Annoying Romantic Comedy/Romance Scene Movie Cliches

1. camera cuts away to new lovebirds making out heavily while opening the door, and continuing to make out while they enter the doorway, occasionally crashing into things (seriously, who does this)?

Probably most people have already seen this, but it's a brilliant compendium of romantic-comedy cliches:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UaVUPsLsM

1. camera cuts away to new lovebirds making out heavily while opening the door, and continuing to make out while they enter the doorway, occasionally crashing into things (seriously, who does this)?

I've done this, but it was more of a "lust" thing than being new "lovebirds".

yeah ive done that too

um yeah me too

It's a hot and clumsy way to make out, A+, would recommend to anyone.

It's why I have housekeepers!

Abbbottt knows how to make out.

2. shopping montage

3. The wise-cracking, non-threatening Friend--Joan Cusack, George Wendt, there's got to be a friend somewhere. (Not confined to romantic-comedies, though.)

My mom and I were talking about movies once and had the following conversation:

MOM: It's like that really famous hat scene in Pretty Woman.
ME: I didn't know you'd seen Pretty Woman.*
MOM: Oh, I haven't seen it, I just know that scene where she tries on all the hats because now every movie has a montage with a woman walking around putting all these hats on.
ME: I don't think I've seen any movies where that happens.
MOM: I haven't either, I just know it's just a famous thing in movies now.

*she doesn't watch R rate movies

i mean I dated the horniest girl in the world and it was like we'd wait until we got in, put everything down on the floor, and THEN began clawing at each other and leaving marks. I must lead a really sheltered life.

^braggin'

pfft I ain't got no game.

The 'new girl' I mentioned prior to my self-imposed sabbatical is already gone!

not even two months! lol

A good make-out sessions starts in the cab, carries on in spectacular movie fashion as you crash through the front door, then to the couch.

a: insult!
b: riposte!
a: insult!
b: riposte!
a: INSULT!
b: RIPOSTE!

KISS, SCENE.

gonna watch the shop around the corner over christmas, so may retract my ill-will to this meg ryaned out set piece

a post starting with the phrase "i mean I dated the horniest girl in the world" just has me in hysterics right now

oh here's another one....

uber-cool jock falls for chick that is outside his circle, and after they date for months, jock's best friend comes up to him and angrily says something like

'SHE'S CHANGIN YOU, MAN!'

Boyfriend goes away for a time and doesn't call, text, IM or e-mail, so girlfriend assumes that he doesn't love her anymore and has moved on. She becomes sad, confines in her sistas and they talk it over, eat cartons of Hagan Daas and burn the shoebox full of memories. Later on she runs into him on the street and discovers that he has been busy and what luck! He proposes to her when they resume dating!

*Hagen Daas

Whatever! It's like the Ikea of ice cream.

that's a really boring plot, has that ever actually happened in a movie?

i mean "he has been busy"?

It's only a cliche past a certain date--you won't find it in a romantic comedy from the '40s--but the way one of the principals will have to navigate his or her way around the resistant, sometimes altogether hostile child from first marriage. Cyrus was a funny play on this.

its Häagen-Dazs® buddy

8. Partner A finds out they have an STI, queue hilarious montage of them breaking it to their previous sexual partners while a-Ha's "Take On Me" plays in the background.

9. Figures silhouetted against a bedroom curtain.
Her: (shrieks) Wrong hole!
Him: Wrong guy!

1. camera cuts away to new lovebirds making out heavily while opening the door, and continuing to make out while they enter the doorway, occasionally crashing into things (seriously, who does this)?

I've done this, but it was more of a "lust" thing than being new "lovebirds".

― one pretty obvious guy in the obvious (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:00 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah ive done that too

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMf0MTweXYc (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:01 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

um yeah me too

― twat dust and ego overload (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:01 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's a hot and clumsy way to make out, A+, would recommend to anyone.

― Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:02 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yep, me too and Abbott otm - it's completely awesome.

10. Male lead has to calm fears of initially suspicious father by wearing drag and dating him for 6 months.

x-post hahahahahaha omg I didn't know it would embed that whoops

glad someone is finally listing romantic comedy cliches

xpost holy lols

11. Lead guy is dating/engaged to some rich chick, but then falls for a poor free spirited lady, who as it hapens is also hotter than the rich girl.

12. The lead couple has broken up or some other drama has happened, and one of them is about to leave forever on an aeroplane. The other lead realizes he still loves her, so he goes after her, even though the flight is about to leave within 50 minutes. He runs like hell and almost doesn't make it, due to heavy traffic and other hindrances, but with the help of a sympathetic taxi driver/policeman/airport clerk/etc he catches the other lead in the nick of time. (Usually he has to get through customs and ticket control to catch his love, and often there's no explanation how he managed to do that.) He apologizes for whatever wrong he's done, and tells her he still loves her. Cue a passionate kiss and a cheering crowd, which had been listening to his confession.

Can I just log that I have been involved in a (1) scenario too. It started in Oxford, if I remember correctly (and I do, obv) and 'ended' 20 miles later.

13. "Sophisticated" post-coital banter.

I assume that doesn't include "That's the most fun I've ever had without laughing"?

Youse are awful picky for folks who spend 6 months analyzing Inception and Inglourious Bast*rds.

well Morbs has entered, now the thread is contaminated

yes, w/ someone who knows romantic comedy's peaks were Shakespeare and 1938.

Hey all, the romcom peak was Shakespeare.

In every romcom:

Figaro gets married

Hasn't been a great romcom since Sophocles

Aristophanes. Sophocles wrote soaps.

Oedipus was all about the rom.

Srs answer: boy/girl breakup, long montage of them missing each other while waking up alone in bed (or next to non-worthy guy:woman), walking empty city streets, seeing things that remind them of the person (balloons shaped just like their head)

12. The lead couple has broken up or some other drama has happened, and one of them is about to leave forever on an aeroplane. The other lead realizes he still loves her, so he goes after her, even though the flight is about to leave within 50 minutes. He runs like hell and almost doesn't make it, due to heavy traffic and other hindrances, but with the help of a sympathetic taxi driver/policeman/airport clerk/etc he catches the other lead in the nick of time. (Usually he has to get through customs and ticket control to catch his love, and often there's no explanation how he managed to do that.) He apologizes for whatever wrong he's done, and tells her he still loves her. Cue a passionate kiss and a cheering crowd, which had been listening to his confession.

no way is this resolved without 'newark? but i'm at jfk!' style confusion

Oh yeah, and the final scene happens at the final gate, despite there being no US or UK airport that will allow non-travellers past the security check...

romantic male lead looks on impotently while female lead dates the "wrong" guy (occasionally in reverse)

the "wrong" guy that the female lead is dating is kind and gentle in front of her and her family but reveals to the male lead that he is a dick/is cheating on her/has ulterior motives (see The Wedding Singer, Wedding Crashers, etc.), thus making it OK for the male lead to break up the relationship
the exception is Sleepless in Seattle, where the "wrong" guy (Bill Pullman) is a totally OK, blameless dude but we're still supposed to empathize with Meg Ryan for breaking up with him for Tom Hanks

exception also: Ghost Town, where the two wrong dudes are either a charity dude that revives him in the end, or dead.

wedding crashers is kind of opposite, y/n? Vince Vaughan acts like dick but really is sweetheart to her. And Wilson ends up with his girl.

I was thinking of Craig Kilborn, isn't that Wedding Crashers?

the exception is Sleepless in Seattle, where the "wrong" guy (Bill Pullman) is a totally OK, blameless dude but we're still supposed to empathize with Meg Ryan for breaking up with him for Tom Hanks

See also: My Best Friend's Wedding, where Cameron Diaz is totally OK and blameless but we're meant to empathise with Julia Roberts anyway (note: I haven't seen this film for ages, but I remember thinking Julia Roberts' character was awful and completely non-sympathetic).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticComedy

xxp bradley cooper is wedding crashers but i think you're right anyway, misread the 'OK for the male lead to break up the relationship' part.

(note: I haven't seen this film for ages, but I remember thinking Julia Roberts' character was awful and completely non-sympathetic).

I have never liked Julia Roberts, but she is particularly detestable in this movie.

craig kilborn's in Old School

i think there's a point in My Best Friend's Wedding where the audience IS supposed to realize that Julia Roberts is actually the bad guy

so rom-com: romantic comedy :: alternative: postpunk

i think there's a point in My Best Friend's Wedding where the audience IS supposed to realize that Julia Roberts is actually the bad guy

Yeah, and she doesn't 'win', either

13. series of bad dates with unsuitable suitors, told in brief scenes (possibly montage)

14. "it's you. it's always been you."

15. an englishman

WIsh that, like #1, I could have done #15,

16. commitment-phobic man examines his heart, finally declares love for woman in public space in front of throng of strangers:

"I..LOVE..THIS..WOMAN!"

tense moment as crowd turns toward woman awaiting her response; elderly pepperpot nudges woman and prompts: "what are you waiting for, honey? if you don't go get him, i will."

couple race to each other through parting crowd; cheering occurs; a construction worker embraces a traffic cop.

17. Two people pretend to be in love to achieve a larger goal (ie, work promotion, to appease parents, etc), and then fall in love for real.

Boyfriend goes away for a time and doesn't call, text, IM or e-mail, so girlfriend assumes that he doesn't love her anymore and has moved on. She becomes sad, confines in her sistas and they talk it over, eat cartons of Hagan Daas and burn the shoebox full of memories. Later on she runs into him on the street and discovers that he has been busy and what luck! He proposes to her when they resume dating!

― Edward Cullen dumped me and I stumbled in the woods (MintIce), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's a really boring plot, has that ever actually happened in a movie?

― some dude, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

seems like i've seen this though? but amped up a notch like he had to go away and do a Serious Life Thing like finalize his divorce or be in a coma or some other contrivance that he had to work through first.

13. series of bad dates with unsuitable suitors, told in brief scenes (possibly montage)

The silliest/stupidest thing about this is that the montage is often done so that the lead character sits at the same table in a restaurant, and only her date partners change. Like wtf, does this person always bring all her dates to the same restaurant and the same exact table?! Does she have OCD or something? What if the table happens to be taken, is the date cancelled then?

I too am distressed by the absence of Social Realism in romantic comedies.

Tuomas is totally OTM here.

I saw a movie called MORNING GLORY with Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford.

I think it's a Romantic Comedy - or maybe not?

Ford is kind of funny in it with a gruff Clint Eastwood voice.

less a romcom than a (very effective) advertisement for RM's ass

http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Rachel-McAdams-butt-in-panties4.jpg

they seem a touch mismatched as a romcom couple

her & patrick wilson? why

i used to get so annoyed by romantic comedies' insistence that i hate the guy who's not The Guy that i would make this big thing out of preferring them: cf. the ridiculous giggling duke in moulin rouge over e. macgregor's Soulful Artist. (not really a romantic comedy but w/ever.) then i stopped being an obnoxious teenager but i mean i still feel the impulse.

oh and this is a teen subgenre thing but of course 18. obviously hot girl (ally sheedy, rachael leigh cook) everyone acts like is ugly because she has glasses/weird hair removes glasses/fixes hair and is Suddenly Hot

like pygmalion but insultingly lazy

yah but guys dont make passes at girls who wear glasses

turning nerds into hot girls is not annoying

where did you get that picture?

I don't know if Morning Glory is a rom-com actually cos it's more about her job, the romance is very secondary

but it DOES almost conform to the rule just mentioned, ie: RM is very beautiful and charming, but thinks of herself as undesirable and H Ford tells her so too, and for instance her date at the start of the film leaves her - all of which is absurd because, of course, she looks like a beautiful movie star, and the date for instance wouldn't believe his luck and would be desperate to hang on to her at all costs.

that pic, or rather a gif of that scene, was pretty widely discussed on a "would smash" thread

3. The wise-cracking, non-threatening Friend--Joan Cusack, George Wendt, there's got to be a friend somewhere. (Not confined to romantic-comedies, though.)

― clemenza, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:09 PM (1 month ago)

Based on the trailers there is one of these guys in "No Strings Attached."

turning nerds into hot girls is not annoying

― Kerm

It is when they looked better as they were, per Ally Sheedy as above.

...or Rachel Leigh Cook in She's All That.

Also, for those geeky or "weird" guys and girls who weren't born with stereotypically attractive physical qualities, it's kinda insulting to suggest that any geek could become a hottie, all s/he needs to do is remove her/his glasses and change her/his clothes. And it's a pretty awkward message to send if the protagonist seems to like herself as a geek/weird, and has no problem looking like that (like Rachel Leigh Cook in that movie), but in the end still decides to embrace the "hot" look, because looking stereotypically attractive is what really matters.

Similar to what difficultlisteninghour said, I grow tired of movies who paint the romantic adversary as someone whose only crime is being a better person than the 'protagonist'.

Like that shitty movie Run Fat Boy Run, where Hank Azaria's character was the one I wanted to root for - he was a reponsible man with a good job, great with kids, but we're supposed to prefer the lazy asshole who left his bride at the altar cuz he might eventually become a decent human being? Fuck thaaaaat

we got around to watching "going the distance" last night. the romantic aspects are pretty formulaic and hackneyed but it had some actual LOLs, mostly thanks to a strong supporting cast (charlie day, jason sudeikis, kristen schaal, jim gaffigan). it was also surprisingly dirty.

god i hate the big misunderstandings that cause the couples to break up until the final scene of the movie when the conflicts could have been easily solved by just TALKING TO EACH OTHER...

in the movie 40 days and 40 nights, josh hartnett abstains from sex for 40 days while his ex-gf wants him to break his chastity pledge for reasons too stupid to explain, in the end she LITERALLY RAPES HIM and of course his new gf walks in at the wrong moment and he gets blamed for being a cheat and everything. god I hate that fuckin movie

That's also the movie where he makes shannon s. orgasm without even touching her and using only a flower. lol.

ugggh yeah forgot that part. what a stupid movie all around.