Saturday, August 27, 2011

Why Modern Movies Suck?

Any regular theater goer might have noticed a severe dip in the quality of film projects as of late. You are not alone as every actor/actress not making ten of millions per film (and even some who are) are flocking to TV. True the money is better, but more importantly, so are the parts.

Sarah Michelle Gellar recently talked about who her film career stalled due to the sheer lack of ANYTHING good to be in anymore. So back to TV she goes. In years past, this would be seen as a diminishing star. Nowadays, it's a wise career move. TV takes bigger risks, although last season didn't and as a result almost every new show was cancelled in seconds. This time around we have a lot of new programming that sounds interesting including Terra Nova, Two Broke Girls and Whitney. TV, especially cable, have put out some of the best TV ever with networks like FX, Spike, CW and USA beating the big Four on a regular basis. The reason why is that they taken even bigger risks than the standards and have seen the results. Networks have jumped on the bandwagon and are sure to deliver a few hits and more than few misfires.

But why do movies suck so bad? Having worked in the industry, I can tell you that the MBAtards have screwed up the movie and music industry so bad that their survival is at risk. Music is dead for the most part, surviving on life support. Movies have started going the similar route. Both are dying by no longer looking for the next great thing and running last year's big thing into the ground with copycats and inferior product. Imagination is in short supply there.

Take a look at the recent span of films to come out. Last week we saw two remakes, a sequel no one wanted, and a lame attempt at romantic comedy. All of these are movies no one wants to see anymore. Fright Night remake: bad idea. Remake something older. Recent release Don't Be Afraid Of the Dark is a better try but the reviews have been middling. Spy Kids 4: why? The last one tanked. One Day: Anne Hathaway is a great actress but in no way looks like an English wallflower. Bad casting. And my favorite Conan the Barbarian remake: Holy crap. The reviews have said the star is awesome. Everything else sucked. The director is a hack, the screenplay atrocious and the score awful at best. There is still John Milius' King Conan script kicking around which is supposed to be brilliant. Why didn't you film that?

The truth is, there are no good ideas in Hollywood anymore. No one wants to take a chance on anything meaning we get the same watered down crap we always get and people are saying enough. I tried for years to get screenplays even read which proved to be an impossibility. I worked on my own film projects to get things going because Hollywood certainly wasn't. I have a screenplay POE which is going to be very similar to next year's The Raven. I'll bet everything I own mine will be better. Mine always are. Why? Because I understand story structure and character development not marketing or focus groups.

The other reason films suck is I can watch an entire movie in 2 minute thirty seconds every time I go to the theater. How you ask? I watch the trailers. So many trailers give away everything a film has to offer. I recently watched Limitless, a very good sci fi movie. However, if you've seen the trailer you've seen the whole movie. It tells you how it ends. Same with the trailer for the Lincoln Lawyer. Or Quarantine. And a dozen others. Trailers lately suck. Stop ruining the movie for us. Maybe then, we'll actually go.