Bad movies

[bamamarine]

I took the girlfriend to see The Hobbit the other night and sat through all the previews for upcoming movies. There is a lot of manure coming out right now. Most of what's in theaters doesn't have much acting and relies on special effects. If all you want is eye candy you'll be happy but there's not much meat out there.

I've seen a few other posts like this but I need to vent. When is Hollywood going to figure out that we like a movie that has real acting and a positive story line and there are plenty of historical figures and events out there. Saving Private Ryan made a ton of money and celebrated the US. Same with Band of Brothers. If you introduced audiences to John Smith and showed what he did BEFORE he when to Jamestown they'd be impressed. He's a stud who's life reads like an action hero. Or how about Tecumseh? Either story would play well in the US or around the world. But instead we get movies like Wolf of Wallstreet and 47 Ronin.

Sorry, just in a bad mood tonight.

 

[Crow Beads]

Some films of David Thompson's Wilderness Series, Lucia St. Clair Robson's or Terry C. Johnston's fur trapper novels would be pretty exciting. I completely agree with your assessment of most current movies. They're entertainment for the lobotomized. How was the Hobbit? From what I could tell from the trailer it doesn't follow the excellent book by J.R.R.T..

 

[necchi]

The Hobbit was/is great!
It followed the book extremely well.
(battle scenes are battle scenes)
But those aside, I can't wait for the next of the 3 to make it to DVD.

 

[necchi]

Bad movies are bad movies, but the young ones don't care.
They're in the back of the theater doing what we did when we where young.

Dinner and a movie is still just that, :wink:

 

[Crow Beads]

Bad movies are bad movies, but the young ones don't care.
They're in the back of the theater doing what we did when we where young.

Dinner and a movie is still just that, :wink:

You have to be young to do that? No one told me.

 

[hanshi]

Bad movies are bad movies, but the young ones don't care.
They're in the back of the theater doing what we did when we where young.

Dinner and a movie is still just that, :wink:

You have to be young to do that? No one told me.

"fraid so. I do know that at our age we can no longer remember WHAT we did (or) and especially HOW to do it. :shake:

 

[Crow Beads]

Hanshi:

There once were two old gray-haired mountain men sitting around a Shoshone ceremonial dance. Trapper One noticed that Trapper Two was gazing longlingly at a particularly comely young female dancer. Trapper One punched his pard in the shoulder saying: "What'er ya starin' at ol' coon, she's young enuf ta be yer grand daughter?" Trapper Two answered: "I may be old but it's still me inside h'yar."

 

[Wes/Tex]

Sound like my joke when I told the wife when she hit 40 I was going to trade her in for two 20's. She gave me "the look" over her glasses and quietly said, "You're not wired for 220!" :shocked2: :rotf:

 

[Archie]

Hobbit was all CGI also. Good story and a real fun movie to watch. I want more stories about Beorn the bear/man.

I would love to see modern versions of Spanish and French colonization of North America. Those darn British seem to get the lions share of credit for American history.

 

[Jumpshot]

The Hobbit would've been better with muzzleloaders instead of swords. :hmm:

 

[Archie]

Aaaaah yes, ye ole Elvin Flintlock.... the locks glow when Orcs are within range. Somehow the idea of Legolas prancing around with a brown bess losses some of the charm. However, I totally get Dwarves and the Blunderbus.

 

[Jumpshot]

Legolas wouldn't have a Bess. I see him as the long rifle type.

The dwarves would be perfect with blunderbusses, while Bilbo would have his wheellock pistol, and a matchlock musket for Gandalf.

The orcs are too stupid to learn how to shoot. They'd be throwing blackpowder grenades.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

We Now Return You to The Forum:

When is Hollywood going to figure out that we like a movie that has real acting and a positive story line and there are plenty of historical figures and events out there.

When they find themselves not making very much money with lower budget movies that currently bring in the bigge$t buck$.

They... remade... REMADE... True Grit, The Great Gatsby, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. ALL were classics, and there was ZERO improvement over the story (In My Humble Opinion - Humble But Correct). So they they often won't risk the extra cash on a (new) good story that is historic for that punches up the costs... OK TDTESS was a B science fiction movie but is a "cult classic". What they then do is use a "proven" story to risk the cash on, or they make stuff like The Fast and Furious[add version number here], and other such drek...but they are not alone...

Then there was the BBC which did a TV version of Ben Hur. EGAD! :barf: Of course they were betting on the reputation of the movie to carry through with ratings....

Add to that the occasional celebrity who lends his or her weight of reputation to get a movie made... with a high budget but poor story and crappy director... see M. Night Shyamalan's After Earth for a total load of manure; hailed as "the worst movie of 2013" with Wil Smith and his son. Double :barf: :barf: .

What is needed is a director who makes some schtick movies to get a good rep as a money maker, who then makes a good, historic movie, or several, and add to that a good Biblical Epic. Look at how many movies that Steven Spielberg made before he did Schindler's List.

There are plenty of good scripts out there, and even more good ideas that could be turned into good scripts, but the folks with the cash aren't interested in gambling. As for actual remakes... Drums Along the Mohawk would be a good bet, and Gunga Din should be redone with the British using muzzleloading Enflields... and change the story to show more of the mistreatment of Din.

LD

 

[Alden]

Really? I see him with a tiny muff pistol.

 

[Crow Beads]

I don't understand why directors and screen writers can get away with making sweeping changes to a fine literary work. We saw the Hobbit yesterday and oh my did Peter Jackson ever take liberties with that one. If the music director of a major symphony orchestra made even minor changes to a Mahler or Brahms symphony it would be his last performance before he was forever demoted to band director at a junior high school in Moose Breath, North Dakota.

 

[54ball]

1992 version of LOTM :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Coopers original :td: :td:

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not.

It seems when they dumb down a story or try to push some type of BS agenda instead telling the story from the period view of the antagonists. Is when things go South.

Take the Patriot. There are things I like about the movie and I really enjoyed it the first time I saw it but I like it now less and less.

Two scenes make it almost unwatchable,
Jamaica like Slave beach wedding paradise in SC :bull:
1942 SS NAZI Einsatzgruppen burning of the Church :td: :bull:
No wonder the Brits hated it, rightly so.
Now they may have hung the men, burned the town and raped the women and it would have been just as dramatic and based on some fact. But the whole Church scene was way over the top.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Agree, I can barely watch The Patriot. So many possibilities to tell a great story thrown away for some unknown reason. Agree there was plenty of blood and thunder, murder and outrage but the movie was so senselessly done it was just pitiful.

 

[Crow Beads]

LOTM is a great film! I even bought the soundtrack. The book is deadly boring. Patriot is too disturbing.

Another example of a superb movie made from bits and pieces of the original Patrick O'Brien series is Master and Commander The Far Side of The World. The only problem is that director Peter Weir cherry-picked several of the twenty books which makes it nearly impossible to make an appropriate sequel.

 

[palladius]

1992 version of LOTM :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Coopers original :td: :td:

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not.

It seems when they dumb down a story or try to push some type of BS agenda instead telling the story from the period view of the antagonists. Is when things go South.

Take the Patriot. There are things I like about the movie and I really enjoyed it the first time I saw it but I like it now less and less.

No wonder the Brits hated it, rightly so.
Now they may have hung the men, burned the town and raped the women and it would have been just as dramatic and based on some fact. But the whole Church scene was way over the top.

I felt the same way about LOTM when I first saw it. I hated it the first time I saw it because of the liberties they took with the book (killed wrong girl, killed Munro, made Major Hayward into an idiot), which I had read not long before seeing the movie. I like it much more now as it has been years since I read the book. I still get annoyed over the killing of Munro and the implication Montcalm turned a blind eye to the massacre but otherwise like the movie.

The Patriot is over the top with those scenes but still watchable.

 

[palladius]

LOTM is a great film! I even bought the soundtrack. The book is deadly boring. Patriot is too disturbing.

Another example of a superb movie made from bits and pieces of the original Patrick O'Brien series is Master and Commander The Far Side of The World. The only problem is that director Peter Weir cherry-picked several of the twenty books which makes it nearly impossible to make an appropriate sequel.

Great movie. It's true about cherry picking. There are snippets of dialogue or scenes from quite a few of the books. I'll be reading one of the books and suddenly come across a scene that was in the movie. I'm sure they could do another with other scenes though. Supposedly Russel Crowe really wants to do a sequel.