What We Can Learn From Movies

Friday - Comic Relief


From Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary: A Greatly Expanded and Much Improved Compendium of Movie Clichés, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed Formulas, Shopworn Conventions, and Outdated Archetypes  (Full reference citation below.)

The title's long, but it's a quick and fun read.

Here are few favorites from the chapter "Things You Would Never Know without the Movies"

• A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
• All computer disks will work in all computers, regardless of software.
• An electric fence powerful enough to kill a dinosaur will cause no lasting damage to an eight-year-old child.
• Creepy music coming from a cemetery should always be investigated more closely.
• If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
• It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts--your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
• Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
• Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon, and waffles for their family every morning even though their husband and children never have time to eat it.
• One man shooting at twenty men has a better chance of killing them than twenty men firing at one man.
• When confronted by an evil international terrorist, sarcasm and wisecracks are your best weapons.
• You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

And of course...

• If you find yourself caught up in a situation that could be cleared up quickly with a simple explanation, for goodness sakes keep your mouth shut.

From:
Ebert, Roger (2013-07-30). Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary: A Greatly Expanded and Much Improved Compendium of Movie Clichés, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed Formulas, ... Outdated Archetypes (Backlist eBook Program) (Kindle Locations 2509-2510). Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.