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Whatever happened to the golden age of movies? Remember being young and
going to see a movie and how it seemed like a whole world was being seen
on screen? Now with the advent of computer imagery, things may move a
little more realistically, but somehow, it isn't more realistic. I
remember great movies like The Dark Crystal and the original Star Wars
movies. Done with puppets and people in suits and THOSE were the movies
that made me feel like I was being immersed in another universe. Hollywood
seems to think that cheap real looking effects are the way to go, and I
guess from a business standpoint, thatÂ’s true. But as real as you make it
look, it's still missing a certain something . . . a certain human element, I
guess.
Still, as in everything, there are exceptions. I mean, I liked Star Wars:
Episode I. I think the problem is finding a balance between computer
generated art and human generated art and how people can get carried away. George Lucas
treads that line VERY carefully ... IMHO, he hurt the original trilogy by
playing with this, but I think he did a good job on episode I ( whether or
not you people liked JarJar... get over it, really ). Another great work
that involved both human and computer generated animation was Titan A.E.,
a great combo of computer generated technology and Don Bluth's old style
rendered characters made for a beautiful, yet involving story.
There really is something to be said about today's Hollywood brand of
manufactured pictures, even without the computer effects, it's like they
pump out scripts and actors overnight. One thing that I found REALLY
unnecessary was the remake of House on Haunted Hill. This was ALMOST as
pointless as the remake of Psycho ( But in both cases, Hollywood knew they
could make more money off of these franchises ). House on Haunted Hill was
a great movie starring Vincent Price ( Actor to beat all actors ), an
absolute gem in the classic horror films. Then comes a remake, half as
good, almost the same story, starring some guy trying REALLY hard to be
Vincent Price ( to the point that the character's last name is Price! )
but doesn't come close, cause you need "the voice" to be Vincent. And
Psycho, a movie that was remade SHOT FOR SHOT with different, less well
cast actors. It's like Hoillywood thinks like little kids do! ( We don't
like Black and White... we want color! ) wtf?
And then there's the lowest of the low. The release of just dreadful
monsters. Now once again, don't get me wrong...I love horror movies, I love
camp, I love cheesy.... But some stuff is just stupid... like Dracula 2000,
for example... Where it's discovered ***SPOILER***
that Dracula was actually Judas ( see - The Bible ), and that all the
things that afflict him and all vampires have to do with the day he hanged
himself and god did not let him die ... Sheesh ...
Don't even talk to me about the state of comedy!! remember any of the old
great comedies? Stuff the used to star Eddie Murphy, Dan Akroyd, Steve
Martin, John Candy, etc. etc... These types of comedies are a dying breed,
quickly replaced by fart, shit, sex humour ... har har ... ( Eddie Murphy
not excluded ). I cannot freaking believe that Scary movie had as much
success as it did, and that's all I'm going to say about that!!!!
Rambling on as usual, I'll leave at that and the fact that the movies are
just going downhill from here in a "let's dumb down the audience"
kind of mentality ...
Stephane Morrell
(xipetotec)
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