Holly wood or holly crap?

[DaemianLucifer]

@Fyl

So true.Thats why I stopped watching tv completely.

And I just thought of another excelent idea!Lets have gingis khan staring bruce willis!

Or how about neron staring jack nicholson?Oh,wait,that might be a good one actually,since jack is quite a talented nut.

[ThunderTitan]

And I just thought of another excelent idea!Lets have gingis khan staring bruce willis!

No dude. Ashton Kutcher 4 Gengis! Bruce Willis would just save everyone from his own troops.

[Caradoc]

Oh no, the actor born to play Ghengis is ... Jack Nicholson.

[DaemianLucifer]

Get ready,for the greatest storry of the millenium!The biggest conflict in the human history!Morgan Freeman as Franklin Roosevelt,Denzel Washington as Winston Churchill,Wesley Snipes sa Adolf Hitler,and Nicolas Cage as japaneese emperor Hirohito.With Halle Berry as Eva Brown.Comin to your theaters this summer!

The World War II

[DaemianLucifer]

[ThunderTitan]

I heard Cliches are good for the skin... and the wool.

[theLuckyDragon]

Since when do sheep go MOO?

[ThunderTitan]

That was actualy a cow in sheep's cloathing!

[DaemianLucifer]

Since when do sheep go MOO?

Didnt you hear?Every farm animal goes MOO.The horses,the pigs,the ducks,etc.They are all one and the same animal in different sizes.Its just easier that way,ist it?

[theLuckyDragon]

I must disagree. Ducks always go "QUACK!", and with a distinctly nasalized intonation.

[LordHoborgXVII]

And pigs go "OINK OINK," and dogs go "BOW WOW" or "WOOF WOOF."

Anyway, I have to agree that the mass media industry is in a dismal state. Movies are... well, movies. There's only so much that you can fit into 2.5 hours of film, and it is usually nothing more than huge explosions and big names. Television shows are annoying because you never have time to watch them, and they're riddled with commercials and things to that effect. Of course some shows are quite good, such as The IT Crowd, for one.
...or, you could always watch cartoons.
...or read comic books.

[DaemianLucifer]

OMG!Lord of The Rings IV!!

[LordHoborgXVII]

Never mind about that. Here is the actual trailer for the Lord of the Rings IV:

The Lord of the Rings: Episode IV: Soul of the Ultimate Nation

It's actually for Sun: Soul of the Ultimate Nation, or whatever it's called, but you can't tell because they do a very good job of disguising that fact. I mean, they take every single scene they show directly from LotR and then rearrange them, nobody can tell what they're trying to look like, except people who've seen at least one LotR teaser poster anywhere. The worst thing about it is, it's true.

Actually the video is both originial and good.
The problem is that the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good, to quote Oscar Wilde.

[Derek]

Is everyone saying that movies(read: mass media) are worse now than they were in the past, or that they've always been bad?

An important distinction that should be made...

[DaemianLucifer]

Well you could say that they are just as bad as they ever were but that just quantity incrieased thus giving us more and more crap each year.I mean heres an example of a script for a romantic comedy:

"This girl loves this guy,and he loves here,but the whole movey revolves about him avoiding telling her his feelings because of her father being an ex-FBI member,and her avoiding telling him because he comes from a 'family',which turns out to be just a regular familly.They get married at the end though"

And heres a script for a horror:

"Mist covers every scene.We see a guy entering a dark room and hear him scream.Then we see a girl being chocked.Than half a dozen people gets killed in 'scarry' ways.In the climactic ending we find out that all this ghost wanted is to kiss this girl that looks just like his dear old wife and he killed all those people by accident."

[gravyluvr]

I think that the problem that most people have relates to saturation.

Movies are just as good or bad as they have always been. For many people, like myself, movies are great way to escape the day-to-day doldrums of real life. For other people, like most people around here, computers are the way to escape the doldrums of real life.

First we had sound... language... live music... books... then paintings... plays... newspapers... then recorded music... pictures... telephone... moving pictures.... radio... talkies (movies)... jukeboxes... pinball... television... FM radio... video game arcades... pong (home video games) computers... cable television... video cassette recorders... walkmans... video cameras... mobile phones... multiplayer games... the world wide web... AOL... Netscape... satellite television... camera phones... satellite radio... online gaming... modern handheld media players... mmorpgs... etc.

Everything is just as bad or good as it has ever been however you have so many more choices that everything is so saturated. Now when you watch television you don't just have three choices. You have 300 choices (or more). When you turn on your computer you have more than an amber screen with a C:> on it.

In fact, when you turn on your TV now you might be watching television, TiVo, DVD, Satellite Radio, OnDemand, Pay-per-view, a computer, a gaming console, or a live feed of your security system.

Just because you can't sit still in a movie theatre for two hours does not make the movie any better or worse than it was ten, twenty or fifty years ago. It just makes you more impatient.

I have found that I don't go to movies as much as I used to... I watch them on TV. But I have also found that I don't go to concerts, professional sporting events, or other social events either for the same reason. It's the saturation and the almost limitless choices that make us feel bored when we can't just flip to something else, either mentally or physically.

It's not better... It's not worse... It's just what it is.

[ThunderTitan]

You have 300 choices (or more)

It's not really a choice if it's just the same old crap, but on 300 chanels.

[Corribus]

@Gravyluvr
I agree that there is a problem of saturation, but you describe the effect as if the problem is just that there are too many options. I think you have to take it one step further and say that there are too many BAD options. The problem isn't that we don't know how to entertain ourselves. If anything, the number of entertainment options makes it EASIER to entertain ourselves. I.e., we're rarely bored. However, the problem is that, any given option (say, movies, since that's the topic) has become so saturated with crap because everyone's trying to squeeze every buck out of it that you just become discouraged. I don't go see many movies in the theaters, not because I can't decide if I want to see a movie or not, but because I have no confidence in whether the movie is going to be GOOD. And any time there is a good idea, three thousand people try to copy it in order to squeeze every bit of money they can from it. You can't just make the Matrix any more. You have to make fifty sequels to it, and make fifty other movies that are nearly identical to it. This relentless idea-copying wasn't always the status quo - even ten years ago - and THAT is the problem. Companies don't want to have to make good ideas - that takes time, risk, and money. Rather they want to take someone else's already-proven good idea, put it on the market with some flashy "why this is better than the original" or "you liked the original, so you'll like this" advertising, and get your money before you realize that you've "already seen this before" and that it's really not that great the second time around.

[gravyluvr]

You can't just make the Matrix any more. You have to make fifty sequels to it, and make fifty other movies that are nearly identical to it.

Watch it...

Aren't we waiting for a sequel to HOMM? Hmm...

I wonder what's playing?

[DaemianLucifer]

Well,I found a proof that movies really are getting worse.I just watched "The Mask of Zoro" (I think its from the early 90s or before),and immidiatelly after it I watched "The Legend of Zoro" from 2005.

Now whats wrong with the second movie?

First of all,theres a lot of swordfights,yet I dont remember a single charachter dying from a sword(there was just one flesh wound on a kid).Only one person dies from a bullet,and the other one that got shot was saved by a cross(cliche?).

Second:There is no blood.In the climactic scene there is a bare fist figth(on a speeding locomotive no less!),yet both fighters have clean faces,even after doesns of punches and kicks in the face.Not even a bruise!

Third:Whats with the family fighting?I mean here we dont have just Zoro as a freedom fighting vigilante.His wife is a spy,and an excelent fencer as well.And his son is some kind of a super kid acrobat,preventing two grown men from reaching him by throwing bars of soap at them

Now in the old movie,people die from swords and bullet,they arent there just to show off and cut your initials in someones underwear.When characters get into a fist fights,their lips get scratched and bleed,their faces get bruised,and their clothes gets dirty from the falls.And the wife is no super hero.Shes just an ordinary woman that loves her husband and keeps his secret.

We dont have a horse chasing a train,or huge nitro glycerin explosions in the first movie,yet there is far more tention in it.While watching it,I havent said even once "Like that would happen!".Not even while Zoro jumped all over the rooftops using his whip in the begining.Not even while young Zoro engaded in a fight with about 50 men and won.It felt so real,even though it was exagurated.

Same thing can be seen if you compare starwars trilogies(can someone please give a link.I cannot search it now.But it can be found where I found that LoTRIV script).Or by comparing spartacus and ben hur with troy,arthur,and others.Or by comparing batman 1 and 4.Movies today really suck big time!