Why the state of movie watching is depressing me ...

[quietprofanity]

So ... I consider myself a fan of movies, but to be honest, I've only watched two in this past month, both on DVD: Pan's Labyrinth and the original A Star is Born. It seems weird to me, because I got heavily into movies in college ... I was so into my one film criticism class that the professor actually offered to write me a recommendation if I ever wanted to go to NYU for film criticism. cyberweasel has asked if I would be happier doing that.

I'm not sure anymore. The whole being-a-reviewer thing doesn't seem as fun. Mostly because ... I don't know if movies are that great. And I'm not trying to sound like a crank who is going, "Oh, things aren't what they used to be ..." I don't know if they were EVER good. At least all around.

Of course, 90 percent of everything is crap but ... in the movie business it just seems like there is SO MUCH crap, and the crap is just paraded about CONSTANTLY and then in two years it's gone. Not that other industries have its own parading. (i.e. The DaVinci Code -- and yes, it is a piece of shit. If you enjoyed it, that's cool. I fully respect your opinion to like whatever you like. The book is still a piece of shit.) But the "here today gone tomorrow" is just so constant ... and whatever does stick, I usually can't understand WHY it sticks. (Like Wedding Crashers. And yes, honey, I liked it ... but I'm surprised at the merchandise it got.)

And I'm partly pissed because some time ago I learned my favorite theater, a multiplex near my college that served nice food and wouldn't play those awful soda commercials and actually showed INDEPENDENT films on a multiplex ... became an ordinary, annoying theater because a new person bought it. And I don't know of anything else like it and haven't found anything like it in the new place I moved to and ... yeah.

The thing is, I get the whole point of the people dictating the market and all. Certainly more than this bozo. And it's not like seeing the kind of movies I want to see isn't possible. Always Netflix, for example ... it's just kind of a big bummer ... I want to see these movies when they come out! But ... meh. The whole situation has just killed my excitement in films. I can't go see what I want until six months (at the very least) after I've heard about it. So why get excited?

I'm too tired, anyway.

I'm just tired of the sequels, and the "Look at our stunts!" films, I'm tired of Hollywood's inability to make a superhero film with a good female hero (that's why they suck, by the way -- it's because they're BAD, not because the hero is female), I'm tired of the endless promoting of stars who haven't actually done anything yet (I'm looking at you, Vin Diesel), I'm tired of the goddman slumming I see in all the kids films ... and I'm really, really, really tired of pretty much anything marketed to women. I'm tired of half-ass efforts, I guess. But that's what so many people like.

But then again, I went to see and liked (with reservations) Spider-Man 3, so maybe I'm just as dumb as everyone else.

Comments

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Ratatouille doesn't seem quite like my thing. (Pixar is great, but I skipped Cars and don't feel like I missed anything.) If a lot of people I know give me stellar reviews I'll go see it.

I'll also probably see The Simpsons Movie, but it'll be a "when-I-get-around-to-it" thing. Previews made me giggle ...

"Black Sheep: A genetic engineering experiment at a family farm goes horribly wrong, turning hundreds of sheep into vengeful killers."

Hah! I hope the trailer was totally serious and without irony all Blood Ocean-y. That would make it perfect.