Even though it may come as a surpise to those who view my Facebook and Twitter feeds, movies are my main passion in life. Much like how the moviegoers of the Great Depression gave Hollywood its Golden Age, I saw and still see movies as a fun yet necessary little escape. After all, in a world that nigh-constantly torments us with terrible news, rabid lunatics, and public figures supported by both, there is something conforting and romantic about going to the movies. For roughly two hours, you can find yourself in a place where you can sit back and immerse yourself in another world.
However, my only caveat is that the movie in question is actually good. And like many things, it seems to be in rarer stock these days, unless your film is under the wing of the all-powerful Walt Disney Company, a Marvel movie, or both. There are some bona fide gems in form of movies like Star Trek Beyond, Hell or High Water and The Secret Life of Pets, but those are few and far between. But most of the movies this year have been tired old genre films, pretentious arthouse garbage and stuff that seems to be weird for the sake of weird. In a way, it is almost similar to this conversation from Yes, Prime Minister:
ME: I want to watch a good movie.
HOLLYWOOD: A good movie?
ME: Yes!
HOLLYWOOD: I see. And when did you acquire this taste for luxuries?
Of course, the reason why this article is being written is because at the time of writing, Hollywood is going through its October march of stagnant horror flicks. And as you may have figured out already, a good amount of them are sequels that only got made because the original film had a thoroughly slim budget. Then again, that's not an excuse in the slightest, seeing as Whiplash had a small budget and it was spectacular. Not to mention that small budget is more than enough to set someone for life.
So why aren't moviegoers everywhere demanding something better from Hollywood? Why isn't Hollywood rising above the old pre-Netflix system? Why aren't they giving us a reason to get dressed, get out of the house and go to the local movie theater?
Well, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why: there's a large enough audience for the old status quo. And even if that didn't exist, there are movies that can just find success solely based on having a massive marketing budget, regardless of whether or not it was good or not. After all, there is a large enough audience for hacks like Michael Bay and Adam Sandler...
Man, movies like La La Land, Rogue One and Doctor Strange cannot come soon enough. Am I right?
