Quoted from Shelton HaHaHa.  I'm actually thinking of incorporating something like this into a script that I'm working on.  It's the same theme, but in a totally different context.

I kind of like this cliche actually.  It still holds a certain dramatic punch for me.  Just whatever you do, don't have him confront this person in an underground parkade.  And especially don't make him a smoker.

BTW I'm guilty of this as well except I changed it from a trenchcoat to an ivy cap (the genius that I am).  

Some clichés are unavoidable. I’ve learned to look at clichés as having two categories - unnecessary ones and unavoidable ones. For example, politicians and business heads are often villains in movies. And that’s a cliché. But if your plot involves a massive scale event that would require the villain to have a great deal of power to accomplish, it’s unavoidable that the villain has to be a person with the means.

Sometimes your story is moving along and you just get to a spot where there’s no way to move the story forward without a plot device that’s cliché. In other words, there’s a reason why some clichés are clichés and they’re nearly impossible to avoid and still have any story cohesiveness.

I try my best to avoid them at all costs but sometimes it’s simply not feasible - or even possible.


Breanne

Quoted from mgj I kind of like this cliche actually.  It still holds a certain dramatic punch for me.  Just whatever you do, don't have him confront this person in an underground parkade.  And especially don't make him a smoker. BTW I'm guilty of this as well except I changed it from a trenchcoat to an ivy cap (the genius that I am).

Mine isn't dramatic at all.  It's more of a play into the cliche.

Cars knocking over a fruit stand during a high speed chase and then knocking it over again just as the fruitier has finished restacking his fruit.

Having the antagonist hiding behind a newspaper while he spies on the protagonist. This is usually revealed to the audience when the protagonist walks out of shot and the antagonist lowers the newspaper.

I just saw Bad Boys again and noticed a huge cliché in buddy flicks. When two buddy cops are cornered by a couple of henchmen with guns on them they will PRETEND to argue and fight which will throw the bad guys off and the buddy cops will then overpower them.

I think Lethal Weapon started this.

I think partners who hate each other are a cliche in any cop/crime movie, whether or not it's a buddy movie.

Quoted from James McClung I think partners who hate each other are a cliche in any cop/crime movie, whether or not it's a buddy movie.

Well intially they always hate each other, but as time goes by they come to appreciate each others' different outlooks on life blah blah blah.

However, that's not what I was referring to. I mean that moment when the two PRETEND to go at it with each other to throw off the guys holding the gun, and use this momentum to overpower them.

True. I get what you're saying. That cliche is ripe in buddy cop movies. I wouldn't say it's exclusive to the genre but definitely a big part of it. I actually saw the same device in Galaxy Quest the other day with Tim Allen and Alan Rickman pretending to go at it, which is why I say not "exclusive." But yeah, you're definitely right.

yeah it probably branched over into other genres as well. But I mainly remember it from Lethal Weapon, The Last Boyscout and Bad Boys.

That pretend to argue and fight thing kind of harkens back to the old days of slapstick comedy.  Stuff like the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy.  I'm sure that's where it originated from.  

Another cliche is when one character eyes someone standing across the street and a large semi passes between them.  You just know that person will inexplicably vanish.

out of all of these cliche's listed in the article. I have to say I wouldn't agree with this one:

Quoted Text 'Halloween,' in which that crazy Michael Myers just won't stay dead; every time someone thinks they've finally got him down for the count, they ... stand across the room with their back to him. And what happens? His shadowy body moves, and the chase is on again

Why would you want to check the pulse of someone who has a knife and could still be alive?

The self exploiting minority stereotype.

Cliches?
How about everyone knows how to pick a lock or jump start a car?


Although, for one screenwriting festival I knew Shane Black was one of the judges, so I threw in this scene just for fun...

INT. COP CAR
The cop and the rookie stare up through the front windshield
dumbfounded.  They look back to the street and yell.

EXT. STREETS
The cop car smashes into a large donut truck.

INT. COP CAR
The cop and rookie gather themselves.  Donuts are everywhere.

ROOKIE
This is so cliche.

The cop stares at him.  The motorcycle falls out of the sky
and lands on the hood of the car.  The siren on the car slows
and dies.

COP
I'm getting too old for this sh*t.

ROOKIE
And so is that.

The hooker who is so bored with her job that she checks her watch in the middle of a shag.

Just check this one out guys...

http://www.moviecliches.com


There's one thing I learnt: producers LOVE and DON'T CARE about clichés


Michel