I think movies have gone downhill considerably. There is too much emphasis on CGI and 3D and not enough on good storytelling or creative camera work. Unfortunately, this all started with some films and filmmakers I really used to enjoy. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are somewhat responsible fro the creation of the "kidult" genre. The gave us movies like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark that were fun for kids and adults, and relied heavily on fast action and special effects. I think films just snowballed from that time to the point where these types of movies dominate the market. In the meantime, comedies have been steadily dumbing down and losing any sophistication or adult appeal as they once had.

But that's not to say that no good films are being made. Great directors like Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers both produce films that appeal to a mature, intelligent audience. But in Hollywood's heyday, many more films were intelligent and sophisticated and aimed at adults, who comprised a huge part of their audience.

Something scary just hit me. Maybe we adults are to blame. Maybe we have become "kidults", and are not maturing the same as our parents and grandparents did. Maybe we have been instrumental in turning our culture into one that is less mature, more youth oriented, less serious and sophisticated. In some respects, I must plead guilty to this. Oh, the shame!

Hey....
 
I'm wicked fri&Gin' mature

David kind of snatched my lede, which is to say that we have lost some ability to know what is good and what isn't.  All that really matters is whether it is good to US.

Any kind of art doesn't exist in a vacuum.  You might be able to tell from one listen whether or not you like a song, but how do you know?  Are you sure you gave it a chance?  Do you know why you don't like it (or why you do)?  Maybe your mood affected your judgement, or the acoustics were bad, or some guy in traffic cut you off.  Your preference can be influenced.

Believe it or not, some people truly despise the Beatles and would never include them in any "best of" list (stay with me, jesse).  Providing they have their reasons, who are we to really say they're wrong?  To someone else, the 'best' might be The White Stripes, or Lady Gaga (or both...chew on that one).

(cont'd from above)

Re: movies - this happens to us all the time.  We see an ad for a film on TV or on a DVD, and almost instantly we decide whether the movie is worth seeing in the first place, then whether it's worth schlepping to the theater to see it, and then whether we can wait to see it on DVD.  Each choice is a value judgment of how much that movie is worth our time and effort (and money).

Most of us can probably think of a time we eagerly awaited something new only to be disappointed in the end result.  It's up to us whether the disappointment is a problem of the end result not meeting our expectations or our expectations being too unrealistic.  It happened with me at the recent "Alice in Wonderland" - one of my all-time favorite books and yet a constant source of irritation that it has never been adapted to the screen 'properly' (or at least well enough to my standards).

Even those times in which we have no expectations at all, there is usually some aspect drawing us in, or else why would we be there?  The point being that we are willing to forsake "convenience" to go out and seek something we think we will like...that is, until we get burned one too many times and our avoidance reflex kicks in.  That's when convenience trumps discovery.

I don't think there's necessarily been a degradation in the overall quality of movies in recent years.  There continue to be good movies made in the midst of all the garbage.     

there are just so many more movies being made  that the overwhelming majority of them are horrible...and that's not even counting the straight to DVD's

I generally rate movies (from their ad campaign) as :

Must see at the theater

Netflix / Red box rental

HBO / Showtime

Regular TV

Skip / don't ever want to see

I find that often I'm surprised by a film which I was sure was going to suck but turns out to be not that bad.  With the equipment at home the movie experience is getting closer to the movie theater, so it would have to be a real good flick to bring me out and spend over $10 for a ticket. It also make me a lot more particular about what I will go out to see.  (Just a side note: the Falmouth Cinema Pub is a pretty cool place to see a movie, they serve food, beer by the picture, and wine).

As far as the quality of film going downhill, I don't know, I think the bad movies from the past tend to fade away, and are not shown all that much, where you will see a classic movie from the past.  I think this makes the quality of the of todays work seem watered down. (Earnest goes to wherever is over 20 years old). There is a lot of crap out there but there was always a lot of crap, It's just not that memorable.

Back in the 80's when I was free of the responsibility that comes with having a female partner and owning a house, I regularly went to see matinee movies for $2.00. I  saw many movies that I would never have paid  today's prices to see. I was seldom disappointed at the $2.00 and later $4.00 price. One film that was panned by just about everyone that I actually enjoyed was 'Maximum Overdrive'...first of all, the soundtrack was by AC/DC...so it had one big plus. Second it was a science fiction film, and I will watch anything in this genre, for cheap money.

Now, in my estimation the 80's were no better or worse than any other decade for good movies. I just happened to spend more time in the cinemas back then, plus I had cinemax and HBO at home. This alters my opinion greatly as I was a frequent viewer back then.

So "convienence" is really not the biggest factor here, it is more that I have more important duties than going to the cinema....and it is more expensive now, too.

As concerns books. I absolutely love them. I love the smell of a book, I love the feel of a book. I may be nuts, but nothing beats sitting comfortably with a book that holds your interest and grabs your complete attention.

Video games can be very fun escapism , I enjoy driving modified stock cars in NASCAR games, I enjoy being a member of a Navy Seals team in SOCOM games, I enjoy many baseball, football and hockey games. To me , improved graphics are great, but the gameplay is the main thing. There are playstation 1 games that I still can have fun with.

I am, to some degree, the "kidult" type of person, you talk about. I am able to relate better with younger people (teens, 20's and 30's) than my parents and the adults of the past did, I think. But still retain a  sink or swim responsibility that comes from losing my parents earlier than most people do. I never want to be an old fogey. I can't change my age or get younger, but I can retain a younger way of thinking.

If you ever saw a movie ,"Twilight Zone, the movie" there is a segment about old folks in a nursing home playing like young kids and one old grouch who thinks they should act their age and be old and decrepit...

I don't want to be that old grouch.

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The crazy thing is, it's all supply and demand, there must be people watching all the crappy movies or they wouldn't be able to keep cranking them out.

Sometimes you really get fooled.  My wife and I rented a movie a little while ago called 'Armored' with Matt Dillon and Lawrence Fishburne.  We figured, a couple of good actors there, it might be alright.  OMG it was awful, just absolute crap.

I have found that movies which have an aggressive AD campaign tend to suck. The more they spend on promotion the worse the movie is.  That and anything that has Nicolas Cage now.... man he used to make good movies, what happened?

I can see the point that time weeds out the bad movies of the past and may give us a false impression. My gut still tells me that there aren't many good movies being made today as there were back in the Hollywood days when they cranked them out like sausages. This may seem illogical, but I think the sheer volume of films being produced gave more opportunity for good films to be made. As TV started competing with the movies, it became more important for each movie to succeed and increased the need for a blockbuster hit. This can lead to a lot of hit and miss movies. Sort of the same thing today. There is a lot of competition for the entertainment dollar so making an expensive movie is a big risk. Sometimes this risk causes the film producers to be so careful about trying to attract a large audience they go for overkill out of fear of not getting anyone's attention. This kind of pressure can kill creativity which can make for lousy movies. Nowadays, I rarely see movie ads that make me want to see them. Recently, only the ads for True Grit piqued my interest. When I first heard it was being re-made, I wondered "why bother?" But when I saw the ads, I changed my mind and thought it looked like it could be a quality film.
 
Ok, time for a confession. I rarely go to any current movies. But when they finally come to TV, I rarely think I should have gone to the theater to see them.

So can any of you fellow movie lovers give me a list of movies from the past 10 years that you think are top quality? This will help give me an idea if I am being too hard on today's movies. I am willing to be shown the error of my ways.

I don't think the product in general (music/TV/Movies) has changed much but that our tastes are changing as we age.

I often wait for a select group of my longtime friends who generally share my movie preferences to review a new release.  I find that so many movies are mediocre that I don't enjoy going to the theatre, in general.

Plus, I enjoy the comfort of being able to nurse a glass or two of scotch on the couch as I watch a movie....rather than being stuck with whoever else happened to show up at the theatre that particular day.    Without scotch.

It's hard for me to say whether there are more or less bad movies in the last decade that previously.  I tend to think that it's all getting more mundane.  Cookie-cutter plot, throw in some sex and special effects...presto! 

And on that note....  honestly, there is nothing wrong with sex.  But why does every damn movie I see have it?  It doesn't offend me.  It's just that I have  a wife, and failing that, internet access.

If sex fits into the plot, fine.  But I feel like it's completely forced in so many movies. As if the writer(s) couldn't come up with anything else to bridge two scenes.

Oh? Monsters banging on the outside of my house, intent on killing me? As if I would have the desire, let alone ability, to perform under that kind of pressure....



That said, while there haven't been many great movies, there have been quite a few good ones.  I wouldn't say that we've been through a dead decade. 



As for books, I almost never buy a new book.  Books are a gift staple of my family, and people generally seem to think hard about what someone else would like.  So I get a reading list of good books every year.

I also followed my parents' invitation to relieve them of 2 very large bookshelves worth of books - read:Quite literally, thirty years of reading - some time ago.  So, that'll cover the next twenty years easily. 

Let's see if I can do this without pontificating. As to the question Yogi brings and how it relates to me, yes, I think I do look for convenience. The last three movies I went to were The Changling; Marley and Me; Angels and Demons. So that would be about 2 years since I was last at a movie theatre. I rarely if ever read a movie review, so that does not affect my decision to see a movie or not and there have been trailers on TV of upcoming movies that at least seem to be appealing to me. But in the end, I prefer waiting until it comes to cable. And I would say that this trend has been moving in this direction for the last dozen years. I doubt if I have seen 25 movies in this time period. If I am going to spend 2 1/2 hours in a theatre, I much prefer going to the ballet or a good broadway show. I think the fact that anything can happen in a live performance is far more interesting to me than sitting through a movie which cost 100 million $ to make and has gone through 100 edits.

So as far as movies, yes, it is convenient for me to just wait until I can watch it from my ridiculously comfortable couch. And even the best of action films don't come close to real action as a live performance.

On the other subjects mentioned, sadly I do not read as much as I used to and I have very little interest in video games of any sort. I thought I would love "Guitar Hero", but it bored me in 5 minutes.

I must admit that I have become a "History Channel" junkie as well as National Geographic Channel and other similiar programming. Am I the only one here who cannot get enough of Pawn Stars?

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but as I finish the 35th year of my career, I do find that I am a bit more tired when I get home from work. And I just don't have the energy to go wait on a movie line for an hour.

In Response to Re: "Give Me Convenience! : Part 2" (Trending):
[QUOTE] I thought I would love "Guitar Hero", but it bored me in 5 minutes. I must admit that I have become a "History Channel" junkie as well as National Geographic Channel and other similiar programming. Am I the only one here who cannot get enough of Pawn Stars? [QUOTE]

guitar hero really helps develop a sense of rhythm for those who have never explored that path, and for that i commend it.

as for pawn stars, i watch every one. although i do think that the "experts" are in cahoots with rick and co.

have you seen american pickers? are they gay? i've seen it run on lifetime too and from their mannerisms i am starting to think they are.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

jessey, History Channel is easily my favorite channel when baseball is not in season.

I guess I am not at "junkie" stage as I can live without 'Ice Road Truckers' or 'Most Dangerous Roads' and I am not sure how Larry the Cable Guy gets a show on History Channel,but he is very funny and I have to check it out.

Well, now that I've gone off topic , I'll return to the subject by saying I believe "convenience" is something that started with T.V. and automobiles, we now have so many gadgets that make life convenient it is getting ridiculous....cellphones, PC's , drive through windows, ATM's , credit cards, remote controls for every gadget we buy, cd changers, etc.

Great responses, and I enjoyed reading every one of them (jessey, you can pontificate all you want).  

There certainly is validity in recognizing that convenience does play an ever growing role in maintaining and keeping current, even in our recreational pursuits. 

But as many point out, it's also more than that.  There is no denying that quantity has trumped quality with regard to all of the mediums we consume.  How can quality be sustained when movies are being churned out the way they are, with no end in sight?  It's impossible. 

It's also true that you could, at one time, rely on the idea that if a certain actor that you admire was in a film, the film would probably be decent, as Hfx alluded to.   And that's just NOT TRUE anymore!  How many times have you been blind-sided checking out a movie for that reason and have it be a bomb?  Too many.  I am definitely among the burned for so many reasons, so disappointed in so many films, and even worse, disgusted by them! 

One film I was thinking about that probably not many people enjoyed was "Revolutionary Road" with Kate Winslet (a favorite of mine) and Leonardo DiCaprio (not a favorite of mine, but he's okay, and very good in this film).   This movie was based on a book that was published in 1961 by Richard Yates, and is a very stark indictment on suburban living when the suburbs were being developed in the 50's.  Upon recommendation of a friend who thought Yates' book was one of best books he ever read, I got the book after seeing the movie so I could get the full experience, and I have to say, it has stayed with me.  And I wouldn't necessarily recommend the movie to anyone, either, you might think I am crazy for even liking it (it's very disturbing!), but it was a psychological study that moved me very deeply.   So you have this current film based on a book that was published 50 years ago, and the message and relevance is mind blowing.  That is a rarity. 

What I was hearing from your responses, and I am in sync with, is that I am also very choosy about what I bother to see or pursue.  I am also not hung up on being "current" or seeing the "new" or latest release in films or books for that matter.  I can wait.  And there will never be enough time to catch up with the back log anyhow.   Many women are in book clubs, as you know, and many follow Oprah's book recommendations.  You could offer me $50 grand right now to tell you 10 titles from Oprah and I would not be able to take that money out of your hand! Never paid any attention to it.  I do enjoy a good book review and I do like seeing best seller lists, but that's not how I pick out what I decide to read, it's just interesting to glance at what's going on in publishing.  I love memoirs and I love non-fiction for the most part.   But there's also nothing wrong with (a) "Bridget Jones's Diary", either! 

BTW, do any of you think a good comedy is much more difficult to come by than a decent dramady or drama?  I do.  Comedic timing is a real skill. 

Bottom line for me: I have a limited number of brain cells I can expend on maintaining some of these interests, I try to do what brings me the greatest rewards, happiness and brings more joy and meaning to my life.  And if that ain't in some blockbuster movie, then you won't see yogafriend in that theatre. 

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devildavid,
I really enjoyed your responses.  Loved the "kidult" point of reference.  All great and interesting points of view.

Regarding you request for some movie ideas, I checked online for a succinct list, maybe this will help:

In Response to Re: "Give Me Convenience! : Part 2" (Trending):
That's an excellent list. And I agree about High Fidelity, I loved that movie. I would add The Town, it really captures the feel of a low income Boston Irish neighborhood.

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I was going to mention 'Memento'.  I have a real taste for smaller, quirkier movies.  I really liked 'Donnie Darko' which is a brain-twister somewhat like 'Memento'.  Some smaller movies I saw recently which I thought were very good were 'Big Fan' (about an incredibly obsessed football fan), and 'Extract'.
 
Some bigger movies from the 2000's which I enjoyed were 'Mystic River', 'Tropic Thunder', which I thought was hilarious, and 'Sherlock Holmes'.  I'm a Robert Downey, Jr. fan.

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The best comedy of today pales next to the comedy of the all time greats. Maybe all the good stuff has already been done, maybe it's just getting harder to make people laugh. I don't have the answer.

"Comedic timing' is what made the 3 Stooges and Marx Brothers so unforgettable. George Carlin , Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Monty Python's Flying Circus all were brilliant. Woody Allen ,Peter Sellers, Lenny Bruce, Saturday Night Live, SCTV....this was funny stuff!...nobody today can do this kind of funny stuff and be noticed nationally because the variety shows that brought these great comics to us are all gone in favor of "reality shows." Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, the list goes on and on.

Two guys who do make me laugh histerically when they team up are Lenny Clarke and Dennis Leary. Also Larry the Cable Guy is pretty good. But as far as comedy shows and movies, I think they are dead.

This thread is all over the map.  Perfect!

I want to talk about this notion of "keeping up" or "staying current". I gave up on that years ago.  It's never been a realistic goal, but when you're younger, sure, you give it a shot.  You have the time and energy (stuff zilla mentioned) and you want to be cool. 

For me all this online stuff really hasn't changed the way I stumble onto new things. It's been a meandering path all along.  And it doesn't have to be new, just new to me.  What has changes is that I don't give a rats @ss if I'm considered cool or not.  In fact, when I see what passes for cool these days, I'm rather glad I'm not.

I have often come to "new" music via the printed word.  Used to be a review in  some rag, and I'd have to check it out.  Or a book.  Or a chance encounter on the radio dial,  or a snippet of a song in the background in a movie or... who knows.   Actually I come to many things - movies, books, etc - all the same way.  One book may mention another, or another author, and I'll have to go check that out. On some level I'm relying on someone else's opinion, but on another I'm not at all. My taste is just leading me around by the nose.

A perfect example would be John Prine, one of my current favorites.  He's been touring and recording heavily for 40 years now.  And he's past his prime, for sure, but still doing it.  I never heard of him until last year,  so as far as I'm concerned he's a "new artist".   Found him after re-reading an old Hunter Thompson book last year, and decided it was time. 

I play guitar and sometimes I'll go hit youtube to see if I can figure out how to play a new number.  And from a search of a Prine tune I discovered Jeffrey Foucalt.  Again, for most, obscure,  but it's stuff that I relate to, which is the only thing I care about. Confidence is always cool. 

Movies are probably the one medium where if I don't catch it while it's fresh, then I'm probably not going to catch it at all.  Even the blockbusters, that eventually get replayed on tv will probably be missed, as I rarely watch much.  

But other forms - Art leaps to mind - you usually come to it late.  Very few really know how to view it, I certainly don't.  So today's crap becomes tomorrows masterpiece, and who knows how that gets decided. Most of us ignore it until some 'expert' decides it's good. 

And so on.  It must be Friday.  And a 3 day weekend to boot - woo-woo!

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I would defy you to watch Old School (2003) and not laugh. I thought Talladega Nights (2006),  Anchorman (2003) and Step Brothers  (2008) were brilliant. I feel the Cohen Bros have made quite a few really good comedies since 2000.  O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000),Burn After Reading (2008), A Serious Man (2009) and the often overlooked Intolerable Cruelty (2003).  Wedding Crashers (2005) is another good comedy.  But if I was to pick the best of the decade it would have to be Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) and it has a great soundtrack to boot
which includes "Let's Duet" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGD6D1PvIU&feature=related  fri&&in' brilliant

The last movie I saw in the theatre was "Tangled".  Yes, I am an anime/cartoon junkie.  Miyazaki is a favorite of mine and I will go see any movie he does in the theatre AND purchase it on DVD.  There is just enough romantic in me to sigh at all the mushy parts in "Howl's Moving Castle".

My daughter and I have a Friday night tradition: we make a small snack (usually homemade pizza) and watch a really bad movie.  The best worst movie we've seen so far is Dino-croc vs Super-gator. 

I don't go to a lot movies - never have.  Most of the subject matter simply does not appeal to me. 

Do I own an e-reader? No.  I like books.  I like to hold them and turn the pages and get lost in the print.  I read a lot of manga, but also a lot of history and sports (read: baseball) books.  It's funny...you'd think I'd be smarter.....

As for video games: yeah, I'm a junkie there, too.  I prefer the RPG games, or puzzle games as opposed to the shooter games.  I suppose that comes from my days of playing Dungeons and Dragons...oh.  You know, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that.......

I don't really do live theatre any more...trust me, where I live, there's no point.  They don't even know who Noel Coward is here.