Something that caught my eye on the shoutbox yesterday was the movie talk and I was thinking about the classic films over the past few decades and then this new brand of modern turd-like shite that we see today. I can't put my finger on why I don't enjoy many modern movies but most don't ooze that quality and I'm not sure why. I find myself avoiding most movies post-2000 on TV under the assumption that they will be a turn-off.
For one; I am not wowed by special effects. Sure they beef up scenes with spectacular crash, bangs and wallops but knowing that such scenes are essentially created using this method; they don't leave me jaw-dropped in the slightest. Some modern actors just lack that screen presence also along with overall quality in performance - even the most well-known popular ones. I don' know whether it's because they are part of this modern society where off-screen most of them you see in their true lights but it doesn't seem to compare to the old days where actors were under the radar until you actually saw them in films in a variety of roles. It's not easy to explain but I just don't feel many mainstream actors today have that extra bit of edge and performance quality.
I also think some of the modern day writing and scripting leaves a lot to be desired particularly in the comedy genre. I don't think films and their narratives have been done to death and completely exhausted but I don't think I've seen a comedy that will go down as a classic in decades to come. There is too many generic and predictable films within comedy that are cheesy, weak and ultimately cheap - it's like we've seen them all before but this breed of modern day ones have no real iconic moments and they just stagger through with some uncomfortable one-liners. The same could be said for other genres also. There seems to be this emphasis on promotion and media hype that overrides the actual quality - not too different from the gaming industry in all fairness but even films that have a strong cast just seem to be lacking originality and quality.
British films have been lacking since the late 90's, Hollywood has got into some bad habits and even Asian films have lost their way in recent years. Films like The Wolf of Wall Street and 12 Years a Slave were excellent but back in the 70's 80's and 90's you were really spoilt for choice as top quality films were being churned out frequently.