Movie Talk #1

Welcome to this new section/column about movies!
Here is the first official post, let's take the Avatar critique as a preview. Now let's go back and take a look at 2009 in what I like to call:

The year in review.

This was a very uneven year regarding movies. There were a lot of releases, but most of them were really poor excuses for motion pictures. In my personal opinion most of them were just awful, jumping from bad to worse, with only a handful of good ones and a batch of mediocre ones that look good only when next to the really bad ones.
Let’s make a distinction right here and right now, all this is personal and the box office grossing for ANY particular movie has nothing to do with where they fall, after all, quality is independent of revenue, and one does not necessarily reflects the other.

Let’s take a quick look:

Good:

Harry Potter and the half blood prince, Where the wild things are, Inglourious Basterds, Away we go, Funny people, Star trek, It might get loud, The Blindside, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Watchmen, I love you man, The Hangover, Up, Zombieland.

The thing that makes these movies good to my eyes is the fact that they show you that in today’s world and original idea is still valuable and that if you are going to make yet another remake or adaptation it can be done with some regard and/or respect for the original piece.
You don’t need to be expensive or have the latest in CGI to make a good movie; all you need is a good script and people with talent. All these exceeded expectations, and they range from highly expected blockbusters to the unexpected underdog. Quentin Tarantino made an outstanding comeback with the basterds after that horrible Death Proof he made as part of Grindhouse. All of these also do something that a movie is supposed to do but everybody takes for granted; they entertain.
Something that the ones on the lower section can barely say.

Bad:

Sherlock Holmes, G.I. Joe, New moon, Paul Blart: mall cop, Avatar, Friday the 13th, Pink panther 2, Fast & Furious, Ninja Assassin, Inkheart, Bride wars, Couples retreat, Push, Street Fighter: legend of Chun Li, Miss march, Crank: high voltage, Night at the museum 2, Land of the lost, Blood the last vampire, The final destination, Gamer, Jennifer’s body, Fame, Orphan, Cirque du freak: the vampire’s assistant, A Christmas carol.

I’m sure that all of these looked like a really good idea during the production meetings, I mean we are talking about Hollywood here, these people wouldn’t back up a project without talent involved. I’m sure they are not gonna risk their reputation putting their names in something without a script, poorly acted, badly directed or with production values that make a subway commercial look Oscar worthy. I mean, c’mon, what are they, purely materialistic pigs that only care about putting crap out for people to watch regardless of quality?

No, right?!

Plain Ugly:

Transformers: revenge of the fallen, X-men origins: Wolverine, Year one, Halloween 2, 2012, Terminator salvation, Dragon ball: evolution, Imagine That.

These are so bad, but sooo bad that in comparison they make any Paul W.S. Anderson movie look like Schindler’s List. One thing to mention though, is Roland Emmerich, who must be the most consistent directors in Hollywood history, everything he makes sucks. All these movies just prove the point that all you need to make money is some sort of established property, no script at all and flashy special effects. At least something good came out of Terminator Salvation, Christian Bale’s rant was, is and will be just priceless, 36 F-bombs in under four minutes. I will never get tired of listening to it.

Right now all I can say is:

Let’s just hope for a better 2010.

More to come.