My Gripe About New Movies!

VegasGeorge

VegasGeorge

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I am so sick of the production formula. By that I mean, taking an exciting sounding subject, then reducing it to as few participants as possible, and staging them in some sort of confined space.

For instance, "The Monster Who Ate Cleveland," (hypothetical) turns out to be about five friends trapped in a high rise elevator. Or in a snowed in cabin, or in an abandoned truck trailer, or in an underground vault of some kind.

When some world shattering event is taking place, all the movie is concerned with is how the strained relationship between a mother and her druggie teenage daughter is going to turn out. Never mind that the world is coming to an end out there. What's important is whether or not the druggie's boy friend can reach the estranged father in time. And, with people dieing wholesale all around, we audience are supposed to focus all our empathy and concern on one screw up of a kid, who's wandered into danger.

And, I'd like to know who told porno characters that they could become legitimate actors simply by keeping their clothes on, and reading a script out loud. Man, that is SO obvious! And disgusting.

That's my rant, and I'm sticking to it! :rulez:
 
I agree. I stopped going to theaters more than a decade ago. There has been nothing new or even remotely interesting. All are either attempted remakes or plotless, pointless, preaching, disgusting video game-like simulations. This is not entertainment to me. I'll continue building my 'classic' DVD collection by supporting Goodwill.

Sorry to sound so cranky...
 
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I think there are still good movies being made, The Martian is one for me. There's a thread related to this earlier, https://forum.ukuleleunderground.co...Which-newer-movies-do-you-watch-over-and-over. I've listed a bunch there.

I have library of over 1900 movies on a 12 TB drive that I access through my Apple TV. I've actually stopped going to the theater with the advent of physical difficulties I have, plus I bought a 55" 4K TV that is a great substitute.

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
8 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 36)

Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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Oh, and yet another, but HOPEFULL thing. I am so impressed with modern technology animation, CGI effects. It seems like nothing is impossible anymore. So, that should mean that we could have epic movies with casts of thousands, and entire fleets of ships, planes, or any other durn thing to tell the story. I want CGI to become inexpensive enough so that even B movie producers will use it. I like to see broad landscapes, entire cities of the past or future, etc. I loved the CGI in GOT. Why shouldn't we demand to get it on a more routine basis?
 
VegasGeorge said:
And, I'd like to know who told porno characters that they could become legitimate actors simply by keeping their clothes on, and reading a script out loud. Man, that is SO obvious! And disgusting.
That's my rant, and I'm sticking to it! :rulez:
Click to expand...

Thank you VegasGeorge for my evening laugh. Of course what is funny is how true it is. :biglaugh:
 
KohanMike said:
For me that's The Martian.

(I've been planning to list more of my favorites, but to walk through my list of 1900+ is daunting.)
Click to expand...

The best part of the terrific movie Apollo 13 was what I call "smart folks of good intent, putting their heads together to solve a problem." "What have you guys got onboard that we can use? Dump it all on the table." My heart was in my throat the whole time.

The Martian is a whole movie of that. For all that 80% of it is one guy talking to himself, my adrenaline was THROUGH THE ROOF THE WHOLE TIME. It feels nothing short of miraculous. It not only renewed my faith in movies, but in storytelling itself, and reminded me that humans can sometimes be pretty okay. The latter in particular is an extremely rare occurrence, since I'm so easily and often reminded of the opposite. :)

I got to see Matt Damon and Ridley Scott discuss The Martian at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2016 (almost to the very day that I'm typing this). Their conversation was every bit as enjoyable and insightful as you'd hope, but honestly, the movie was what moved me most.

(Terrific book, too, btw, and the author's Hail Mary, a novel of first contact, is even better.)

This is hardcore, old-school moviemaking, and nobody should miss it for any reason. Anybody lamenting the passing of "real" sci-fi should definitely make a beeline to this!
 
I've not seen The Martian. Did Ray Bradbury write it?
 
TimWilson said:
The best part of the terrific movie Apollo 13 was what I call "smart folks of good intent, putting their heads together to solve a problem." "What have you guys got onboard that we can use? Dump it all on the table." My heart was in my throat the whole time.

The Martian is a whole movie of that. For all that 80% of it is one guy talking to himself, my adrenaline was THROUGH THE ROOF THE WHOLE TIME. It feels nothing short of miraculous. It not only renewed my faith in movies, but in storytelling itself, and reminded me that humans can sometimes be pretty okay. The latter in particular is an extremely rare occurrence, since I'm so easily and often reminded of the opposite. :)

I got to see Matt Damon and Ridley Scott discuss The Martian at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2016 (almost to the very day that I'm typing this). Their conversation was every bit as enjoyable and insightful as you'd hope, but honestly, the movie was what moved me most.

(Terrific book, too, btw, and the author's Hail Mary, a novel of first contact, is even better.)

This is hardcore, old-school moviemaking, and nobody should miss it for any reason. Anybody lamenting the passing of "real" sci-fi should definitely make a beeline to this!
Click to expand...
Totally. All of this. My daughter has the three Andy Weir books (The Martian, Project Hail Mary, Artemis) on Audible and listens to them repeatedly. I've also got all three books, and have read them each at least twice. The books are all great.

This was one of the times that I saw the movie before I knew that there was a book. I thought it was a fantastic movie. It does a pretty reasonable job of converting the book to a movie, which personally, I find to be a disappointing exercise in frustration most times. This was not. It's a great movie on its own. It's a great book. All around, very much recommend both.

Tim - you might also like Chris Hadfield's The Apollo Murders. It's got a lot of problem solving plus murder mystery solving plus space!
 
As to the OP's lament, there's a hilarious YT reviewer (well, I think he's hilarious, he's certainly foul-mouthed) that my husband listens to, and VegasGeorge basically sums it up in one: it's all regurgitation, no originality, no risk taking in story telling any more (for the most part). Just throwing CGI and rehashing scenarios at us. I'll see if I can find the reviewer and link here. I'll have to wait until hubby gets in from finishing animal chores.
 
Wow. Believe it (or not) I have not seen A-13 or The Martian so I just ordered both DVDs today. Having to replace the back firebrick wall in my FP (it's been down for over a week now) has stopped my desire to sit on the couch. That's actually a god thing. But it will burn again! And I will be back in potato-mode to watch movies. I also ordered The Five Heartbeats.
 
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ploverwing said:
Tim - you might also like Chris Hadfield's The Apollo Murders. It's got a lot of problem solving plus murder mystery solving plus space!
Click to expand...

That sounds awesome! I'm so there!

I'm not a novelist, but I had an idea that in a near future where we're dumping our garbage on the moon that there's a murder-conspiracy-mob thing that you'd expect in the world of waste disposal, but that starts to get into the What You're Reading thread...because I've got a long list of sci-fi/mystery mashups to recommend.

Turns out that our library has the book on order, but it's not here yet. I'll be all over it when it is! Thanks again!
 
Totally agree with OP. One exception, though it still goes back several years, was the remake of True Grit. Contrary to the original, great John Wayne version, the remake followed the novel almost word-for-word. Until I saw the movie, I was skeptical of ANYONE else portraying Rooster Cogburn, but I was wrong. Bridges knocked it out of the park.

EDIT- And, whoever that guy was :ROFLMAO: that played Texas Ranger LeBoef in the remake was far more believable than Glenn Campbell was in the original.
 
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Someone told me awhile back that there are 7 basic plots to movies and that explains some of why some of us get annoyed with the repetition and formula stuff. I think I saw someone online says 36 but hey...here's the 7 that cover most movies I've ever seen.

The 7 story archetypes are:
  • Overcoming the Monster.
  • Rags to Riches.
  • The Quest.
  • Voyage and Return.
  • Comedy.
  • Tragedy.
  • Rebirth.
The rags to riches/underdog to hero type plots are the most tired to me.
 
Justaguest said:
Someone told me awhile back that there are 7 basic plots to movies and that explains some of why some of us get annoyed with the repetition and formula stuff. I think I saw someone online says 36 but hey...here's the 7 that cover most movies I've ever seen.

The 7 story archetypes are:
  • Overcoming the Monster.
  • Rags to Riches.
  • The Quest.
  • Voyage and Return.
  • Comedy.
  • Tragedy.
  • Rebirth.
The rags to riches/underdog to hero type plots are the most tired to me.
Click to expand...
To be fair, that's probably a good list of basic story archetypes, period, not just movies. And there are classic tales that do each of these archetypes justice, not just "originals" but reboots through the centuries. So I'm not sure that revisiting or basing the movie plot on a story archetype is bad, but not trying to come at it from a different perspective, or with an intriguing twist, or just basically disappointing storytelling, is what's frustrating with many of the movie options.
 
ploverwing said:
So I'm not sure that revisiting or basing the movie plot on a story archetype is bad
Click to expand...

On the contrary! Tropes are comforting. That's why they're tropes. Entire TV networks are based on themes like this. I'm not a Hallmark Christmas movies kinda fella, don't even celebrate Christmas -- but I can discourse at bizarre length comparing and contrasting the approaches of Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix, which have each developed their own immediately identifiable variations on these. Branded tropes, if you will.

Star Wars (referring to the original 1977 film, not the 1981 abomination named A New Hope) worked because it tapped into a handful of tropes rooted in literal millennia of storytelling. Joseph Campbell's point in The Hero's Journey (which Lucas has repeatedly referenced; nice, readable outline of Campbell's take here) is that some of these "plots" go so far back in human storytelling that they may well predate language itself. I think he's right. Star Wars' twists were in the characters, not the plot outline.

As you say, @ploverwing, laziness is the problem more than familiarity. But it's a huge freakin' problem for sure.
 
Disney has been churning out the same kind of stuff for decades. There's the main characters and their story and then there's the sidekick which is usually some kind of cute little animal or bug to provide the comedy relief or additional comedy.
 
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