Friday, June 18, 2010

The state of Hollywood movies, Comic-strip mania, but where are the serious films?

One has to really pick and choose movies these days. Long-gone is the wonderful selection of old, such as Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment or Schindler's List, for example. Hollywood these days seems to be catering to the teenage market only, with serious, adult and good movies being left-out in the cold, or not being made by Hollywood, at all. It is now up to the Independents to make gritty, dramatic and sensible cinema. The selecion on offer at the mainstream movie complexes these days is for me, pretty unappetising. I have absolutely no interest in seeing a movie based on a video-game for example, or a comic book or even a blog. This seems to be the mainstream selection these days, movies I consider junky, if the slick, animated, comic booky posters are anything to go by. Robin Hood, with the crux of the story removed, The A Team, but updated and crude-looking, Sex In The City 2, oh yay, or swashbuckler, The Prince Of Persia, based on a videogame. Honestly. Why step out the door for any of this hard-edged, unsubtle and computer-generated entertainment? No thanks. Sadly, one has to travel miles for 'proper films'such as The Last Station or Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. It used to be vice-versa, the adults had the pick of the decent, worthwhile and lasting stuff, while the jaded, comic book, action-packed but drama-light fare was kept for the holidays only. Thank goodness for the invention of the VCR and DVD machine, or the choice would be appalling indeed. Still, it would be nice to be able to zoom down to the local multiplex and have an adult, subtle, stand-the-test of time, reflect real-life, novel and play based cinema. Oh, how I wish! The film posters of yesteryear were great, beautifully drawn and subtle, with soft colours and designs aptly depicitng the films they advertised; these days it's either just a photograph still or glossy, computerised hard-edged graphics. Are we seeing a plethora of wasted opportunities and plasicated junk that will fail the test of time? I wonder.The invention of VHS really did change cinema for ever, but not for the better, in my view!

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