I keep hearing, from people in the industry, that each day more and more big shot directors and movie stars are gravitating towards TV because that's where good, original writing are these days.
"Cinema Verite" sure proves their point. Personally, two of the best movies I've seen this year (and I pretty much see everything that opens) were made-for-TV-movies. Well, I know that technically "Mildred Pierce" is a miniseries, but you get my point!
It seems that all the movie industry wants to do is crappy remakes of movies that weren't all that great in the first place. Two remakes are playing right now: The Killer Elite and Straw Dogs. Does anyone have an original idea left in the movie industry?
I just read the week's rundown where they are saying the industry is disappointed that The Killer Elite is flopping at the box office. Well, the original The Killer Elite (which came out when I was in high school) flopped miserably in its day, why would remaking it 30 years later somehow make a bad story better?
It it weren't for the original series, miniseries and made for cable films on Showtime/HBO, I would have had those services disconnected a long time ago. It is the original content that makes those channels worth paying for; not the recycled Hollywood dreck flowing from the studios.
Considering how few films interest me at the theater these days (including winter, when the "good" films are released), I'd say the box has already taken over. "Game Change" and "Behind the Candelabra" are two other recent excellent cable offerings. Plus you don't have to put up with people talking on their cell phones at home.
shareThis week I learned that the biggest box office of '92 was "Basic Insticnt!" I was a shocked because no one would even bother to write a screenplay like "Basic Instinct" because all the sex would be left on the floor of the cutting room, if the execs wouldn't have cut it from the page to begin with.
But even if this film got made, it would probably stay in the Festival circuit, but if like a miracle someone bought it and release it WOULD NEVER be the biggest box office of the year. Think of last year, and the years before that, hell, think of the last ten years! All the biggest movies were dumb teen-oriented blockbuster.
They simply don't give a reason for adults to go to the movies anymore. To think there was a time were my parents were the people responsible for the success of a film is mind blowing! They haven't stepped inside a movie theater in about ten years.
Indeed. Sexuality is pretty taboo in American films these days, at least from a grownup's perspective. But substitute sex for mind-numbing violence, especially involving superheroes, and the studios will pay attention – especially if they can eke out a PG-13 rating. I don't want to overpraise "Basic Instinct" because I think it's pretty cheesy and exploitive (though very entertaining, I might add), but it is at least an "adult" film the likes of which we don't see much of these days.
There was a time when most movies were actually made for grownups, many of whom would take their children along depending on the content – but not always. That seemed to change with "Jaws" in 1975, and "Star Wars" really ushered in the blockbuster era in 1977. I'm not criticizing either film (though I'm really not a "Star Wars" fan), but it was pretty obvious to the studios that a younger audience proved much more profitable, and the rest is history.
Yep, teens go to see super heroe movies even more than one time, so if you run a studio and your job is to make money... There you go!
Last Monday I went to see a Billy Wilder Festival that was happening here in S. Paulo, Brazil, where I'm currently residing and it was not only raining cats and dogs out there but it was on a Monday at 1pm! I was shocked to see that the 300+ seat theater was almost half-full.
I see everything, I go to the movies an average of four time a week (never on weekends, though) to see even films that I'm positive will be bad simply because I LOVE the movie-going experience and I must say that even blockbusters like "The Hangover III" that I saw on a Wednesday afternoon had only about fifty people in it two weeks after it had opened. And I was so surprised to see that so many people (mostly adults, obviously) got out of their home on a cold and raining Monday to watch Billy Wilder's noir classic, "Double Indemnity." I was happy to see that adults still want to go out, catch a movie, have some diner, but there's simply nothing for them, so...
Oh, an I'm not an adult, I just turned 22, but I'm not retarded and therefore I'm not the anxious at all about the next Transformers, or Iron Man, etc...