Five Amazing Yet Cliched Movie Scenes

Movie cliche’s are a dime a dozen. The bad thing is when a movie either uses them incorrectly, or just too often. But here’s the thing, you could argue that cliche’s aren’t always a bad thing. Just because a scene is kind of cliched doesn’t mean it’s bad. If done well, a scene full of cliche’s can still be a powerful and effective moment. This is what good directors and actors can do.

Here are five examples what I mean



Jurassic Park
Well of course young Lex is smart enough to hack into the computer so that she can get the doors locked. What child can’t do that? I mean they established it in a whole line of dialogue! As silly as that is, it was a great scene when I first saw it because of the suspense, one of my favorites in the movie. I never even noticed the idiocy of Tim just standing there banging on the chair rather than easily getting the gun for Satler

Back to the Future
The “car won’t start when it has to” cliche is one of the biggest out there. It’s an excuse to drag out the suspense, but it usually makes no sense. And that’s the case here. Why doesn’t the Delorean start now? It can’t have anything to do with there be needing plutonium since that’s the whole point of this setup. The worst part is there is no reason for the car to start working. It’s one of those “bang on the jukebox” moments that finally does it. Sure why not. Good thing I love this movie.

Die Hard
It’s typical in an action movie for there to be one last surprise villain pop up at the end of the movie. Usually a villain we thought was already dead. And Die Hard is no exception. But it’s different here because rather than just have the hero easily kill him, we get Powell doing it. After two hours of establishing his back story (he accidentally killed a kid and was afraid to shoot since) and learning to care for this guy. It turns a cliched ending into a powerful character moment.

Pretty Woman
I give this movie a lot of credit, maybe more than it deserves, for several things. Like the soundtrack. Another is the reason for the third act “breakup”. This happens in almost EVERY rom com, but here it’s different. It doesn’t happen because of a lame misunderstanding or a big fight over something stupid. The two talk about staying together and Vivian explains why she can’t. Edward tries to move on, but realizes what he needs to do to. All leading to a climax which is kinda earned. And the pop song playing over the sad scene is just perfect.

A League of Their Own
I feel like a heel saying anything about this scene, but let’s be honest it’s kinda cliched. This is the moment we learn that someone’s husband has died. Now, the cliche is in the delivery person. In order for our main character to be pushed into delivering this sad news, the delivery person is an incompetent moron. He gives away what he note is, and then tries to just leave (there’s no name on the note, somehow) before Tom Hanks grabs the letter and kicks the ass out. Yeah good call jerk, leave the ladies there hanging. Anyone else hope that kid got his ass chewed out? Anyway this leads to the dramatic moment when we find out Betty’s husband died. Is this a bad scene? NO!! It’s still moving to this day. Damn, Penny Marshall really knew how to make a tracking shot work. By the way the fake out over who the letter is for is kinda cliched too. Good thing that actress not only sells it but knocks it out of the park. Did you know that was Penny Marshall’s daughter?

Kind of ended on a downer there. So here is a cliched scene where the cliche is not used correctly and comes off downright silly!

So yes even great movies use common cliche’s, but as I noted if they are used correctly you get scenes everyone will remember. Is there a movie scene out there you think is awesome despite the obvious cliche? Comment and let me know.