April 19, 2005

What's Playing

I like movies. The fruit of the Murphy Loins are old enough that I can go see movies without them. I don't see that many movies. What's wrong with this picture?

Hollywood.

Hollywood has real difficulty in making good movies. I don't expect lots of great movies to be made every year -- I'm happy with one or two. Of course, some years it's zero. But that's a reasonable expectation for greatness in film making. The trouble is all those other movies. Look what's playing now in box office order:
(1) The Amityville Horror. A remake of a poor horror film -- that's a prescription for a winner.
(2) Sahara -- Uh, is this something different than the remake of The Flight of the Phoenix?
(3) Fever Pitch -- The Farrelly Brothers, could be good, but Jimmy Fallon, not too likely.
(4) Sin City -- Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez! I'd love to go see this one, but I doubt I could ever get the wife to go. I'll have to see if guys night at the movies can be brought back.
(5) Guess Who -- A remake. The female half of the family saw this while the male half was doing chess. My daughter liked it but my wife thought it stunk.
(6) Beauty Shop -- A copy. I'm completely the wrong demographic for this one.
(7) Robots -- My brother saw this one and was not impressed. This is a common problem - a movie that promises a lot but only delivers a little. I much prefer the ones that promise a little but deliver a lot.
(8) Miss Congeniality 2 -- a sequal. Could be good, love Sandra, but realistically not a must see movie.
(9) The Pacifier -- I can't admit in public that I'd like to see this movie.
(10) The Upside of Anger -- This could be my kind of movie, but it has chick flick written all over it. That was the great thing about Tin Cup - it looked like a chick flick in the previews, but it was really a guy film when you saw it.

Is this really a lineup that inspires you to see more than 2 movies? 5 out of the top 10 is what they should be shooting for, but they can't get there.

Posted by Kevin Murphy at April 19, 2005 11:52 AM | Movies
Comments
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Haw, well I'm not one to stick up for Hollywood, but we're in one of the dead zones of the year where they dump all their crappy movies. Summer should be interesting this year, with Star Wars Hitchikers Guide, and Batman. Each holds promise, but I only expect one of them to be good (which one? I don't know.)

I do know what you mean though. Sometimes I look at this list and wonder how this many crappy movies could get made and released at the same time... Heh, check this out:

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/03/mpaa_piracy.html

Do you have a local arthouse? Every now and again, I'll head to the city and take in a foreign or independent flick. I'm usually glad to have made the trip...

Posted by: Mark at April 23, 2005 1:56 PM