Rant: Hollywood - Writers Forum

shadowseer · 10-12-2005, 10:17 PM

Alright Hollywood, what's up with this crap you been feeding us?
Ladies and gents, I give you, exhibit A: Into The Blue.
Jessica Alba goes deep sea diving. Hmm. That's fine with me. But wait, I forgot to mention, she goes deep sea diving in a bikini.
Is that even possible? I mean, I love Jessica as much as the next guy, but come on. I didn't pay 8 bucks to see crap like that.

Ok, exhibit B: Remakes.
Is it just me, or is the amout of remakes severly increasing?
IE: Cheaper by the Dozen, Yours min and Ours, Fun with Dick and Jane, The Fog, Bad news Bears, need I go on?
Remakes are fine and all, but when they're running rampant like now it just makes you shudder. Our movie writers have done so much that they don't know where to go. So we get stuck with remakes, 7-movie franchises, and good ol' crap like Into the Blue.

Now I will admit, there has been some good stuff lately. Flight Plan, Serenity, The greatest Game Ever Played, have all been very good movies. TGGEP and Flightplan could possibly get Oscars, and I pray that Serenity will.

Thenwe have more crap. The Man. Elizabethtown (I don't even need to see it to know it sucks) Domino. The 40-year old Virgin. Transporter 2. Dukes of Hazzard.

Basically, what i'm trying to say is, we are tired of all this pointless sex and violence in movies. We want intelligence. We want plots, and characters we can relate to. Damnit, we want something worth going to the movies for.

midlandsmuse · 10-12-2005, 11:27 PM

I think the problem is that we are seeing most of what Hollywood is offering and that means seeing the crap. When we see films from other cultures we usually only see the best of it.

For instance, there has been a big rise in the popularity of Asian cinema here in the UK. But we're not getting every single film made in Asia, just the exceptional ones. As a result we think that Japan and Korea are making far better films that the USA or UK.

That said I do think Hollywood has a general problem with lowest common demoninator cinema. This could be down to giving people like Fat Harry off Ain't it Cool News a listened to opinion or it could be the preview audiences who seem to be the stupidest people on the planet. Whatever it is many Hollywood films would work much better if they just treated their audience with having some intellegence.

Hodge · 10-13-2005, 01:53 AM

Yeah, but they're all in strange languages.

Go watch older movies instead. Like Jacob's Ladder and The Wall. Ask me for good movies, one of my good friends is a major movie buff. He literally has a top 100 list.

Lobe · 10-13-2005, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starrwriter

Go see foreign films from France, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand. They have plots, interesting characters AND sex/violence.

Australia? I can't think of one decent movie Australia has made, if there is one please enlighten me.

As for Hollywood, most of the films are pretty bad, I hardly bother with them anymore. I thought Serenity was absolute rubbish by the way, and it's about as mainstream Hollywood as you can get.

Ben · 10-13-2005, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Australia? I can't think of one decent movie Australia has made, if there is one please enlighten me.

The Castle.

PaPa · 10-13-2005, 06:40 AM

Hollywood caters perfectly to its target audience.

Quote:

Basically, what i'm trying to say is, we are tired of all this pointless sex and violence in movies. We want intelligence. We want plots, and characters we can relate to. Damnit, we want something worth going to the movies for.

Replace every 'we' in that sentence with 'I'. Most people go nuts for pointless sex and violence and, to be honest, it is not without its charms.

midlandsmuse · 10-13-2005, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobe

Australia? I can't think of one decent movie Australia has made, if there is one please enlighten me.

Romper Stomper was interesting. Not sure if it's decent but it's interesting.

Chopper. That was decent.

Crazy_dude6662 · 10-13-2005, 08:28 AM

but there are a few good movies.......intermission was an okay-great one but not alot of people saw it.
people have to realise films go in cycles

crap spell
okay spell
great spell
crap spell

its how it works.

Londongrey · 10-13-2005, 09:41 AM

I think Hollywood has been going through a creative crisis for quite sometime. I do get sick of seeing constant films being made of old English Literature. I believe the next one to hit our screens will be The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes it is a classic but the talent has already been excercised by C S Lewis.

There are some good films out, but the tend to come from individuals ho have the resources to see their vision come true. Unfortunately the mass film making that is Hollywood is going down the pan. Like all of the teen movies which come out that you see once and never really want to see again. How many times has anyone under the age of 18 seen films like The Piano more than once?

it is a shame, but I think the market is mostly to blame, there is a demand for quick-fix enterrtainment in films and so that is what gets produced.

Pawn · 10-13-2005, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaPa

Hollywood caters perfectly to its target audience.

Exactly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LG

it is a shame, but I think the market is mostly to blame, there is a demand for quick-fix enterrtainment in films and so that is what gets produced.

Indeed. Unfortunately for the film industry, the vast, vast majority of cinema goers have always wanted nothing beyond 100 minutes of literally mindless entertainment. It is however fair to say that Hollywood is growing even less creative with its films of late: producers increasingly target stories which exist already in the collective consciousness of the population. Such tales are appropriated for little reason beyond being effectively pre-marketed. There are exceptions, even within this phenomenon (Sin City, anyone?). Directors like P. T. Anderson and screenwriters like Charlie Kaufman and Alan Ball continue to be as creative as they can within the constraints of profit driven production companies (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Magnolia, Adaptation, American Beauty etcetera).

As a film student, this kind of thing makes me quite angry. No one can be blamed but everyone. The majority seems completely unaware of the capacity of film not just to keep you busy for a couple of hours, but stay with you for years (as well as any novel), stimulate the mind and enthrall the heart. I would strongly encourage anyone who's listening to stop, please stop, going to the multiplexes which drip-feed the world insincere drivel. There are millions of struggling independant cinemas, filmmakers and production companies who would much better serve your patronage. Forget the fear of subtitles, suspend the compunction to watch a film like you watch television; lazy consumerism is the death of art.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobe

Australia? I can't think of one decent movie Australia has made, if there is one please enlighten me.

There was a rather beautiful offering a year or so back called Somersault, which I enjoyed. Twas a female director, though the name escapes me. Worth a watch.

Out (here) on the 21st is Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers, starring the eternal Bill Murray and gorgeous Scarlet Johannson. You need to see it.

Londongrey · 10-13-2005, 01:42 PM

Its funny but my favourite film is a French one with subtitles called Horseman on the Roof.

LensmanZ313 · 10-16-2005, 07:15 AM

Sometimes, remakes are done so the producers can retain the rights. That's why Romero had Night of the Living Dead remade. Carpenter's The Fog is the same case, I've heard--although Carpenter has said the original was never one of his favorites.

Remakes . . . . Did you know that the classic film, The Maltese Falcon, was the third version of the Hammet novel?

People complain about TV shows being made into movies. Over seventy years ago, popular radio programs were made into movies . . . and later into TV shows. So, this isn't anything new.

Londongrey · 10-16-2005, 04:51 PM

They don't make films like 'The 39 Steps' anymore *sigh*, I loved that film.