“Formula movies” is a term for films that always use the same structure and plot devices. here you have a beautiful visualization for the most common movie genres. (If you click on the image it will lead you to an article with a bigger version of the illustration).
I tried to find the source of the illustration which I found on the GITS blog, and ended up at the New York International Lationo Film Festival. You can even make your own action movie, and then there is also this video. Nice!
NYILFF 2012 - Alien Invasion Movie Recipe from NYILFF on Vimeo.