It Was Like Something in a Movie

I blogged a while back about how much I hate that phrase. You hear it all the time when people are describing something horrific or violent. Which is why I hate it, I think.

You never hear someone say, 'The child hugged the little puppy. It was like something in a movie'. It's always something awful or at least shocking.

And it's often used to describe something I've never seen in a movie. For instance, I once saw a news clip of a truck with about ten feet of snow on top of it hit an overpass causing the snow to explode (no one was hurt, BTW). The newscaster said 'it's like something in a movie'. Not sure what movie she was referring to, not to mention why the clip was newsworthy considering all of the things going on in the world.

In all of the coverage of the shooting at the Dark Knight movie (and I watched a lot of coverage), I only heard the phrase once. I suppose it's because it was at a movie so it's kind of confusing to say that something that happened during a movie was 'like something in a movie'.

But the irony is that it is exactly like something in a movie. It hasn't been released yet, but it's called Gangster Squad and stars Sean Penn. There's a scene in the film where gangsters fire machine guns into a crowded movie theater. A trailer of the movie features the very scene, and here's the truly weird part:

I heard that the trailer was actually shown in the Aurora theater shortly before 'The Joker' started shooting up the place. The fact that none of the survivors mentioned it in all of the interviews I saw makes me wonder if it is true or not. Think about it. The survivors don't fall back on the 'it was like something in a movie' cliche after watching a scene exactly like something that happened to them a half an hour later. I did read that the trailer was indeed shown at other showings and was part of the clip package for Dark Knight, so I have to assume it was indeed shown that night in Aurora. Obviously, the scene has been removed from the trailer. I'm not sure if it is also gone from the movie, but I assume so.

Maybe this is the end of 'It was like something in a movie' cliche? I hope so. At least you can't say it when describing a mass shooting anymore. If anyone does, it will make people wonder, 'Does he mean like the shooting in the Aurora movie theater or a scene in a movie...?'

And while we're at it, let's drop 'They drank the Kool-Aid' and using 'kumbaye' as sarcasm.