It's beginning to look a lot like bullshit. Don't be fooled by
the tough exterior, I like sentimental movies as much as any
other stereotypical girl, even though I like my hardcore gore
and torture movies too. I'm well rounded that way. But the
holiday season irks me every year because it's filled with
sentimental dreck in the theaters that isn't worth spending my
money on. I'm beginning to hate Hollywood. They seem to be
ruining every season for me. I looked forward to nothing more
than going to see some awesome horror movies in theaters around
Halloween, and while "30 Days of Night" was great, "Saw 4" was
bad enough to make me consider writing off watching horror
movies in the theaters. I'd rather burn my money than spend it
on that kind of tripe. But that's the problem with being a
desperate movie fan, I'm willing to give almost anything a
chance in hopes of finding something great. It's a formula
that's worked for me in past years because I've found that I
like most anything and so I enjoy myself at movies that most
other critics seem to hate. But this job writing reviews is
making me bitter.
Watching movies for
the purpose of reviewing them has made me look even more closely
at the movies I watch and I'm noticing some annoying trends. On
the one hand, I have awesome little indie features that no one
sees, on the other I have "blockbusters" with 30 times the
budget of the indies that don't even approach the quality of the
indies but scores of people see the big budget movies because
they appear in theaters across the country. This has always been
the case; but now I've discovered a third category: indie films
that aren't that great that are praised up and down by critics
across the country.
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It's enough to make me
want to scream sometimes. I suppose I should be
happy that anyone is making movies I want to see at
all and the other factors shouldn't get to me, but
they do. Great little indie filmmakers are out there
but they can't make any money to keep their vision
going because no one wants to see their films, huge
budget bullshit movies keep being churned out by the
studios so my theater won't ever feature anything I
really want to see, and if I DO go see something
I'll be hugely disappointed. And the independent
movies that DO get recognition are pretty mediocre,
and this is why I'll never be a respected critic
because I'm not a good insightful reviewer; I don't
agree with all the other critics. And even when I'm
not worrying about agreeing with anyone else and I'm
just watching movies for my own enjoyment, I'm
noticing the good movies falling by the wayside in
favor of movies that are never great but are just
good enough in enough areas to appeal to enough
people to make millions of dollars as viewers sink
into a sea of mediocrity. |
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I'll admit it, all
the bullshit got me down for awhile there. I went an entire
month without watching a movie (which is
longer than I've gone without watching a movie since I was a
kid). Oddly enough I broke my movie fast by watching a
movie called "The Covenant." What is that movie? Don't worry
about it. If you Google it you'll find enough reviews that
tell you that it's another one of those trashy little movies
that I like that everyone else hates. And while I suppose you
could (and many do) argue that I'm one of the ones sinking into
a sea of mediocrity I'm really not because I'm aware that the
movie is light years from perfect and I'm not watching it
because I can't find anything better to watch but because its
fun familiarity that won't try my brain cells is what I'm in the
mood for at the time I watch it. I see all of that movie's flaws
and can point them out to you, but it has enough things that I
like that I really don't care how many people hate it and I can
enjoy myself watching it.
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Which is what I used
to want most out of a movie going experience...
enjoyment. It's funny, because as it always has,
watching it reminded me why I watch movies in the
first place. Because it was fun. I got to sit around
with a friend and "ooh" and "aah" over the special
effects (you have to do that since there's no plot
to keep your mind occupied) and mock and joke and
enjoy myself. I think I was taking myself and my
opinions too seriously there for awhile. I think we
all do that sometimes. I've never enjoyed arguing
until my fingers were bloody from typing to defend
my opinions, and I've been doing that too much
lately. |
Even if you win
those fights and you can rest easy in the knowledge that you
have the biggest, baddest opinion around you're still just a big
movie fan with an overgrown vocabulary, just like everyone else
in this profession. And you have your guilty pleasures too.
And so I'm entering
another big movie season but with a lot less excitement this
time. I'm not eager to spend money in theaters on the chance
that I'll see something that makes it worth my time. I would say
that I'm more inclined to spend my money renting or buying
movies but again, most of the movies I'm interested in are
independent features that aren't available in my area. And I
find myself again in the same quandary that began this article.
The vicious cycle is killing me. It's hard to be a hopeful movie
fan in the midst of all this. But maybe someday I'll actually
get to see some movies that will make it worth my time, like for
instance "The Girl Next Door" or "Juno" or even the big budget
"I Am Legend," and maybe they will remind me again why I'm a
movie fan. Maybe. Here's hoping.
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