5 Most Excruciatingly Annoying Action Film Cliches

A trip to the movie theater costs a fortune after buying a ticket, a drink and popcorn (and you have to get movie popcorn). After spending that hard earned money it is frustrating to sit and watch a movie and feel like you've already seen that movie ten times before. Many filmmakers today are lazy, they just take cliches from whatever genre the movie belongs to and string them together. One of the worst guilty parties is the action genre. There are five action movie cliches that are excruciatingly annoying.

Easy Bombs
The villain has planted a bomb. Somehow the hero recovers information to where the bomb is and rushes to the rescue. He uncovers the bomb and there are digital numbers on it telling him the bomb is going to blow up in just one minute! Wait... Why did the villain display the time on the bomb? If he's really an evil genius wouldn't he leave off the display and let the hero guess when the bomb is going to go off? This might be the most annoying cliché of them all. There is seriously not one villain smart enough to not display the time remaining on the bomb?

It's Just a Flesh Wound
It Monty Python and the Holy Grail it is funny when the Black Knight has his arms and legs chopped off and doesn't feel a thing but in action movies that aren't comedies it is a little bit ridiculous. If the hero is shot in the arm then he should act as if the arm is injured the rest of the picture. For example, the hero could reach for a ladder but then pulls his arm back because it is too injured. Is it really too much to ask for a little injury continuity throughout the next hour and a half?

Bad Guys are Cocky
The villain of the action film always loses because they are too full of themselves. They don't believe for a second that the hero could possibly defeat them. Their plan is just too brilliant! There is no way it could go wrong. Then of course the hero screws up the plan and wins. You do realize that the first time there is a modest evil genius we're all screwed. The planet will be destroyed.

The Mentor
Here is a rule of thumb for all action film fans. If at any point in the movie we are introduced to the mentor of the hero then he did it. It doesn't matter what the plot is, the mentor is behind it. It's pretty simple reasoning. If the mentor is not an integral part of the story (the villain in the end) then there is no reason to include him in the movie. The one exception is if the action film is a revenge movie and the mentor was the one that was killed. But otherwise, the mentor did it.

The Stormtrooper Effect
A while back I wrote an article on "The Stormtrooper Effect". This is a cliché that everybody is familiar with, the name just might not be recognizable. This cliché is that the villain is always a terrible shot. It began with the Stormtroopers in "Star Wars". In three whole movies all those Stormtroopers shot was one measly Ewok in "Return of the Jedi".