I was just browsing the list of highly anticipated movies this summer, and I have to say, wow, it looks to me like movies from every single genre, have gotten ridiculously bad. Is it just me? Before I appear too cynical, it seems the opposite has happened on television. It's not just me. Apparently Dustin Hoffman agrees. http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Dustin-Hoffman-Thinks-Movies-Getting-Worse-72424.html "I think right now television is the best that it’s ever been and I think that it’s the worst that film has ever been – in the 50 years that I’ve been doing it, it’s the worst. …" Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Explanations(most important)?
It's possible movies are getting worse. Or at least seem to. But if so, I think that's just a perception, based the fact people are going to see the Hollywood stuff,while watching intelligent stuff like Breaking Bad and The Last Kingdom at home. But the intelligent movies are there. Go to the Dendy, at least at Newtown, and you'll see some more out-there and diverse stuff amidst the standard stuff. Besides, the Marvel movies may be a little glitz over brains but they're actually reasonably sophisticated. For example the movie Ultron was a great character and exceptionally acted.
I think this quote from the article sums it up. "It’s easy to see why someone who loves cinema, like Hoffman, might look around and not like what he sees. But the nature of the business is ever changing, and people are always bemoaning how things used to be better. This, too, will pass, and before long the landscape will have shifted again to something we haven’t even imagined yet. "
Movies and T.V. are evolving in different directions due to their constraints. Movies have only an hour of two to not only grab the attention and adoration of as many demographics as possible, but they have to do it in a way that they also make back the millions of dollars they've already sunk into the project. T.V. Shows on the other hand have a little bit more leniency, they can have a few episodes that target fewer demographics, people like us who are really interested in the story for one, and still hit their bottom line.
No. Every year I see amazing new films with incredibly well told stories. Just because some of the blockbusters are crap doesn't mean films today are worse. Some are much much better.
I agree that there are good movies, that's why i said, But then I got pressured into making a statement because of comments directed at me such as and So I paniced, and brought up the point that i think the OP was talking about in the first place, how the blockbusters coming out keep failing. Did this work? Of course not... Not going to lie, seeing a, "No." made me literally laugh out loud in an age where i'm lucky if content merits a 'blowing air out my nose'. Either way, i agree with you that there are great movies, and TV shows as well, but the reason some great movies are failing are because of the reasons i listed. probably. maybe. please no one yell at me anymore...
The last up to date movie I thought was good, was Deadpool. Everything else looks like it is made to be bad by design. Though I will admit I would like to see Hardcore Henry, because it is in first POV and looks pretty bad ass in the trailers. But no you are not wrong movies are bad and that is just what you get when you leave everything up to Michael "Explosions for dayz!" Bay, and JJ "Lens Flare Master" Abrams, of course you are going to get shit movies. But hey it makes up for bad acting, and poor plot lines, and an overall thin premise with Explosions for dayz! and blinding Lens Flare!. Seriously hollywood Fck You!
Acting isn't the problem. It's maybe, maybe, a drought in clever designs. But there's plenty of good acting to be had. There's no question there.
Don't know about general quality, but for certainly, they are doing less completely new franchises. A lots of re-launches or remakes coming up this year. And when they come up with something new, they then make a sequel or two pile up the cash. We could say that "it wasn't like that in the good old days", but I feel it actually has always been pretty much the same.
I think there are new genres coming out, movies that would have been previously classified as fantasy. It's a bit like fantasy novels/books/sagas/cannons/etc... in a way. Now you have about three dozen types of "fantasy" all with their own little niche. So perhaps what is now viewed as a mainstream movie is targetting an increasingly younger proportion of their audience and alienating the elder generation that has lived with the old style movies. So perhaps it's not that movies are getting any worse, but perhaps simply because their are changing and the previous generation still treats and judges them by their old standard. Don't get me wrong though, I find that movies now-a-days are a lot worse then some good classics from before the y2k. But that's more a personal preference....
I think there is a mentality in general not just about movies that speaks of good old days, and bemoans things nowadays as getting worse. The thing is memory is selective and cannot be trusted. We often remember the past the way we choose to remember it regardless of what actually occurred. Only the good movies and the good books survive the test of time, and the old ones are forgotten, so we have a skewed view of past movies and books having a better selection than now, forgetting that the good ones accumulated over time, and that even in the old days there were some summers when the movie selection that year was not memorable.
Exactly. The grass is greener on the other side (movies are better in the past). And sentiment is often very powerful in memory. You remember all the "great" stuff then and see the "terrible" stuff now because you forget about the bad old things. And because of Juvenoia,
As a related aside, selective memory can work the other way too. Especially when one is depressed remembering only the bad parts, and then the past becomes much worse than it actually was. And the present is also perceived as much worse than it appears to others. Then it seems hopeless because "in my experience" things are bad and always have been bad, that's that mentality. That's when keeping a diary helps, as evidence of good or at least not so bad days to help one remember. Reviewing writings of critics in the past can reassure one that even in the good old days movies and books were atrocious according to some.
yup. Movies today just don't have IT anymore. I despise the use of CGI and loath remakes, re tellings, re imaginings and what ever other re-crap is out there. Sadly that covers abut 95% of all new flicks (or so it seems)
No, this is a cliche, unsupported ideology that ignores the concept of evolution. While it makes sense in an intuitive sense, like the four elements or hot being the opposite of cold, scientifically it's just incorrect. 1. Some times are objectively better than others. The 80s was an objectively better time for Americans than during the Great Depression. 2. Measurable forces evolve and change. In the case of movies, it is the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry is different today than it was twenty years ago. Therefore, this is not just merely a matter of sentiment. The movies today are actually different than the movies being out out twenty years ago and it's totally feasible that they are either better or worse than they used to be. I know there are very good indie films out there still, but they obviously lack the resources of big budget films.
I agree with you and what I said. It's not simple. There are arguments to be made that films are in a worse state, but I'm not sure that's the case. It's difficult to say.
When he uses The Graduate as an example of the manner in which the writing, directing, and budget were used differently at the time of the making of that film, I have to wonder if the opening of American television to greater latitude and creativity isn't consuming those energies of which he speaks, energies I am sure still exist. When The Graduate was made there was no venue like HBO shows on American TV. That outlet for creative resources simply didn't exist. It seems to me that this is less about better or worse and more about where energies are being directed. Are young fill-makers "seeking refuge" in TV, or are they taking advantage of and flexing an opportunity that didn't exist for their antecedents?
The latter option would imply that there are only a limited number of talented young film makers, and that all/most of them have been "consumed" by television.
There are only a limited number of talented young film-makers. The supply of said individuals is not limitless, obviously. And it would only take a trend of them moving to TV, not a complete abandonment of big screen films. You're speaking in absolutes and absolutes are in no way required to create a net end effect.
Speaking of trends, were I to be asked when the watershed was hit for crap movies from Hollywood, I would personally put it at about 1985. American culture became obsessed with buzzwords and catch phrases right about then and for the next ten years there is a whole slew of films with really bad, self-conscious, tortured dialogue obviously trying to make the next hasta la vista, baby or cowabunga, or what, are you going to arrest me for smoking? happen. I personally feel like we never truly recovered from that creative derail.