There is this film on 4 now called Merrill's Marauders, and tbh, at the moment, there is not much going on, but it's gripping, I'm not changing the channel over. All the modern films you'd be half tempted to change the channel.
Why are older films so much more gripping?
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Soldato
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i find that with early war films, loads of dialoge but really traps me into it.
Pretty much it.
A lot of "modern" films are made for audiences with the attention span of a goldfish with serious brain injury, and rely far too much on the "ooh shiny" effect rather than any attempt at a story, let alone dialogue.
Probably in part because it's much easier to throw money by the bucket load at special effects, big bangs and some pretty young thing wearing an outfit that shows off their physique than it is to get a good script* and story that engages the viewer's brain.
You're also pretty much guaranteed to at least make back most of the money from a film starring a well know "face" (or or pair of boobs
) even if it's quite bad if it's an action film that doesn't require you to engage your brain at all.Likewise there is a certain unwillingness to do anything that might make a film an 18 here, or god forbid an R rating in the states, as it locks out a lot of the potential box office audience, which can severely impact how a film can tell some stories.
I guess with the average cost of a film these days you can't really blame them for playing it safe with the core audience.
There are still good films getting made that do rely on script/story but they tend to be lower budget and often not promoted anything like as much (IIRC Moon was very low budget but apparently very good**).
*Not to mention that a lot of the time the actual starting story/script (which may be great) can have little resemblance to the end story/script after various directors, actors etc have had "little changes" made to it to show of their "skills better".
**I've got to watch it, i keep meaning to buy the DVD.
My memory suxs so excuse me but who are those two brothers that make films these days ? They did a film with Clooney of all people, he was one of three convicts on the run, Now that is a Modern day work of art. I can't even remember the title though.
Is it Where for art thou ???
Is it Where for art thou ???
I agree with this. I saw the Iron Man 2 trailer recently and just thought it looked like a very generic over-used storyline with nothing that would captivate me. Whereas films like The Godfather, Shawshank, The Green Mile, The Machinist, Trainspotting, for example seemed to have something much more enjoyable. However this is probably horses for courses, some people i'm sure enjoy mindless action with little care for more than a simple storyline. There are still thought provoking films in this era but they do seem few and far between.
Soldato
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Brother where art thou - coen brothers, great film and sountrack.
O Brother, Where Art Thou. You're thinking of the Coen Brothers and they do make fantastic movies.
Technically OBWAT is based on Homer's 'The Odyssey' so they can't take all the credit for a good story. However, their adaptation into the American Deep South is very well done.
*Edit* Bah, beaten to it.
Caporegime
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Yup, it seems hard to think anything but younger people are getting dumber and dumber. When some people are entertained by knowing where celebrities are having dinner on twitter its not hard to see that a gripping inteligent film with a great story will do nothing for them.
I keep hoping to see some great films and am constantly dissappointed when I go to see or rent most of the supposed great films out every year. THeres still a few very good films made but few and far between.
Avatar is basically a pathetic story with big blue guys and lots of blacklights, yeah it looked okay, but the story was so mind numbingly boring and dull, there wasn't a point I really gave a crap about what happened next.
Up in the Air was one of the best films of the year, but still wasn't that good, some nice lines, some good acting, a decent script, but it was only great compared to most of the trash out in the previous few years, its really only an average to good film.
Man of Honour
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There are still some great films getting made but I suspect Werewolf is right in that it is easier to try to compensate for the lack of a solid story by using special effects or other devices that will act as a 'shock' factor to gain attention. Aside from just low budget films I've found a few foreign language films to be better in terms of story telling and engagement than many Hollywood attempts - that's not to say I don't enjoy many of the big budget blockbusters because I do but it's nice to have the option of thinking about a film.
For a film which is an exemplar of gripping performances try Rififi - there's a sequence where nary a word is spoken for a full 30 minutes and during that time they convey more emotion than many films manage in the entirety of their unnecessarily bloated running time. Too many films now seem to equate having a lengthy running time with quality which is annoying - it's even more paradoxical when you consider that apparently our attention spans are getting shorter.
A film I watched fairly recently and didn't expect to like much but was pleasantly surprised by is Little Miss Sunshine.
For a film which is an exemplar of gripping performances try Rififi - there's a sequence where nary a word is spoken for a full 30 minutes and during that time they convey more emotion than many films manage in the entirety of their unnecessarily bloated running time. Too many films now seem to equate having a lengthy running time with quality which is annoying - it's even more paradoxical when you consider that apparently our attention spans are getting shorter.
A film I watched fairly recently and didn't expect to like much but was pleasantly surprised by is Little Miss Sunshine.
Great film.
I think a lot of people overlook the great "intelligent" films because they're often passed off - or just give the impression of being "silly indie" films. There is always a decent amount of low budget/special effects-free films being made.
Sad fact is a lot of people won't watch a film if they haven't seen the trailer plastered over TV for 3 weeks.
It's too easy to spot CG and I see it as a get out these days. If its a fantasy film I can see the point like Avatar, but when you look at Alien, Back to the Future, Terminator and old films like that they're so simple but so much more believable for me.
I like a lot of 'rubbish' films old and new though. I like the rough edges of a cheaper budget film and even if the acting and whatever might feel disjointed, if part of it reaches me I feel its more of an achievement than a blockbuster hit. I like to find the good in most films though, i love watching them regardless.
I like a lot of 'rubbish' films old and new though. I like the rough edges of a cheaper budget film and even if the acting and whatever might feel disjointed, if part of it reaches me I feel its more of an achievement than a blockbuster hit. I like to find the good in most films though, i love watching them regardless.
Yes, I enjoy a decent old film a lot more than most superficial new ones. I recently bought the Godfather trilogy, and there's some great storytelling going on, without the need for a load of action. Back to the future was mentioned above, another good example of story over cgi etc. If you watch the Terminator series, you'll see a microcosm of the decline of cinema since 1984 (I think). Things were already getting worse though.
What about films like Westworld? Anyone seen that? Great movie, no need for all the bells and whistles you see nowadays.
What about films like Westworld? Anyone seen that? Great movie, no need for all the bells and whistles you see nowadays.
Another modern film I was pleasantly surprised by was Inglorious ********. Probably because a lot of that film relied heavily on tension being built by seemingly innocuous dialogues, and not, as I expected, a bunch of Americans running around shooting Nazis.
there are good old films, that isn't to say there aren't good new films, so no.The Great Escape
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