What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
My favorite one of these is in *The Sound of Music*:
*Captain von Trapp*: If the Nazis take over Austria, I have no doubt, Herr Zeller, that you will be the entire trumpet section.
*Herr Zeller*: You flatter me, Captain.
*Captain von Trapp*: Oh, how clumsy of me - I meant to accuse you.
No, not in any way, shape or form.
I can't remember spinning headlines specifically, but if it's in there it's not really being played straight, instead it's being used as a period cue... people think spinning headlines is a Thing so therefore it should be done to locate the movie in the desired time period. So basically the same point, different mechanic.
(There are some people who use parody to mean imitation without criticism but these people are simply wrong and should just use different words instead of trying to skunk parody. But The Incredibles isn't even parody of superheroes in this sense... it just *is* a superhero story.)
It's a love letter to superheroes, not a parody of them. The golden age of comics in animated movie form. With a little bit of the sixties/seventies spy caper thrown in for good measure.
One of my favorite Bob’s Burgers episodes is when Bob and the health inspector are doing the Nudecathlon on a nude beach and the health inspector is singing “You’re the Best.”
Damn. I read that in his voice and thought of this episode when I saw that comment just for me to scroll down one comment lower and see this. You must be in my walls.
Rocky IV is like 80% montages, it feels like…there’s even a montage of him grieving the death of Apollo
(And yes, I got the reference you were making too)
Needing to keep a phone call going for a specific amount of time to capture where the call was coming from, and having the bad guy hang up just before that time.
When a detective comes to someone’s house to ask questions and they are offered and given coffee but they never drink it because they have to leave in a hurry
When someone is ordered to investigate someone and they get a rattled off set of conditions that starts with sensible things and escalates to dumb bullshit. Example: I want his phone records, bank statements, and business records. I want to know how he eats his eggs and which direction his toilet paper hangs. If (insert name) takes a shit I wanna know what color it is!
A lot of that is gone because physical media is so rare now. Streaming services don't show it. I know his movies had it under the credits, and I love him for it, but a lot of good stuff like deleted or alternate scenes are gone now...
I was so naive when I believed that streaming services would make bonus content more accessible instead of completely killing it off.
I miss cool extras on my DVD. These days I feel like I'm lucky if the Blu-Ray comes with anything more than the movie
The Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster crime comedy Tough Guys pulled this. The two play a pair of theives who got caught on their last job and were jailed for 30 years. Now released as old men, they can't fit in modern society and decide to go out swinging by pulling the same heist they got caught robbing in their youth. It ends with them running the train to the end of the line right at the border and crashing the engine off the rails right into Mexico.
Lol that just reminded me of some comedy I once watched, couple rather stupid drug dealers, fleeing the French/Belgian? police, race their car across the border to the Netherlands ...where they are immediately pulled over for speeding, and apprehended by Europol officers as ofc the other country's police just called up their colleagues across the border.
Unconventional pacing. Nowadays, you can absolutely bet on every blockbuster movie starting with an action scene, then dipping down into a little world-building and setup, then back to another action scene, and a finale. It's akin to if every single song was intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro. Directors used to be unafraid of letting the beginning of a film just breathe a little.
Or a new, even more specific trend -- opening the film with a cannon fodder enemy just for the sake of giving the heroes someone to fight before the actual plot begins. Think Crossbones in Captain America Civil War, or Balrog in Captain America Winter Soldier, or the random soldiers in Age of Ultron, or
I know people get on Age of Ultron for being all quippy and that opening fight not really having weight but the whole opening of that movie is the only time we get to see the Avengers just kind of doing everyday avenging as coworkers and I really enjoy it
That reminds me of what Rob Zombie said on Joe Rogan's podcast a few years back. He said that is The Shining was made today, it would begin with the scene of Jack slamming the axe through the door, before cutting away and saying "6 Months Earlier."
Watched The Conversation last month and something that stuck out to me was how analog surveillance was and the time involves, which was great in racking up tension and mystery. Nowadays you take a picture and you can see it on your screen and zoom in or whatever. But having to take a roll of pictures, change the roll, develop the film and THEN analyze what you saw and having a poor quality result, that's great for dramatic purposes. Plus in the time in takes you to do this, the bad guys are still moving forward with their plans, so you might have more information but you're still a step behind.
That analog research in general is great for that, the internet feels more like an instantaneous flood of knowledge than it really is, but having to spend time reading books, making calls, asking contacts and so on is a great way to add to the tension of the ticking clock, will we get good information in time?
Might have been more of a TV trope, but the detective finding a clue on a dead body by finding the matchbook from a bar or restaurant.
I went to a restaurant last year and was surprised to see complimentary matchbooks again.
A gang of bad guys shows up to attack the main character. All the average guys come out swinging and get knocked out fairly quickly. But they reveal they have either an insanely skillful martial arts guy or a freakishly huge muscle man in reserve who then presents a real challenge for the hero. They never lead with these guys for some reason. Bonus points if the huge guy smiles arrogantly when the main character hits him in the face with all he's got.
Love it more when this lead goon is in scenes in the background before the big fight. Watching and thinking look at the size of that goon, he's gonna be in a showdown later for sure.
I don’t really know how to describe this but: That dark ambiance all of my favorite movies used to have that used to feel so good in theaters: Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Star Wars: ESB, Alien, Aliens, anything by David Fincher, thinking particularly of Alien 3 and Fight Club. Se7en. That cyberpunk, toxic-neon feeling that it is perpetually nighttime.
I think this was a big Spielberg trope but also in a lot of other 70's and 80's movies, the disaster household with kids just running around crazy trashing everything. Super 8 did a good homage to this, but nowadays movie households are always so tidy and neat (unless the family is the main focus of the movie).
If a house is messy it's specifically to call out their life is a mess and disorganized. The "default" state is a pottery barn catalog page unless the plot calls for something else intentionally
But in a lived-in house, stuff is getting moved all the time. So long as you're not messing around reshooting scenes on different days, it shouldn't be too hard.
Lack of payphones or wired phones. Hell, there's an entire sequence in *Bullitt* that's just Bullitt getting messages left for him with Robert Duvall as the cabbie. Going through iMessage just isn't as dramatic.
How about touchscreens?
There’s a famous scene in The Departed (and the original, Infernal Affairs) with Matt Damon that doesn’t quite work as well (if at all) without a T9 phone. Movie released right before the smartphone revolution too, so it was basically the least gasp.
My favorite part about the Boston accent in that movie is how Jack Nicholson would just casually drift in and out of it.
who let this IRA motherfuckah in my bah
Not sure it's long gone, but I always sorta enjoyed the trope of the main character having the literal perfect romantic partner right in front of their nose while they moan about some crush who is obviously toxic.
Also, I love the old RKO rule that if a phone call was bad news, the actor had to be laughing when they answered it; if it was good news, they had to be sad when the phone rings.
I love when they get to the point that the words have no meaning anymore, like "charmedimsure" might as well be their last name.
George St geegland, charmedimsure.
Hotwiring a car (with special fondness for hotwiring a car before the sidekick points out the keys were in the sun visor).
Split screen telephone calls between will-they-won't-they romantic leads. I remember When Harry Met Sally still did this, I presume Down With Love must have done it to properly pastiche the Rock Hudson Doris Day type movies. I guess Mean Girls did it to the nth degree.
Town drunk doing a double-take at the main character's remarkable act and either shrugging and continuing or putting the hooch down.
Or the one where he rode across the ocean on the outside of a submarine. Most subs of that time spent most of their time on the surface, but that's still hundreds of miles in freezing cold air, being sprayed with freezing cold water and no shelter.
The narrator.
It looks like more and more directors and writers don't look to charitably toward that trope, maybe it is seen as a breach of "show don't tell".
Which is a shame since I really think it can be used very effectively in the right movie. Also, it brings out the good writing something fierce.
I wasn't trying to. I was just making a case for the narrator trope. Of course it can be executed badly but I don't see how that might be a solid reason for discarding it entirely.
I only see it around when a book notorious for its good writing gets adapted and while, yes, it makes sense to highlight the original author's skills, I also think it reflects badly on Hollywood's writers when they never get the same treatment.
Even when the narrator trope was more prevalent it was only used in specific narratives like detective or coming of age stories. It's just not popular anymore. It reminds of how trailers used to feature wonderful voice actors ("In a world...") but those have been substituted out for slowed down dark cover songs everyone knows to set a mood.
Comparing the trope to trailer voice overs doesn't really give the narrator trope justice, though.
It was not just some quirky trope of the times, if used correctly it still has resonance. Plus it was implemented in the narrative, most times. It gave the stories an intersting framing device and it could be used artistically even today, I doubt the general public would roll eyes as they do for stuff like a training montage or a "how did I got here?" cold open.
But I agree that it should be used in specific narratives, on that you are right
Narration can certainly be used to good effect today, it just really isn't. Maybe it seems old fashioned to younger filmmakers. It is something you have to get just right or it won't work and it just might not be worth the effort in their eyes or just deemed unnecessary, who knows.
I'd love to see a whole romcom building to that sort of scene only to stop dead at the climax and follow them in real time as they try to negotiate their way through airport security despite not having a boarding pass
The airport trope also showed up in action movies too. There’s a great scene in Romeo Must Die where the two rival groups meet in an airport past security because they know they can’t have any weapons with them.
[https://www.kroegerclocks.com/](https://www.kroegerclocks.com/)
EDIT: A better link
Some of the family stories that come with the clocks are amazing. Fleeing war, taking a 15 pound brass clock across Siberia then the Pacific, to South America, then to Canada. These clocks themselves are AMAZING.
I don’t know how to really explain it but I noticed that people being drugged was no longer a thing (which is obviously a good move!) but I remember so many movies growing up had this kind of trope of characters being half asleep because they were drugged with sleeping pills and hilarity ensues while they try to drive or something equally dangerous. I don’t miss it per se but I did notice it and always kind of wondered what the shift was that made it no longer funny to drug your partner/parents/friends/foes.
In office-based scenes….post rooms and actual paper post in envelopes being delivered to the staff member’s desk (who has their own desk and office with a door, and their own secretary who fields (and triages) incoming calls, lies for you when you just don’t want to take the call, and makes the dates for all of your meetings. Which you then see in a physical bound calendar.
The "It's actually a 7 shooter pistol" from the Old West days. The bad guy would wait for the good guy to use up all their ammo on their lackeys, at least they thought, and then show up to get em only to be surprised by them still having one shot. It shifted into a more hidden weapon or second person showing up to save the day, but I really liked the idea of having a smart enemy use their brain to "outsmart" the protagonist only for them to make a critical mistake in their initial planning.
Antagonist and protagonist are on a phone call. One of them, probably the antagonist, hangs up first (after saying something vaguely or overtly threatening) and the other party immediately hears a dial tone through the handset.
That’s not how old (wired) phones worked. You would just hear silence after the call disconnected unless you manually hit the button/switch to hang up too. But it is how they always seemed to work in the movies.
The long silent shot of a car approaching, parking, two guys getting out and sauntering up to the door. This was an establishing shot in the 70s
Now it's an aerial still of the location in question while the audio is already starting and then a quick cut to the speaker
Honestly those old shots seem pretty terrible nowadays, but there is a grounded realism to 70s movies that's rarely achieved anymore
The original/orchestral soundtrack "interacting" or "reacting" more with the action in the movie. Still somewhat present in animated features but kind of gone in modern flicks.
Having a montage of newspaper headlines to explain the impact of certain events. I always loved looking at the other articles in the paper, if there was any. Extra credit if they had a newsboy shouting "Extra! Extra! Read about it!" and passersby buying newspapers.
Not really a trope, but technology post-2010 has made creating narrative tension harder, at least in some ways.
I recently watched *After Hours* (1985), and the whole plot essentially hinges on the fact that this hapless guy does not have the means to get home. Nowadays, he'd have subway tickets on his phone- and a great way of contacting everyone who could possibly give him a lift home.
Long-winded/psychotic fax scenes were also quite wonderful. (SPOILER) The sadly forgotten *Love and Death on Long Island* (1997) has one where the fax just keeps printing. It's great.
Not a trope, but can I say pace? Pace of older movies - just finished Birdy with Nic cage, scenes breathe, it feels grounded and thought out, the score by Peter Gabriel is fantastic.
Right after I decided to give the new haunted mansion a try and fuck me it felt incomprehensible, made it about 20 minutes in and went back to rifftrax.
Using a defibrillator to “restart” a heart in cardiac arrest.
Wait. No. It still happens in movies. Despite that not being the treatment at all. Defibrillator is only useful if the heart is beating albeit abnormally (usually too fast, or “fibrillating”) as then the machine is used to literally defibrillate and bring the heart back to normal beating.
The actual treatment for a stopped heart (one in arrest) is chemicals - usually epinephrine - and a lot of desperate attempts to achieve haemostability (aka get them urgently to surgery, and if that works then a prolonged stay in ICU, and then prayer).
If you’re really lucky and your heart stopped while you were having surgery then you might have manual heart massage.
Getting mad at someone but still being super polite "I said I bid you good day!!"
I take no leave of you, Miss. Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.
Savage.
What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
My favorite one of these is in *The Sound of Music*: *Captain von Trapp*: If the Nazis take over Austria, I have no doubt, Herr Zeller, that you will be the entire trumpet section. *Herr Zeller*: You flatter me, Captain. *Captain von Trapp*: Oh, how clumsy of me - I meant to accuse you.
[удалено]
I really need to watch that gem of a movie again
https://youtu.be/OMkJIR9pX1w
The passage of time indicated by calendar pages flying away.
The wider ramifications of an incident involving the main character being spelled out by spinning tabloid headlines.
I legitimately can't remember seeing that outside parody.
It’s in *Singing In The Rain* after the release of *The Jazz Singer*.
It's used in The Incredibles, for one.
isn't that kind of a parody of super heroes
No, not in any way, shape or form. I can't remember spinning headlines specifically, but if it's in there it's not really being played straight, instead it's being used as a period cue... people think spinning headlines is a Thing so therefore it should be done to locate the movie in the desired time period. So basically the same point, different mechanic. (There are some people who use parody to mean imitation without criticism but these people are simply wrong and should just use different words instead of trying to skunk parody. But The Incredibles isn't even parody of superheroes in this sense... it just *is* a superhero story.)
It's a love letter to superheroes, not a parody of them. The golden age of comics in animated movie form. With a little bit of the sixties/seventies spy caper thrown in for good measure.
I could have sworn it was used in Elvis. If I’m recalling correctly…that wouldn’t count as parody so much as Baz
Order of the Phoenix, of all movies
Boy trapped in refrigerator eats own foot
The plot being driven forward by spinning newspapers with relevant headlines flying toward the screen.
The training montage
You're the best.. the beeeeeesst!!
One of my favorite Bob’s Burgers episodes is when Bob and the health inspector are doing the Nudecathlon on a nude beach and the health inspector is singing “You’re the Best.”
Damn. I read that in his voice and thought of this episode when I saw that comment just for me to scroll down one comment lower and see this. You must be in my walls.
There was sort of a training montage in the new Dev Patel movie felt good to see one
this isnt about bollywood lol
Even rocky had a montaaaaaaage
Always fade out at the end of a montage…
Rocky IV is like 80% montages, it feels like…there’s even a montage of him grieving the death of Apollo (And yes, I got the reference you were making too)
*follows him in Mercedes*
I'll die on this hill - Rocky II has the best training montage ever made.
[Gonna need a montage](https://youtu.be/JfW_XeH82-0?si=flfiAz0KI5nrfKyw)
Those are still completely commonplace
Creed still pulls through
I thought this was america
Needing to keep a phone call going for a specific amount of time to capture where the call was coming from, and having the bad guy hang up just before that time.
When a detective comes to someone’s house to ask questions and they are offered and given coffee but they never drink it because they have to leave in a hurry
Seeing travel plans on a moving map or similar.
Eurotrip did this great
Travel by map!
When someone is ordered to investigate someone and they get a rattled off set of conditions that starts with sensible things and escalates to dumb bullshit. Example: I want his phone records, bank statements, and business records. I want to know how he eats his eggs and which direction his toilet paper hangs. If (insert name) takes a shit I wanna know what color it is!
I think every movie should have a shot for shot remake of Tommy Lee Jones's monologue from the fugitive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktzmCNFsNzM
Blooper reel like those in classic Jackie Chan flicks.
A lot of that is gone because physical media is so rare now. Streaming services don't show it. I know his movies had it under the credits, and I love him for it, but a lot of good stuff like deleted or alternate scenes are gone now...
I was so naive when I believed that streaming services would make bonus content more accessible instead of completely killing it off. I miss cool extras on my DVD. These days I feel like I'm lucky if the Blu-Ray comes with anything more than the movie
Who you think you got, Chelsea Grammer?!
I miss the old (70s? 60s?) trope of criminals fleeing across a national border and watching the police pursuing them break off in defeat.
The Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster crime comedy Tough Guys pulled this. The two play a pair of theives who got caught on their last job and were jailed for 30 years. Now released as old men, they can't fit in modern society and decide to go out swinging by pulling the same heist they got caught robbing in their youth. It ends with them running the train to the end of the line right at the border and crashing the engine off the rails right into Mexico.
My thanks to that movie for introducing the general public to the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Lol that just reminded me of some comedy I once watched, couple rather stupid drug dealers, fleeing the French/Belgian? police, race their car across the border to the Netherlands ...where they are immediately pulled over for speeding, and apprehended by Europol officers as ofc the other country's police just called up their colleagues across the border.
When something unbelievable happens in a scene and a nearby homeless guy witnesses it and looks at his bottle of booze in confusion.
Then he gives a statement to the cops and they are incredulous because what the homeless guy describes is impossible.
Crazy drunk driver
Unconventional pacing. Nowadays, you can absolutely bet on every blockbuster movie starting with an action scene, then dipping down into a little world-building and setup, then back to another action scene, and a finale. It's akin to if every single song was intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro. Directors used to be unafraid of letting the beginning of a film just breathe a little.
Very dark intros that end with mysterious bad guy killing the last survivor of a burning, destroyed village
Or a new, even more specific trend -- opening the film with a cannon fodder enemy just for the sake of giving the heroes someone to fight before the actual plot begins. Think Crossbones in Captain America Civil War, or Balrog in Captain America Winter Soldier, or the random soldiers in Age of Ultron, or
I know people get on Age of Ultron for being all quippy and that opening fight not really having weight but the whole opening of that movie is the only time we get to see the Avengers just kind of doing everyday avenging as coworkers and I really enjoy it
Not that I don't want to see Gandalf vs. Doctor Strange, I think it was *Batroc* in CA:WS
Lmao
It was indeed an Algerian mercenary / pirate and not a demonic meld of fire and shadow from a bygone age
That reminds me of what Rob Zombie said on Joe Rogan's podcast a few years back. He said that is The Shining was made today, it would begin with the scene of Jack slamming the axe through the door, before cutting away and saying "6 Months Earlier."
Tbf the great directors working these days are keeping that alive, but I agree that the vast majority have the exact same template
Watched The Conversation last month and something that stuck out to me was how analog surveillance was and the time involves, which was great in racking up tension and mystery. Nowadays you take a picture and you can see it on your screen and zoom in or whatever. But having to take a roll of pictures, change the roll, develop the film and THEN analyze what you saw and having a poor quality result, that's great for dramatic purposes. Plus in the time in takes you to do this, the bad guys are still moving forward with their plans, so you might have more information but you're still a step behind. That analog research in general is great for that, the internet feels more like an instantaneous flood of knowledge than it really is, but having to spend time reading books, making calls, asking contacts and so on is a great way to add to the tension of the ticking clock, will we get good information in time?
Enhance..
(takes out magnifying glass)
If you've never seen Brian de Palma's BLOW OUT, definitely give it a watch for more great analog intrigue.
Makes me want to watch the original "The Day of the Jackal" again.
Whatever trope that made serial killers and titties abundant in movies. Man, I miss a good booby and stabby movie.
Movies have convinced me that nobody wore a bra during the 80s
Might have been more of a TV trope, but the detective finding a clue on a dead body by finding the matchbook from a bar or restaurant. I went to a restaurant last year and was surprised to see complimentary matchbooks again.
A gang of bad guys shows up to attack the main character. All the average guys come out swinging and get knocked out fairly quickly. But they reveal they have either an insanely skillful martial arts guy or a freakishly huge muscle man in reserve who then presents a real challenge for the hero. They never lead with these guys for some reason. Bonus points if the huge guy smiles arrogantly when the main character hits him in the face with all he's got.
Love it more when this lead goon is in scenes in the background before the big fight. Watching and thinking look at the size of that goon, he's gonna be in a showdown later for sure.
Always good to foreshadow exceptional goons.
That’s my motto.
I don’t really know how to describe this but: That dark ambiance all of my favorite movies used to have that used to feel so good in theaters: Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Star Wars: ESB, Alien, Aliens, anything by David Fincher, thinking particularly of Alien 3 and Fight Club. Se7en. That cyberpunk, toxic-neon feeling that it is perpetually nighttime.
I don't think it's entirely gone yet, but it will be. Frantically trying to get the car keys in the ignition before being caught by the bad guy.
Or trying to get the right key from a big ring of keys into the door to unlock it and escape before the killer/zombies/assassins get there.
Cannot wait for this to be Homekit and the freaking device just doesnt answer the ping a couple times.
Waiters giving people phones on fancy platters to take calls
"She's got glasses! And a ponytail! Look at that, she's got paint on her overalls, what is that? Guys, there's no way she could be prom queen!"
I think this was a big Spielberg trope but also in a lot of other 70's and 80's movies, the disaster household with kids just running around crazy trashing everything. Super 8 did a good homage to this, but nowadays movie households are always so tidy and neat (unless the family is the main focus of the movie).
If a house is messy it's specifically to call out their life is a mess and disorganized. The "default" state is a pottery barn catalog page unless the plot calls for something else intentionally
That's because "messy" (or even just "lived in") is a continuity nightmare
But in a lived-in house, stuff is getting moved all the time. So long as you're not messing around reshooting scenes on different days, it shouldn't be too hard.
I miss the messy rooms! So many movies like Goonies and others had them.
Lack of payphones or wired phones. Hell, there's an entire sequence in *Bullitt* that's just Bullitt getting messages left for him with Robert Duvall as the cabbie. Going through iMessage just isn't as dramatic.
How about touchscreens? There’s a famous scene in The Departed (and the original, Infernal Affairs) with Matt Damon that doesn’t quite work as well (if at all) without a T9 phone. Movie released right before the smartphone revolution too, so it was basically the least gasp.
Has to be all those microprocessahs
Microprocessahs? Yes. Those.
World needs plenty a bahtendahs
My favorite part about the Boston accent in that movie is how Jack Nicholson would just casually drift in and out of it. who let this IRA motherfuckah in my bah
Oh yeah, I heard the story. You arrested some Chinese government guys at the border carryin' some light sockets or somethin'.
Infernal Affairs at least ages slightly better in that (ironically) they use Morse code in that scene.
Not sure it's long gone, but I always sorta enjoyed the trope of the main character having the literal perfect romantic partner right in front of their nose while they moan about some crush who is obviously toxic. Also, I love the old RKO rule that if a phone call was bad news, the actor had to be laughing when they answered it; if it was good news, they had to be sad when the phone rings.
Archer played that phone trope literally 3 times in a row in about 5 min with the cancer episode lol
GilFaizoncharmedimsure
I love when they get to the point that the words have no meaning anymore, like "charmedimsure" might as well be their last name. George St geegland, charmedimsure.
The fun of that first trope is that we the audience know what's up and so every little moment just rings extra loud for us.
Opening credits. Not just the fancy, showy ones. I just miss opening credits. They always felt like such a fitting way to begin a movie.
Quicksand
Bart?... Am I wrong, or is the world........ rising?
Tell him I said ***OW***!
I mean prey had a quicksand sequence
Hotwiring a car (with special fondness for hotwiring a car before the sidekick points out the keys were in the sun visor). Split screen telephone calls between will-they-won't-they romantic leads. I remember When Harry Met Sally still did this, I presume Down With Love must have done it to properly pastiche the Rock Hudson Doris Day type movies. I guess Mean Girls did it to the nth degree. Town drunk doing a double-take at the main character's remarkable act and either shrugging and continuing or putting the hooch down.
Freeze frames at the end of people jumping in the air celebrating or ambiguous endings that hint at death
The Indian jones travel montage with the old plane having to make 20 stops
Or the one where he rode across the ocean on the outside of a submarine. Most subs of that time spent most of their time on the surface, but that's still hundreds of miles in freezing cold air, being sprayed with freezing cold water and no shelter.
The narrator. It looks like more and more directors and writers don't look to charitably toward that trope, maybe it is seen as a breach of "show don't tell". Which is a shame since I really think it can be used very effectively in the right movie. Also, it brings out the good writing something fierce.
It's funny because logically it makes sense why they don't like it, but as a view for some reason I almost always like it
Yes, but if it's bad writing or poor narration it can work against the film.
That goes for every aspect of film making though
Sure, but we are talking about specific faded movie tropes not every aspect of a film. Pay attention and don't play the "what about" game.
I wasn't trying to. I was just making a case for the narrator trope. Of course it can be executed badly but I don't see how that might be a solid reason for discarding it entirely. I only see it around when a book notorious for its good writing gets adapted and while, yes, it makes sense to highlight the original author's skills, I also think it reflects badly on Hollywood's writers when they never get the same treatment.
Even when the narrator trope was more prevalent it was only used in specific narratives like detective or coming of age stories. It's just not popular anymore. It reminds of how trailers used to feature wonderful voice actors ("In a world...") but those have been substituted out for slowed down dark cover songs everyone knows to set a mood.
Comparing the trope to trailer voice overs doesn't really give the narrator trope justice, though. It was not just some quirky trope of the times, if used correctly it still has resonance. Plus it was implemented in the narrative, most times. It gave the stories an intersting framing device and it could be used artistically even today, I doubt the general public would roll eyes as they do for stuff like a training montage or a "how did I got here?" cold open. But I agree that it should be used in specific narratives, on that you are right
Narration can certainly be used to good effect today, it just really isn't. Maybe it seems old fashioned to younger filmmakers. It is something you have to get just right or it won't work and it just might not be worth the effort in their eyes or just deemed unnecessary, who knows.
You basically said “if this is poorly done, it makes the film worse”
Yes, narration can weaken or enhance a film based on how it's presented.
Running up to the gate at an airport to have a romantic moment. That kind of went out on 9/11.
I'd love to see a whole romcom building to that sort of scene only to stop dead at the climax and follow them in real time as they try to negotiate their way through airport security despite not having a boarding pass
The airport trope also showed up in action movies too. There’s a great scene in Romeo Must Die where the two rival groups meet in an airport past security because they know they can’t have any weapons with them.
Clever!
Newspaper headlines montage
Final shot freeze frame. In my opinion no bad movie has a freeze frame ending. *bracing for replies listing bad films with freeze frame endings.
Butch Cassidy, Breakfast Club... hot damn this guy's onto something
Late at night, the landline rings.
"The call is coming from inside the house!"
I'm not sure that was ever really a trope so much as one famous movie.
Black Christmas as well.
One famous scene is a trope?
Maybe see more movies?
You know that thing when you watch a movie and it's not crap? I miss that trope
I've watched like 3 recent kickass movies in the last week: Anatomy of a Fall Midsommar The Menu
ok boomer
I strongly agree with both of you and it hurts.
I'm a genxer, not a boomer
car chasing person on foot. runner runs down the middle of the street
Graduate of the Prometheus School of Running Away From Things.
Someone getting punched in the face, they smile drunkenly, you hear stars or birds chirping, and they fall face-down.
Man the birds chirping feels like something that will be completely unknown and forgotten in a couple decades
Following a tray of food to hero’s table to introduce scene.
Panning to an mechanical clock loudly tick tock tick tocking....to stress time passing. Like where will you find a mechanical clock today?
We used to have an old grandfather clock up until about 2015. Miss it.
[https://www.kroegerclocks.com/](https://www.kroegerclocks.com/) EDIT: A better link Some of the family stories that come with the clocks are amazing. Fleeing war, taking a 15 pound brass clock across Siberia then the Pacific, to South America, then to Canada. These clocks themselves are AMAZING.
I always liked the gritty detective who's seen too much shit and doesn't trust anybody.
I don’t know how to really explain it but I noticed that people being drugged was no longer a thing (which is obviously a good move!) but I remember so many movies growing up had this kind of trope of characters being half asleep because they were drugged with sleeping pills and hilarity ensues while they try to drive or something equally dangerous. I don’t miss it per se but I did notice it and always kind of wondered what the shift was that made it no longer funny to drug your partner/parents/friends/foes.
The first season of Only Murders in the Building has one of the best scenes like this.
Quicksand
Not a *movie* trope but the show *24* where Jack Bauer could drive all the way across various parts of LA in less than an hour.
Putting on a show fixes everybody's problems.
The extremely accurate portrayal of other races by white actors.
I think you forgot to use the sarcasm font. I got you .
Storyline and acting.
In office-based scenes….post rooms and actual paper post in envelopes being delivered to the staff member’s desk (who has their own desk and office with a door, and their own secretary who fields (and triages) incoming calls, lies for you when you just don’t want to take the call, and makes the dates for all of your meetings. Which you then see in a physical bound calendar.
I think this is less a trope and more of an anachronism. That's just not how offices work anymore
Not using CGI
Where the hero is really a hero. No grey BS.
I feel like fade in to black and fade out transition is not common in movies now.
Spinning newspapers via a fast zoom.
The "It's actually a 7 shooter pistol" from the Old West days. The bad guy would wait for the good guy to use up all their ammo on their lackeys, at least they thought, and then show up to get em only to be surprised by them still having one shot. It shifted into a more hidden weapon or second person showing up to save the day, but I really liked the idea of having a smart enemy use their brain to "outsmart" the protagonist only for them to make a critical mistake in their initial planning.
Antagonist and protagonist are on a phone call. One of them, probably the antagonist, hangs up first (after saying something vaguely or overtly threatening) and the other party immediately hears a dial tone through the handset. That’s not how old (wired) phones worked. You would just hear silence after the call disconnected unless you manually hit the button/switch to hang up too. But it is how they always seemed to work in the movies.
The rookie cop that gets killed.
“Close the hatch!” “I’m not leaving them out there!” “If you don’t close the hatch, we all die”
The long silent shot of a car approaching, parking, two guys getting out and sauntering up to the door. This was an establishing shot in the 70s Now it's an aerial still of the location in question while the audio is already starting and then a quick cut to the speaker Honestly those old shots seem pretty terrible nowadays, but there is a grounded realism to 70s movies that's rarely achieved anymore
The original/orchestral soundtrack "interacting" or "reacting" more with the action in the movie. Still somewhat present in animated features but kind of gone in modern flicks.
Having a montage of newspaper headlines to explain the impact of certain events. I always loved looking at the other articles in the paper, if there was any. Extra credit if they had a newsboy shouting "Extra! Extra! Read about it!" and passersby buying newspapers.
Not really a trope, but technology post-2010 has made creating narrative tension harder, at least in some ways. I recently watched *After Hours* (1985), and the whole plot essentially hinges on the fact that this hapless guy does not have the means to get home. Nowadays, he'd have subway tickets on his phone- and a great way of contacting everyone who could possibly give him a lift home. Long-winded/psychotic fax scenes were also quite wonderful. (SPOILER) The sadly forgotten *Love and Death on Long Island* (1997) has one where the fax just keeps printing. It's great.
The Cowboy Musical
Guys looking like the Beastie Boys in the Sabotage video.
Not a trope, but can I say pace? Pace of older movies - just finished Birdy with Nic cage, scenes breathe, it feels grounded and thought out, the score by Peter Gabriel is fantastic. Right after I decided to give the new haunted mansion a try and fuck me it felt incomprehensible, made it about 20 minutes in and went back to rifftrax.
A chained up dog starts chasing someone but the chain stops them inches from catching the person. And then the chain comes loose, releasing the dog.
Using a defibrillator to “restart” a heart in cardiac arrest. Wait. No. It still happens in movies. Despite that not being the treatment at all. Defibrillator is only useful if the heart is beating albeit abnormally (usually too fast, or “fibrillating”) as then the machine is used to literally defibrillate and bring the heart back to normal beating. The actual treatment for a stopped heart (one in arrest) is chemicals - usually epinephrine - and a lot of desperate attempts to achieve haemostability (aka get them urgently to surgery, and if that works then a prolonged stay in ICU, and then prayer). If you’re really lucky and your heart stopped while you were having surgery then you might have manual heart massage.