Zoinks!

I find it hard to believe that a giant dog turd of a movie called Scooby-Doo could sell more than $50 million in tickets on its opening weekend. The funny thing is that it cost $80 million to make it. Imagine!

I’ve just finished reading an interesting book called Easy Riders Raging Bulls, about how the culture of director-driven films of the 70s collapsed into the blockbuster-driven Hollywood of today. It’s really disheartening. Imagine taking the $80 million spent on Scooby-Doo and splitting it among ten hungry young independent directors. Even if half of the films weren’t that good, at least none of them would be Scooby-Doo!

Brooke and I watched the original Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936) last night. The reason this movie works and the new one with Adam Sandler probably won’t is that Gary Cooper is not winking at you the whole time. You really believe he is a decent human being. Adam Sandler will instead come across (as always) as a moron.

I also finally watched Harold and Maude (1971) and loved it. I’d heard that it’s been a big influence on Wes Anderson’s films and that was easy to see. There’s a sort of gentle affection for the strange, damaged characters on the screen, along with a large dose of black humour. A really touching film, and a great Cat Stevens soundtrack.

5 thoughts on “Zoinks!”

  1. When you and Brooke come out here to California, James, you’ll have to hike out to Pacifica and see the spot they used in the final scene. It’s beautiful!

  2. I think Harold and Maude is great but I was shocked to see it in the AFI 100 greatest love stories list. I thought it was a bit too wild for the AFI folks.

  3. Alas, I agree with you that movies are in a sad state these days. Things are completely box-office driven, which means no one is allowed to do anything original. So what do we get? Remakes, part-twos, and tv-to-movies. Awful stuff.

    Viva la independant video store, I say…

  4. wow, h&m is a wonderful movie. i mentioned it to my ex the other day in reference to ghost world and how similar the scenerio is. i’m a big movie buff from yesteryear myself and can’t agree more that movies today are horrible. did you see my teaser review of victor/victoria on my blog? when i got that i also got royal wedding with fred astair, gothic with gabriel byrne/natasha richardson/julian sands and almost but not quite jack nickolson in the original little shop of horrors but when i figured out it was not originally a music nor in colour i put it back. some things are better updated. hehe.

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