Why Have Movies Been So Bad Lately? 664
mikesd81 asks: "Why have movies and shows been so bad lately? I find myself looking on my Video on Demand service from my cable company or flipping channels and just nothing seems to have any depth any more. But on the other hand, I happened to watch Stargate Atlantis and there was an incredible scene that just caught the emotion and emergency. So is it the directing? The writing? The acting? It seems more and more movies just aren't worth anything. Let alone paying $20 to go to a movie." Let's not forget the recent number of Hollywood remakes and the amount of "reality TV" being pumped out by the networks.
Slashdot rejected my ask slashdot submission (Score:5, Funny)
About Slashdot stories.
Problem soon to be remedied... (Score:5, Funny)
Face it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple answer (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdot rejected my ask slashdot submission (Score:5, Funny)
At best some lines indicated what some my call cosmic irony, yet most would claim these situations are merely unfortunate, as were the remaing situations, thus perhaps leaning towards "Unfortunate" as a prefered title.
Re:You. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Problem soon to be remedied... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Slashdot rejected my ask slashdot submission (Score:2, Funny)
She's SOOO awesome!!
Kitties!!!
Where have you been? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stolen jokes are much funnier (Score:2, Funny)
"Stuck in a traffic jam when you're already late? That's not ironic, that's just unfortunate. Stuck in a traffic jam when you're already late, and you're a town planner, and you're trying to get to a meeting about how to solve the congestion problem, that's ironic."
Stupid Executives (Score:2, Funny)
No one plays their own ethnicity anymore (Score:4, Funny)
(stolen from http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/la-
Years ago, I had an actor friend, John, who happened to be a Native American. We were having lunch one day when he said: "Howie, things are OK with me now. But when I first came out here back in the '40s, I couldn't get a job. I went over to Republic studios. They were doing hundreds of westerns then. I figured I'm a cinch to get an Indian part.
"Sorry," the casting director tells me. "You don't look Indian enough."
"I don't look Indian enough? I happen to be a full-blooded Sioux!"
"So what? You still don't look Indian enough."
"So if I don't look Indian enough, who does?"
"Italians."
"What?"
"You heard me. We only use Italians for Indian parts. They look more Indian than the Indians."
"Well, if Italians are doing Indian parts, maybe I could play an Italian."
"No, we use other people for the Italian parts."
"Who?"
"Jews. They play all Italian gangsters. Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield. All Jewish."
John told the guy he didn't understand.
"Look," the Republic guy said, "Jews look more Italian than Italians. I was in Rome last summer. I didn't see one Italian who looked how an Italian is supposed to look. They had blond hair, fair skin, high cheekbones."
John said, "Howie, I asked the guy, 'If Italians play Indians and Jews play Italians, then who plays Jews?' He said, 'WASPs. Who played David? Gregory Peck. Who played Charlton Heston's mother in "Ben-Hur"? Martha Scott.'"
John pounded the guy's desk and told him: "OK, Italians play Indians, Jews play Italians, WASPs play Jews. Let me play an Oriental. After all, Indians came over from Asia."
He said the guy apologized. "White guys play Orientals. Who played Charlie Chan? Warner Oland. Who played Mr. Moto? Peter Lorre. Who played Chinese dames for years? Myrna Loy."
Johnny seemed exhausted. The waiter came with the check. I paid. It was the least I could do. I asked him how he managed to stay in the business.
"I got the idea that if Italians are grabbing all the Indian parts, I would become Italian. I changed my name from John to Giovanni. I learned to think like them, dress like them, walk like them. I was ready. I went up for a part in the movie 'Little Big Man,' starring Dustin Hoffman.
"The casting guy asked me my name. I told him I was Giovanni and could play any Indian part he had. The guy gets up from his chair. 'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Things have changed. We only use authentic Native Americans today . . . people like Iron Eyes Cody, Graham Greene, Chief Dan George. Now if you were a genuine Indian, I'd hire you on the spot.'"
John said he couldn't take it. "I screamed at the guy, 'But I'm a full-blooded Sioux. I am an authentic Indian. I am the realest Indian you'll ever find.'"
He said the casting guy laughed in his face. "You actors," he said. "You'll say anything to get a part."
Solomon Chang
Re:Hollywood is out of ideas (Score:4, Funny)
So fsck off back to where you came from!
Re:No no no. (Score:3, Funny)
The example that Hyde noticed is ironic because we might reasonably expect Ireland to distance itself from the nation she most hated, whereas, instead, she did pretty much the opposite and emulated it.
The example of 10,000 spoons is not ironic because there's no reason not to have the 10,000 spoons rather than a knife. Maybe she's in spoon factory! There's not enough there to make it ironic. It requires some reason for us to expect a knife rather than spoons (and possibly a reason to not expect the spoons at all). Neo, seeking a knife to cut himself loose from an agent trap and instead finding 10,000 spoons, would be irony...