Myoldnamebroke on 3/4/2006 at 14:59
Never underestimate the sexually insecure cowboy lobby.
Agent Monkeysee on 3/4/2006 at 15:37
Quote Posted by Convict
I remember a Federal MP from up north, Bob Catter, said that "I have never heard of a gay cowboy" (I can't find a news link though) and therefore he didn't want it to be shown.
If he'd bothered to see the movie it might give him some insight into why he's never heard of one.
Seriously though that's a dumb reason.
Stitch on 3/4/2006 at 16:07
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
Seems to me that everything's cribbed off a book, a previous movie, a TV show, a comic, or something else that we've seen before.
Try as I might, I can't really see what's the problem here. If it's a good movie, who gives a shit whether or not it's an adaptation?
I saw Peter Jackson's King Kong again this weekend. It was pretty fucking awesome.
I also saw a bit of some romatic comedy called Serendipity at the gym. It was utter tripe.
Guess which one was technically an original idea as defined by you?
Guess which move actually had more original ideas in it?
Myoldnamebroke on 3/4/2006 at 16:16
Indeed. As much as it's nice to be suprised by a story, it's not high on the list of priorities when picking a film. If it was, I wouldn't buy DVDs and watch my favourites over and over.
The difficulty is, there is a connection between remakes/sequels/etc and making shoddy films. Saying 'why do bad remakes suck?' sounds kind of stupid, but it's almost what's at work here. 'Why are there so many bad remakes?' might be better.
It's hard to make a good original movie. But it's hard to make a good movie full stop. So faced with the prospect of making a film, at least make a rehash so you can sell it when it turns out to be a stinker. Which I guess goes some way to explaining the correlation between shoddy movies and remakes.
Swiss Mercenary on 3/4/2006 at 16:29
Quote Posted by Convict
, it wasn't necessarily a religious reason for trying to ban Brokeback mountain - it was kind of seen as an insult to macho cowboys I suspect more so.
Gays make my e-peenis shrivel.
Rug Burn Junky on 3/4/2006 at 16:38
Quote Posted by Stitch
I also saw a bit of some romatic comedy called Serendipity at the gym.
"a bit"..."at the gym"
HA HA HA, WE SEE THROUGH YOUR RUSE OF MANLINESS
Stitch on 3/4/2006 at 16:49
It's okay because it really was at the gym :cool:
It's not okay because it was the alternative to televised sports :(
Nicker on 3/4/2006 at 18:21
Quote Posted by Myoldnamebroke
Never underestimate the sexually insecure cowboy lobby.
Never go camping with them either!
Gingerbread Man on 3/4/2006 at 18:34
Quote Posted by Stitch
Try as I might, I can't really see what's the problem here. If it's a good movie, who gives a shit whether or not it's an adaptation?
Yeah, don't get me wrong, much of the time they're good flicks. Off the top of my head: King Kong, Sin City, that Hulk flick, Narnia, the Harry Potter stuff... those are all films I've enjoyed lately. None of them are original material. Shit, Forrest Gump wasn't even original. I loved that City of Angels remake with the unusually-well-cast Nicholas Cage, and I really should have been sulking through the whole thing, since Wings of Desire is one of my favourite films ever.
But even without going that extra Ghey Mile and pulling the old Joseph Campbell LOL THERE ARE ONLY SEVEN STORIES or whatever, it does seem that lately there's been a drought when it comes to original writing. Or maybe we just notice it more, what with the near-total accessibility to entertainment we have these days. Or maybe also we just never paid much attention to how derivative things were in the past. But it seems to me that we used to find novelisations of popular films on the bookstore shelves, not movie versions of books in the cinemas.
I'm trying to think of the last truly original film I've seen, and I'm having a hell of a time. Admittedly, I don't see that many first-run movies. But I'm thinking I have to dig up the Star Wars flicks for that, and I'm not sure if they can be considered original in the strictest sense -- which is where I start to think that maybe we're just being stupidly fussy with our criteria.
But it's true that there are a LOT of remakes and straight-up adaptations designed to cash in on the popularity of something from another medium these days. Doom movie, I'm looking at thee.
mxleader on 3/4/2006 at 18:41
It seems that Hollywood is acting in the same way that the American automobile industry has been. Bring back an old model that sold well becuase now we have the technology to make it even better than before. That and there is more money to be pumped out of old ideas.
