I think the real gems of cinema of recent years have been animations. Films like Ratatouille spring to mind.
Regarding the big blockbusters - they usually dissapointed as a matter of course, you really have to work hard to find something inspiring if you're really in to movies.o
Exactly, it's the same with everything, music, TV, whatever, the rose-tint just reminds you of the stuff you loved and forgets the dross you watched.
The fact is the yoof of today will be as attached to many of the franchises around as we were to ours.
One thing I will say though, I don't quite get why films are so long nowadays. I watched "They Live" last night, in many ways it was bloody awful,( brilliant satire in there too, but ruined by the general awfulness, but that's another subject) but at least it was only 90 minutes.
Edit: Oh and what Muttley said too:D
There seems to be a belief nowadays that length equals importance and that short running times are for comedies and horror films. I was very surprised that Gravity was only 90 minutes, I expected two hours minimum.
Part of the problem is the film industry has never felt more like a business than it does now, anything that turns a profit seems to become a 'franchise' so you end up with seven movies for mediocre pap such as the fast and furious or suggestions of new Hunger Games and Hobbit movies even if there's no source material to draw from. A complete lack of imagination in general from Hollywood and all the emphasis on effects and wow moments rather than narrative, it's funfair cinema of the worst kind and will seem like complete bilge in years to come as the special effects date with nothing else to warrant any real merit. In other era's with the exception of Bond we used to get three movies tops for a successful film series, now we can look forward to Transformers 8 in around 5 or 6 years time.
I personally think it is the pacing/ratings of many of today's blockbusters that is the problem, in the 80's the blockbusters seemed to run for about 120 mins, plus they where not afraid to make a film an 18, nowadays the blockbusters seem to be dumbed down for the family market and are over long.
The lack of 18 rated films is definitely the problem for me. i've seen one this year at the cinema, Wolf Of Wall street, and it's been my favourite this year too. The rest have been either 12As or the odd 15, and amongst those there's been a few that really would have been better with more adult content instead of the self censorship down to lower ratings to increase box office appeal. Add to that the number of remakes recently, and you end up with movies like the Robocop remake - the original was an 18, desevedly so and great for it, yet the remake was a 12A and suffered for it, while simultanously containing scenes I wouldn't really like an under 12 of mine to see.
There's been loads of recent films that have been enjoyable and thought provoking. We have recent films like Inception, Source code, the book thief, the Da Vinci code etc. If you really want a mind bender then you need to watch the new Ethan Hawke film Predestination!
There have been tons of good films that will remain classics imo.
Comments
Regarding the big blockbusters - they usually dissapointed as a matter of course, you really have to work hard to find something inspiring if you're really in to movies.o
There seems to be a belief nowadays that length equals importance and that short running times are for comedies and horror films. I was very surprised that Gravity was only 90 minutes, I expected two hours minimum.
The lack of 18 rated films is definitely the problem for me. i've seen one this year at the cinema, Wolf Of Wall street, and it's been my favourite this year too. The rest have been either 12As or the odd 15, and amongst those there's been a few that really would have been better with more adult content instead of the self censorship down to lower ratings to increase box office appeal. Add to that the number of remakes recently, and you end up with movies like the Robocop remake - the original was an 18, desevedly so and great for it, yet the remake was a 12A and suffered for it, while simultanously containing scenes I wouldn't really like an under 12 of mine to see.
There have been tons of good films that will remain classics imo.