Captain Mazda wrote:Lord of the Rings
I think it was shit which is unfair of me, but I think this is the closest to reaching the 'epic' status I'm hinting towards.
andyman wrote:RUNNING SCARED
DUMB AND DUMBER
KILL BILL
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
HARD TIMES
TRAINING DAY
I don't think any of them come close tbh :/
Tsakali wrote:Is it possible that you're misjudging things?
The market has blown up, so a lot more is coming out these days...and well, not all of them are going to be masterpieces. Back in the day, you didn't have a turn around on sequels of 1.5-2 years, but these days you do...as an example. So the money is there and the willing population to watch shit is there, but the quality doesn't necessarily go with it. So even though there is still some great films out there, you tempt to overlook them by the sheer volume of movies coming out and skewing your perception on the subject. And unfortunately, more volume (may that be in the form of willing audience, willing producers and artists) doesn't necessarily produce equal ratios on available talent.
Or maybe at some point, some idiot figured out that the formula for easiest success, doesn't really rely on quality, therefore pushing most of the available talent (and their silly demands/visions) to never see the light of day, or never reaching the main stream through other means in comparison.
Or maybe yes "youthful exuberance"...you're just getting old and becoming harder to please (less impressionable) and/or by "having seen many pixels in your lifetime, etc." , it feels as if everything around you is going to shit, where in actuality your perception of things around you is going to shit.
I think it was the last one and me being an old git, the thing is a lot of the movies I had mentioned I wouldn't of even known about or been able to appreciate until I was older and they were out for a decade or longer (late 90s, early 00s)
It could also be that a lot less movies were around 'back in the day' and achieved hero status a lot easier due to a smaller market to a large audience, like you had mentioned. I think that could be the most probable. You're also right in that there has been some gems in the last 20 years mixed in with the fodder (12 monkeys springs to mind), but I still think the decline is there.
Eraser wrote:Quality series is where it's at now. Breaking Bad, Homeland, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, etc, etc.
This is what I was thinking, shows have definitely got better and compete with the movie industry imho, Band of Brothers is another that springs to mind. I just think that in any genre now if you compare it to anything beyond 20 years up to the next 20 years, the older movie would win. I think the only genre that may outweigh the older equivalent is comedy.
DTS wrote:People have been saying
Avatar is a glorious film!
Horton Hears a Who
The Incredibles
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
I've rated a lot of films 8/10 out of the ones I reviewd in the "the last movie you saw" thread. So good films are made now IMO.
In short, you are old and jaded

I thought the story was crap in Avatar, like Ferngully with special effects so falls short imo and although I think the special effects were great I think movies would be better off complimenting the old method of movie making (using models, stop motion or whatever) with it.
Dunno who horton is
Incredibles VS... Aladdin ? (family movie wise)
Star Wars new VS Star Wars old = no contest.
EtUL wrote:TV series are the way to go now to properly tell a story, movies are too short IMO. Comedies and whatnot are still cool.
But, why do I still like the older movies if the shows have taken such a leap in storytelling and owned the entire industry ?.
PhoeniX wrote:Snatch, Fight Club?

Snatch VS Goodfellas ?
Fight Club VS... Falling down / Natural Born Killers ?. I think it could possibly go down as unique to the last 20 years though

. Still nowhere near the epic status of Star Wars / Bladerunner imo
DTS wrote:Jim Carey plays one of the main characters in Horton Hears a Who and Samuel L Jackson plays one of the main characters in The Incredibles (a good guy who can freeze things).
What they are doing with CGI does push the limits of technology, too.
I agree but I also think it took a step backward, it pretty much killed off drawing boards and the old Disney artwork.
I think we should compile 2 lists then compare...
Let's take a look -
ET, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Rain Man, Goonies, Die Hard, Beverely Hills Cop, Commando, Rocky, Platoon, Das Boot, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Batman, Mad Max, Star Trek II, The Abyss, Predator, Tron, Platoon, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, Rambo, Commando, Goodfellas, Godfather, Casino, Falling Down, Scarface, Jurassic Park, Evil Dead, The Shining, The Thing, Space Odyssey, Close Encounters, Full Metal Jacket, Schindlers List on top of what I've already mentioned (Star Wars, Running Man, Total Recall, T2, Back to the Future, Robocop).
Take movies out or add to it, I'll compile another list for 1993 to 2013 and we shall see where we are tomorrow

(I've left out Comedy btw)
I think we can all agree that there hasn't been a leap in movies like when Bladerunner / Aliens / Star Wars was released n all ?