What Is It?
What is it? Is it my age creeping up that makes me intolerant? Is it a progression of my short attention span? Is it a case of “been there, done that”, or is it that the film industry has totally lost its ability to entertain?
Actually I will accept the blame totally and unabashedly. My most recent attempts with watching movies left me with the feeling of a wasted 90 minutes I’ll never get back. And it’s not like I’d be doing something better if the movie wasn’t on. I’d be watching the stock pile of show on my DVR such as Oddities, or Alton Brown’s Good Eats, or Torchwood.
If I can stand half hour or one hour TV shows that are littered and defiled with commercials, why can’t I stand watching a film for 90 minutes? Why do I find films unreasonable, unnecessary and tedious?
My wife is sensitive to my dislike of movies that she now orders mostly documentaries from Netflix, but there too the documentaries often go on too long. Though the topics are interesting, like to one on the deaf percussionist who feels the music through her body and the one we just saw on the history of the font Helvetica; I find that 90 minutes is a bit more than one should have to endure on any topic.
I guess my point is that is if an episode Dr. Who can open a show with blind optimism, be confronted with a problem, figure it out and save the entire universe in 50 minutes leaving me feeling totally fascinated and fulfilled, why can’t the movie industry edit out all the crap? Have the writers lost the ability to be concise? Sure there are epic stories that can not be told in 90 minutes, such as Moby Dick, but the endless slew of formula movies are no where near epic stories.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
3 Comments:
I have the same problem. I record movies because we have 90 days of HBO free, I check the ratings so they ought to be good ones, and then they pile up on the DVR because I don't want to commit to spending that much time watching a movie! Since I got my Nook, I do spend a LOT of time reading. But with a book you can put it down, pick it up again... I guess, though, I could do the same with a recorded movie.
In my opinion, the problem is that there aren't that many good movies. When I do record one and watch it, it's often one from years gone by that I've seen before and loved.
Like Donna, I usually spend more time these days watching old movies that I know I like because I've seen them already.
On the other hand, I'll watch something new if there are enough fight scenes and gratuitous nudity to keep me interested.
I'm easy to entertain, sometimes.
Donna and Darev, I do wonder if my favorite movies were presented to me now for the first time, if I would dislike them as much as I do other movies I've seen recently...
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