wildyams

Ok, here's a couple to start off with:

Raiders of the Lost Ark - Indy almost gets shot in Marion's bar in Nepal, but Marion saves the day.

Die Hard - John McClane almost gets shot by Karl at the end, but Al Powell pulls his gun for the first time in years and guns Karl down instead.

Under Siege - Casey Ryback almost gets gunned down by Doumer, but Jordan Tate comes to the rescue.

2 Days in the Valley - Lee looks like he's gonna kill Dosmo Pizzo, but instead Teddy Peppers uses his intended suicide gun to kick some Spader ass.

Just saw one of these last night. In that crappy movie "Frequency". Dennis Quaid shoots the bad guy just in time to save his son.

As far as other cliches, I'm a big fan of these 2:

1) "hanging off a precipice", where the good guy manages to pull himself up but the bad guy inevitably plummets to his death. Sometimes you even get a snappy line from the protagonist, like "Welcome to the party, Richter!" (see also The Untouchables, North by Northwest, Die Hard, etc.)

2) A movie character inevitably imparts some bit of wisdom before croaking. For instance in "Heat" Danny Trejo, who's been beaten to the brink of death, tells DeNiro what he needs to know before asking Bobby to do him in. And of course Yoda labors to give Luke some crucial info in his last moments.

Ok here's changing things around a bit, and you probably won't be interested seeying as how you don't watch television, but how's about a list of spinoffs of friends that would be more interesting than "Joey does LA" or whatever they're calling it!
I mean I would rather watch the "Gunther show" than that drivel, and frankly I think a lot of people out there would as well.
Especially if you consider that "Friends" was a spinoff using the "Ursula" character from "Mad About You"... not Ira, not Helen Hunt's annoying sister, but the occasionally appearing coffee shop waitress - do you see what I'm getting at?
Also Frasier was not one of the main characters on Cheers (well not initially anyway) and that show kicked ass!
ok sinthesys is not my forte!

I like the "hanging off the precipice" motif, Josh. You saw that in two of the Indiana Jones movies: where Mola Rom fell off the broken bridge as Indy heroically climbed his way to the top, and then in Last Crusade when the tank went over the cliff but Indy miraculously jumped off in time.

As for the "last bit of wisdom with a character's last breath" motif, the most unbelievable example of this is Malone's death in Untouchables. I mean, the guy gets a full tommy gun clip emptied into him at close range, yet he somehow stays alive long enough to crawl a couple of rooms away (leaving an enormous trail of blood) and he keeps breathing just long enough for Elliott Ness to show up so he can point out what train the book keeper is leaving on, and to yell "what are you prepared to do?!" Not very believable, to say the least.

I never saw Frequency, although I'm happy to hear that I didn't miss out on much, cause it sure didn't look like there was much there. And yes, Paola, I don't watch TV so I have no idea what "the Gunther show" is or who Ira and Ursula are. I never saw "Fraser" either, although I did see him when he was on "Cheers". Ok, I realize that didn't really contribute to the conversation here, sorry :lol

Legends of the Fall
Real Men (great movie with Jim Belushi and John Ritter)

..to add to the shooter list.

There are a lot of cliche's you can add. I'll put those in a separate entry

Other cliches:

1.) the Training montage. How many times do we have to see the protagonist getting "huge" before they go back and win the big fight/game (Rocky, Youngblood...) and is usually set to some pseudo-pop soundtrack vehicle. Overused, and outdated at this point.

2.) Spoofs. The 80s are over, and with that so are the Airplane movies, and Hot Shots series. Leslie Neilson apparently didn't get that memo.

3.) the Car Chase. Who thinks these are still exciting? Apparently Andy and Linda Wachowski (since he's undergoing a sex change). They gave us Matrix Reloaded.

4.) the Computer Hacker. Need I say more than DJ Squalls and The Core? I can sum it up in two words, "I'm in!"

5.) Greedo shoots first. I know, I know... but it still bugs.

6.) High School Parties on film. How many parties did you go to where everyone was dancing in high school?

7.) James Bond. Seriously. Seen one, seen them all. Am I the only one that thinks that?

8.)the Twist. How many twists is enough. Seems like every thriller these days has to end in some twist. Problem is, audiences have become so savvy, that they already figured it out from the trailer.

9.) the Baguette. Apprently when grocery shopping in Europe or New York you always have to have a loaf of french bread sticking out of your brown bag.