Hollywood has been for the past few years feeding audiences pabulum
instead of CREATIVE popcorn munching entertainment, artistic insights and
sensibilities, or (SHOCK) maybe a combination of both. Perhaps, however,
it is our fault as audiences tend to flock to and pay for the security of clichés
(accustomed nests) and avoid having familiarity jostled. Hollywood needs
to make money and clichés sell. Comfort over discomfort. “Rocky
Syndromes” in every other movie...struggle, work, always win. Heroes and
heroines pushed to the edge, may die, NOT. Don’t jar the
audience’s need for complete predictability. I’ve never figured out how
predictability can ever generate a genuine emotion. At least Martin Scorsese
had the courage to leave the audience with a sense of discomfort in The
Color of Money because Newman didn’t win. Sometimes with Scorsese
life is just a draw so deal with it.

One movie that seemed to have a fresh script and music was The Way of the
Gun, a Peckinpah homage without mimicry. McQuarrie honored S. P.’s
themes of honor among thieves and the nobility of the outlaw but with his
own unique style, pacing, editing. etc. This movie might have had the cliché
motif that things aren’t on the surface what they seem to be, but fresh style
and characters elevated it above the mundane. (Fresh script in Almost Famous.
I’ve yet to see Traffic or Crouching Tiger.)

If we want fresh, original scripts we need audiences that won’t disdain novelty
and who aren’t enamored with predictable ruts. Still no easy answers exist as
I’ve noticed that movie critics and viewing audiences often label something
different or unique as pretentious. I can find quotations labeling American
Beauty, Way of the Gun, Pulp Fiction, Go ( a fun Pulp Fiction rip-off) and
other such “art” films as pretentious. Go mainstream and you resurrect clichés
and embrace the mundane. Try something novel, you’re labeled too arty or
pretentious. Seems like the whole industry if damned if it does (take a risk)
and damned if it doesn’t. (clichés) Still I prefer the affirmation and courage
in the verb “does.”

NP Robin and Marian. ..(Now I’m in heaven..Thanks Mark.)

highly original and creative films!

you all stink!
you wouldn't know a good movie if it bit you on your booty!

Mom, you finally have R & M from the great Mr.H!!, love the piece where Robin looses his arrow on his death bed

later

m/w just saw 12 films that sucked, he could have seen 12 good films from this year (he would have had to go searching for them but they were out there).

As Joan pointed out, most of the mainstream films are hampered by the terms of their production: high expenses mean a reliance on formula and a pandering to audience expectations. It's not that the writers and directors couldn't make better product, it's just that the corporate agenda is to make Coca-Cola or vanilla ice cream instead of Chateaux Blubon 37 and spumoni.

Looking to the alternative art cinema is one option, but really what I think you want (or at least I do) is mainstream stuff like Vertical Limit to be both exciting and not predictable, not full of plot holes and illogic. And that's what's become rare, the regular Hollywood movie that works on a lot of levels, one that is both intelligent and fun, that appeals to both high brow and low brow like the bawdy plays of Shakespeare.

That's why I suggested looking into the past because I feel the percentage of this kind of good mainstream fare was higher previously, but that isn't meant to slight the good films from 2000.

now, surfing through my father's digital cable set-up, they give a star rating to the various movies that you see throughout the schedule. whoever assigns the ratings has no taste. The River Wild was given 3.5 stars out of 4.