I'm a fan of Magnum in the same way many here are of Star Wars or Star Trek. As such, I'm obligated to respond to that last bit.

Nuh-uh. He was constantly going to Higgins, or Rick, or Mac (later Maggie) for information, usually needing to make some sort of deal to get the information or help.

As for this particular one, I tend to think it as a case of the right person for the job. Sure, in a series it can get way over done, but how long would MacGuyver have lasted if he couldn't make a bomb out of a pine cone and three strips of duct tape, and some candle wax? He'd be dead before the opening credits.

If its done well, it can be part of the gimmick of the show. Hudson Hawk (which I despised) had the premise where a cat burglar would sing to himself to keep time. He knew the run time of a lot of older songs, so a guard that passed a certain point every 11 minutes 45 seconds, was two "High Hopes" and one "Would You Like to Swing on a Star". I did like that idea.

Another case would be "Remington Steele", where every case was similar in some way way to a movie he watched as a kid.

I also like the Tarrantino ramblings that go no where most of the time. It makes the characters feel a bit more like people. Done poorly, it's almost painful.

As for Jack Black. If is in the movie, but not the star of it, I can tolerate him. I even liked him in King Kong. But in anything where he's the star, it's like he's trying really hard to be that kind of zany that Robin Williams would be if he were to cut way back.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek with think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

I know this thread is about movies, but someone should have told Herman Melville about this when he was writing Moby Dick. Good story, but I spent several chapters wondering what they had to do with the plot. Maybe I just missed a few metaphors or something.

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"All natural, huh? So is lightning." - Mike Rowe

And let me interject about Remington Steele--we own the entire series--that it wasn't always. Quite often, he was wrong, and Laura--you know, the real detective--had to save, um, the day.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

That was in the days before editors required to follow deadlines and force books into optimal sizes for selling. If Melville wrote Moby Dick today, the publisher would hack it to pieces.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

All cryptids are real.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

If I remember my literary history, Dickens wrote serially and was paid by the word.

It was only when the story was complete that the magazine editor put the story together and published it whole.

Christmas Carol was one of the few pieces that was complete in a single writing. It's also one of his best pieces.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Right. I meant the that the moment when when he would spout off a title, actors, studio, year, and plot summary could be seen in every episode; not that it was the solution. Sorry for not be clear.

Mike Hammer had a similar thing. Every episode he would sleep with someone, see "that woman", and be rendered unconscious by a blow to the head.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek with think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

The hero saving the world (or more than one person, anyway) who risks not saving it/them to save his romantic interest, who he's only known for a few days, or even hours!

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits

Somewhat related:
That little detail somebody mentioned that you thought had nothing to do with the story turns out to be really important later.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

And on a related note, I always watch for the guy who appears to be hanging around in the background for no apparent reason. I figure actors cost money-sooner or later he's gonna be important to the plot.

usually true--though there are a handful of exceptions--Star Trek IV--did they actually pay the unwitting extras in the SF street scene? E.g. that cop--a real cop, who said he'd be in the pic if he didn't have to say anything, which is why he just looked silently at Checkov when he asked to see the nuclear wessels.

They might have had to pay the passerby who answered, "There at Alameda" since they probably have to pay anybody who speaks.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Or any object that the camera focuses on for more than ten seconds.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Yes they did. And, it took a moment for them to realize she wasn't involved in the movie, and had to chase her down.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

If the trailer promised something supernatural and there seems to be a logical explanation, the explanation is wrong.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

gaah!! I see that misuse of "there" and then realize...it's mine!

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Speaking of trailers - I hate teaser trailers. I also hate trailers that seem to tell a completely different, yet more interesting story than it actually turns out to be in the movie by selective quoting.

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[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

What Ifind worse is when there are scenes in the trailer that ended up cut from the movie....

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

Or scenes in the trailer/"previously on" flashback in the beginning of series where the dialogue differs from the actual scene.
Medical shows are common offenders there, usually to add context to technobabble. I think MiB did it too.

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[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

Here is a cliche I hate:

"Drop the gun, and nobody will get hurt!"

Almost always addressed at someone who clearly WANTS to hurt people. Always struck me as the worst incentive possible.

"Drop the gun, and YOU won't get hurt!" seems somewhat more productive. But no good guy in the movies ever uses that one.

Also, "getting hurt" somehow became a euphemism for "dying or getting mutilated in nasty ways". Had anyone else noticed that?

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.