Movie Terms!

Reading this blog you sometimes come along terms that you may not understand. Well the boys and I have decided to give some of the definitions of the terms we use. This isn’t all of them, but it’s a good start! Remember, most of these we made up, so you won’t find them anywhere, but heck, they are fun to use when discussing films!

Plot Armor – Where a character cannot die because the plot or script won’t allow him to. Like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, or Batman in Dark Knight etc.

Ransom Affect – In the film Ransom with Mel Gibson, I was able to guess the kidnapper in one second – that’s because it was Gary Sinise. See the formula goes that if there is another character that is played by someone semi famous (or a character actor) and he isn’t given much to do, then he is the bad guy. See Ghost, and Snake Eyes for the same affect.

Pie Chart Movie – that is where they make a movie with all the ingredients to produce a certain affect. Like must have: 25% explosions, 25% hot girls, 25% gore, 5% one liners, 20% gun fire etc. They have to fill the pie chart!

Oscar Bait – same as Pie Chart, only it’s for the Oscars. Big speech about life, character goes through major change, story must be uplifting or historic etc. All to get an Oscar!

Cheap Pop – where it’s all silent and then there is a big scare but nothing amounts from it. Like if there is a scare that results in a death, then it’s a real scare. You jump and someone gets their head chopped off. A Cheap Pop is where a cat jumps at you, or a guy walks across the screen really fast in the foreground and nothing happens.

Mr. Exposition – the character that has to explain stuff to the audience. Usually this seems out of place or a bit weird. In Austin Powers they have a character called Basil Exposition (played by Michael York), who explains everything.

TCB – Take Care O Business. When a character has to really destroy someone who was evil to them, or just evil in general!

Michael Bay Troops – A bunch of swat guys, or military guys appear on the scene.
They are there to look cool and take control of the situation.

Chest Hair Movie – two manly men compete to see who is the manliest man. Examples are Tango and Cash, or The Rock.

Chooching – characters from opposing sides team up to fight a bigger threat. Like when the Natives and Cowboys team up in Cowboys & Aliens. Or where He-Man and Skeletor team up against Hordak etc.

The Curved Leg Technique - That’s the technique employed by actors inexperienced in martial arts in movies. See The Bourne movies. You can tell an actor cannot really fight when you see them kick – they can’t never seem to extend their legs properly. To someone who knows, you can see it’s just wrong.

Valien - Monsters disguised as humans who can talk and think, but when they reveal their true form, they seem like mindless, roaring monsters – even though they’ve been monsters all along and were talking normally just a second ago. The V miniseries and Conquest are examples. I think Men in Black did the same thing with that cockroach monster inhabiting humans for most of the film, but then he’s a roaring beast at the end.

Well I hope these terms help you out – and remember who taught you them!

J-Man, Deceptisean and Stephenstein.