Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

It looks fucking awful.

[edindetroit]

Yeah all these reboots are getting tiresome, and most really suck.

[Hannibal]

And today's high budget movies somehow manage to look shittier than movies from 30 years ago that had smaller budgets and no CGI.

[Wild Hoss]

The industry is in somewhat of bad position right now IMO. High costs for moviegoers and the speed at which negative reviews travel via social media are making studios very cautious...a film with bad word of mouth can crash hard and lose a LOT of money. People don't want to spend $20 to take a flier at a film if they've heard bad reviews.

That leads to decisions to go back to proven moneymakers.

[iam416]

I'll sit this one out and wait for inevitable big-screen take on Magnum, P.I..

[WingsFan]

Just gonna stick this here if it's ok. Back to playing some serious play again after about a 2 year break. I have studied this game for hours. Stunning stratagem is the move that made this game famous. Instead of saving his queen, Fischer offers to sacrifice it. However, Fischer gets far too much for his queen, leaving Byrne with a hopeless game. Though I think many mistakes were made, who I'm I to question.



[IMG][/IMG]

[Hannibal]

The industry is in somewhat of bad position right now IMO. High costs for moviegoers and the speed at which negative reviews travel via social media are making studios very cautious...a film with bad word of mouth can crash hard and lose a LOT of money. People don't want to spend $20 to take a flier at a film if they've heard bad reviews.

That leads to decisions to go back to proven moneymakers.

Costs are out of control. They could take more content risks if they could make and market movies for less than 500 million dollars. The movies are both more expensive and worse than they used to be. They spend a shitton more money and no results to show for it.

[The Oracle]

LOL, movies are not worse than they used to be.

[Hannibal]

LOL, movies are not worse than they used to be.

It's all subjecgtive, but if you ask me, they are way worse. The overwhelming majority of movies today are fomulaic, repetitive, and predictable crap. Quality screenwriting is practically nonexistent outside of animated films, which sometimes still have some originality, and "art" films, where it is still pretty hit-and-miss. The decline of movies is especially severe when it comes to big budget action flicks. Movies like Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robocop, Die Hard, The Terminator, The Road Warrior, the original Star Wars trilogy, and Total Recall have held up very well over time and are all universally considered better than the reboots and the sequels that have come out for them in the past decade.

[drok]

I'd say that TV is a much more interesting medium than movies today.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I haven't seen it but the recent Mad Max film was universally hailed as one of the best action movies ever. I'm not sure the genre has an indefinite lifespan. Hollywood used to put out 4 dozen cowboy movies a year...now they're nonexistent. There's only so many times you can retell similar stories...and the comic book movies will eventually hit the same wall.

If you talk to younger people and kids who didn't grow up with the original Star Wars trilogy, a lot of them will tell you the 2015 film is a lot better than any of the original 3. Having re-watched the original trilogy recently I can't really argue that the acting was better in 1977...cuz it wasn't. Empire has aged the best...can't say that the Ewoks glorious victory over the Emperor's best storm troopers really holds up well today.

There's good and bad from both eras. I do agree that Hollywood is a lot less willing to take risks nowadays than back in the 70's and 80's. Reboots, remakes, adaptations are a lot safer bet. The overseas market means considerably more today than back then as well.

[Wild Hoss]

LOL, movies are not worse than they used to be.

There are legitimate points either way, but I will say IMO its more difficult to be original today in a genre- like action flicks- with 30 years of films behind you. There's only so many ways to repackage the cop/buddy concept for instance. OTOH, there is an original action genre today...the comic adaptations.

That said, like I expressed above, studios are playing it more conservative as well IMO. Everybody saw what happened to Disney with John Carter and The Lone Ranger; hundreds of millions lost, and the entire leadership caste of the film division was beheaded. Conversely, The Mouse has been stupid-successful with its off-the-rack moves in buying Marvel and Lucasfilm. Honestly, as a studio exec, I'm not sure what other lessons there would be to glean from that besides "play it safe".

[Wild Hoss]

If you talk to younger people and kids who didn't grow up with the original Star Wars trilogy, a lot of them will tell you the 2015 film is a lot better than any of the original 3. Having re-watched the original trilogy recently I can't really argue that the acting was better in 1977...cuz it wasn't. Empire has aged the best...can't say that the Ewoks glorious victory over the Emperor's best storm troopers really holds up well today.

There is little argument that Force Awakens is superior, as a film, to most of the preceding SW movies. The only competitor would be Empire as you noted...the film that Lucas had the least involvement in, coincidentally.

[Dr. Strangelove]

There are legitimate points either way, but I will say IMO its more difficult to be original today in a genre- like action flicks- with 30 years of films behind you. There's only so many ways to repackage the cop/buddy concept for instance. OTOH, there is an original action genre today...the comic adaptations.

That said, like I expressed above, studios are playing it more conservative as well IMO. Everybody saw what happened to Disney with John Carter and The Lone Ranger; hundreds of millions lost, and the entire leadership caste of the film division was beheaded. Conversely, The Mouse has been stupid-successful with its off-the-rack moves in buying Marvel and Lucasfilm. Honestly, as a studio exec, I'm not sure what other lessons there would be to glean from that besides "play it safe".

Sorry, stole some of your thunder.

Has anyone seen Lone Ranger? I haven't but it seems likes a fascinating case study of complete failure. Bring back a character no one under 70 cares about...make him secondary to Johnny Depp...cast Johnny Depp in a role that was an outdated racial stereotype...include wacky comedy alongside horrific violence (which can work-see Deadpool-but you tread a thin line).

There's also been a recent trend to reinvent fairy tales as action films...Jack the Giant Slayer, Malificent, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters...

[WM Wolverine]

To me it seems there is far, far fewer movies today than 10-20 years ago. Less movies = less chance of good movies.