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#1
12-25-2004, 02:12 PM
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What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
I don't really want to get off on a rant here, but . . .
After seeing Closer yesterday, I watched Bad Santa last night. At the end of the movie they showed a clip with the director who said Bob Weinstein (a producer) called him up after seeing another one of his other movies and asked him if he had a project in mind. The director Fedexed the script to Weinstein and by 11:00 the next morning Weinstein and he has an agreement to do the movie. How a Hollywood producer could read that script and think "this will be fine entertainment" is beyond me. Same thing with Closer. Let's see, Jude Law meets Natalie Portman in the street and then has his picture taken by Julia Roberts and ends up in bed with both of them. Hell, I live in Beverly Hills and I go to all the pretty people restaurants and I've never seen Natalie Portman or Julia Roberts. Are there any people in the world who actually live or talk like those people in Closer? That was the most erudite dermatologist in existence. And if there are, is there any reason why we should care about them? And Mike Nichols thinks people should be able to relate to this? Billy Bob Thornton uses the F-word six hundred times to kids, people will like this. Especially if we make fun of old people, fat people, black people and midgets. One wonders what kind of parents, having seen the script, would have allowed their children to appear in Bad Santa. I know a man who's a big Hollywood producer. He produces one of the top shows on cable TV. He produced Panic Room and other weird movies. He's weird and mean and vicious. When he was an agent, he was sued for sexual harrassment. He threatened to reveal company secrets (such as who's blowing who) and his agency gave him many millions of dollars to go away and also paid off the alleged harrassee. He then went into producing. His father and his sister are sweet and warm and caring and wonderful people. He doesn't talk to either of them. His father, not a rich man, told him that, since he (the son) is a gazillionaire, and since the daughter is working hard for a living, he's going to leave all his money to the daughter. The amount involved means nothing to the gazillionaire, he spends it on wine every month I'm sure. But it will mean a lot to the daughter. So the son now doesn't talk to either of them. He hates people. Instead, he is a PETA person. He recently sold his Porsche and six other cars because they had leather seats. I'm no conservative who thinks Hollywood values are ruining America. But I know a few people who are influential in Hollywood and they live in a dream world. An ugly, hedonistic, money-soaked dream world. And that's why we get Natural Born Killers and Alexander and Christmas with the Kranks and Bad Santa and Closer. But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. Merry Christmas all. 
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#2
12-25-2004, 03:06 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
That was a "Dennis Miller-worthy" rant IMO.
Happy Holidays! ~ Rick
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#3
12-25-2004, 04:37 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
I don't have any personal knowledge about Hollywood, but everything I see and hear about it leads me to the opinion that it is everything bad about big business, grossly magnified.
The basic principle involved is that the emperor has no clothes, and no one will tell him. Most "creative" people are not creative and (suspecting that they are not creative) are very insecure. Therefore, they do what everyone else does, because if it worked once, it will probably work again. This is the show business equivalent of the big business axiom, no one every got fired for buying IBM equipment. Hollywood worships money, that is, big box office. If you have big box office, and therefore money, and therefore power, you are by definition brilliant. And no one will tell you you aren't. So everyone you work with kisses your butt, and adores every "new idea" that slobbers off your lips, even if it is a bad idea for a fourth generation spin-off of a mediocre Brit sit-com. That is why Kevin Kostner can make a movie like Waterworld, and no one will tell him it is a bad rip-off of The Road Warrior and a real p.o.s. And since most people in the industry lack imagination, most of the work is imitative, ripping off whatever is hot at the multiplex this week, and carrying the sex and violence and gross humor another step further. This same phenomenon occurs in the business world, but it is much more obvious in Hollywood because of great visibility and greater sums of money and compression of time. (Like dog years, a year in Hollywood is equal to 7 years in the real world.) Limo liberalism and PETA and the rest are all part of the same thing, being trendy and obsequious. It is a tight and in-bred society, and no one has the guts to take a different position. (And most of them probably don't care one way or the other, they are just kissing butt.) Ron Silverman, one of the few out-of-the-closet conservatives in show business, was on one of the cable news shows around the time of the election. He said that he has prominent friends in the industry who campaigned for Kerry, for the sake of their careers, and voted for Bush. Martin Sheen has a hit series, and therefore power. He thinks that he is politically astute, and knows what is best for the masses. You think anyone that works on that show would ever say anything in public critical of Sheen or his politics or of the Democratic party? You want to guess how long it would take to count the Bush bumper stickers in the studio parking lot? Making bad movies is no different than making bad products. (Bad in the sense of pointless and imitative. Thanks to the Japanese, our badly conceived products are now well made.) Does anyone really need a special appliance just to cook frozen pizza? Did anyone tell the president of Coca-Cola that New Coke was imitative of Pepsi, and just might not be such a good idea? The emperor has no clothes. It's just a lot more apparent on the big screen.
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#5
12-25-2004, 07:18 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
[ QUOTE ]
I know a few people who are influential in Hollywood and they live in a dream world. An ugly, hedonistic, money-soaked dream world. [/ QUOTE ] Those films are their way of helping us "get it." Sad.
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#6
12-25-2004, 07:31 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
If I remember correctly Jerry Falwell said it was due to the secular jews who enjoy anal sex.
Melch
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#7
12-25-2004, 07:50 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
Good post, a lot to think about.
I note that, on West Wing, Alan Alda is playing a somewhat non-Conservative Republican who has the attention of Josh Lyman's character. I wonder if, when Sheen's second term finishes, they're planning on putting in Alda as the new president so they can reinvigorate the show with a more Republican point of view appropriate to the times. Martin Sheen was politically active long before the series. I've met him and he's very down-to-earth, not at all taken with himself. Ron Silver, BTW, not Silverman. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
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#9
12-25-2004, 11:32 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
[ QUOTE ]
If I remember correctly Jerry Falwell said it was due to the secular jews who enjoy anal sex. Melch [/ QUOTE ] Jerry knows of what he speaks.
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#10
12-25-2004, 11:37 PM
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Re: What\'s Wrong With Hollywood
[ QUOTE ]
when Sheen's second term finishes, [/ QUOTE ] Sheen is an actor, he doesn't have a term of office. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] [ QUOTE ] Ron Silver, BTW, not Silverman. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [/ QUOTE ] When you get old, the memory is the second thing that goes. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
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