Is anyone else bored with current movies right now?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BehrItAll
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well, and hopefully this will not contradict myself too much, but to add to what Majority has pointed out about box office numbers, I hate that now it is just all about how much money something makes....its totally ok to put out either cheap crap that will make its money back or expensive crap with alot of hype that will also make its money back....

I think its totally fine for a movie to make a ton of money....like Titanic....it is the butt of all jokes now, but when that movie came out, most people were in total awe and I think it deserved every dime it made.

There is nothing I love more now than seeing some of these limited release movies slowly open wide and make good profits based on word of mouth....I think so far this is what is happening for Little Miss Sunshine and The Illusionist....and while I have only seen the latter, I will say I think it deserves its buzz, unlike The Black Dahlia which I saw tonite and thought was completely awful.
 
Yeah, the only movie I'm looking forward to is The Prestige, which comes out in late October.

Everything else is just blah.
 
Yes, I'm a bit 'filmed out'. I was so let down by the few films I have seen recently like Lady in the Water. It's just one big feeling of meh. Though, like Shrr, I am excited by the up coming Bond film (my husband always drags me to see them with him, it's tradition too!) as I never expect too much from them just some fun. And this year we have Daniel Craig who is causing a lot of contraversy over whether he is 'Bond' or not. I think he looks great, a bit rough around the edges..but I like my men and super dooper British spies that way :lol:
 
I totally agree. I've been to theatre twice this year, I went to see Brokeback Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Nothing else has interested me. And I don't know about the rest of the year either, there's nothing to look forward to, really. :shrug:
 
Thank you! :D

Sasha
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Well, for me it's not even that there aren't movies to draw me to the theater, there aren't movies I'm excited to save on NetFlix! That's saying something!

Usually I'm constantly rotating my films around because I want to save one that'll come out on DVD soon, but little has appealed for quite a while, as you all say.

I'm hoping this upcoming season draws me out of the movie dulldrums, and certainly I have my favorites, classics, and indie films to watch. But sometimes I just want that excitement of having a bunch of fabulous movies to see and not knowing which one to choose first.

I haven't had that feeling in AGES... :(
 
The main reason Pirates made so much is because of HYPE. Period.

The thing about a film or other piece of entertainment/art becoming a financial success is this is by no means an indicator of whether or not the film is actually good or not. It is NOT an automatic cause-and-effect relationship.

This is what has happened with Pirates and most movies of this type: People go see the movie, it is not that great, but the tickets they bought are counted as part of the overall gross. Hence, it makes 400 million on buzz and disappointed movie-goers when all is said and done.

Obviously, some people like this movie and that is fine...

But again, if we are going to look at it objectively, not EVERYONE can like this film as much as Hollywood thinks. It is statistically NOT POSSIBLE (even worldwide) which is why it is a case of people handing over their money, seeing the film, not finding it that good, and NOT going to it again. The interesting thing is they can NOT recommend it to friends, but due to curiousity and buzz, their friends will STILL go see it, hence the cycle continues.
 
I had to stop in and post as a movie fan...I probably go to the movies every weekend, at least once. I love seeing movies in the theatre, although this is getting hard to do...mainly because of reasons already stated. people are so rude now!! I cant believe how some ppl act....I went and saw a (bad) movie last nite, and about 4 rows below us was a group that can only be called white trash with 2 kids under the age of 7.....the movie was Flyboys and the kids were bored to tears (as was I)...they acted out several times and the parents also talked and screamed a couple times....

I definitely think theatres need to start introducing some stronger rules.....

anyway, onto the movies....
As someone who sees a TON of movies, the last few years have been really weak...there is nothing new out there...everything is either a re-make, a video game or a comic book. Now sometimes this can work, as it did for V for Vendetta, but most of it is laughable....I have to say the only movie in the last 2 months I have seen that was worth my money was The Illusionist.

I look forward to The Prestige and The Departed.....and while I love horror, I loathe most of the stuff that has come out in recent years. All remakes and dumbed down PG-13 crap....I have to say I did enjoy the Ring and THe original Saw....

I also think there are way too many Sequels....now a days they just milk that cash cow until it runs dry....and when they run out, they just wait 10 or 15 years and start the franchise over.....I for one would rather die than see another James Bond movie, especially with the Layer Cake guy...I think not....

and as for POTC2, yeah I saw it, and it wasnt that great....and i guess I did go for the hot guys and the love story.....but some of the best movies of all time are what I would call "chick flicks"....and I am NOT saying POTC2 is even close to being a great movie of all time....but something tells me that someone else than young love sick girls made up the more than 400 million the movie has made. I would go see something like this anyday over something I deem completely inane, which I would say right now is anything that Jon Heder is in.....there is nothing I hate worse than a movie that is completely stupid and dumbed down...

ok, well I just cant rant anymore, so I am going to have to stop right now...I have the second part of Lucky number Slevin to finish watching, which so far I am not impressed with at all....
 
I know GS isn't aimed at my generation (Gen X), but as a film student & professional screenwriter (long, loooooooong ago) I also could not get into GS as being "the" definitive Generation Y movie. It was just your typical indie-romance film with a bit of "What do I do with my life now?" angst thrown in for good measure in my opinion.

Also, I want to clarify something I said earlier in case I offended anyone.

What I mean when I say "PotC 2" is a female-friendly movie is that it A) Stars a lot of good looking male actors like Johhny Depp, Orlando Bloom and the guy who plays the commodore; B) Captain Jack Sparrow is essentially a Gay character which makes him even more likeable; C) The core of the story is a love story between Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann... Etc, etc.

I could go on, but it is obvious why Pirates made so much money because it literally is a carbon-copy of Titanic if we look at these elements alone and disregard the almost non-existant... Some can argue convoluted... Story because as stand-alone movie/story... Pirates 2 is pretty weak in my opinion. Especially, if you compare it to the first one which had more of a concrete, coherent story at its core.

GoodnightBoy

You bring up an interesting point about a lot of Asian-remakes.

"The Lake House" is a prime example of this... Although, I personally thought it wasn't that bad compared to "Il Mare".

Now, if we start talking about all the Japanese-Horror remakes then I am sure we will agree this needs to cease and desist immediately because all the American remakes end up being are Americanized "thrill rides" that shock and scare you, but loose a lot of the original spirit(uality) the original films had because of the differences in cultures.

The original Ring (Ringu) worked because it was originally a tale about messing with mother nature because Samra (in The Ring) is a direct result of this -- Her mother wanting a child so bad she made a deal with "The Devil" -- But this subtext is completely lost to Western/American audiences because it turns into another shock-them-out-of-their-seat fests with some creepy long-haired girl instead of what that long-haired girl really means, or supposedly represents.

Don't get me started on "The Grudge". Even with the same Japanese director, the film is an American Bastardization trying to be "Jason/Freddy in a Kabuki" or whatever you want to call it.

Blonde

It is interesting you cite films from the 1970 and '80s as those eras marked a difinitive period in American cinema because the U.S. (and other countries) were coming off the turbulent '60s (Fee-Love; Vietnam) and still in the midst of the Cold-War.

A lot of the films of the '70s and '80s deal specifically with the themes of nuclear destruction and not trusting the government, or new technologies. Even films like "Porkys" and "Fast Times" are about being young and trusting no one over 30 ;)

Some of the really good movies of this era are "All The President's Men", "War Games", "Blue Thunder", "Wall Street" and even the TV mini-series "The Day After" which told the story of the day after WWIII (nuclear attack) and it is the most realistic and terrifiying movie I have ever seen because the producers wanted to make it a strong anti-war movie and not just a cheesy post-apocalyptic movie like others had done before it.
 
Fine, 20 then. Happy? :P

I'll probably watch The Last Kiss eventually, but I wasn't impressed with Garden State. Everyone that saw it kept saying how they could identify with it, that it was the movie of our generation and when I saw it, I was like "THIS is what people thought was so good?" :blank: I'll end up watching it for Bilson, though. :D

Tobey is short, but :drool:worthy, so I'm looking forward to that movie, too.

Sasha
 
This is because studios don't make real horror movies anymore. They are all dumbed-down PG-13 movies for tired parents to give the automatic okay to their under-age kids to go see and give them (the parents) two hours of peace and quiet. This is not an exaggeration because half of the "horror" movies fit this mold to a tee. No real gore, no real voilence. Just a few stings (jump out of your seat moments) and that's it.

The classic case is "Aliens vs. Predator". Two of the most horrific and iconic cinema monsters in recent times... And the movie that finally has them together on screen battling it out is rated PG-13?! The movie itself is just plain bad too boot because of a terrible script and crappy directing on top of the kiddie rating it received.

There are still actual horror movies still being made for adults and older teens like the Saw series (Saw III is due this October) as well as smaller ones like "Hostel", but the actual horror genre has been neutered as far as mainstream studios go because while it have never been a mainstream genre, they at least appealed to a certain audience (older teens and adults), but apparently this isn't enough for greedy studios as they had to make them "kid safe" to get more under-age kids... Their parents permission, rather... Into the theater to fill seats.

This is in a nutshell why the horror genre is dead as far as major studios are concerned.
 
The reason almost everything coming out of mainstream Hollywood is a remake or sequel is because it is (in theory) a safe proposition for the studios in terms of making the private investors and stockholders happy... Which is the bottom line, no pun intended, in the entertainment industry more than artistic integrity these days.

Also, the more nefarious reason most things are remakes or based on best-selling novels is because those who approve of those projects can then use them as scapegoats if the projects bomb to save their jobs, aka asses.

For example, let's say studio exec/producer X buys the rights to book Y and they make book Y into a movie and it bombs. All studio exec X has to say was, "Well, it didn't translate that well to the screen". If book Y becomes a major hit as a movie adaptation the same studio exec can say, "I knew this would make a great movie! Where's my raise, expense account, blonde secretary and corner office?"

Also, speaking of who some of these movie moguls really are... A good percentage of the new, up-and-coming studio execs are in fact mostly young males in their 20s and 30s which means a couple of things:

A) They don't read as much compared to someone in their 40s and 50s (generational thing).

When someone comes to them and says, "Hey. Have you read book Y? It's fantastic!" chances are the person who told them about book Y also hasn't read it either and is going by what someone said at a party one night and the person at the party heard about the book from a review about the NY Times best-sellers list. So, the young exec will make a push to buy the rights to the book even if the book itself is mediocre just to be "hip and cool" and show his bosses that he has his pulse on what is "hot" and they made the right decision hiring him in the first place. This is also why we are getting bad movies based on books as well considering a lot of books aren't as good as they are hyped up to be and you have the classic case of a bad book being turned into a bad movie.

B) Most of them are teenagers at heart... Meaning even if the person is in their 30s, they act like a teenager 90% of the time in terms of how they live their life and what they consider to be in "good taste".

This is why they will often push for scripts, actors and directors they like that mostly appeal to 13-18-year olds because some of them are trying to fullfill some fantasies they had when they were still in high school and in college.

This is mainly because as stereotypical as this sounds a lot of the incoming studio execs were in fact the AV squad and "film geeks" in high school and college and they didn't have very good social lives (a good percentage of the time) which is why they are living out their fantasies once they get into the studio system in positions of power where they can determine who is in what and how things play out in the very real sense.

This is why you have actresses like Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson and other eye-candy/trophy wives being put in films they have no business being in. It is not just because their agents are shrewd negotiators. Their agents know how most young, male Hollywood execs think (above) and take advantage of this to get their clients work.

So, if you consider some of the above elements it is no wonder we are getting dumbed down crap for under-age kids most of the time, let alone remakes and sequels.

Contrast this to TV where a lot of those working on that side of the industry ARE older (chronologically and experience-wise) because as a TV producer you are 90% of the time an actual screenwriter and have had to prove yourself over the years which means you grow as a person and artist compared to the young, up-and-coming studio exec that really doesn't have to grow up in the traditional sense....

And you can see why there is a definitive difference in the kinds of shows that are put on and why the writing appears more adult in the overall sense. Most of your younger writers will be on the sitcoms and "lesser" shows compared to the seasoned pros like Aaron Sorkin and Dick Wolf (to name a few) who will helm the more prominent prime-time dramas (JJ Abrams is an anomoly and not that talented or original in my opinion, but that is a discussion for another thread and time...).
 
more like 20 :P

The Last Kiss was the last current movie I was really looking forward to. Next one would be Spider-man 3. :D

They gotta stop making football-based & horror movies. It's so many of them that it's not even worth watching anymore.
 
it's definitely not just you. I've only seen two movies in the theatre this summer.

Pirates and Little Miss Sunshine. And both were worth my time and money--I tend to be a lot pickier in the summer as most of what comes out is complete garbage.

There are a few that are coming out later this year that I'm really interested. It's getting closer to Award season so the better movies should start to roll out.

I mean look at the movies coming out...

Little Children, All the King's Men, The Last King of Scotland, Fur, Babel, The Science of Sleep, Sherrybaby, Goya's Ghost, The Good Shepherd, Flags of Our Father, Running with Scissors, etc.


Hopefully things will pick up and get more interesting.

I'm just sick and tired of the horror genre...The movie's are completely pointless, not scary and are just being made because they will put butts in the seats. Maybe it's not the studios at fault, it's the general viewing audience who isn't shelling out the money to see smart, well written, directed, and acted movies.
 
Interesting thread: this is exactly what I've been telling myself for the last few months. I just had to put my two cents in it. I work at a video store and I usually catch the movies when they come out on DVD, but when a movie interests me enough, I go to the theater. The thing is, though, that it's been a while since I've actually been genuinely interested enough in a movie to go to the theater to see it. My major beef with Hollywood right now is that there are no orignal ideas for movies coming from this industry at this point. You just have to look at what this summer offered us: Superman Returns (sequel and based on a comic book), Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (sequel), The Lake House (remake of Il Mare), X-Men 3 (sequel and based on a comic book), the Da Vinci Code (based on a book), just to name a few. The last movies I thought were worth buying were some old movies I recently discovered and foreign films. I also hate the Hollywood tendency to dumb everything down (and sacrifice quality of dialogue and story for it) to please as large an audience as possible.

Someone else was also making an interesting comparison with the TV industry. The TV industry has so much interesting and original ideas for shows that like a lot of people here, my TV watching has increased in the last few years. Serialised TV shows like 24, Lost, Prison Break, etc., make the production value look like we're watching a mini-movie every week and develop character stories that are compelling. There is also a lot of diversity in this industry, almost something for everyone. I, for one, watch diverse TV shows in terms of style from serialsed drama/action shows like Lost, Prison Break, 24 to a forensic, funny and dramatic show like House MD to a comedy like The Office, etc. I buy a lot more TV show DVD boxsets then I do movies these days. For the last few years, my video store has also started to rent TV shows by discs and I can tell you that the returns for TV shows are starting to outweigh by a fair margin any other movie category.
 
Whoah - so much to catch up on! I'll try and respond to all the posts later, but I do have to add that like some of you, I'm not a movie snob/elitest (although I wouldn't put it in those terms, either, as everyone has a right to her or his favorite genre!).

And yet, given that, there's still just crap all out there... :( Interestingly it means my previously almost non-existent TV viewing has increased by leaps and bounds (which means I'm watching four shows this year). Take that, movie moguls!
 
I haven't been to the theater since July and I really don't know the next time I will go
 
Well, IMHO most movies today are nothing, but bad acting and CGI effects. I did, however enjoy a few films that had alot of CGI and that's Spiderrman 1 and 2. I enjoyed both of them.

I guess, I'm an oldie, cause IMHO, I would prefer watching a late 70's, 80's flick. The acting might have been bad in some of them, but darn if they wouldn't good ones made back then. Like now a days, you cannot find good MATURE comedies. Like, Last American Virgin, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Porky's, Meatballs, Animal House, Revenge Of The Nerds and so on. Also, the horror movies, today are not like they use to be. I mean, til this day Halloween still creeps me out, so dose Children Of The Corn and Jaws. I have to admit, in the back of my mind, when I am at beach, I can hear the Jaws theme start to play :lol:

Some movies today, are pretty good, some are great, but I definately prefer the way movies use to be.
 
Twirble--I agree with you. Summer is always a bit dull as far as movies go---The Fall season for movies is coming up now, which means the better movies.
 
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