Monday, October 13, 2008

The Cinematic Marketplace or the Cinematic Wasteland?

Best Movie ff the Week [according to the general consensus]

What is wrong with the current state of the cinematic marketplace? imdb.com reports that Beverly Hills Chihuahua beat out Body of Lies in its second week, the latter finishing up in third behind some lame-ass next horror movie Quarantine which looks like a cheap-skate rehash of The Blair Witch Project.

The fact is, audiences simply have no taste.

Best Movie of the Week [according to me]

Ridley Scott has served us up a yummy, exciting, thought-provoking dish with two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Russel Crowe and Leonardo Di Caprio, and all we can do is go "ho hum". Is it the subject matter (The Iraq War). Is it the lack of cute talking pooches? Is it the fact 75% of the world's (well, North America's) population has been partially lobotomized? As Homer Simpson would say: "a little from column A, a little from column B"...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

are you serious motherfucker? body of lies was absolutely anonymous (not to mention plain boring and often ridiculous). get back to good films sir ridley!

Anonymous said...

plus i think the reason it's received a ho hum reaction (other than that there's no better way to sum up the movie than "ho hum") is that people want escapist fare at times like this, not to be thrust into the heart of iraq. body of lies was simply not good enough to justify spending two hours in such an unpleasant environment.

Jezza said...

But I really considered Body of Lies to have a good blanace between tackling "issues" and exciting action-movie scenes. Its pace was rapid and ultimately it reminded me of a more intelligent Bourne film.

Some critiques have stated it to be ridiculous. The film is very much a "what if..." scenario, but I doubt the events are completely beyond the realm of reason. Leo's character stretched plausability but I went with it for the sake of filmic interest. It is only a movie, after all. I want the characters to push boundaries and do things most sane people wouldn't do.

Ridley is awesome and made another strong film. Is this the same Michael who didn't like American Gangster that much? Shame on you...I joke! Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Anonymous said...

Maybe people were sick to death of seeing brad pitt and whoever the fuck else in yet ANOTHER war on terror blockbuster. They've been done to death. What hasn't been done to death, is a movie about a talking Chihuahua!

Jezza said...

Okay so general consensus appears to be that people have no interest in films dealing with current events.

These people are entitled to their opinions, but I don't just go to films for fluffy dogs and fairy floss, I like my fair share of thoughtful, and relevent social commentary.

Should filmmakers pander to the lowest common denominator?

Frankly, I'm appalled.

Anonymous said...

The lowest common denominator are the people too pretentious to take chihuahua for what it is and the people who think these stupid brangelina clooneycrowe CIA war movies are anything thoughtful, fresh or exciting.

Anonymous said...

after september 11, dc comics did a cover showing superman saving the twin towers. it was quickly withdrawn. it's essentially the same with these silly hollywood let's tackle the middle east conflict movies, it's all well and good to see russell crowe defeat osama but once you get outside the reality is right back in your face. on the other hand, everyone's getting a bit tired of the bleak endings where leo dicaprio does not defeat osama and is killed, or batman has to take a fall. why so serious, hollywood?

Anonymous said...

and as far as sir ridley goes, compare american gangster and body of lies to alien and blade runner, or even black rain and thelma and louise. what happened? did he forget which scott brother he was?