(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Loyal Jayblog readers may recall our last episode of Random Pop Culture Apocalypse round about the turn of the decade, which dealt with popular music. In that exciting episode we touched on how iTunes had made Alice Cooper big in Europe and how Bon Freaking Jovi and AC/DC were the top grossing musical touring acts of 2009. Musical tastes have fractured into micro-genres, making the emergence of a new Monster of Rawk type Rolling Stones/Police/U2 type position almost impossible. Alice Cooper said he feels sorry for acts trying to come up today because they have to compete not only against each other, but also against the past and that most of them are simply not up to it. Dinosaurs in effect have come to rule the Earth in music.
Could the same thing eventually happen in film? Hmmmm…
There is no doubt that services like Netflix are doing some iTunes to television, but I was thinking about this quote from Alice when it occurred to me that the last 5 films that I paid to see up on the big screen in a row (from first to latest) were:
Hippies had no idea what a disservice they were doing for humanity in teaching Texas rednecks to smoke dope, but at least it makes for a funny movie. Next up:
Ah, the 1990s. How we miss you. Next:
Covered this one already, great to see it on the big screen again. Next:
Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear= priceless. Finally:
I had to trek to Prescott to a film festival for the Matrix, but it was worth the trip to let the Ladner boys see it on the big screen. They seemed suitably impressed.
It remains to be seen whether or not there will be a 2013 release that I enjoy as much as the least of these flicks. Thus far-not so much. Let’s see how the summer goes. In the meantime we can hope that continued improvement in technology will make it more difficult for the studios to continue to push out mostly drek. It seems to have worked for television, which many claim has entered into a new Platinum Age, but then again maybe not.
I don’t know whether the great Jon Bon Jovi was describing the movie industry when he wrote “an Angel’s smile is what you sell/you promised me heaven then put me through hell” but he could have been- hairspray was known to inspire some far-out lyrics back in the 1980s. Rather than lament film drek and/or strike a poseur pose by pretending you liked Terrence Malick’s self-indulgent mess The Tree of Life (someone exclaimed Thank God it is over! at the screening I attended and the audience laughed out loud) the best way to deal with drek is to celebrate it when possible-and it is frequently possible.
So for now the past is beating 2013 5-0. Good luck 2013.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
And in further support of your thesis… Even new stuff quite often consists of remakes of old stuff.
Perhaps this is a reflection of the stagnation in our economy and not just an artifact of technology. Growing economies are forward-looking and creative. Declining societies are obsessed with their past (e.g. all of Europe feels like a museum).
Movie remakes of course bring us back to an even earlier Random Pop Culture Apocalypse:
I did like the remake of the John Wayne flick with Lebowski. Other than that I am struggling to think of a good one, ergo Cover Songs > Movie Covers.
Take those Ladner boys to Seattle Cinerama to see Lawrence of Arabia …. The 70mm film version on the 70 foot curved screen…. I do not know when it will be showing again…
That sounds great. I saw Lawrence of Arabia with my wife on a 70mm curved screen about 20 years ago in Boston. We loved it. The only problem is that I felt really thirsty after.
Would love to do that!
You’d love to feel thirsty? I knew you liked a drink, but…
Perhaps this development sucks for content producers but it seems to me it rocks for content consumers. You complain the movies at the theatre today are worse than what’s on Netflix. In other words Netflix is better! And it’s tons cheaper, especially the popcorn.
If the trend continues, theaters will start showing the best old movies more often to attract customers. That’ll be a huge improvement over the status quo and maybe even over the status quo ante. You couldn’t watch awesome 80s movies on the big screen in the 90s!