Riding the Nostalgia

[SkyBubble]

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.

Most movie trailers, the things designed to sell the movie to me, show me it's godawful and I have no need to watch it, even if it's free.

 

[Nynah]

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.

I think this hinges largely on what you consider worthwhile. Yes, a lot of the films nowadays tend to be sequels or reboots of subjects done in the 70s/80s/90s (mostly because Gen X/Y/Z are old enough now for that nostalgia to be tapped into) but that doesn't mean there haven't been efforts made to produce new IPs.

Giving myself the last 7 years as an arbitrary measure, here's a list of original movies that I've personally enjoyed over that time span:

Sinners (2025) - Period piece that tackles racism and culture in the American South with a supernatural element.
Conclave (2024) - Who knew Catholicism could be so interesting?
Barbie (2023) - Somewhat of a cheat because Barbie as a media franchise has been around for what seems like forever but the movie was surprisingly moving and honestly hilarious.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - Probably my favorite movie of all time, it defies genre and is just really cutting metaphor for what it means to value family.
Encanto (2021) - It's a kids film, but adults can and should resonate with the subtler themes of family and pressure and obligations.
Tenet (2020) - Not my favorite Nolan film but it was weird and fast-paced and had that timey-wimey fuckery I love so I definitely enjoyed it.
Knives Out (2019) - Another cheat since there are more Knives Out movies coming out, but this is the one that started it all and is honestly just a really fun whodunnit done really well.

Hollywood is still coming out with new and original stuff. Again, the question is whether or not you consider any of it "worthwhile". I enjoyed these movies here I've mentioned, so they were worthwhile to me.

 

[lovecraft68]

Most movie trailers, the things designed to sell the movie to me, show me it's godawful and I have no need to watch it, even if it's free.

Or they show you too much of the movie or the best parts and the rest of the movie sucks.

Joker 2, already a massive flop, had several scenes in the trailer with Lady Gaga that are never in the movie.

 

[Dearelliot]

Kirk


Charles Durning

Just finished watching the film Nice, glad you mentioned it...enjoyed it.