i love the segue

I love the segue.  I love to figure out which colors rock together (this summer is so yellow and magenta), which song picks up the tonality of the one previous, or the beat of the one previous to that.  What spicy flavor tastes best with what sugary flavor (have you tried mint and watermelon lately?).  Anyway, that said, I need to shout out about a huge problem in the world of movie theaters.  Why do the previews frequently have jack to do with the movie you have just paid to see?  If I am seated comfortably waiting for the credits to roll for "Julie & Julia", why are they showing me the trailer for "2012"?  What customer survey rates interest in Julia Child as overlapping with digital mayhem and seriously horrible acting?  I don't routinely tune in to the Mayan calendar, I thought we now used Fox news to predict the end of the world.  But according to Hollywood's copy of that ancient calendar, life as we know it will cease to twitter in 2012.  That's the year when the great CGI gods will transubstantiate giant buildings into melting piles of screaming rock and flesh.  I was surprised to see John Cusack had sunk so low that he is now co-starring with digital destruction.  And the destruction gets top billing.  Perhaps this has something to do with John Hughes' untimely death...

Upon closer inspection the trailers that day seemed to be broken up into two staggeringly awful categories.  Films made for dudes with an insatiable need for destruction and cars that go boom vs. films for chicks that love to weep in front of the Lifetime channel.   A silent scream is now filling the cinema in my head.  How did we fall this far from "Taxi Driver"?  Hollywood has determined that the Lowest Common Denominator here is adrenaline vs. weepy emotion.  I don't fit into either of those categories, as I am sure many people don't.  Do smart people not go to the cinema?  It seems we are obliged to merely rent old films and watch them in the quiet of our Netflix kingdoms. 

The next step is to ask you, the lovely reader, to suggest one or more of your favorite films from Hollywood's past that you imagine could never get made today.   Today being the era of Hollywood where ever more the choice of what movie to make is based on blockbuster potential instead of interesting plot.  I can't imagine "Touch of Evil" getting made in today's Hollywood.  The visuals alone in that movie are worth watching it over and over.  What's your pick?

Comments

[k-rex]

Pocket Money - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069103/

slow, little plot, less action. Thoroughly Enjoyable. (to me anyway. no movie snob here.)

[C]

'Double Indemnity' - can one imagine both Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johanson dying at the end? An update would have to have the daughter and her love interest (played by two disney actors) become the main focus instead.

[Clueless]

The Third Man....minimal cast, locations, no monsters, gore, or aliens. Well-written dialogue, character interplay, even the secondary stars had intelligent lines to perform. And the music.....:).

[xangoir]

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

[Johnny Vandal]

I can't imagine any of the great films from the '70's getting made in today's Hollywood. It all boils down to a lack of what the world needs most these days.... IMAGINATION!

[jhhl]

Touch of Evil couldn't even be made in the old Hollywood!

The real pity is not being able to see these classics on a big screen with lots of other people.

A lot of my faves are not from the classic American studio era, but you should see The Grapes of Wrath, and A Face in the Crowd, Shadow of a Doubt.

And for shorts, well, you have to look to the National Film Board of Canada.

[fatty jubbo]

Who could have imagined No Country for Old Men winning any award? There is hope!

[Listener Ralphine]

Not one of my favorites, but Birth of a Nation.

[Bob Cobbings' Kitchen Prosthetics]

"Singin' In The Rain" - the cinema of innocence?

[The Khanman]

What about Kelley's Hero's...Could never be done again.

[Matt]

Apocalypse Now.

[7-12]

I vote for The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, and Sullivan's Travels. No idea how they were made then, and am certain that nothing like them would come out of Hollywood now. Or the old Buster Keaton flics- finely crafted comedy gems with crazy physical stunts.

[Von Zeke]

If y'all have the opportunity look at the movie section of any American newspaper from the '40s or '50s.
There have always been a good share of crap films - even in the "golden years".

That said, Paths Of Glory http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050825/
or Treasure Of The Sierra Madré http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040897/
would probably never get made today.

[Greg]

I'm still amazed that Lester got Petulia made several decades ago, but compared to The Ruling Class (staring Peter O'Toole) it's damned close to our theaters.

[Greg in Tulsa]

UHF.
Stanley Spadowski. Enough said.

[Parq]

Try and imagine what would happen if the Beatles broke today, and then made their first movie. "Hard Day's Night"? I doubt it.

By the way, in answer to your rhetorical question, intelligent people do go to cinema. Dumb-ass American consumer automatons go to "the movies", which is where you were when you saw J&J.

[Wendy del Formaggio]

I can't see Network being made today. I would love to tell you all the reasons why I am of this opinion, but I'm afraid I would get writer's cramp.

[GAR 1262]

Funny article. As for movies that will never be re-made, I'll go with THX 1138.

[Adrian in London]

Lift to the Scaffold. Jeanne Moreau would just phone her boyfriend on her mobile. "I'm stuckin a lift, yeah?"