Do today’s movies suck?

[jnw]

Banshees wasn't for me.  Also I tried watching Everything, Everywhere All at Once and fell asleep both times.  The Menu was okay I guess.   Haven't seen Top Gun Maverick yet.  I did like the Fablemans.

[bill1827]

It's many years since we went to a multiplex, but in small towns in the UK there seems to be a trend to create small cinemas. No doubt made possible by the availability and relatively low cost of digital projectors.

We've got 2 near us. They only have a couple of hundred seats and one screen but when we've been that have been reasonably full, so I assume that they are profitable enough to keep going.

Being digital means that they can show streaming content as well, so they will show live plays, opera or ballet from London venues which will never be available in the provinces. Things like National Theatre productions, Covent Garden opera, even the Met. Personally I would much rather go to an actual production than a streamed one, the experience is much more meaningful if you are present rather than watching on a screen.

We saw Living and Empire of Light in one of these. Personally I'd still rather watch at home; our screen fills a pretty similar field of view as the cinema screen, the sound quality is better, the sound level is under our control, so we don't get defend, you aren't subject to 30 minutes of advertising and there's no sweet wrapper rustling. However it's a bit of a social occasion and it's supporting a local enterprise, the local one is volunteer run.

[GuitarStv]

I kinda feel like attending a movie today is only really done because of some fetishization of the experience.

Objectively, watching a movie at home is better for me in every way.  No commercials, can pause it for bathroom breaks, eat any food that I want without ridiculous prices, better sound (where I can control the volume and not have it blasted painfully loud), no assholes waving lit cellphone screens around.  There is just no reason for a theater to exist anymore - it's paying more for a much worse overall time.  Every theater in the country could go out of business tomorrow and it would have zero impact on my happiness.  I probably wouldn't even notice.

[jnw]

I kinda feel like attending a movie today is only really done because of some fetishization of the experience.

Objectively, watching a movie at home is better for me in every way.  No commercials, can pause it for bathroom breaks, eat any food that I want without ridiculous prices, better sound (where I can control the volume and not have it blasted painfully loud), no assholes waving lit cellphone screens around.  There is just no reason for a theater to exist anymore - it's paying more for a much worse overall time.  Every theater in the country could go out of business tomorrow and it would have zero impact on my happiness.  I probably wouldn't even notice.

I agree with you.  Way overpriced and worse visual and audio experience. Also don't have to deal with loud people/children, or heads getting in the way of your view.  No sticky floors or interrupting 10 people if you have to take a restroom break. We have a $500 HD projector in our bedroom which projects about 12 feet across the room to a wall which gives us a crystal clear 83" screen.  We have surround sound setup in the room as well.  It's nice to be able to lay in a comfy bed and watch a movie, eating homemade snacks if desired.

[iris lily]

Dear Hollywood,

No more super hero or remakes please.

I think I love you.

This year was grim for interesting new releases.

I usually look to Frank Sweitek’s film reviews and will consider anything he gives a letter grade”B” and above. He will go for months, sometimes even a year, before giving a film an “A.” He is a hard grader.

I’ve seen several of the Oscar films this year, waiting only to see “everywhere everything all at once. “ Nothing struck me as super great but I did enjoy Banshees, I respected Tar, and I found parts of Triangle of Sadness wryly entertaining.

But I will disagree with several of you about seeing films in the movie house. When I see it in the movie house, I have no distractions. At home I have distractions. The films I see in the theatre usually make more of an impact on me.

[sonofsven]

She's also a total icon from my childhood, she was for an entire cohort of little Canadian girls. I think half of my sister's identity is tied up in that character, lol.

So yeah, of course I'm going to watch it, I'm just hoping it's women actually talking and not women intensely staring silently at each other with moody score for most of the movie.

That is exactly what I said to my husband last night when he said Women Talking won best adapted screenplay. I was like "I'm so happy for Ramona/Sara Stanley!" and he had no idea what I was talking about. Not Canadian - but I'm pretty sure I saw both Ramona and Avonlea during free Disney Channel weekends growing up and we recorded them on our VCR so we could rewatch:)

In general I don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to - but I have enjoyed the last several movies I've seen in the theater (which are few and far between):

Spencer
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
EEAAO
Nope
The Northman (this was wack! but I leaned in and went with it - and then made my husband watch it, and he was also like "this is wack!")
The Green Knight (this was definitely slow - but so atmospheric and beautiful).

Took the kids to see Lightyear and Lego Movie 2 at the drive in and Lego Movie 2 is sort of the best movie I've ever seen about toxic masculinity.

 

If you like "wack viking movies" as a genre try Valhalla Rising.

[netloc]

A couple years ago I watched The Endless on Netflix and was looking for a way to watch Resolution - a micro-budget horror film from the same filmmakers (Justin Benson, Aaron Scott Moorhead) that is loosely connected to the later film - and found out about Tubi, which is now probably my favorite streaming service.

Not only is it free, but for someone who doesn't necessarily need the latest and "greatest" it is a treasure trove. It has films from the advent of cinema through to the last few years (there's even some brand new stuff, but not new blockbusters), and offers an incredible variety - low budget indies, 1920s silent films, Hollywood epics of yesteryear, overlooked films from now-popular filmmakers, schlock, documentaries, cult films, animated films, cheesy '80s films, old television shows.

Just a few examples of the hundreds of films I've watched on Tubi, off the top of my head: The Long Riders, Repo Man, American Pop, Ghost in the Shell, La La Land, Bull Durham, First Reformed, Mandy, Hunger, Bone Tomahawk, Mad Max, Malcolm X, Gattaca, Married to the Mob, Something Wild, In a Lonely Place, The Jolo Serpent Handlers, David Holzman's Diary, His Girl Friday, Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Suspiria.

The catch is that you have to watch about ten minutes of adds sprinkled throughout the runtime. (It used to only stream in 720p but has upgraded to 1080p so for me that's no longer an issue at all.) They also started doing live sports, in-house productions, and other things now that Fox bought them, but I mostly stick to the movies. Highly recommended.

[Chraurelius]

Anyone who likes good movies or tv shows should try Korean drama. There is a vast supply of topics and genres. And getting used to captioning isn't that hard. Of course, almost all characters are Korean, but after a while they start to look normal.

[jnw]

Anyone who likes good movies or tv shows should try Korean drama. There is a vast supply of topics and genres. And getting used to captioning isn't that hard. Of course, almost all characters are Korean, but after a while they start to look normal.

I liked The Squid Game.  I think I recall it was a Korean film?

[Extramedium]

That is exactly what I said to my husband last night when he said Women Talking won best adapted screenplay. I was like "I'm so happy for Ramona/Sara Stanley!" and he had no idea what I was talking about. Not Canadian - but I'm pretty sure I saw both Ramona and Avonlea during free Disney Channel weekends growing up and we recorded them on our VCR so we could rewatch:)

In general I don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to - but I have enjoyed the last several movies I've seen in the theater (which are few and far between):

Spencer
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
EEAAO
Nope
The Northman (this was wack! but I leaned in and went with it - and then made my husband watch it, and he was also like "this is wack!")
The Green Knight (this was definitely slow - but so atmospheric and beautiful).

Took the kids to see Lightyear and Lego Movie 2 at the drive in and Lego Movie 2 is sort of the best movie I've ever seen about toxic masculinity.

 
[/quote]

If you like "wack viking movies" as a genre try Valhalla Rising.
[/quote]

LOVED The Northman and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

For more Viking fun:  Norsemen, a short series on Netflix.   Norwegian-made humorous satire of Viking life just before the age of contact with England.  A bit like some of the Vikings violent historical dramas as told by Monty Python.

[jpdx]

Movies have been shit for a while.

It's due to a combination of technological change and globalization. Studios used to make a ton of money with DVD sales, and with that gone, they now have to recoup all their money in the theater. So they don't take risks with making smaller films and telling original stories as much as they used to.

Additionally, the international market has become much more important to studios. Simple stories, explosions, and super heroes are entertaining no matter what language you speak, so that's what gets made.