The Great Drought of Entertaining Entertainment

Sorry this is going to be kind of broad but seriously... Is it just me or has nothing original and cool come out for a while now?

I don't know if anyone really talks about this, seems petty, but I haven't found anything even barely entertaining for about two whole years now. Count 'em: Movies, TV, Internet (aside from ATS hahah), Video Games, Music (oh man, especially music), from what I can see it's even creeping into books... Lack of original ideas? Little to no inspiration? Over paid and lazy writers and producers...

I can't remember the last movie I really WANTED to see in theaters... I haven't rented anything in about a year. I find myself diving into my DVDs for any kind of cinematic comfort... these remakes are really getting crazy... did you know that Micheal Bay is remaking Friday the 13th?!?!? Gosh. Look at the oscars... no one cared! Crash won best picture! People are not THAT racist!

Television... eh... I've had enough cartoons already. They cancelled Arrested Development and Farscape... I'm glad The Office (NBC) is on but AGAIN -- it's a remake! I'm tired of Law and Order reruns...

Sorry guys maybe this should go in the rant forum... continuing...

Video games: my last resort of quelling boredom... NOTHING... I've been playing DOOM for about a week straight and man, don't even get me started on that movie.

Music, I thought it was bad a few years ago... oh how I long for those days of silly experiments... still it was never as silly as a Hasidic Reggae. WHY? Please tell me why.

Then we get this DaVinci Code deal, now a movie (which if you didn't know about then you are not within a thousand miles of technology and are not reading this), I mean interesting idea but the book is so poorly written, I can't believe it even got published.

The Internet... oh save us Internets... I have an Internet... it is full of semi-funny videos and lots of inaccurate information and some naked things... but aside from that, ytmnd and maddox get boring after about 10 minutes.

Maybe I'm jaded... Or maybe everyone is getting lazy. Luckily I had the Winter Olympics, which for some reason no one watches... I guess I won't be seeing any more hockey this year aside from saturdays on NBC.

And sports... man... give them the steroids back.

I wish Bill Hicks was alive right now.

I'm praying for terrorists developments just so the media will stop talking about nothing.

What do you think?

BTW I'm B. Sage, nice to meet you.

Could you provide some examples of recent material, whether it be movies, tv, games etc that you would consider worth while and entertaining.

I could go on with what I think that has been recently marketed and have thoroughly enjoyed, but not going to make for much until I know what you would consider.

Bring us back to a time when things were good, was the song, movie, show, game that made this time worth remembering.

Sure chissler, lets see, stuff that has been pretty good recently (this is going to be though).

Movies: (almost drawing a blank)
Troy - I liked it, probably my favorite movie of the last 7 years, ouch.

Collateral - two years ago... I know... I'm trying to think of stuff.

The Devil's Rejects - I didn't like House of 1000 Corpses but this one was pretty entertaining. (To clarify - entertainment to me isn't just B-grade junk - usually I like things that stimulate the mind as well as the senses)

I don't even know what happened to the Indie scene... I guess it died when all the Indie companies got bought up. I like Vince Vaughn... he's funny. Not much else that I've been into in recent times for movies.


TV: (more here)

24 - the first season and a half... after the bomb went off is when it started to get lame. I don't even watch it now becuase seriously... how can you top a nuclear bomb... I did watch all of season 3 and some of 4 then I stopped.

Arrested Development - Funny show... cancelled... maybe it will be picked up by showtime.

Farscape - insanely incredible writing... great fantasy... cancelled... revived thru PK: Wars maybe a feature film coming.

The Office - pretty funny show... a remake... current story lines can't follow the original for long considering there's already more episodes of the NBC version.

(honorable mention) Battlestar Galactica - good writing for the season finales and premires but the rest of it is a boring soap opera barely set in space (meaning that they don't use the plot enough).

TV might have more going on but I just can't afford to invest in shows that will just be dumped.

Music: (this is going to be rough)

I used to like hip-hop a bit but when the lyricists went bye-bye so did I.

Rock... is there still such a thing? All I see is fashion trends. I thought I was supposed to HEAR music. Emo is not actual emo... actual emo died in the late 80's now it's pseudo pop-punk bands with fashion trends... give me blink 182... oh wait, they broke up.

metal - bleh... how extreme is too extreme? I don't care.

I've been listening to "Goodbye Horses" and I'm starting to understand Buffalo Bill a little better.

retro is dead, thank god... the retro expereince should be a personal expereince not a common trend in playlists EVERYWHERE.

Video games: (not that I play them so much)

GTA - sure... but the games are repetitive now and slightly to difficult to enjoy.

DOOM - too old to mention? still one of the best games ever.

The Sims - great concept... but again way old now. sorry... drawing more blanks.

Books: I don't read many NEW books... they're too expensive hahaha. But I was in to Palahniuk and Max Barry for a while. I don't read King but I know I should... Dean Koontz has interesting bad guys. The masses love Harry Potter so more power to them, me, I could care less if Snape kills... well you know.

Aside from all that I am a pretty creative person... I make little indie flicks of my own and I'm writing a manuscript... I do like to have SOMETHING new to entertain myself every once in a while.

Am I just not looking hard enough?

B. Sage

I thought of a couple more movies as of recent that I liked:

Batman Begins - considering the last couple ones, this one was back on track.

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - a pretty fun movie.

For the record I enjoy the genres of: Sci-fi/fantasy, Mystery/thrillers, some action, most crime... does anyone remember the section in video stores in the 80's simply called the "violence" section? Man those were the days. My Favorite filmmakers are: Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut, A Clockwork Orange, 2001), Michael Mann (Heat, Last of the Mohicans, The Insider), Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress), Spielberg, Lynch (mainly for Dune and Blue Velvet), Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) is a god amongst filmmakers in my opinion, Ridley Scott is awesome (Blade Runner), there are so many, just recently I can't think of many movies.

Something really big, also, is the "phenomenon" I mean yeah we have Harry Potter (for kids) and The DaVinci code and they do technically amount to phenoms but to me they don't even match to whole Matrix thing (I only like the first Matrix movie and wha wha whaaaat? There are sequels? I'm just going to pretend those don't exist.)

I do suppose that such "big things" are a rare occurance but it just seemed like it was more common... you know like something that you could talk to any random person about... like: "Oh dude, did you see Chappelle's show (there's a recent TV one)?" and "Yeah man, it was hilarious!" kinda like that but with movies.

I guess movies are sort of a sore subject with me... being a filmmaker I'm bias but that's no excuse for EVERYTHING else.

B. Sage

First of all I think music has gone to the dumps. I am sick of hearing of some millionaire teenager victimizing themself and saying how bad life is.

Movies I think are not as great as they used to be but I wouldnt say terrible. The comedy scene I think has never been better with the likes of Steve Carrell, Vince Vaughn and company. Will Ferrell can be good but the fact he doesn't know how to turn down a movie severely hurts him.

I think Walk the Line, Crash, Exorcism of Emily Rose among a few were excellent movies this year.

The Chapelle show was hilarious during its run, even though its off the air now it was one of the better shows. Everybody Loves Raymond has come to an end, and I believe that is up their with Seinfield with one of the greatest shows of all time. All of these shows having ended, doesn't help my cause here.

With all of this reality garbage that has been on the airways in recent years, the more I type the more I am agreeing with you.

So my answer is this, the level of entertainment has really dropped in years. Were not in a drought, but were due for some new shows kicking up and some real movies to blow us away.

But of course... I hath forgotten the "reality" tv onslaught. Thanks for reminding me. I have selective memory I guess, hahah. But seriously... great point.

The truth of the matter is that reality shows cost networks next to nothing to make... all they pay is for the crew and equipment, which is probably still 3 times the amount than they pay the starless casts. That's why real shows get dumped... unless they have stellar ratings.

You're right on with the comedy thing. Will Ferrell suffered from Bewitched and that kids soccer movie he did but I can see him and the others of that group coming back with something great. I was really in to Seinfeld.

Too true about the music scene... the little rich boys crying about some girl is pretty lame. Life can get much worse, and afterall I'm pretty sure those guys get plenty of groupies so I guess they're posers. Haha.

I hope you're right about the movies though. Wishing for something big or at least something worthy of ALL of our attention. With Lord of the Rings over and done and Star Wars out of the picture (somewhat disappointed with the prequels) and not much on the horizon, at least you know what I mean, there has to be something out there to look forward to... even if we don't know about it yet.

B. Sage

Terrible.

When I read your first post I was dead against you, now here I am all about it.

Worst could be still to come. In the last 3 days I have watched the Godfather series, Scarface, Casablanca.. some of the greatest movies ever made. Then I look at what I own today and not many of them come close.

Agree about LOTR, loved that series. Star Wars, I am alittle optimistic about the prequals, but deffinately brutal compared to the original three.

Yeah it seems like with television today, they want a reality show with new contestants as much as possible, or if its a sitcom.. two or three good seasons then off the air before the actors expect too much money.

I mean right now I am watching Howie Mandel on a game show.

Dare I say more?

Haha... oh man, Howie Mandel, hey Bobby's World was good right?

Those classic movies will do that to you... in a way they still have a "fresh" sense... they retain their youth because they were the first movies of their kind. It is very difficult to do something that no one has done, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. So no excuses for the industry. But yes, those are the greats, and really great filmmakers concerned with making a piece of art... sure they were influenced by money but not like they are now... movies are like stocks for studios... they buy a pool of a hundred, even if they're bad, but if just one of them is a hit, they make ALL of their money back and then some.

I just had an idea about why I think the Star Wars prequels came off differently than the originals and I don't think it had anything to do with the look of the effects or writing or even acting... EDITING! I can't believe I'm just realizing this but I'm in the process of editing something myself. If you have seen enough documentaries on the making of the original you know that they first cut of A New Hope was awful... so they re-cut it and thus made it into the classic that it is. If you're a movie buff you also know that movies are like, "make or break" with editing. With all these digital effects you don't have that option... you HAVE TO use what you make because it takes so long to render/animate... once you get to final cut, it's final, you have no choice to re-edit... major mistake since final films usually vary from the scripts for pacing/acting/filming reasons. Lucas' scripts played out nearly verbatim, minus some deleted scenes. Wow, I never thought about it like that. Weird.

I'm persistant with the topic since I'm confident that if hollywood and other industies just put forth a little more effort in finding things worthy they would break ground with new ideas and stories and concepts and just FINALLY push forward opposed to rehashing everything from the past.

I know there are others who feel the same way. No matter what I don't believe it has much to do with piracy... people still LOVE to go out and catch a movie... they like to purchase a CD and look at the art work and hold it in their hands. The entertainment industries are suffering but I'm certain that it's because of the quality.

Back to my DVD collection... hahah.

I agree with you.. if something I feel is worth my time and effort to purchase, I will gladly do it. Few Cash cd's recently because its deffinately worth it. Most music today is not worth the 15 bucks or whatever it is to go out and buy this crap.

For DVD's and the piracy issue, I refuse to burn dvd's. I have a massive collection and its about the collection as it is owning the movie. I basically have stopped watching 95% of television out their, with the rare exception on a weeknight on A&E or something along those lines. Other than that the majority of my television viewing is on a dvd player watching older movies.

These come up huge in times like these, when their is so much crap on television.

Read your Star wars theory and deffinately has some possibility to it. I have watched some documentaries on the original star wars creations and it was mind boggling how everything went on that. So many things went wrong, and he still kept on pursuing his dream.

Good theory on it!

I hated the Matrix sequels before it was cool to hate them….And I stand by that statement

Entertainment in general really has gone to the dumps of late….And it has less and less to do with the entertainment industry, and more and more to do with the “forward” progression of American perfectionism…It’s no longer the pursuit of happiness…More like the pursuit of immortality….

Successful Oscar winning movies or Grammy winning songs is no longer about the directing, the acting, the craftsmanship of the musician….It’s about logic models, productivity reports, sales charts, advertising, market saturation…

The only thing “saturated” is our pants from all the excess waste of this great big American Dream love-fest….

Whoa – Hold on to your horse buddy…Strong words….Pessimistic attitude…Call the Thought Police

We’re loosing more than just entertainment and the values it provides….We’re slowly loosing art in its entirety…It’s being consumed by censorship and by materialism….

I disagree that there haven’t been any good movies…Or good music…It just becomes a process of filtration…We’ve become so heavily bombarded by the BS they try to feed us, that finding something one can truly identify with and appreciate is a chore few wish to undertake – Some give up and just blend…

I used to be a fairly avid gamer…Every game and system I own are for the most part simply paperweights now….I’d buy a 360, but I know I wouldn’t play it…I can’t drag my friend away from his – He says he’d rather sit at home and talk to his other friends who play games with him online rather than exert the effort to actually meet up with them in person and hang out – “Like the old days”….

Ah yes – Those “pre-xbox” days – Eons ago when man played non-Microsoft “garbage” that was not a graphical masterpiece

Give me Tetris…Some Terry Gilliam….and a few Bob Dylan songs…Seal me up in a white-rubber room and call me a psycho….

EnronOutrunHomerun, that was beautiful, truly.

B. Sage

Perhaps its hard to stand out as an original in a world that is saturated with the mundane. What the studio heads try to pass off as wonderful has already been done over and over before.

One of my favorite shows is LOST, yet even I know its just an edgier version of Gilligans Island.

Mankind needs a renaissance of thought, a new way to lead us to bigger and better ideas. We are ready for it.

My only fear is that pregnant moments often lead to the ugliest of babies.

I hope my fear is wrong.

Wupy