John Nolte has written an excellent piece over at Breitbart about the absolute suckage that is modern movies.
I don’t waste my days, my life watching any of this crap. Every time I give something a chance, I get burned. Movies vouched for by critics, stuff I recently wasted my time with, like Lucky (2017) and The Outfit (2022)… Why? Why did I do that? Why did I waste my precious off-hours sifting through the massive pile of garbage that is Amazon Prime, that is Netflix, that is modern-day entertainment?
Like Nolte, I have a collection of movies on DVD, and not one but TWO multi-format DVD players (one in use, the other in an unopened box in a closet), and my Christmas/birthday lists inevitably contain “old” movies that I love.
As for the modern shit, I consider it a good year if there’s ONE movie I can watch all the way through.
I agree completely. I used to go to the moves rather regularly but have stopped going a long time ago. I’ve found most movies have dreadful if any plot and the acting is poor. If I set foot in a theater more than twice a year then it is a rare year.
I’ve followed your suit collecting old movies on DVD. I frequent second hand music, movie and bookstores to stock up on classics and movies that I just plain like.
we have Amazon Prime, Netflix, acorn, My Outdoors TV, Hulu and a couple of free streaming applications on our Prime service. we tend to watch older sitcoms like Cheers, MASH, Frasier, Wings, Adam 12 and we are currently finishing up Barney Miller. Miller was a very well written show and enjoyable. As far as movies go, we inventoried our collection a couple of months ago.
Kim, In all seriousness, could you recommend a classic movie on a regular basis?
JQ
Great article. Hollywood started producing far more crap decades ago. Why write a new story when you can release the second through fifth version of a story or recast and reproduce older films? And then Hollyweird decides to lecture its dwindling audience on a variety of subjects.
The only downside is who is Tarantino to talk? The Hateful Eight was an appallingly disgusting film. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are two of the few Tarantino films that I find interesting.
We recently watched the Downton Abbey gets a French villa movie. Talk about tired. I enjoyed the series and the previous movie but it’s time to retire that story.
I think the last flick I saw in a theater was a Dinesh D’Souza film or maybe it was 1917.
JQ
This is why my wife and I pretty much exclusively consume foreign entertainment anymore. Generally Korean TV, and Indian movies, though we dabble around to other countries also.
I did go see Maverick earlier this year, and that’s the 1st time I’ve been to the theater since February of 2020. Given what’s been on offer since then, I think it’s unlikely I’ll go back for quite some time. If something else that has the buzz of Maverick, perhaps, but time will tell on that.
I have a similar thing.
Wife asks, “Why do we have all these DVD’s” I say because I want them.
Wife also asks, “Why are you watching this again?” Because I like it, still. Watched Master & Commander dozens of times and still enjoy it.
As for the new stuff its mostly a garbage dump. I’m not sure 1 good movie per year is the standard. I think we’re getting to 1 good movie every 2-3 years.
I haven’t been in movie theater since I was stationed in Hawaii in 2009.
Since I’m sort of settled, I finally put together a decent home theater setup and The Fetching Dr. TopCat and I try to have one “movie night” a week. This week’s movie was “The Professionals” which starred Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, with Jack Palance, Claudia Cardinale and Ralph Bellamy in supporting roles. Before that, it was “Ondine”, which is an ok, lightweight good movie, with Colin Ferrell, who I like.
Anything with Robert Duval and Frances McDormand will get added to my collection of DVDs, but I won’t even watch the trailers for the trash that comes out of Hollywood these days, with the possible exception of movies with Jamie Foxx (“Ray” was a great movie) and Ralph Fiennes.
I second the motion that Kim should provide his take on quality film choices. What say you Kim?
Some of the Korean shows are pretty entertaining. It’s also interesting to see morality from the Korean angle, which apart from the glaring class differences, I can mostly live with.
Okay, and I could stare at beautiful Asian women all day long.
But old movies, it’s not just because it was what we grew up with, it’s because a lot of them had humor and story lines that made you think, instead of the word “Fuck!” every other sentence delivered by brooding antiheros.
Last weekend we watched “Bringing up Baby” and a more zany story you won’t find.
And every movie wasn’t about transgender interracial gay woke justice smacking down the ciswhite right wing normies following the lead of super strong female characters who are essentially “guys with tits”.
For a while there I regretted all those DVDs we bought, but not anymore because what’s broadcast and newly released seems to be mostly shit written and directed by 13 yearolds.
The movies are horrible but the theatre experience is worse.
It’s all roaring screaming soundtracks, vile advertising and statist propaganda during a performance I’ve paid for, obnoxious noisy audiences gabbling nonsense with each other and on their phones, the stench of the vile food-impersonating substances the theatres sell for huge sums, the dirty, sticky disgusting floors and seats, blech.
Last went in a theater in early 2000’s to see U571, probably never go again. Haven’t watched newer stuff for more than 20 years. The couple times I tried was very disappointed. Sometimes we stream old stuff but even the streaming is getting unbearable. Mostly we watch old black and white TV shows from the 50’s on DVD’s we purchase. We only watch TV during supper and tonights episode is from Perry Mason in the late 50’s. Just about everything in the new millennia is a disaster and decent people avoid it.
I agree with every commenter above. My daughter is a movie-holic, comments on a number of websites with her reviews of current movies.
Knowing my likes and dislikes in movies she regularly tells he “here, this is one you will like”. Invariably it is just more crap. Cartoonish CGI, superheroes, and horrible remakes of previous good movies.
Now I see they will remake “Bullitt”. We all know what the plot changes will be. Steve McQueen should rise up and smite Hollywood.
(But I liked “The Outfit”!)
The new Steve McQueen will be a black trannie. Obviously.
I agree with every commenter above. My daughter is a movie-holic, comments on a number of websites with her reviews of current movies.
Knowing my likes and dislikes in movies she regularly tells me “here, this is one you will like”. Invariably it is just more crap. Cartoonish CGI, superheroes, and horrible remakes of previous good movies.
Now I see they will remake “Bullitt”. We all know what the plot changes will be. Steve McQueen should rise up and smite Hollywood.
(But I liked “The Outfit”!)
A Bullitt Remake?? Have they gone back and looked at the Plot? As I recall It’s a story of police and political corruption and cover ups at the highest level in San Francisco. They are going to have to change that. The car chase was supposed to kill Frank Bullitt. With-out the plot the car chase doesn’t make any sense. And the chase was done with-out CGI. and they just blocked normal traffic while shooting. with real cars at real speeds and real jumps.
The remake will pale in comparison because they will skip most of the plot and great atmospherics and redo the chase with more crashes and impossible stunts, completely missing what made the original so great, it was completely believable.
GT3Ted sed: “The remake will pale in comparison…”
========
That’s why all remakes fail. Bullitt happened at a particular place and time, and it worked. If you change any of the dynamics the whole thing falls apart. But that won’t stop them from trying. Any more, it’s not about making good films, it’s about making money some how. Even loser movies make money, especially in insidious ways. (tax write-offs, etc.)
I hate to sound like the typical paranoid (that I am), but I’ve come to the conclusion (to understate the obvious) that what we’re seeing is a deliberate (and successful) attempt to destroy another major American income-producing industry.
Bosch? The Peripheral? The English? Jack Ryan? The Expanse? Sex Education? Atypical? They all suck? Bite me. Those are just a handful off the top of my head. There’s a lot of shit made? Nothing has changed. 90% of everything has always been shit. Your rotting brains have just managed to forget how much of the bad shit you’ve forgotten.
I have had lots of shit in my life and don’t watch violence and sadism. Steve Martin is or was my style, Leslie Nielsen, Men Behaving Badly in Cars aka Top Gear, Tough Guys was great so was Jack Palance in Slickers de Ville. OTOH I loved Clooney’s The American. There’s a great channel on YouTube called Jesus Wept Movies with tons of great classics.
Long ago Kim, in one of your previous blogs, you wrote about “small movies” and, in your post, you provided a list of such films. Each one was an entertaining character study done with actual people acting from a script to tell a story.
It would be wonderful if you could revisit that topic!
I remember that post. My contributio was 84 Charing Cross Road.
Hollywood hasn’t had an original idea in decades. Everything is either a sequel, prequel, remake or reboot. Everything else is comic book superhero movies made for grown, male nerd children.
Hollywood movies, when they came out in the 2000
Saving private Ryan ( okay 1998 )
Gladiator
Fury
Maverick
Thats it, nothing else in 22 Years exept some french comédies like ” Les Chti’s “.
But I seldom misses any opportunity to watch the old Audiard dialoged movies from the 60 / 70.
And a weird taste for the Hammer Horror ( I ad a little crush for those ” Vampirettes ” when younger, often sneaking in the theater as I was still under the legal age )