Director James Cameron contributes a short defense of his movie, but an accompanying review pans it: great special effects, hackneyed story.
As this scene suggests, "Parenthood" is at its best when finding odd, fresh sources of emotion in hackneyed stories.
Mr. Jewison lays on the dry ice and special effects without adding emotion to a slow, hackneyed story.
Like many action films, Max Payne is more notable for its world-weary attitude and gorgeously bleak graphics than for its hackneyed story.
This might seem like a hackneyed rags-to-riches story now, but at the time it must have been precarious, not least because it happened during a publishing recession.
Mostly you play simple games to move a hackneyed story forward.
Berardinelli concludes that "it's a major disappointment that, having lured back the original 007, the film makers couldn't offer him something better than this drawn-out, hackneyed story."
The hackneyed story is inoffensive and flows well, but it pales beside that of games like Planescape Torment and Final Fantasy X. There are other flaws.
The Coolio soundtrack gave the film an up-to-the-minute spin at odds with its hackneyed story.
