I watched Iron Man the other night and I decided that I'm tired of sequels and remakes and movies based on comics (The Dark Knight is an exception). The list of the highest-grossing films over the last eight years or so is dominated by sequels and "franchise" movies (The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Shrek). These are just the most successful; there are many that simply suck (Fast and the Furious, the Scary Movie franchise, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Rocky VI, Rambo IV, Ocean's 11, 12, and 13, and so on). Where is film as art? Genre films, like the above, lack quality. The movie studios and producers understand that their main audience is 18-25 year old males, so explosions, "flash," and sex abound.
I liked Juno. I liked Little Miss Sunshine. I liked Million Dollar Baby. These were all nominated for Best Picture Oscars (Million Dollar Baby won), but they are not atop the highest-grossing film list. It's the difference between art and entertainment. Curiously, I think The Dark Knight is so successful because it is able to bridge a gap between art and entertainment, explosions and philosophy. I'd say the same about The Matrix, but The Dark Knight is far more serious.
2 comments:
I just have to comment that you rock for saying that all those movies sucked. Fast and the Furious was terrible to begin with, and every sequel was worse. Fantastic Four was awful, the Ocean's movies were awful. And Juno was really surprisingly good (I saw it just a few weeks ago), and Million Dollar Baby I have no doubt will end up being Clint Eastwood's last great movie.
The first Matrix was good, but after seeing the second two, I wonder if they even knew what the the first one was really about when they wrote it. And I liked the recent Batman movies, I just don't like Batman's persistent sinus problems. He should take a decongestant. Although, Heath Ledger was just as awesome as everyone said he would be. He totally stole that whole movie from Christian Bale. Too bad he's dead, now we'll get another actor who won't be as good.
Also congratulations on your review in SNR. Seems like the reviewer really liked your band. And the reviewer mentioned your band sounding psychedelic, which caught my interest. I'm a huge fan of early Pink Floyd, and a bit of Slowdive and other shoegaze, so psychedelic sounding music always catches my attention. Do you have a website where mp3s or something could be downloaded?
You should check out the new Star Trek movie. Granted there have been a hundred before it and 5 TV series that have probably run it's fan base into the ground, but this was really, really well done. IMO.
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