumb to know when to laugh.

The Cliche` that I call the "push out pull back" method (I don't know if thats what its called) is where the background of a scene moves farther away and the foreground moves toward you. It usually happens when a suspenseful situation arises. I guess it started with Alfred Hitchcock but I could be mistaken. I've seen it in countless movies including LOTR. Let us kill that cliche` too before it gets too out of hand.

“If you’ve gotta shoot, shoot, don’t talk", is from, 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" Tuco Ramirez, (the Ugly), is having a bath and some bloke bursts in to kill him, but instead of just shooting him he goes on to tell him how long he's been looking for him and what's going to happen to him now he's finally caught up with him, etc. Tuco shoots him dead from beneath the bubbles of him bath and makes that famous quote.

That's sooo funny at the end "If you've gotta shoot, shoot, don't talk." Haha. AVGN, if you see this, please tell me what movie that clip was from?

The ones I hate the most are the Matrix .. ohh so used !!! ,.. and the stupid villan , that seems to be every villan.. ...

My number 1 Movie cliché is: It was all a dream! This happens all the time, it's so lame, because the ones making the films can then make pretty much anything happen but still have a happy ending or something...

Damn you for pointing out the Fading to Black cliche! Now I can't enjoy ANY pre-movie trailers anymore! EVERY trailer does the stupid fade to black thing nowadays!

Bullet time is by far the worst. It genuinely angers me to see it in movies after the years of abuse.

I can agree w/ the John Woo statement, to an extent. Funny list tho.

Can any1 tell me what movie it is where in #9 'the car won't start' there is a mother and son in the car? I wanna say Kujo but eh I dont remember.

I had thought the whole "Bullet time" cliche was started in John Woo movies. I remember some where the action would slow down just like in The Matrix. Some I remember seeing it in Face Off and I think The Replacement Killers.

in the last cliche i thought that the scene from die hard 1 would be in it.
when john mclain is under the table and the terrorist is above him and he says.
"When you have a chance to shoot somebody, do it"
the john mclain shoots the fucker through the table. yeah

For me, the absolute worst movie cliche is: The Love Interest. It is so not necessary. If it's a romance movie movie, then I understand but to have a movie where two characters meet and fall in love is just stupid.

what is the name of that song at the very begining

Can't agree more with this list, especially #3. I frickin hate it when comedy trailers do that and EVERYONE laughs, even if the joke wasn't even remotely funny.

Well, there no way to finish off a show about cliches than from Tuco of the Good, Bad and the Ugly.
Anyway, you're really right about these things James, good list. The villain is District 9 is such a twat, as we British say.

Great list, as always James.

Just wondering, can anyone tell me what song is playing in the beginning and during all the 360 Shot scenes? Thanks.

a trailer i saw faded to black 30 times no kidding im serious gosh why even more than ten ,why 30.

I already knew about the 3rd worst and 1st worst but the 3rd is the most annoying to me.

The worst one for me is the cliche with the trailers always stopping the music, that one has always bothered me. It's just as bad as the cliche car commercials that show the car driving around while this "bad ass" music is being played.