51–60 of 98 posts
Eh non-english speaking movies don't exist anymore?
Oldboy (Korea), City of God (Brazil), Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico), and Spirited Away (Japan) are all on those, and that's not an exhaustive list.
Interesting. I'd just been thinking about this. The last two new releases I tried watching were so bad that I couldn't finish either of them. I know this is only 2 data points, but they were both bad in the same way: they were completely predictable. That's something you commonly see in a declining medium. People recycle old ideas instead of having new ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spolia
It's been my theory that now we have movies that are more inspired by computer games and other movies than real life. This is subtly manifesting itself in a bizarre circular feedback loop.
Major studio economics have changed in recent years and it is now critical that movies have a global, universal appeal.
Their major profit centres are evaporating before their eyes (back catalog tv licencing and dvd sales), along with declining domestic audiences.
In order to turn a profit the movies must be as generic and acceptable as possible: lots of children, the hero's journey and other myths, no sex or swearing, "fake" comic book violence or none at all.
Any kind of NC-17/Restricted rating is the kiss of death. Anything controversial will be a flop.
The problem is the death spiral of risk-aversion, unoriginality, and plot refinement to the point where the "movie" will be perfected and there will be nothing left to film.
Lord or the Rings is the new mythology.. the archetype of the Hero's Journey. Once you print it to film.. what's the point of retelling the story?
Two things: * I don't think polarization is a good signal for poor quality; I would rather suggest it means a more niche product, more highly focused. That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate. * I think big-budget movies have been getting more conservative and predictable, but I would hazard a guess that it's due to financial industry turmoil and consequently less desire for risk taking.
"That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate." That is the power of the high school date movie crowd at work.
College kids have lots of other things to spend their money on, like booze and, uh, booze. Once you're past that age, the odds of having kids goes up and then going to a movie becomes a major outing. For my wife and I to see a movie in the theatre now, we'll have to shell out close to $80. It's just not worth it, especially as home theatres keep getting better and better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't you feel this might be kind of a cognitive bias? Like when people poll for the best album of all time and it's always something that was released within the last 3 years of whenever the poll was. The social network is of it's time and will date really badly, to the point where no one will watch or mention it ever again. True Grit is a remake so specifically cannot be included as it had to be good enough to have…
I chose these movies not necessarily because I felt they were superb (although I loved them all) but because they were critically acclaimed and all received lots of oscar nominations. Almost by definition, they are the best films of the year. If you compare it to nominated movies ten years ago, Braveheart, Apollo 13, I think they are comparably great. Additionally, box office returns seem to be at all time highs. Bla…
If they were rated recently then there is obvious bias there. Yes/no?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's been my theory that now we have movies that are more inspired by computer games and other movies than real life. This is subtly manifesting itself in a bizarre circular feedback loop.
It has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the universal appeal of comic book/superhero/fantasy mythologies. Major studio economics have changed in recent years and it is now critical that movies have a global, universal appeal. Their major profit centres are evaporating before their eyes (back catalog tv licencing and dvd sales), along with declining domestic audiences. In order to turn a profit…
I don't disagree with you in other respects at all.
Why would extremely polarizing movies be an indicator that movies are getting worse? If anything, more polarization would seem to mean that critics are finding movies more difficult to come to consensus on, which could mean that movies are getting MORE complex and nuanced in their storytelling, which in tern could be taken to mean that movies are getting BETTER.
The reason extremely polarizing movies are an indicator that movies are getting worse is because that is what Moki's data shows. Their graph shows that "polarizing" movies are strongly correlated with low ratings by Moki users (not just critics), and that both are increasing over time (i.e. getting worse). Moki does not claim one causes the other, or try to psychoanalyze users based on their ratings. They simply note…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate." That is the power of the high school date movie crowd at work.
It's more than just date movies. High school kids have lots of disposable income, few bills, plenty of time to kill, can't get into bars, and don't need get hire a babysitter. College kids have lots of other things to spend their money on, like booze and, uh, booze. Once you're past that age, the odds of having kids goes up and then going to a movie becomes a major outing. For my wife and I to see a movie in the thea…
Eh non-english speaking movies don't exist anymore?
What specifically do you think is missing? Remember, it's only the 20 most popular films in a given year. Oldboy (Korea), City of God (Brazil), Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico), and Spirited Away (Japan) are all on those, and that's not an exhaustive list.