Riding the Nostalgia

[AwkwardlySet]

This is an old topic, but I couldn't help making a post after seeing this trailer.

It's been 40 years since this hit, and I don't doubt it will fill the theaters once again. I loved the movie and would likely go see it again for the fun of it. But it seems to me that Hollywood is incapable of creating anything new and worthwhile these days. It's all remakes and restarts and n-th iterations of franchises that ran their course long ago.
We've also discussed the quality of writing in many of the TV shows and movies at length. It seems that decent releases are more of an exception than a rule these days.

What are your thoughts? Am I being too gloomy about this?

 

[AchtungNight]

You have to learn to see the merit in each movie you watch. Yes, a lot of what has come out recently is not that good, but all the movies I’ve paid to see in theaters this year so far I have enjoyed. Look for good writing, action, acting, whatever excites you. Laughs might also be worthwhile. And yeah, nostalgia sometimes works too. I know I had fun finally seeing Return of the Jedi in theaters a few years ago- I was too young back in the 80s. Will I see Back to the Future in theaters? Maybe. Depends on my schedule and mood.

 

[StillStunned]

Like they say in The Lord of the Rings: "The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own."

(No, I'm not trying to argue that Hollywood is inherently evil. I just thought it was a particularly amusing parallel.)

 

[ElectricBlue]

This is an old topic, but I couldn't help making a post after seeing this trailer.

It's been 40 years since this hit, and I don't doubt it will fill the theaters once again. I loved the movie and would likely go see it again for the fun of it. But it seems to me that Hollywood is incapable of creating anything new and worthwhile these days. It's all remakes and restarts and n-th iterations of franchises that ran their course long ago.
We've also discussed the quality of writing in many of the TV shows and movies at length. It seems that decent releases are more of an exception than a rule these days.

What are your thoughts? Am I being too gloomy about this?

Jaws has a 50th Anniversary cinema release here in Oz. Which is a much better idea than a remake.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It's been 40 years since this hit, and I don't doubt it will fill the theaters once again. I loved the movie and would likely go see it again for the fun of it. But it seems to me that Hollywood is incapable of creating anything new and worthwhile these days. It's all remakes and restarts and n-th iterations of franchises that ran their course long ago.
We've also discussed the quality of writing in many of the TV shows and movies at length. It seems that decent releases are more of an exception than a rule these days.

What are your thoughts? Am I being too gloomy about this?

Umm, s'cuuuse me, but a Pal named George would like a word. And of course, Mr. Wells (1895 book)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine#1960_film

The story of time travel has been done multiple times. In this case it was a chair, in the movie you quoted it was a car, a couple of years later it was a phone booth.


In 1944 it was a ball; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Flies_(1944_film)

In 1934, it was an apple; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Morning,_Eve!

In the 1889 book, it was a bump on the head; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur's_Court

That one also spawned several movies, one in 1921; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur's_Court_(1921_film)



None of those involved a cabbie named Jim though.

 

[lovecraft68]

I used to think it was me, the "Movies from my time were better" thing, but its not that, Hollywood is creatively(to go along with always being morally) bankrupt. They have nothing. Just about everything is a remake, reboot, sequel, prequel and beating franchises to death and the thing they try to do, the "we'll take this classic and make it appeal to modern audience' usually ends up shitting on the original and pissing that crowd off and being disingenuous enough to tick off newer viewers by simply being a hot mess.

This is in every genre as well, so its not fatigue within a specific group, its everything.

And I'll just say the elephant in the room, people are politicizing everything. Go watch moron you tube reviewers, you can no longer like or dislike a movie without being told you feel that way because you're either rightwing or woke. It is hard to find someone who will do a straight up review-for the big-time channels-that doesn't cry for one side or the other.

Hollywood, Disney and others now fan bait before a movie comes out "People aren't going to like this because it has a female lead or its this or that" and have people turned against it before it even comes out but the trick is they're pre medicating the movies failure. "No one saw it because all those rightwing/leftwing people were bashing it.

Fact is no one saw or liked it because it flat out sucked and no one cares.

I'm going to see a screening of Jaws for its 50th birthday, there are "Crush it like Quint" billboards around all the liqour stores. No movie coming out today will be remembered like that in a few years never mind decades.

If someone thinks there is one, let me know what you think it is because I'd be interested in the opinion because I see nothing in any genre that even if its decent, isn't exactly going to be a classic.

 

[iwatchus]

Movies go through cycles of being good and bad. The American film industry is definitely in a down period.

The films in the twenties were getting to be well done when talkies came out and the quality went way down as filmmakers learned to make good dialogue (just like needed to). By the late 30's, we were in a real golden age, with movies ranging from Rebecca to Wizard of Oz showing the range of what the medium could do. But WWII came, and they swapped to making propaganda films and the whole thing went to shit. As a whole, the movies in the fifties were much worse than the movies from the late thirties.

But the international films were interesting (most influentially French, Italian and Japanese but there were others) and the film students were watching those, which brought a real revival to the American industry in the late 60's and early 70's (say Butch Cassidy to Apocalypse Now). Then Jaws and Star Wars ruined everything (no complaints from me about either of those movies, just the message that Hollywood learned from their success).

The mid nineties (94 was a watershed year for movies) pushed back against the action adventure block buster hegemony. But Marvel super hero genre wiped that all back out (I mean, I liked some of them too, but enough is enough. But they make money. Or did.)

I think streaming services have disrupted what would have been the next golden age. In the 2010's, there was a panel discussion somewhere, where it was observed that the best sound directors wanted to work on series now because it gave them much more freedom than any other outlet. And there have been some wonderful series made. I think the quality is now spread between international films, hollywood and the streaming services too much to give consistent strong theatrical releases now.

Sorry to ramble. Like a character in my original series, I was originally a film major.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No one remembers what I consider to be one of the more unique time travel movies.

In 'The Final Countdown', the Nuclear powered U.S.S. Nimitz passes through a vortex and ends up near Pearl on December 6, 1941. The dogfight scene between 2 F-14 Tomcats and 2 Japanese Zeroes is quite a thing to see.


Pretty sure there won't be any 50th anniversary hubub.

 

[iwatchus]

I remember that movie. I saw it and Philadelphia Experiment around the same time and blurred the two sometimes. Both memorably mediocre movies combining modern day (well 80's) and WWII.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No one remembers what I consider to be one of the more unique time travel movies.

In 'The Final Countdown', the Nuclear powered U.S.S. Nimitz passes through a vortex and ends up near Pearl on December 6, 1941. The dogfight scene between 2 F-14 Tomcats and 2 Japanese Zeroes is quite a thing to see.


Pretty sure there won't be any 50th anniversary hubub.

It was also the first time the Tomcats were big screen stars, but the one that came out six years later with the cult runt got all the attention.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/spl...ovie-that-introduced-the-tomcat-to-hollywood/

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Mediocre my ass. It was one of the best films ever made and had one of the most chilling ending lines ever written.

"Please join us. We have a lot to talk about."

 

[ruddygore]

Part of it is fear of failure. As an example, the studio knows Marvel sells and makes money. Why risk something new that might be a failure. Especially in a field where reputation is important, the last thing a director or actor wants is to be associated with a complete failure of a film.

But I still don't think any of them are as good as Biazing Saddles

 

[iwatchus]

I still can't believe he made Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in the same year. I almost included Blazing Saddles as my end point movie for the late 60-early 70's second golden age.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

There's something to be said here about the fundamental incompatibility of a film 'industry' based on the profit motive and film being an art form...

Having said that, I saw the new Naked Gun reboot/remake recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[iwatchus]

Reboots and remakes can be good. Th remake of Thomas Crown in 1999 was notably better than the original. I especially liked using Faye Dunaway in a supporting role (she was the leading female character in the original). I am somewhat concerned about the upcoming third version.

We just had a discussion in another thread about the original WestWorld vs the HBO series.

 

[AG31]

I used to think it was me, the "Movies from my time were better" thing, but its not that, Hollywood is creatively(to go along with always being morally) bankrupt.

And the critics have caved and gone along with it. Manola Dargis of the NYT devoted a half page to praising both F1 with Brad Pitt (no plot to speak of) and The Naked Gun. I'd happily watch Liam Neeson brush his teeth, but the humor was really lame compared to the original.

It's a dismal time. Not only are the audiences dumbed down (probably from X length communication), but the writers are too. The critics have to go along with the flow.

 

[lovecraft68]

And the critics have caved and gone along with it. Manola Dargis of the NYT devoted a half page to praising both F1 with Brad Pitt (no plot to speak of) and The Naked Gun. I'd happily watch Liam Neeson brush his teeth, but the humor was really lame compared to the original.

It's a dismal time. Not only are the audiences dumbed down (probably from X length communication), but the writers are too. The critics have to go along with the flow.

Naked Gun to me was like the Crow in that the lead was iconic and just leave it be.

I keep thinking they had that big writer's strike because they were afraid of being replaced by AI and since then haven't done a thing to prove they'd be any better than AI. AI generally pulls from previously written content, which is all Hollywood has been doing.

I've said in other threads-and other folks as well-that the Rings of Power, a billion dollar venture-has writing so awful it's hard to believe its real.

 

[Dearelliot]

No one remembers what I consider to be one of the more unique time travel movies.

In 'The Final Countdown', the Nuclear powered U.S.S. Nimitz passes through a vortex and ends up near Pearl on December 6, 1941. The dogfight scene between 2 F-14 Tomcats and 2 Japanese Zeroes is quite a thing to see.


Pretty sure there won't be any 50th anniversary hubub.

Yeah I remember that, maybe with Michael Douglas..???..not sure, there was a senator on board, they had rescued.

 

[Dearelliot]

My wife and I like to watch old foreign films that we saw in Berlin in the 60s. I have to say, we're pretty disappointed in our taste in films, back then.

 

[Comshaw]

Jaws has a 50th Anniversary cinema release here in Oz. Which is a much better idea than a remake.

"You're gunna' need a bigger boat!"


Comshaw

 

[lovecraft68]

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Yeah I remember that, maybe with Michael Douglas..???..not sure, there was a senator on board, they had rescued.

Kirk


Charles Durning

 

[lovecraft68]

A lot of people point to Fatal Attraction as being the first of the crazy stalker slew of movies that came from it-including the underrated Madonna movie Body of Evidence-but back in the seventies Clint Eastwood starred in Play Misty for me. Hollywood has always gone backwards to bring something forward, but while also churning out different material, now they're just going back.

Beetlejuice was a great movie. But no one needed a sequel 30+ and it came and went fast enough to prove it.

Even Stranger Things blew up because of all the cool eighties nostalgia. Hooked me in quick with the kids playing D&D and the brother playing the Clash with the iconic Evil Dead poster in his room

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Misty was '71.

This was '70: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bird_with_the_Crystal_Plumage


I'm certain there were some in the 60s and 50s, probably the 40s, but my Search Fu is worn and frayed.