Hollywood Slump: Why?
GOP Vixen
By Dirty Harry
How can Hollywood blame the internet, home video, and video games for their nearly five month slump when those things have all been competing for tickets sales for well over a decade? Why not just blame the light bulb? The horseless carriage? Idiots. Here's why there's a slump:
1. This industry is so out of ideas a film no longer needs to be good or successful to birth a sequel *cough*Elektra*cough*. And rather than even consider original conservative ideas they make The Dukes of Hazzard Movie. In other words, bad ideas over good ones that offend their liberal anti-American world view.
2. The most relevant thing happening in America today is the War on Terror. It's been four years, and Hollywood adamantly refuses to make films about it unless it's a thinly disguised poorly written allegory that blames us and makes America and Christians the bad guys. How can Hollywood expect to reach people if they ignore the single most important issue of the day? And whether it was the depression, prohibition, other wars, civil rights, or AIDS, Hollywood has never been so obscenely quiet in it's hundred year history. And why? Because Hollywood sympathizes with the terrorists and can't bring themselves to tell any story that shows the best in America or Bush.
3. The rise of alternative media: Blogs, talk radio, and that oasis in a liberal ocean; FOX News, are all killing Hollywood by exposing them. Not just how bad movies are, but their anti-American agenda and all the incredibly obtuse things that come out of this crowd's mouth. Thirty years ago stars decided to enter the political arena completely unaware technology would someday allow the other side to fight back. Now they're being humiliated, ridiculed, exposed, and insulted... And all for good reason. And of course it hurts box office. How can you offend 51% of your potential audience and not hurt ticket sales? It's like people who say the increased prison population isn't why crime rates are down. It's so beyond stupid there can only be politics behind it.
4. Stars today for the most part suck. The biggest stars, or should I say highest paid, stars in the country, can no longer bring them in. Not Nicole Kidman (Bewitched). Not Julia Roberts (Mona Lisa Smile). Not Will Ferrell (Every movie he's ever made). Not George Clooney (Any movie Sinatra didn't make first). Not Harrison Ford (The last 5 years). Not Robbins, Sarandon, Gere, Streisand, Fonda... There's too many to name. Some have hurt themselves with nasty ignorant political statements, other have hurt themselves by having no talent whatsoever *cough*Affleck*cough*Damon*cough*Clooney*cough*Kidman*cough*Ferrell*cough*
5. The end of the dreaded conservative studio system that bred The Greats, made classics, and employed more women than today's so-called enlightened Hollywood is finally catching up. Today's stars have too much power and don't know how to use it. They make one piece of crap after another; either playing it too safe (sequels, old tv shows, remakes, and comic books), or they make stupid out of touch liberal projects with hacks like Lars Von HateAmerica that alienate the audience needed for bigger films. Bewitched shouldn't have flopped. Good or bad, a star should have enough goodwill to bring in an audience to create a hit. Those days are long over.
The only exceptions are Hanks and Denzel. They're brilliant and offend no one. The public likes them and they carry themselves like gentlemen.
6. The power a star now has to greenlight a film is costing them their screen immortality and the audience a decent product. They simply don't have the judgment to pick projects. One need only compare Jane Fonda's career with her fathers. Name a single unforgettable Jane Fonda film anyone will watch in fifty years. You can't. Two Academy Awards but not a single classic during her mediocre career. Her father made too many to count.
All these things have finally come home to roost.I revel watching them cook in their own stew. And judging from box office receipts, I'm not alone. Hollywood isn't just suffering from indifference, they're suffering from animosity. And when you want to sell a product, It can't get any worse than that. |
