The Art of Entertainment

Just watched the 21st century remake of "Godzilla", and the conversation early into the film went like this.........
"Did you see what just happened?"
"No, did you?"
"No...I couldn't see anything."
"Yeah, just a couple flashes of light. So what just DID happen, anyways?"
"I dunno, but we've been mispronouncing "Gojira" for about sixty years."
"What, Bryan Cranston is dead already?? I thought he would be in a lot more of the movie."
"Are we ever going to actually see the monsters, or are they afraid of the light?"
"Oh look, there it is....Blurry, but there it is....The producers found an investor! Yeah!!"
"Oops, back to blackness...Something's going on, with all the screaming, but......Okay, how did Godzilla die? When did that happen?"
"Must have been when you blinked..." 
   Most of what Hollywood is cranking out these days is repetitive, unimaginative drivel. If it's an action film, the more bullets and explosions the better. If sci-fi, either you dazzle the eye with the most advanced special effects, or if on a budget, you create mostly very dimly lit scenes in which viewers can't see any of what is going on. Either way, the story line is nothing new. Romance? Guy gets girl, guy loses girl, guy does something selfless, guy gets girl back.
   This complaint all by itself is nothing new either, which means the same old stories have been plaguing the screen for far too long. Heck, out of the nearly 200 movies that John Wayne made, how many of them are the same western with a different villain? He even wore the same clothes and rode the same horse in most of them. Not that I would disparage the Duke, because we all watch John Wayne movies to see John Wayne be John Wayne, regardless of the plot.......
   Maybe the good ole USA is too safe and secure a place to have many interesting and different stories to tell. It seems that more creative views of the human condition are coming out of parts of the world where we didn't even know there was a film industry. Perhaps it is true that one cannot create truly meaningful art until one has seen enough suffering. The most suffering Hollywood exec's have ever faced is being unable to find a really good dry cleaner. 
   In watching the premieres of this television season's newest offerings, even the most promising shows are hybrids of other shows. Take, for example "Scorpion"....A show about a group of socially outcast geniuses enlisted by the government to save the world on a weekly basis. Nicely made, but at it's core, basically "The Big Bang Theory" as a drama.
   "Forever" is about a guy who is immortal, made to repeatedly suffer the experiences of death and resurrection. On the surface it sounds original....He works currently as a medical examiner (recall "Quincy", and that other show from a season or two ago), helping a local female police detective solve murders (The typical sexual tension side story, the resolution to which will sign the death certificate for the series).  In watching for a short while, one is reminded of "Bones," "Sleepy Hollow" and "Castle" all at once.
    Remember "Groundhog Day"? The newest Tom Cruise movie, with shades of the invasion of Normandy.
We have blended-family sitcoms, lawyer shows, shows about creepy serial killer types, blatant copies of BBC t.v. series, and the ever-present reality t.v. show pitting neighbor against neighbor. Everything I relate to, and more.
   Storytelling is an art, and most movie makers have yet to figure out how to translate the story into a visual that is filled with all of the subtleties and complex nuances of life...instead of hitting us over the head with the obvious. Too often the dialogue assumes that the audience is too dumb to understand any meaning in a character's body language (assuming there is any body language to read).
   The funniest film I think I have ever seen is "Mr. Bean's Holiday". British actor Rowan Atkinson, who created the character of Mr. Bean for a BBC sitcom gives a brilliant performance of purely physical comedy in a film with hardly any dialogue at all. In the same vein as Peter Sellers' Clouseau, the physicality is just subtle enough to be believable, and makes for a joyful ride from beginning to end.
  I enjoy all of Stephen King's novels, but the movies that have been made from them have absolutely none of the suspense of the books. The film version of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", despite having a stellar cast turned out to be a lesson in how utterly boring the lives of international spies can be.
    "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn is one of a handful of examples of artfully suspenseful film making. If you have never seen it, treat yourself! Hepburn is so fragile and vulnerable in her role as a blind woman fending off an intruder in her home, and keeping the majority of the scenes inside her apartment lends to the feeling of being trapped.
  "Argo", Ben Affleck's presentation of the side story behind the Iranian hostage crisis is another well-done film. Even though you know how it will end, you are still kept on the edge of your seat until the very last scene. Mr. Affleck was a Middle-Eastern Studies major in college, and this film is a prime example of the first rule of artistic endeavour.....Create from what you know. I would love to see him delve further into this same story line, regarding the Dulles brothers' responsibility for the whole middle-eastern crisis which we currently face. Now, THERE'S a story!
   Star Wars, although a well-told story is guilty of ushering in the special effects genre which has been a few-decades-long distraction for revenue-hungry studios. Too many movies have relied on effects to the exclusion of a decent story line or plausible acting, or both. The recent advent of new 3-D technology has renewed some excitement in the realm of effects-as-replacements-for content, but I don't think it will continue to be such a big deal. Beyond a certain point, your audience still needs an engaging story to fill in the spot between their eyes.
   From one decade to the next, our film studios cling to the notion that profitability is more important than quality while forgetting that profitability is directly affected by quality or the lack thereof...either that, or they equate quality with "more visual commotion, less substance". I guess too much cocaine does that to your brain.