Word: formulaic
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...That formula--dogged preparation for a rote maneuver that is designed to look bold and spontaneous--has worked well for Gore over the years. As a Congressman in the early 1980s, he would lie flat on his back late at night in an empty House gymnasium and hurl the ball at the hoop again and again; when at last he could make the trick shot, he unveiled it in a pickup game with other lawmakers. Representative Gore studied the arms race with the same intensity, working 10 hours a week for a year before championing a simple solution...
...stories all adhere to the same, well-oiled formula. First, there is a murder in an unusual setting, followed by categorization of the possible suspects, and detective Adam Dalgliesh's investigation into the mysterious affairs. A Certain Justice follows this recipe--but in this case, there are two murders that must be solved. The novel, strangely enough, begins with a trial--the strong, stubborn Venetia Aldridge is defending Garry Ashe on charges of brutally killing his aunt. Aldrige knows that Ashe is guilty, but she's learned over the years that winning is always the goal. There is no room...
What if you added a constant self-consciousness to the formula...
Seven years ago, Michael O'Higgins, a successful if inconspicuous money manager, thrilled the investment world with a simple formula for generating superior returns: Buy the dogs. He discovered that if you buy the 10 stocks among the Dow 30 with the highest yields (dividend divided by price) and updated the portfolio once a year, the returns would triple those posted by the Dow Jones industrial average over the previous two decades. O'Higgins' 1991 book, Beating the Dow, was an instant hit and spawned a cultlike following. There are two Websites, three mutual funds, dozens of Unit Investment Trusts...
...third wedding, Phillip discovers "flubber" (flying rubber) and leaves his fiance at the altar once again. The film has the formula villain in Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald) who not only wants to steal Brainard's goo, but also to capture the heart of his fiance. The predictable storyline is set up--Phillip must get back his girl, keep his hands on the gooey slime, and take on the villainous Croft...