Are Movies Dead?

[roquat]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:25am

Anyone else out there feel like movies just aren't central to our culture any more? The only ones that seem to get made are overblown comic-book spectacles and grossout frat-boy comedies. There don't seem to be any movies that matter to our generation or that inspire discussion (well, BORAT maybe)--TV has taken over that function. The end-of-year Oscar bait gets more and more halfhearted and even the indie-film scene is getting lackluster and conventional.

(If you hate movies, please don't bother posting sarcastic responses. I've probably heard them already.)

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:26am

Movies aren't dead. I offer LITTLE CHILDREN as a rebuttal.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:27am

Yes.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:27am

I offer full-size adults as support for my argument.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:34am

Of course there are still good movies coming out (THE QUEEN), but they seem more and more like exceptions (or flukes). The only way to make a serious movie is to put it at the end of the year and hope for Oscars, yet the movies made in that spirit tend to be overblown and pretentious. Aside from BORAT, what was the last movie you remember that "everyone was talking about" (in terms other than "the special effects were AWESOME!")

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:37am

I dropped in to warn you about Foster the Movie Grinch, but I see that I'm too little, too late.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:47am

United 93...

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:49am

Actually, I haven't heard a single person talking about BORAT.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:52am

I didn't care for THE QUEEN. In fact, I fell asleep toward the end. I think it played like an HBO film.

I wouldn't say that movies are dead, but they have become mediocre, in my opinion.

[DG]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 3:12am

I may have given some credence to this inquiry if if hadn't included the thought that TV has 'taken over that function'.

On what planet is the degeneration to reality television considered the next wave of artistic or critical perspective?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 3:13am

I agree with you about THE QUEEN; and, Helen Mirren never once reminded me of QEII.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 3:20am

I wrote in another thread that Mirren's performance was nothing to rave about. I don't see what all the fuss is about.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 8:09am

The way we see them will be changing. I think it funny that movies started out in nickelodeons & graduated to movie palaces. We are now regressing back to nickelodeons with shoeboxed sized theaters & postage stamp sized screens

Blockbuster will soon go the way of the 5 cent cigar. The competiton from Netflix & pay per view cable will do them in

Blockbuster killed mom & pop video stores so too will Blockbuster become irrelevant. Survival of the fittest

Updated On: 12/23/06 at 08:09 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 12:47pm

Actually, the archaic clunky mechanism of mailing a dvd via Netflix will be replaced by On Demand downloading directly to your video viewing device.

[duroc]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:06pm

Isn't Netflixs also going to be offering downloadable movies? I thought I had heard that.

concerning 'are movies dead', I don't feel they are. I think the decline in quality has to do with a decline in society. seems like all people are concerned w/ these days are special effects and big explosions. oh, and I think people are starting to run out of original ideas, hence all the remakes.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:40pm

I understand what you mean by "movies are dead."

The EVENT and the specialness of seeing a film is all-but-gone now. I agree with that.

Why? Everything to do with "entertainment" is on-demand now. We have access to everything, whenever we want it, as much as we want to see it.

Gone is the idea of sitting with a "community" in a social setting viewing a film that will, after its run, get locked in a vault for 10-15 years or so, until (if it was a big enough hit to begin with) it will see a near-equally exciting re-release to the masses.

Gone is even my own childhood experience of the annual viewing of The Wizard of Oz. That specialness and excitement is no more, because I can watch my 3-disc DVD special edition, whenever I choose. I own over 1,000 films on DVD now... and can watch any of them whenever I choose.

I still love them... but the "specialness" of seeing them is something we don't have now. I often miss films in the theatre now, because a DVD, pay-per-view, or downloadable copy of it will be available to me within months after its release. We can watch it on a plane, in a bathroom, in bed, in a car... wherever and whenever we want.

And that has made them no more special an occurrence than picking up a magazine at your local checkout line. In fact, movies are right next to them on the rack.