Attack of the Hollywood Cliches!

Kinda like a live action version of TV Tropes. However tends to lean heavily into a very "woke" commentary. From denigrating everyone involved in the Hays Code to criticizing white people as being automatically bad.

Hosted by Rob Lowe, the Netflix documentary Attack of the Hollywood Clichés takes us through the history of the most common clichés used throughout movie history.

As a lifelong film fan, I'm familiar with several of the clichés covered in the documentary. Sure there's a few that I agreed with, but there were parts that left me wondering, "Why would you cover that?" but I guess it's relevant. No need to get all woke on segments such as racism, gender and sexuality. That stuff is outdated anyway and it doesn't fit in with modern day audiences.

It's nothing groundbreaking that hasn't been covered before, but Attack of the Hollywood Clichés certainly fills the time.

6/10.

If you're a hardcore fan of films you probably already know all these clichés exist. Sure, I learned a bit of history, but I lost interest after about half an hour.

A lot of the talking heads also were irritating as they try to convince the audience that all of the problems in society, from racism to gay rights to women's fight for equality is all the fault of the film industry.

I was really looking forward to this as being a lover of film I know a cliché or two.

Sadly at a running time of less than an hour it was never going to go full pelt into the rich and varied history of the Holly cliché. I felt that the examples used were far too fleeting, and the whole thing felt rushed. They could've spun it out to at least a three-part series. Nothing is ever really explained ('here is a trope... haha. Now here is another one...'). It would have been interesting if some of these were analysed a bit more than merely glossing over them quickly.

Considering the richness of many industry professionals on display here they were criminally underused simply to provide a cheat and quick gag. Is this really what Netflix's supposed demographic wants? This is nothing more than televisual fast food.

However the most disappointing aspect of this is that it has Charlie Brooker attached to it. Not to say I'm not a fan of his, far from it. Up until this show he was a one-man seal of quality.

This Netflix special has a great sense of purpose, but it's not as focused as it could be if it was. It's a bit like a Spit -Take or Montage mode, and it's full of all the crazy facts that come from a fake scare called the Luton Bus, as well as the story of Willem's screams. It's not as thoughtful as it could be, but since it's only an hour, you can probably still watch it on your free weekends and pass it along to your cinema-loving friends. The problem is that it's not as funny as it should be, and it's not as irreverent as it could be. It's got the same lazy familiarity of the Hollywood movies it's trying to mock.

~ P. X.