Posted on 08/25/2009 7:17:53 AM PDT by Bean74
If 2009 is remembered for anything in American cinema, it might be as the year grown-ups and Hollywood finally agreed to call it quits.
This is the year when such slick, star-driven, adult-oriented movies as "State of Play," "Duplicity," "The International" and "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" underperformed at the box office. And when talking-toy movies like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "G.I. Joe" raked in millions.
Suddenly, movies for grown-ups are in the cross hairs. "I'm caught up all in it," Spike Lee said recently with a rueful laugh, noting that the sequel to his 2006 thriller "Inside Man" is hanging in the balance. "I'm waiting on Universal," he said.
As it happens, Universal is the studio that has come to symbolize the current plight of movies for adults, having released both "Duplicity" and "State of Play," as well as "The Soloist" and "Funny People," considered box-office disappointments. Last week, Universal Co-chairman Marc Shmuger told the Los Angeles Times that 2009 "has certainly been a humbling year. First, there's a real need to be making movies for less money. Second, there's a real premium on sharper, more marketable concepts. Audiences are clearly seeking escape from their lives."
Translation: Hello, "Paul Blart." Sayonara, "Frost/Nixon."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The best adult fare is on cable TV right now. Why put up with audiences who talk throughout the film and answer their cell phones?
“The best adult fare is on cable TV right now. Why put up with audiences who talk throughout the film and answer their cell phones?”
AMC isn’t bad, but I’ve seen all 6 of their movies.
Make more remakes of the classics, and more anti-war/anti-American movies. Those have been such rousing successes.
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No kidding. Take a classic movie with a sterling cast and remake it with John Travolta?
Not even Denzel Washington could save that one.
Who wants to watch a bunch of arrogant celebrities spout off their socialist tripe at the audience for two hours? I have no faith that Hollywood can produce an adult movie with serious themes that doesn’t insult my intelligence. Mindless entertainment is all they’re capable of delivering, why should I look to them for anything else?
“FX will be showing Independence Day. If not them, then TNT. If not them, then A&E.”
The only channel that shows any variety of movies is TCM. Unfortunately, they don’t always show “talkies”. And when they do show “talkies”, they aren’t far removed from the silent film era.
I’m not a big movie watcher, but there are LOTS of movies I never saw, or would watch again if they were show. Is there some kind of problem that a channel can’t show a real variety?
That's why I bought all that crap in the first place!
Theater experience can't compare to the comfort of my own home. That's why the only people going to the cinema are teenagers and 20-somethings on dates. And that's why movies geared towards them are the only ones that make any money at the box office! It's that simple.
The trend has been pretty clear for the last 10 to 15 years. You’re getting junk summer hits like ‘Transformers’ and good ‘smaller’ films like ‘Juno’, but there’s not a lot in between that’s aimed at adults. What we’re seeing less and less of is films like ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Chinatown’, i.e. ‘big’ films aimed at adults.
I like smaller films like ‘Juno’ or ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, but the days when the studios were willing to invest in well written ‘big’ adult dramas are fading (and have been for a while).
When you charge $10 per ticket, $6 for a soda, and $8 for popcorn, you better be putting up something eye-popping on the screen.
Nobody's going to shell out those big bucks to see something like "The Soloist" - about a homeless violin player - unless you let him shoot lava out of his eyes and and launch him into an intergalactic space battle.
Quiet, understated, reflective movies are perfect for sitting at home and watching on the television. The big screen is for blowing big things up.
Where do you live, NYC?
The ONLY Hollywood movie that I have seen w/in the past 5 years was “Valkare(sp?)”
Hollywood has forgotten how to tell a story. A story has a sympathic character, someone everyone can relate to. A story that invokes thought, maybe involves some personal ethics and personal responsibilty. This is not a license to preach Hollywood values; the movies that have attempted this have failed, miserabley (hello, Sean Penn).
The Count of Monte’ Cristo, Mister Roberts, Swiss Family Robinson, Toy Story and just about any Pixar movie before WALL-E.
The movie that is doing very well today is District 9. Why? Because it does NOT have hollywood stars, but does have character development and origional thought. It is not a rip-off of every alien movie ever made; and it is making money.
In short, Pro-America, pro-freedom, pro-democracy, be origional, create characters who people can relate to and create a story that is compelling. Don’t be afraid of offending the bad guys (Hint: there aren’t too many Nazi’s running around; but we do have a plethoa of terrorists andj people who think nothing of cutting the heads off innocent people in the name of their God).
The old formula’s in Hollywood aren’t working, are they?
Add to that the fact that it’s cheaper to buy the DVD than to pay for 2 movie tickets and the fact that the “theater experience” has steadily gone downhill for years (let’s pay $20 to watch irritating commercials for 15+ minutes before the show!) and yeah, it’s no surprise the grown-ups prefer to watch at home on their own schedule even if that means waiting a few months.
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