I'm still disappointed that, once something "original" comes around, we won't see anything original for the next five years. What? The Matrix was popular? Everyone and their dog hopped on that bandwagon. What? Lord of the Rings hit it big? Let's all make three hour epic films with swords, CG armies, and medithisthingisdisabled junk (Troy, King Arthur, etc.) What's that? Passion of the Christ hit it big? What other Bible stories can we exploit for profit? Huh? Spider-Man was a hit? Cue 75 comic movies.
Also, I, too, have a problem with how Hollywood "thinks" they know what we, the viewers, want. But... well, we never really get it. The million and one "teen" movies are proof of that. Nearly every movie with sexual content shows the "passion" and the "love", but never the consequences, such as teen-pregnancy, STDs, moral conflicts, etc. They wonder why teen sex is on the rise, while "teen" movies (all of them being 'R' rated, which, last time I checked, was NOT a teen-friendly rating) use every opportunity to parade around naked breasts and drop F-bombs. That, to me, is the ultimate sign of a bad movie, when old tricks like strong language and nudity for the sake of nudity are used as crutches to catch the audiences attention. A film that can make it through without strong language and unnecessary nudity is a rare thing. "The Last Samurai", "The Matrix", even "Terminator 2" and "Underworld", as unoriginal as the latter was, were bold in that they carried through with no unnecessary nudity-bits, pervasive strong language, or down-right excessive content. All are rated 'R', but they're "tame" compared to the likes of the F-ridden "Narc", "8 Mile", and the hundreds of other 'R' films, or the sex-filled "American Pie" films, "EuroTrip", and every other teen comedy.
When a director cares about making a "movie" instead of a buck, he can create something good, but there is, I believe, too few of them out there. For every heart-felt moment, we get a fart joke. For every genuine showing of love, we get random, meaningless sex scenes. For every grand speech of honor, pride, or any other praise-worthy human trait, we get foul-mouthed people cursing each other out, merely showing off their limited vocabular and lack of adjectives. Hollywood can do better.
I strongly respect the days of old, days of Hitchcock and such. He never relied on strong language, gratuitous nudity. He restrained his films, and because he did, the impact, I think, was that much greater. Even the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre surpasses the first because it was overly violent. The gore was implied, and what your imagination can conjure up is always more terrifying than what is put before you. I remember watching films and being shocked out of my seat when the hero would confront a villain and throw out "You miserable bastard!" Now... what's that? PG at least. Now, that won't suffice. We, the ignorant audience, must endure "you f***ing a**hole, f*ck you, you f***ing son of a b*tch," etc. Now, how "intellectual" is that? It's stupid. It's shallow, but it's what the studios throw us every single month. You know what? Grow a spine and restrain yourselves a bit.
And that goes universally in the media business. Curse words are synonymous with rap and shock rock. Sex with pop. Drinkin' and cheatin' with country. TV is nothing but a non-stop orgy now-a-days. Even video-games are crossing that delicate boundary, cursing and baring butts and breasts.
I respect mature games like, for example, "Silent Hill", easily the most disturbing, screw-up horror experience on the face of the planet. Yet, you know what, there has yet to be a f-bomb in the series. There has yet to be sex and nudity. Rather, it relies heavily on innuendo, imagination, and subtle context, something I think every film-maker should take to heart. IMO, we're heading into a dark age for movies.
Fatality.
