Movies are movies. Most people could give a shit what the difference between what a good movie is and a bad movie is. How did we end up like this? How did we end up looking at mainstream media through the eyes of comic book lovers, cgi animators and image manipulators? From the internet, to video games, to fandom, we live in a world gone mad. What is fandom and why have merging technologies been able to capitalize on a system that once prided itself on creativity?
If we were to look into it deeper, one might consider the idea that using one platform (i.e. toys) with another platform (i.e. the internet) is preposterous and insane. However, corporate companies have capitalized on this and it is hard to ignore. No longer are we bombarded by the one piece cinema that stands alone. Instead we have franchises like Spiderman, Star Wars and Harry Potter… selling and creating mythic worlds alike for people to escape in and become the avatars that they want to be.
Does life imitate art? Has our populace gotten to the point where we live in a world like the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates? How has the cinema culture gone from creative pieces that are built to make people think and act into a fast paced world of violence, sex and bourgeoisie attitudes? It’s simple, some people are idiots. Like the movie Clerks. “People generally don’t go in seeking something for themselves…” But really does seeking out pointless brainless material generate the type of society that we want to live in.
A great example of this fanfare is with the movie “A Couple’s Retreat.” Now I have no idea what the movie is about and I don’t really care to. Instead I read reviews on it and almost all of them unanimously said that it was a bad movie. They also say that is the same storyline that has been regurgitated over and over and over again. Is this good for the conscience?
Because of these attitudes, I began to ponder why a movie like “A Couple’s Retreat” might be number one at the box office. The idea is simple: market the movie like crazy, put in a few actors who people know because they are on the cover of People magazine, and put it in several multiplex theaters for people to go see.
As for the fanboy franchises: Create a world where people can relate to one another, and make the viewer watch the most basic storyline over and over and over again. (i.e. Christopher Vogler’s “The Hero’s Journey.”)
Now don’t get me wrong, some studios do put out great movies and sometimes there are movies that break out of the studio system that actually do receive a lot of fanfare. However, for the extreme escapist (it seems to be getting larger these days with the franchises), the world of apathy can be a terrible thing.
Therefore, seek out the movies that you know will provide great entertainment and push the boundary of your conscience, humor and the boundary of cinema. And if you don’t know what to look for, leave it up to the smart viewer to seek out the good things.
So I guess my last suggestion to the audience is do not give the advertisement or studio companies any will to produce one terrible movie over after another. And lastly, franchises be damned because we don’t need anymore fanboys or fangirls creating spin off musical bands, college events, and fandom websites…
Sounding off for my first rant, and I hope you people enjoy it!
At first he was obsessed with Hollywood and the movies that came out of Hollywood, and then Peter saw David Lynch's 'Eraserhead.' The mind blowing surreal movie changed his perception on movies forever, and he hounded for more. Because of the dark tone that David Lynch incorporates in his films, Peter generally seeks out films that are identical. His favorite films tend to be politically based, dark and surreal, and have a sense of realism or poetry in them. His favorite genre is horror, but he does enjoy a comedy (more dark than light) now and again. There are times, however, that he does enjoy a little entertainment. 
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I really disagree with you on a lot of point, even if in many aspects you are pretty close to what is happening…
First off, let me just say that YES the brains sometimes needs to relax, and that sometimes, something pointless and amusing is enjoyable… Like any muscle the brain doesn’t need to work all the time, actually it’s healthier if it doesn’t…
Movies are like books, sometime you want to read the latest essay from Gore Vidal, and sometimes you want to escape and go into a dream, and read a book written by Jules Verne…
I disagree with the escapism is a bad; at its extreme, it can be; however, escaping leads to dreaming, which leads us to move forward… How many astronauts have aknowledged that they have read “from the Earth to the Moon” and that gave them the desire, the dream of going into space…
Now let’s talk about marketing and the smart viewer… and let’s talk about Paranormal Activity… a movie that looks like the Blair Witch Project in its mockumentary style, and that like the Blair Witch Project has been heavily promoted in a viral way…
Because what you call smart viewers are in fact young internet monging consumers, that will go on a certain category of websites which have been targeted, with viral ads promoting this movie.
There is no such thing as smart viewers, there are condescending viewers, who believe that they are smarter than others, but to tell the truth, working in the advertising world, it’s just one target audience amongst plenty of others, and what makes a movie successfull is a movie meeting its target audience…
Case in point, the smart viewers in 92 flocked to go see Pulp Fiction and said it was the smart choice, when at the exact same time, a studio movie called the Shawshank Redemption came out, and was a box office failure… 15 years later, it is widely considered that Shawshank is a far better picture one of the best in history, whereas according to the critics of the time, it was just an average movie, and Pulp Fiction was far better.
Even last year the smart condescending viewers have chosen Slumdog Millionaire as opposed to the Hollywoodian, the Curious Life of Benjamin Bunton… why, because the smart viewers likes those independently produced foreign movies about poor kids in a country far away, when it fact it is a very high budget British movie. But again the good doers who want to show how open minded they are with foreign cultures just show how shallow and condescending they were… Neglecting one of the finest cinematic achievments of the last decade, just because it had a talented actor that should be juged by his performance but for the smart viewers he cannot be good, because of his celebrity status.
Also I truly believe that there is a disconnect between the movie critics and the general audience, certain genre and personalities are considered good and other bad, when it comes to a lot of the reviewers of out time, they are just arrogant fanboys… How come they all helm JJ Abrams’ Star Trek as a masterpiece, and trash Transformers 2… Wow JJ Abrams doing a Trekkie favorite is praised, while the hated Michael Bay directed sequel is trashed… what a surprise…
I did enjoyed Transformers 2, it was a neat action packed nonsense, I had fun watching it, where as I really didn’t like Star Trek… I am not saying Transformers 2 is a good movie or a better movie that Star Trek, I’m saying both were mediocre movies who have been treated differently because of who made them and not because of their intrinsec qualities…
Now let’s talk about couples retreat… I haven’t seen it either, but I think I know what it is about… Couples going a retreat!!!… why is going to be successfull, because sometimes you don’t wanna go see a crappy independent condescending artistic bullshit, but you want to see something lighthearted with tongue-and-cheek jokes…
Humor and Comedy is something vital in our lives… it is as important to relax and laugh, as doing something serious… it’s not one or the other it’s a symbiosis…
Still not fully awake, my english is taking a break… I apologize, for the typos and grammatical errors…
I like how Peter “pros” and “cons” his own article.
Joseph… Something happened when I put the article up. The pictures were not going at all. Therefore without thinking, I decided to try to put pros and cons to see if it could fix it… That is why they are up.
That explains a lot about the article lol
A great show that you should invest in that doesn’t show rich lifestyles is Lucky Louie. Unfortunately it was short lived and not that many people watched it… Very very funny though.
Dude if it’s to see the life of middle class or poor people I just need to walk down the street… don’t need to waste money on it… only a rich dude would say something like let’s invest on dvds to see how poor people live!
You are now dubbed the “American Mogul.” lol