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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
 Posted - 10/16/2008 : 4:38:52 PM
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Example:
A character named "Max Schreck" or "Dr. Acula."
Overused quotes from other movies... apparently because the current writer is too lazy to come up with new dialogue on his own, e.g., "They're B-A-A-C-K" or "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my." (At least now that Arnold is governator we won't have to be subjected to any more retreads of "I'll be back.")
Obvious cameos from actors relying on old schitck. (Can't think of recent examples, but when Don Adams was still alive, he could still be counted on to deliver incongruous cameos in movies like Back to the Beach just so he could deliver his standard 86-lines like "Would you believe?" and "Missed by that much.")
Any stuff like that you can think of?
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Edited by - zombiewhacker on 10/16/2008 4:40:26 PM
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Pip
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 10/16/2008 : 5:30:43 PM
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Speaking of Arnold: any use of the old "Bad to the Bone" song when a character comes out in shades/leather coat/motorcycle/etc.
This has been worn so thin that we've sort of moved on to "ironic" uses of the cliche: the Thorogood oldie is cued when a grannie rumbles onto the scene on a motorcycle, or Al Bundy appears in shades, etc. Sort of like the "I'm too sexy" for this or that craze.
Pip
"These five fingers: individually they're nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold!" - Lucy Van Pelt |
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The Rev. D.D.
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
203 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2008 : 10:39:06 AM
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The whole practice of giving characters names from the genre. You know, naming characters "Raimi" or "Carpenter." It's been beaten into the ground and it needs to stop. It's no longer clever.
In-jokes can still be done cleverly, but this is just lazy anymore.
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Although I'd probably laugh if someone had a character named "Zucco" or "Atwill." |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2008 : 3:17:34 PM
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I just saw an otherwise entertaining movie called Color Me Kubrick in which John Malkovich plays a flamboyant homosexual conman who pretends to be director Stanley Kubrick. In the movie the conman tells someone that his latest movie project stars John Malkovich.
We have seen this gag many times before. On example is in His Girl Friday. Cary Grant playing the editor yells over the phone that the caller is a guy named Archie Leach. In Some Like it Hot George Raft as Spats sees another gangster flipping a coin. Where did you learn that trick? he asks. (if you don't get that gag watch the original Scarface.)
I don't like it when movies call attention to themselves as movies. I like to suspend my disbelief and, at least for the duration of the movie, take it as real. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2008 : 4:40:28 PM
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All good points. To the "Bad to the Bone" example I would also add any movie where unhipsters hit the road to the tune of "Born to Be Wild." It was funny when it was first tried years ago in movies like Serial and Lost in America. But enough already.
Ditto on the name game. I guess Chris Carter thought he was being incredibly clever when he introduced Senator Richard Matheson on The X Files. (Wouldn't a Senator named Jeff Rice have been more appropriate, anyway? But I digress...)
"I don't like it when movies call attention to themselves as movies. I like to suspend my disbelief and, at least for the duration of the movie, take it as real."
I don't mind if the entire movie is off-kilter to begin with, like the Airplane movies or even something like Disney's Aladdin. But where most movies are concerned I agree with you 100 percent.
To that I might also add I hate bloopers reels at the end of movies. But at least then the movie's over and if you don't like it you can just walk out (or turn the DVD off).
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Edited by - zombiewhacker on 10/21/2008 4:40:54 PM |
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Cannon Fodder
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Australia
176 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2008 : 03:57:41 AM
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| The most annoying and laziest example I can think of is when a character in a B-movie or the like will say something like 'It's like we're in some bad science fiction movie.' Oh hardy-ha-ha. Drawing attention to the limitations of your own work in a such an obvious way isn't really that clever or funny. |
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Flangepart
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
2329 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2008 : 06:57:31 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Cannon Fodder
The most annoying and laziest example I can think of is when a character in a B-movie or the like will say something like 'It's like we're in some bad science fiction movie.' Oh hardy-ha-ha. Drawing attention to the limitations of your own work in a such an obvious way isn't really that clever or funny.
Kinda like the 'Product placment' gag in LOONEY TOONS: BACK IN ACTION. Fraser glances embarrised at the camera before the scene continues. I did like the flick, though. Including where fraser punches himself out...
Marvin the Paranoid Android to Buzz Lightyear "Too infinity and beyond-i've been there, its rubbish!"
"Hoody Hoo, i waste 'em with my cross bow!" Bob Herzog- KODT
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2008 : 1:21:18 PM
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You can betcha in any film that is based on an old TV show, the stars from that show will turn up, usually at the end of the movie.
To wit: you knew Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul would show up somewhere in Ben Stiller's and Luke Wilson's Starsky and Hutch. And sure enough...
Of course, in The Brady Bunch, the former TV cast members were all over the place like an old Biblical spectacular where you play "spot the star."
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2008 : 8:13:25 PM
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| I did get a kick out of Buddy Ebson showing up in the movie of the Beverly Hillbillies but as Barnaby Jones. I also enjoyed Noel Neil showing up on the train as Lois lane's mother in Superman. |
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andy80
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
81 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 02:31:59 AM
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| From a sketch show like Saturday Night Live, when they have the stars they're making fun of show up for a cameo and confront the actors. Like when they used to do The Joe Pesci Show bit on SNL, and had the real Joe Pesci and Robert Deniro show up. |
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2008 : 07:23:29 AM
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Any movie set in the past that where a character makes an historical reference that is in error, thus resulting in a moment of mirth. Examples:
In Titanic, Rose has bought all these paintings by Picasso. Her fiance disdainfully says, "Trust me, he'll never amount to anything." Oh, haha, 'cause see, Picasso really became a famous painter...haha...
In Back to The Future, Christopher Lloyd asks M.J. Fox who is the President of the US in 1985. MJ Fox says Ronald Reagan. ""Ronald Reagan, the ACTOR?" Lloyd asks increduously. "And I suppose Jane Wyman is first lady!" Very funny, 'cause see Reagan was married to Jane Wyman, although in 1955, they were already divorced, but I guess the writers really needed an hilarious historical reference laugh here...
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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Cannon Fodder
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Australia
176 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2008 : 01:29:00 AM
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| I don't actually mind that joke from Back to the Future, it's not so much a joke about someone from the past making an error about something that would be apparent to someone in the present day but playing on a fact that might seem strange to someone from that era, plus it is better with 'I suppose Jerry Lewis is his vice-president?' line included. If there is a problem with it, it would be the setup for the line with Doc Brown asking a question to which the answer in all likelyhood would mean nothing to him and exists only as a setup for a joke like this. |
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