Hollywood is stupid, play videogames

I get a bit tired of people whining about films like Twilight, or long running franchises that don’t seem to end but continue to get worse. If I had a pound for the amount of times I’ve answered the question ‘Why do they keep making the same old things? Why not come up with something new?” with a simple ‘because it makes money’ I would have at least three pounds! Like everything these days, the film industry is predominantly about money. That is of course when you’re talking Hollywood. If you want unique films that don’t fit the Hollywood mould and aren’t just the same films being churned out day by day then you need to look elsewhere. I saw a Yahoo! Answers question the other day that got my back up somewhat, as a huge fan of world and independent cinema. It went something along the lines of ‘why are most movies stupid now?’ and went on to list loads of recent Hollywood films like The Amazing Spiderman and 21 Jumpstreet, claiming that young people these days watch complete rubbish. My answer was simple: You’re watching the wrong films. In my opinion you don’t go and watch Hollywood films if you get pissed off by cliches and cheesiness, but so many people are totally against watching anything that’s (god forbid) low budget or independent, or anything that doesn’t hit the mainstream (i.e. the cinema). A lot of people probably wouldn’t dream of checking out local film festivals for independent films, or renting and watching anything that isn’t mainstream, and don’t even get me started on people’s avoidance of any film with subtitles! Now don’t get me wrong, Hollywood produces some fantastic films regularly, in fact I wouldn’t say the good ones are an exception at all. I’m probably preaching to the choir at the moment because I know that the vast majority of the people that read this blog are like minded (because I read theirs also) and probably feel exactly the same! I frequent my local DVD rental shop when I’m at home in Devon regularly, and usually rent at least two films a week. It’s a small little building full of films from the brand new to the really old. It’s like a treasure trove for me, I love it there! There’s something so satisfying about picking out an actual, solid DVD rather than flicking through pages on iTunes when you fancy a film for the evening. One day my boyfriend and I went in after the release of REC 3 Genesis (the third instalment of the Spanish REC franchise which turned out to be God awful!) and when we asked if they had it in yet, the person working there explained that they’d lose money if they bought it in because no one rents foreign films because they don’t like reading subtitles. So in other words they’ll wait for Hollywood to remake the series (which technically they already have) and then moan about how cheesy and unoriginal Hollywood films are. Now is the time to point out that most foreign films have the option to watch it dubbed, so no subtitle reading necessary! *face-palm* It worries me slightly that so many great foreign films get pushed under the radar and ignored. I was surprised by the sheer amount of people ignorant to the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when the (admittedly very good) remake came out last year. What worries me even more is that the original Swedish film had only been out a mere two years before Hollywood pounced on it. So when people complain about the cheesy rubbish coming out of Hollywood, what they really mean is ‘I can’t be bothered to look elsewhere and think outside the box’.   Anyway, I digress! The point of this rambling rant was to express my irritation with cinema-goers who constantly complain about Hollywood films being boring and unoriginal, because I’d be willing to bet money that they are the same types of people who refuse to watch world cinema, or indeed independent films, out of what is essentially laziness. I love to indulge in a cheesy Hollywood film every now and then, and I will be rushing to the cinema in April when Iron Man 3 comes out, I just hate it when it comes to leaving the cinema and one of the friends in the group is moaning about how cliche and awful these big budget, popular films are. They make money. Who doesn’t want lots of money? Why would filmmakers who have the ability to be working in Hollywood not want to make something big budget and conventional that they know will make millions at the box office? There is always an audience out there willing to pay good money to see those kinds of films, so of course they’re going to keep making them. If you get pissed off with cliche Hollywood blockbusters, don’t watch them…look elsewhere, don’t moan about how ‘all films these days are stupid’. Rant over!