Posted on 08/29/2010 8:13:05 AM PDT by abb
Hollywood has always done that. Most of the early productions were filmed plays. Some of the biggest movies in Hollywood’s history are remakes, based on other sources or both. You like Charlton Heston’s Ben Hur? That was the third time they made that movie, based on a play, that was itself based on a book. Humphrey Bogart’s Maltese Falcon? 3rd time they converted that book in 10 years.
100% original movies with no previous source of any kind have always been the rarest thing in Hollywood, anybody that thinks it’s new needs to watch the classics.
>>(just look at the Toy Story 3 budget, the Harry Potter 7 & 8 budget, <<
LOVED TS3!
And my family is beside themselves for HP7. In my mind, it needs to be better than 6, though.
My worry with HP7 is it’s only going to be the first half of the book and not much happens in the first half. HP8 (7.5) will be the second more interesting half. I really don’t understand why they cut the battle of Hogwarts out of 6, I know they said they didn’t want it getting confused with the fight at the end, but they’d already decided to make 2 movies out of the last book so that fight is two movies away. And without that fight they ran into the problem that they’re going to run into with 7, not much really happens in the book, at least not much cinematic.
Of course it’s kind of like Star Wars, even if the people involved come out and tell us to our face “yeah the last two movies kind of suck” I’m gonna go see them. They’ve created the “must see them all” situation.
TS3 though was brilliant. Anybody saying Hollywood can’t tell a story anymore needs to watch TS3 and shut up. I was in a packed theater with tons of kids, and even though the movie is long there were no antsy kids, nobody got bored. And if they say they didn’t start to tear up in the incinerator scene they’re lying.
I don’t keep up with contemporary Hollywood, haven’t seen a movie newer than,say, “Dr Zhivago” in years (and it was before my time, I just always loved classic Hollywood and had no use for new releases). So, I didn’t know about the one guy, and didn’t have a clue that Banderas can dance. Really dance? I mean, on the level of Astaire and Kelly? Is there a Hollywood woman with that breadth of talent, say, a modern-day Ginger Rogers?
Good list, Liz
Actually, that James Marsden (cyclops from X-Men) and Hugh Jackman (wolverine from X-Men)
Both can act. Both have beautiful voices and Jackman is really a pretty good hoofer. He did Oklahoma on broadway.
I’m not sure you’re ever going to get another Kelly or Astaire. Even a Donald O’Connor or Bobby Van. Or if they are there will ever find out. Hollywood doesn’t want to make good wholesome movies anymore.
And no, there will never be another Ginger Rogers. She was wonderful.
I agree, the public is too “hip” these days for such simple pleasures and suspension of belief.
I love Bobby Van in “Small Town Girl”! I keep meaning to look it up if he did that hopping scene all in one take-it doesn’t seem possible.
Banderas has done broadway for years, and I think you can find some of his musical numbers online. The Zorro movies also had a couple nice Tangos.
Then there was his starring role in the ballroom dancing movie "Take The Lead".
Of course, you could claim that he doesn't count as a Hollywood product, as he is from Spain, but he has appeared in a fair amount of American made movies.
Exactly.
I'm either too old or too square to have any idea what you are talking about. Is it a video game or something?
Thanks for the feedback, and you are right on target re watching the classics.
hey I just watched that hunk of Cronenberg weirdness today. While the layers of unreality thing certainly duplicates in Inception the two movies really don’t have anything in common after that. For one thing Inception doesn’t have any of those gross props that Cronenberg is addicted to, and it’s not bitching and moaning about popular media like he always does.
gross props that Cronenberg is addicted toYou can say that again. Cronenberg certainly puts the weird in Hollyweird. LOL.
If that is true, and there is plenty of evidence that things have been going that way for years, then Hollywood is in terminal decline. Creativity, almost by definition, involves experimentation. Take no chances ultimately = never produce anything worth watching, just recycle the same old pap over and over.
And that WILL work, for a while. They will forestall their own demise by doing that, but they will also guarantee their ultimate destruction. Eventually people will catch on and simply stop watching, and the creative impulse will have been so supressed by then they won't be able to relight it. Game over.
Fundamentally its all about story. The make-up, the music, the special effects, the costumes, stunts and so on...they all have their place. They can enhance things. They can make a good film a great one, and a great one a classic, but not one of them, not even special effects, can make a bad flick into a good movie.
Writers are treated like dirt in the film industry. Which is amazing, since without writers Hollywood literally has no product.
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