THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT...

Maybe it's me, but far too many of the Film Industry's current movies are just plain crap. Big budgets, little budgets, somehow the premise of telling a story seems to escape a vast number of today's filmmakers. With expensive, special effects, over paid actors, and over-the-top directors, movies are high on action, blood, gore, sex, but extremely low on plot -- their stories are literally lost in translation. Yet there are some films which are both entertaining and genuinely memorable.

Finding Nemo, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, all are big films with big budgets that were justified in their success in making profits and finding large audiences.

However, some of the sweetest films are independent, low-budget projects which have also found large audiences and became award-winning successes. Lost in Translation, Whale Rider, The Sixth Sense, Dirty Dancing, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, are some examples of independent or small films that found large audiences. All are excellent movies deserving their praise, awards and acclaim.

I judge a good film by it’s personal effect on me -- either it invokes some type of emotional response, or completely sweeps me away from the reality of my life. Fluff movies can be fine too -- and sometimes therapeutic. I thoroughly enjoyed Freaky Friday, it was cute, well made, silly and just plain fun, which is unusual for a remake!

I want more thought provoking films like Schindler’s List, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Manchurian Candidate, A Beautiful Mind, and Midnight Cowboy. I want to be swept away on desert dunes with Lawrence of Arabia, sing on a mountaintop with The Sound of Music, laugh ‘til it hurts with the thought that Some Like it Hot. Emerge me in the intrigue of The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, LA Confidential, Rebecca and Laura. I want more of : The Mighty, Welcome to the Doll House, The Piano, Stand by Me, Dominic & Eugene, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Almost Famous.

So Hollywood -- as Kurt Cobain songfully demanded – "Here we are now/ Entertain us!"





- posted by rosemary @ 7:54 AM