Hollywood Slump? Here’s Why
I just got back from Sears where I was checking out TVs. The Sony Trinitron I bought there around 5 years ago is putting off a high frequency hum – in my opinion. That has to stop or it’s goodbye ears and goodbye rock and roll.
Hollywood has been moaning about ticket sales and at first I thought it was because they were too high. Besides, you have to take out a home mortgage for the popcorn. I also thought it was because of a new low in creativity in which they convert every lame TV series ever made into a movie. Did you ever think you’d see “Starsky and Hutch” at a movie theater? But if films that suck were a factor, Hollywood would have felt the pinch a long time ago. I have to admit I have some unusual tastes: I walked out of both Spider-Man and Castaway - the one was like a cartoon, and I couldn’t get into Tom Hanks talking to a volley ball. Admittedly, I saw the finish to Castaway, later on TV and got it - maybe I was just having a bad day. I also saw some of Starsky and Hutch again - yes, I went, because I'm into comedy - and there were some great scenes, but I watched it in segments on TV.
And this plays directly into what I noticed at Sears this afternoon: The TVs. In 5 years, they have undergone a virtual revolution. We saw clarity that was staggering, and screens that were gigantic. Remember those old projection screen TVs? My God, do they look dated. That’s 8-track-tape territory there. These new plasma bad-asses are big enough and bad enough to give the theater experience a serious run. That explains the drop in sales and the first signs of same-day theatrical/DVD releases. Besides you can stay at home, and you don’t have to see a loan officer if you want to have popcorn.
posted by Bill McDonald @ 6:39 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I guess this post is about TVs, but I just wanted to comment that I just saw "Capote" and thought it an excellent film. It may qualify as "Indie" rather than "Hollywood," but it is an American movie.
P.S. Hoffmann was superb, as usual. I'm not sure the film successfully negotiated the difficulty associated with focusing on a secondary subject (writing about a murder rather than the murder itself), and felt deprived of information at times, but as a character study and an essay on ethics it was very powerful. It was as ethically sound as Munich was ethically unsound.
The people of the time seemed real, human and largely sympathetic, unlike the cardboard-cutout stereotypes one often sees in period films. The Harper Lee character served well as a kind of chorus, unreserved in her friendship, willing to offer Truman an honest appraisal of his actions. The Perry Smith character was interestingly acted too, though I thought some of his excentricities could have been better developed and explained (his odd eloquence and pedantry).
I don't know what more perceptive reviewers might think, but this is at least a very good film. It met my criteria of a good but affordable wine: if not exactly exquisite, it gave me plenty to delight in and presented nothing irritating or offensive to the palate.
I did notice a flow problem with that post. I could hear one of my editors saying, "Do it over." Yes, it is about TVs taking business away from theaters.
There's always going to be a few good movies made, but Hollywood is in a slump, and there has to be reasons why. Maybe the next generation is sitting in front of a computer playing video games.
By the way, I thought the movie "Munich" was great because it showed what can happen to people if they cross the line in response to terrorism. It rang true for what I experienced when my friend was killed by terrorists the following year. It was tough on me seeing some scenes set in Rome, because that's also where my best friend was killed: The Rome Airport in a Pan Am jet.
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