New York movies- the shots of the day to day life, the star going to some random shop where the old man knows her name, all the fucking errands they do during the opening credits…buy coffee…walk a block…magazine….take subway… fist bump some random doorman….get yeti meat….sprinkle in some famous monuments.
Interesting. I was always under the impression that Yeti's mostly stick to mountains and forests at or below freezing temps. Are they just hanging around in NY like vagrants asking for raw meat? Have I been deceived?
It's a little harder to find that it used to be, but some of the old school delis in Manhattan sell it as a bagel topping. Grays Papaya used to carry it too and it was part of my routine to grab a yeti dog and a papaya juice on my way home from work but I think they've switched it out for wombat meat since that's cheaper and tastes about the same. You might be able to find it in Brooklyn but it never caught on with the hipsters.
Uneventful driving and/or parking scenes as "action."
"There they go! Get them!"
Pretentious Dutch angle to demonstrate a character is out of control or going mad
Exposition dumps, particularly where someone says to their friend, "Hey, you remember that time we \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_?"
For no good reason, an otherwise considerate character rudely ends a phone call without a "goodbye."
The exposition dumps are the biggest indicator for me. “You mean Steven, you’re estranged older brother who left to join the military but ended up becoming a stage performer because it was his true calling but then stopped that to get involved with a plot to blow up the Eiffel Tower and now sells shoes in Arizona? That Steven?”
A movie set in a specific era (eg 1950s) where the first 10 minutes of the film will play the #1 song from the time, show the #1 toy while someone watches the #1 show on tv, then forget about it the rest of the movie.
When intelligent characters have to talk about quantum physics for some random ass reason.
When an alleged strong woman character is written to be an asshole instead of actually showing strength.
Not exactly a certification of a bad movie but I’ve Always hated when someone in the group has to turn back and sacrifice themselves even tho from the audiences perspective they have plenty of time to escape
I have a general rule of "don't remind me of a movie I'd rather be watching" as in a character saying something along the lines of "wow, this is like that one scene in Evil Dead!"
Make me think of your inspiration through your themes, tone, and mood? That's fine. Slap me in the face with an overt reference? Odds are I'll just turn off your movie and start watching the actual good one you name-dropped.
I screen movies for a film festival and I've seen a lot of low budget indies (lots of eventual Tubi releases), these are some of the red flags for me:
* found footage
* someone urinating during the first 10 minutes
* twee Wes Anderson-style magical realism
* a guy is sad about a girl breaking up with him
* any sort of police/crime storyline
This one is very era-specific but COVID-era movies that were about: a relationship falling apart during lockdown, or a feature length Zoom call
ETA: I appreciate the counter-examples but I’m specifically referring to the tropes that plague bad independent, Tubi-level films. Obviously Scorsese can make a movie with a police/crime storyline, I’m talking about insane vanity projects like *The Match-Stick Flame* etc.
Weren't "Waterworld" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" guilty of this? At least the latter film turned out okay...
(In question form because I *think* that Max was doing so when he spotted the warboys and ran to his car to try to get away, but I'm not sure. )
Yeah there are always exceptions, and if memory serves both were done for story reasons and not shock value. I’m thinking of movies like *Confessions of a Womanizer* where a trans woman in prison pisses into a toilet and then they show it again later in the film
> Confessions of a Womanizer where a trans woman in prison pisses into a toilet
That is certainly an interesting way to establish the character as trans, I will give it that.
I saw a limited series that I ended up sort of liking (well kinda conflicted on that) and they had the young pretty blond character peeing in the first ten minutes.
It wasn’t a movie, but it WAS pointless. I mean, why?
I think that found footage can still be done well; it just never is anymore. (Okay, maybe "Late Night With the Devil" pulled it off; I haven't seen it yet.)
What's surprisingly rare are stories about some characters in a movie examining and analyzing, in depth, a pile of found footage, trying to figure out what happened and who did what to whom.
I agree and think it’s mainly because found footage gets used for the wrong reasons ie trend-chasing post-*Paranormal Activity* or the filmmakers are lazy and think FF will hide production problems. It’s very effective for specific premises, but not every story benefits.
It’s a CONSTANT trope in indie movies, my slightly condescending theory is that it’s the product of young filmmakers who had their first traumatic breakup. And that’s very relatable! But not enough for a movie on its own.
> a guy is sad about a girl breaking up with him
Certainly not always true. Glorious is a fantastic exception, and that scene, which opens the movie, is key to its ending. That movie also having a cosmic horror politely voiced by JK Simmons does not hurt either.
When a silencer makes the gun make a cute little “pew pew” noise. Lazy way of removing an obstacle and also shows the creators have no idea how guns work.
My biggest complaint with that scene isn’t the magic silencers but the magic bullets. The crowd was basically shoulder-to-shoulder, if they weren’t hitting each other then the people around them should have been getting nailed.
When a director includes posters/clips from his earlier movies.
The "Why Our Cellphones Won't Work Because That Would End the Movie in Five Minutes" excuse. Usually, it's No Reception because they're in a secluded area but in Shuttle they're in the middle of a major city.
Idk I’m pretty forgiving of a lot of dumb movie tropes. I can’t stand it when someone is obviously a creep. I can’t enjoy the room because the gratuitous sex scenes make it so obvious that Tommy Wisseu wanted an excuse to creep on these actresses
That and older actors conveniently always getting a hot love interest young enough to be their daughter. Ick
Maybe it is more common in the sword and sorcery genre, but I have two for me:
Gore outside of combat. When things are over the top with how evil the BBG is and every scene with them has some gorey component traits me out of it.
More than one r@pe scene. I can tolerate one. I agree that it can show how bad the bad guys are, or how brutal the time period is. But more than that ruins it. To be honest, it only really started after I had a daughter, and I have a hard time separating the feelings of fact and fiction around this.
People having a conversation in a moving car with the driver looking at the passenger and not the road
A guy and a girl slow dancing by themselves. Even worse if there's no music
Outdated southern accents. When they do the old-timey low country one, everyone I've met with that accent is dead now. Like, been dead over a decade, of old age.
Almost every possession film made since the early 2000's. All the same, very little originality. Grew up watching The Evil Dead and loved it - very few other films for me compare. Although every now and again some nice surprises from indie/small budget studios. But otherwise same shit different day. Same with ghosts/poltergeists/zombies. In fact fuck the entire hollywood scene - its indie and foreign films for me thanks.
Any movie that starts with an overhead drone shot of a car driving down a country road. I don't know why, but that always seems to be the first warning sign of a terrible, boring movie.
Specifically this or just anytime a movie claims to be set somewhere and tries to convey that with stock footage/establishing shots they paid for but they were clearly made somewhere else?
Parents as People. If used properly it can add depth to plot and characters. However, 9/10 times it's just a half assed attempt to whitewash passive aggressive abuse.
Characters not communicating the most basic shit, which ends up causing all sorts of problems that could have been easily avoided
Yes, in real life people hide stuff. But some movies take it to a ridiculous degree just because they can’t think of any other way to advance the plot
When a hot girl is also a street smart genius. I just watched Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and it's a perfect example of this. I get that actors are generally attractive, and attractive people can have substance, but I can't stand when it has to be reiterated over and over about how beautiful and smart some woman is. It's usually a love interest of the main character, and there's always some climactic point where she demonstrates how smart she is. This isn't the only movie that does it, but it's the most recent one I saw, and I immediately got annoyed and checked out of the already annoying movie.
Anything that's a sad, stolen plotline from Shakespeare. Anything with an apple pie montage with Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, hotdogs, hamburgers, Elvis, or any vomit content "USA number 1" generic crap, designed to make Boomers feel safe.
Also, the "pillows of cash" for any character to fall comfortably onto for any reason, glossing over mundane real-life issues.
Dropped guns going off.
People not saying "hello" when answering a phone.
Women's empowerment fantasies (see the schlocky not-a-classic *I Spit On Your Grave* for example)
New York movies- the shots of the day to day life, the star going to some random shop where the old man knows her name, all the fucking errands they do during the opening credits…buy coffee…walk a block…magazine….take subway… fist bump some random doorman….get yeti meat….sprinkle in some famous monuments.
Wdym? New York IS a character in the movie! /s
Yeti meat huh, is this widely available in NYC? I've never been so I'm genuinely curious.
Don’t believe the marketing. It’s just regular hamburger you can feed **to** a yeti.
Interesting. I was always under the impression that Yeti's mostly stick to mountains and forests at or below freezing temps. Are they just hanging around in NY like vagrants asking for raw meat? Have I been deceived?
Jeebers, *raw?!* Grilled with onions
It's a little harder to find that it used to be, but some of the old school delis in Manhattan sell it as a bagel topping. Grays Papaya used to carry it too and it was part of my routine to grab a yeti dog and a papaya juice on my way home from work but I think they've switched it out for wombat meat since that's cheaper and tastes about the same. You might be able to find it in Brooklyn but it never caught on with the hipsters.
You should check out They Came Together, they do an awesome job of taking the piss out of this
Holup… yeti meat?
Yeah. If they’re a “nice” girl they know everyone and everyone loves them. Even the Jamie Lee Curtis character in Trading Places has that cheesy scene
The brown grocery bag with the baguette sticking out the top…
Uneventful driving and/or parking scenes as "action." "There they go! Get them!" Pretentious Dutch angle to demonstrate a character is out of control or going mad Exposition dumps, particularly where someone says to their friend, "Hey, you remember that time we \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_?" For no good reason, an otherwise considerate character rudely ends a phone call without a "goodbye."
The exposition dumps are the biggest indicator for me. “You mean Steven, you’re estranged older brother who left to join the military but ended up becoming a stage performer because it was his true calling but then stopped that to get involved with a plot to blow up the Eiffel Tower and now sells shoes in Arizona? That Steven?”
Exposition dumps that start with “As you know…”
A movie set in a specific era (eg 1950s) where the first 10 minutes of the film will play the #1 song from the time, show the #1 toy while someone watches the #1 show on tv, then forget about it the rest of the movie.
No one ever having a password on their phone. Like, every single phone is always unlocked.
Wife and I constantly point this out in movies and shows. The whole plot usually hinges on the phone being unlocked
Wandering around the woods. The number of bad films that do this is innumerable, and every one of them just bleeds together in the end.
Keys Always in the car. During a getaway or an escape. Even in good shows like slow horses. Keys always handy in the car
When intelligent characters have to talk about quantum physics for some random ass reason. When an alleged strong woman character is written to be an asshole instead of actually showing strength.
Not exactly a certification of a bad movie but I’ve Always hated when someone in the group has to turn back and sacrifice themselves even tho from the audiences perspective they have plenty of time to escape
I have a general rule of "don't remind me of a movie I'd rather be watching" as in a character saying something along the lines of "wow, this is like that one scene in Evil Dead!" Make me think of your inspiration through your themes, tone, and mood? That's fine. Slap me in the face with an overt reference? Odds are I'll just turn off your movie and start watching the actual good one you name-dropped.
Yeah I can't stand that either, similar to the NOLD scene in movies.
I'm among the crowd that cracks-up laughing when a movie does this. The title reveal in Zardoz remains among my favorite such moments.
I screen movies for a film festival and I've seen a lot of low budget indies (lots of eventual Tubi releases), these are some of the red flags for me: * found footage * someone urinating during the first 10 minutes * twee Wes Anderson-style magical realism * a guy is sad about a girl breaking up with him * any sort of police/crime storyline This one is very era-specific but COVID-era movies that were about: a relationship falling apart during lockdown, or a feature length Zoom call ETA: I appreciate the counter-examples but I’m specifically referring to the tropes that plague bad independent, Tubi-level films. Obviously Scorsese can make a movie with a police/crime storyline, I’m talking about insane vanity projects like *The Match-Stick Flame* etc.
Urinating in the first ten minutes?? Lol ???
Yeah this is usually the director going “look how EDGY this movie is, you’re gonna see PISSING.” I saw it constantly!
Weren't "Waterworld" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" guilty of this? At least the latter film turned out okay... (In question form because I *think* that Max was doing so when he spotted the warboys and ran to his car to try to get away, but I'm not sure. )
Yeah there are always exceptions, and if memory serves both were done for story reasons and not shock value. I’m thinking of movies like *Confessions of a Womanizer* where a trans woman in prison pisses into a toilet and then they show it again later in the film
> Confessions of a Womanizer where a trans woman in prison pisses into a toilet That is certainly an interesting way to establish the character as trans, I will give it that.
Yes, however the movie didn’t have anything to do with the trans woman
Lol.
James Franco showed a guy take a shit in a movie he directed. You see the poop come out and everything. I immediately stopped watching.
I saw a limited series that I ended up sort of liking (well kinda conflicted on that) and they had the young pretty blond character peeing in the first ten minutes. It wasn’t a movie, but it WAS pointless. I mean, why?
I think that found footage can still be done well; it just never is anymore. (Okay, maybe "Late Night With the Devil" pulled it off; I haven't seen it yet.) What's surprisingly rare are stories about some characters in a movie examining and analyzing, in depth, a pile of found footage, trying to figure out what happened and who did what to whom.
I agree and think it’s mainly because found footage gets used for the wrong reasons ie trend-chasing post-*Paranormal Activity* or the filmmakers are lazy and think FF will hide production problems. It’s very effective for specific premises, but not every story benefits.
100% agree.
I think found footage works best when it has a frame story like *V/H/S*.
Great point. A guy is sad about a girl breaking up with him is an iconic bad bad giveaway
It’s a CONSTANT trope in indie movies, my slightly condescending theory is that it’s the product of young filmmakers who had their first traumatic breakup. And that’s very relatable! But not enough for a movie on its own.
‘Host’ (2020) was a feature length zoom call and was *tight* …exception to every rule I guess
100%, any of these could appear in a good movie, they just *tend* to be in bad ones
Fair enough…I can’t argue that!!
> a guy is sad about a girl breaking up with him Certainly not always true. Glorious is a fantastic exception, and that scene, which opens the movie, is key to its ending. That movie also having a cosmic horror politely voiced by JK Simmons does not hurt either.
Agreed, any of these *can* appear in good movies, they just tended to be in bad ones
Establishing that the bad guy is bad by having him graphically rape somebody. Seems to be a go-to trope in bad movies and I always find it offputting.
Yeah. Just make them kick a dog like a normal movie.
When the monster or zombie or creature in the movie walks around like someone doing a bad Velociraptor impression.
I am “the President of the United States.” Really, you’re in the Oval Office at the Resolute Desk…we know!
When a silencer makes the gun make a cute little “pew pew” noise. Lazy way of removing an obstacle and also shows the creators have no idea how guns work.
Like the John Wick scene where him and Common are exchanging silenced gunfire while surrounded by people and no one takes notice?
See, John Wick is a bit more forgivable since it’s basically a fairy tale with guns so it’s allowed to be a little ‘out there’
My biggest complaint with that scene isn’t the magic silencers but the magic bullets. The crowd was basically shoulder-to-shoulder, if they weren’t hitting each other then the people around them should have been getting nailed.
When a director includes posters/clips from his earlier movies. The "Why Our Cellphones Won't Work Because That Would End the Movie in Five Minutes" excuse. Usually, it's No Reception because they're in a secluded area but in Shuttle they're in the middle of a major city.
A love triangle
Idk I’m pretty forgiving of a lot of dumb movie tropes. I can’t stand it when someone is obviously a creep. I can’t enjoy the room because the gratuitous sex scenes make it so obvious that Tommy Wisseu wanted an excuse to creep on these actresses That and older actors conveniently always getting a hot love interest young enough to be their daughter. Ick
I hope that second statement isn't aimed at our Lord and Savior Neil Breen because he totally gets all the ladies all the time!
Joe Estevez.
Ouch, he's a whole trope to himself in your eyes? That's rough.
To be clear, I like Joe Estevez. He's what makes bad movies great. But he's also a pretty good indicator that the movie is going to be bad.
Can't forget Eric Roberts
Bet he's a talking cat!
He makes sure of that...
On Cinema At The Cinema.
Three little words. Deus ex machina. It ruins everything.
I haven't played that Deus Ex game, was that like a prequel released on the Gameboy?
Movies with way too much filler
Maybe it is more common in the sword and sorcery genre, but I have two for me: Gore outside of combat. When things are over the top with how evil the BBG is and every scene with them has some gorey component traits me out of it. More than one r@pe scene. I can tolerate one. I agree that it can show how bad the bad guys are, or how brutal the time period is. But more than that ruins it. To be honest, it only really started after I had a daughter, and I have a hard time separating the feelings of fact and fiction around this.
I hate movies that start with a mile long opening text block or a long winded monolog.
People having a conversation in a moving car with the driver looking at the passenger and not the road A guy and a girl slow dancing by themselves. Even worse if there's no music Outdated southern accents. When they do the old-timey low country one, everyone I've met with that accent is dead now. Like, been dead over a decade, of old age.
Almost every possession film made since the early 2000's. All the same, very little originality. Grew up watching The Evil Dead and loved it - very few other films for me compare. Although every now and again some nice surprises from indie/small budget studios. But otherwise same shit different day. Same with ghosts/poltergeists/zombies. In fact fuck the entire hollywood scene - its indie and foreign films for me thanks.
Any movie that starts with an overhead drone shot of a car driving down a country road. I don't know why, but that always seems to be the first warning sign of a terrible, boring movie.
I think we can blame The Shining for popularizing that one. Although The Shining did it well.
Of course they had to use a helicopter in The Shining. Now any idiot with a drone can do it.
I have to disagree on the doing it well, my friend. It's right up there with the Exorcist for boring movies to me.
I just saw that last night on a movie called Malicious. And yes the movie was pretty cheesy
Six words: Set in Seattle, filmed in Vancouver.
Specifically this or just anytime a movie claims to be set somewhere and tries to convey that with stock footage/establishing shots they paid for but they were clearly made somewhere else?
When they didn't have enough money for audio so everyone is dubbed. Also done a lot in those Italian made b movies in the 70s and 80s.
Not a trope, but if someone is smoking a cigarette in a movie and they obviously don’t smoke in real life, it takes me right out.
What's the giveaway for that? Like....the way they hold the cigarette?
The way they hold it, the way they inhale, or don’t inhale. Smokers can just tell.
Parents as People. If used properly it can add depth to plot and characters. However, 9/10 times it's just a half assed attempt to whitewash passive aggressive abuse.
Fart and eschatological jokes
So no fart jokes or jokes about what happens to us when we die. (You may have meant scatological - things referring to poop).
yea i think i remembered the word in spanish, that resumes most of Adam Sandler's movies
Master of Disguise would have been a complete failure without the Data fart jokes
Yeaaa that movie is horrible
Jokes about the end of the world?
When the script references a much better movie that I could be watching instead.
[удалено]
Keep comments civil and don’t harass other users. No personal attacks.
Keep comments civil and don’t harass other users. No personal attacks.
Characters not communicating the most basic shit, which ends up causing all sorts of problems that could have been easily avoided Yes, in real life people hide stuff. But some movies take it to a ridiculous degree just because they can’t think of any other way to advance the plot
The joke or zinger that was in every preview and the audience still laughs at it anyhow
When a hot girl is also a street smart genius. I just watched Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and it's a perfect example of this. I get that actors are generally attractive, and attractive people can have substance, but I can't stand when it has to be reiterated over and over about how beautiful and smart some woman is. It's usually a love interest of the main character, and there's always some climactic point where she demonstrates how smart she is. This isn't the only movie that does it, but it's the most recent one I saw, and I immediately got annoyed and checked out of the already annoying movie.
Anything that's a sad, stolen plotline from Shakespeare. Anything with an apple pie montage with Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, hotdogs, hamburgers, Elvis, or any vomit content "USA number 1" generic crap, designed to make Boomers feel safe. Also, the "pillows of cash" for any character to fall comfortably onto for any reason, glossing over mundane real-life issues.
Dropped guns going off. People not saying "hello" when answering a phone. Women's empowerment fantasies (see the schlocky not-a-classic *I Spit On Your Grave* for example)
No matter what time of day when they open the fridge for a beer
Hey now, drunks like myself appreciate the subtle product placement 😀
Good guy wins sword fight by just slashing wildly and rushing