Interesting article, but I have to question the common notion that video games involve a short attention span. I just spent about 18 hours playing a single session of Civilization 3. The amount of time I’ve spent playing Hearts of Iron 3 is simply ridiculous; hundreds of hours no doubt. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the Rainbow Six series of games. I’ve seen people playing God of War 2 for 20 hours straight.
Excepting Wii Sports types, most video games involve tons of constant play time. The also get that play time because they are generally better in all respects than the movies that are coming out.
I think a good way to divide the seemingly sharp fall of major Hollywood movies may be when Vampires switched from evil bad guys to whatever the hell they are now. I still say this is a mid to late 90’s thing
Not a bad rubrick. Bram Stoker’s Dracula = Good. All vampires after Dracula = Lame.
Not having a TV there is something I don’t know: do they still play the Ten Commandments around Christmas season on TV? I used to watch it every year when I was a youngin’.
the consesus is clear. TOM CRUISE RUINED CINEMA!!! (But I am not ashamed to admit I actually liked Interview with a Vampire!! Despite the ambigious man-on-man eye-googling).
TOM CRUISE RUINED CINEMA!!! (But I am not ashamed to admit I actually liked Interview with a Vampire!! Despite the ambigious man-on-man eye-googling).
I liked interview too. I think Dracula (w/ Gary Oldmen) and Interview were kind of the “changing of the guard” though. Tom Cruise also married Katie Holmes who lived a block away from me (and still lives a block away from my mom), so I’m kind of pissed at him for stealing my girl.
On Ten Commandments:
They still play it every Passover on ABC. I actually have had a ritual the past 20 years of my life where I get sick off of eating 10 Cadberry eggs while watching it every year.
They still play it every Passover on ABC. I actually have had a ritual the past 20 years of my life where I get sick off of eating 10 Cadberry eggs while watching it every year.
It’s too bad they leave out that crazy part right after God tells Moses to go talk to the Pharaoh and then jumps out of the bushes and mugs him until his wife cuts his kid’s foreskin off. I wish someone would make Bible movies that are actually like the Bible. Angels with arms and legs of bronze, encrusted in gems, faces like lightning or crazy Vedic-style spinning heads with the faces of an Eagle, Lion and Ox, seven wings made of fire, etc. No, we get metrosexual dudes in dresses with bird wings.
Parts of the Bible need to be adapted as a thriller, or fantasy action movie or something totally unexpected with an emphasis on the crazy/supernatural elements of the book. Keep the story and characters the same - not the weak bibical allegory crap we usually get - just direct it as a different kind of movie.
Trust me, if I had a few hundred million sitting around this would already be done. I think the Old Testament is an awesomely weird spin on Mesopotamian mythology. Most people would be astounded to find out that Cherubs aren’t fat little baby-men, but lion-bulls with four faces on one head; or that other angels are variously encrusted in gems and made of polished bronze with faces like lightning and eyes of fire. So much cool stuff, but all we get is the blah-blah-blah from the preacher taking stuff out of context because he wants to ignore what a bunch of bad ass D&D stuff it really is.
This whole thread is an application in Rose tinted glasses. Movies are fine, tv is fine. It was no better back “in the day.”
Casablanca if it were released today would be a joke. Different times, different measures. It’s like saying Classic art is better than modern art. Different times, different measures… it’s just your/mine/his/her opinion!
Yeah, we’re white tower intellectuals; which is why we don’t like superficial crap. Sure, they made a lot of it back in the day but they also made more good stuff. Values are subjective, but they’re not always arbitrary. There is a reason why some people read Clancy and some read LeCarre.
I actually hated Titanic. Everything about that movie was WAY too overdone. Granted Cameron has a tendency to overdo most of his movies, what works in a science fiction type story does not work in a period piece love story. The only good thing about that movie was the sets and costumes which captured the time period very well. I also hated Avatar just because it was so damn boring, despite the nice effects. To be honest Cameron hasnt done anything worth watching since Aliens.
I liked Pans Labrynth just because of Del Torro’s eye towards art direction. I think if any other directior had taken that film on it would have come out as a bizzarro gross-out flick, or ended up being overly sentemintal. But Del Torro got the ‘feel’ of the film just right imo. I think he was also the main reason the Hellboy movies were watchable(notice I didnt say ‘good’).
Probably the best movie in recent memory is actually Batman Begins. Which is not only the best re-telling of Batmans origin ever, but is just a damn good movie overall. I also greatly enjoyed True Grit this last year.
To elaborate on my vast disappointment with the Matrix movies: poorly done, too short John Woo knock-off gun fights, gibberish Solipsist plotline, bad acting, cheesy dialogue, badly done Jesus pastiche plus uber generic ‘Hero’s Journey’; not to mention the repetitive ‘machinez are gunna kill us’ BS. No thank you. Goldeneye was more profound than the Matrix.
I definetly felt that way about the second two Matrix films. But I think the first one was fairly well done overall. Although still a bit overrated.
Now hold on for just a minute, here. Did you really say “the Matrix movies”?? When the Wachowski brothers made The Matrix, it was obvious they had no intention of making a sequel for it. The story was self-contained and the metaphorical message of the movie was clear. They only made the sequels because they were forced to by the business side, I’m guessing. The second and third Matrix movies are unrecognizable… they have a “bolt on” feel. The special effects were great but that’s about it.
I seem remember hearing when the first Matrix came out that it was planned as a trillogy…I could be mis-remembering though…
I agree that they should have stopped after the first Matrix(and maybe the ani-matrix)
I was very pleased with last year’s The Social Network and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Ricky if you want to piss me off, please attack those movies.
I liked the Social Network, although it wasnt one of my favorites.
Scott Pilgram might have been good, but they completely screwed up the twins(my favorites of Ramona’s exs from the comics), and completely cut Knives Chau’s dad out of the film.
they sacrifice actually interesting history for woo-woo flashy crap; what’s the point of rewriting a cheesy action movie to take place in 10,000 B.C.? I’d much rather see a movie about the real Neolithic age
I do have to agree with you here Ricky. The pyramids speculation and the magic really dragged down the movie for me. It would have been just as interesting without either one of those.
But I still enjoyed Troy despite its’ blatant rewrite. You just have to take it for what it is, instead of sitting up in the proverbial white tower thinking you know better than the people.
Not a bad rubrick. Bram Stoker’s Dracula = Good. All vampires after Dracula = Lame.
I’m of the opinion that nobody should ever have played Dracula after Bella Lugosi.
I did enjoy Interview with a Vampire though. Although I actually liked most of Ann Rice’s novels, despite the fact that she’s mostly responsible for the pussifi-cation of the vampire(although Stephanie Meyer took it a whole-nother-level).
The best screen portrayls of vampires in recent years have been Blade(the first one anyway…Blade II and III…not so much), and Buffy, although it was MUCH better as a TV series than as a movie.
I have a hard time playing a game for more than 90 minutes and that too on weekends only.
If you have played some of the old adventure games like Shadow of the Comet or KGB, or if you have played old roleplaying games like Betrayal at Krondor or Wizardry 6, you’ll find that these games are so challenging and involve such seemingly unsurpassable obstacles that you simply put the game down, mull over that situation or obstacle across the day as you do other things, and rush back much later when you have the Eureka! moment. As such, you might not play them for a stretch longer than 30 minutes.
If a game involves hard thinking, it should lead you to playing it less, no more.
Praty, Praty, Praty I know what you mean I really really do, it is scary…resally really scary. But that just means you do not know the power of civ, even if you hate video games (Bach is on the soundtrack!).
