I'll go first:
1. Villains Talk Too Much - Sometimes the "bad guy" needs to talk. He or she can be more menacing if they're intelligent and can strike fear. However, there comes a point where the villain is simply wasting time.
In any movie (or TV show) where the hero looks like he'll be shot or hurt in some way, the bad guys will talk when it's unneeded and usually to "scare" the hero. This gives the hero -- or some sidekick of his -- to figure out a way around this situation.
Just shoot him. Really. I'd like to see some gun-toting bad guys dispense with the commentary and kill their target. The one time I saw this occur was in Time Cop, a movie in which Jean-Claude van Damme was the hero (and did surprisingly well). Some bad guys assaulted him, dragged him out of his house and without any preamble, shot him in the chest. He survived due to wearing kevlar armor, but the point remains that he was shot without giving him time to react.
2. Villains Talk About Their Plans - In nearly every James Bond flick (or other movies with some genius of a villain), the bad guy will ultimately describe his plans -- in detail -- to the hero.
Why? All that does is tell the hero how to stop him. Just kill him!
3. Flawless Technology - The best example of this would be in Independence Day (usually shortened to ID4). While the movie's merits may be debated, the one problem that I couldn't forget was how Jeff Goldblum defeated the alien invaders.
He invented a virus and then connected his laptop to the aliens' supercomputer (after Will Smith flew them into the mother ship), which subsequently destroyed the aliens' ability to use shield technology.
Let's look at this for a moment, shall we? A human-designed laptop interfaced perfectly with alien technology of an unknown origin. Not only that, but the human-designed computer virus Goldblum's character invented worked to disable the alien computers.
We have trouble getting our computers to "play nice" with each other and they're all designed on this planet, many of which have similar systems. Computer viruses can be damaging, but more often than not, our virus scanners find them (and quarantine or destroy the virus), thereby successfully stopping the attack before it does a whole lot.
So why would Goldblum's plan have any hope of working? It shouldn't have, but apparently, it did.
4. Women Always Wear Heels - Look at women in the movies and on TV. Nine times out of ten, she'll be wearing high-heeled shoes. What's wrong with that? Off-hand, I'd say nothing.
The problem comes into play when that woman needs evade her pursuer and run fast. You know that'll happen, too. If the woman is of any importance to the story and wearing high-heels, they'll become a detriment to her.
How many women really wear heels all the time? If they're going somewhere dressy, work or on a date, perhaps they'll do so. But for everyday life? Probably not.
The best example I can think of overdressing would be in the movie Twins. Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, the two love interests of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, were constantly dressed up. At a grocery store, for instance, both Preston and Webb's characters looked like they should have been going to a four-star restaurant instead of buying cereal.
5. Root For The Underdog! - Movies like The Karate Kid or Rocky teach us one very important life lesson: the underdog is better.
People like the underdog. They can better relate to someone in that situation. However, does it really make sense?
Looking at The Karate Kid, you'll see Ralph Macchio's character receiving training from Pat Morita. He trains for maybe a few months, at best.
The opposing team -- consisting of a bunch of "black hats" known as the Cobra Kai -- is ultimately defeated. But once again, does that make sense? Every student in the Cobra Kai had trained for years, much longer than the star of the movie.
Yet we celebrate the victory of someone less trained over those who've obtained their goal through life-study. In all honesty, I think most people would be pissed off if someone appeared out of nowhere, with far less training than them, and was cheered on for defeating them.
6. All Jobs Are Full of Intense Drama - Which jobs are most prominent on TV or in movies? I'd say police officers, military personnel, doctors and lawyers. Sometimes firefighters are there too, but they're far more rare.
My father is a physician, my grandfather was a lawyer (he's retired), my brother is in law school and I've had friends in both the police force and military. Let's just say that the portrayal of these professions are hardly what they are in real life.
Without going into pages upon pages of detail, it's obvious that these careers have been heavily dramatized. I realize that's because no one wants to see a police officer filling out paperwork or a doctor wrestling with insurance companies. Who'd be entertained if a lawyer didn't involve himself in the "trial of the century" or seeing the military during peace time? Not a whole lot of people.
Regardless, these professions are projected to be a lot more "fun" or "interesting" than they really are.
7. TV News Is Always There - Ever notice how the protagonist seems to get informed of a news story that is not only relevant to him or her, but started just as he or she switched on the TV? The TV is always tuned to the news, as well.
Once again, this is done for the audience, but in reality, makes very little sense. Most of us are lucky if we switch on anything -- without prior knowledge of it -- at the beginning. And how often is something related to us that's news worthy in the least? It might occur, but the chances are against it happening.
8. Kids Are Super Smart - In recent years, the portrayal of children on TV and in film has shown kids to be far more intelligent than their parents or even experts in the field. Granted, this phenomenon has been present since the 1980s (Matthew Broderick in WarGames comes to mind), but became far more prevalent as the years went on.
The worst offender is the "child computer whiz." Once again, we might have WarGames to blame for this. Regardless, the "child computer whiz" will be able to crack national security or perform functions on a PC that are impossible with our current level of technology.
I suppose this is a reaction to how children were traditionally depicted in movies and television, when they were shown to be slightly less intelligent than Forest Gump.
9. Men Are Dumb & Women Are Smart - Despite whatever initial reactions you might have to this accusation, it's rapidly become true in the media. If you were to look at most of the TV shows presently shown, you'd see that in the majority of cases pan this out
Men are portrayed as "irresponsible adult-sized children, lacking self-control and are sex-crazed idiots who have no handle on life." Women, on the other hand, are shown to be "smart, capable and the only true adult in the household."
Good examples would be The Simpsons, The King of Queens, Home Improvement, and practically every sitcom made within the last 10-to-15 years.
Humorous comments aside, this is hardly true. Both men and women could fit either criteria and people in real life are rarely pegged so easily.
The reason this occurs is because of two very important facts: Women are the primary audience and women make far more spending decisions than men. In other words, since more women watch sitcoms, the shows are geared towards them. In addition, it's assumed that women buy more items than men, so advertisers market their products to women who're watching the above-mentioned sitcoms.
Even with the above pointing to logical reason for the disparity, it's still insulting and highly demeaning of men.
10. The Noble Minority - Minorities have had a tough time in movies and TV. No one is going to dispute that. In recent years, however, there has been a concerted effort to portray minority groups as somehow "above" those who're considered the majority.
Two good examples would be Dances with Wolves and Glory. They were both rated as "four star" films. While I'd agree they were good -- if not too lengthy -- I have trouble seeing them as movies ranked up there with The Godfather.
Those movies gave us the "noble savage, fighting for his land against the evil hate-crazed white people" and the "good natured slave who's merely fighting for his rights."
The primary reason those two movies (and others like it) were given such high ratings is due to the "minority factor." In essence, this means that any reviewer or rating system that criticized these films would be considered "racist" due to the portrayal of minorities in a positive light.
You might think that's ridiculous, but it's not. Such attitudes have gone far beyond movies and into books, TV shows and nearly every facet of life within the United States. To decry a product that features minorities in a positive sense is equal to racism.
Perhaps these depictions are a reaction to how American Indians and African Americans were shown earlier in the 20th century. Back then, both were shown highly negatively. I'd agree that destroying those old ideas was good, but to go in the extreme opposite direction is too far.
