Does Hollywood [i]deserve[/i] its dominant position?

[IdolEyes787]

The criteria I would like to see followed is, the best stories, told by the best people.

Hollywood is a long ways away from that. They are after the most braindead monkeys in the most seats. Period.

I have stumbled across many really good non-Hollywood movies over the past few months. It seems that a lot of those are being "remade" by Hollywood. Why, since the best version has already been created. Hollywood has failed the audience, imo. They aren't producing an art anymore than McDowells is producing food.

Again not true you are simply generalizing to make a point.Don't force me to look up all the terrible Asian/French/Italian/etc movies to be made in the last 12 months .I don't want to but I will.

The "fact" that you perceive certain countries to be superior is for several reasons; the following are a couple of the more pertinent ones:

Novelty - ever heard the expression "the bloom is off the rose"?
New is usually exciting ,whether it's good ,bad or indifferent.As is with beauty so is with film.
I'm sure if you asked someone from the interior of Africa who had never seen a movie ,let alone a Hollywood movie which country had the "best" films it would be even odds that he would say the U.S of A

Percentages and economics : Hollywood makes more movies - a lot more visible movies so consequentially there are bound to be more turkeys out there than say from ...Turkey .The studios (gasp) also use the money from the mass market trash to underwrite the "prestige " projects - which by the way is even more cynical than it sounds because it's not done out of a sense of duty to the Art but rather an attempt to garner enough prestige so that they ( the studio) then has a better chance of attracting "talent" so they can then employ them to make mass-market crap to make more money.
Lesser industries on the other-hand work in a totally inverse format were as limited funds go to things deemed more "worthwhile".At least in terms of international exposure.
Go to a back alley cinema in Shenzhen or Bangkok and I think you will get a whole different prospective on what sells there.

[megabyteme]

I get that there are a lot of truly awful "foreign" films, too. By the time word of mouth gets to me (never through advertising)), most of the "I'll just give this a shot" movies have fallen through the cracks. I have got to be inspired to watch a non-advertised movie.

But look at the US in sheer population numbers- we are tiny. The US is only about 300-400 Million people. Unless I am mistaken, that is a moderate sized town in India/China. If, and when, these markets fight back, I can honestly see "little old Hollywood" getting handed their ass. Much of this will have to do with first-time-ever access to non-Hollywood movies. It is no wonder Hwood HATES the internet- it is creating stronger, recognizable competitors that they have NEVER faced before. These fledgling movie industries are more efficient, smarter with their budgets, more interested in making/telling stories. Just as everything else evolves, Hollywood will eventually become so bloated and stupid (already?) that others will get noticed and build up sizable war chests.

Even Hwood's "efforts" to remake successful foreign films, is giving their competitors large sums of money.

[Speedo]

What's disgusting to me is when hollywood goes political. Like those two cunts, James Cameron and Leonardo Di Caprio, tries to warn the world about global warming, and don't live what they preach. That to me should be shut down. Politics from hollywood is usually crap.

[sandman_1]

The problem as I see it, is that Hollywood today lacks imagination and originality. You can probably chock this up to the advent of CGI. I see fancy CGI but terrible scripts. I think too many Directors depend too much CGI. Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings movies, is a good example of how to inject CGI into your movie but not have it dominate the movie. So many other Directors fail at this. Also, Hollywood is on this, "Hey let's remake old movies and totally mess them up! Yay!", kick. Clash of the Titans was just horrible on so many levels and I really hope they don't mess up Tron that is coming out this December.

Some Non-Hollywood films I enjoyed and did not enjoy recently:

If you are a Martial Arts fan, you ought to watch the Ip Man movies. Really good Martial Arts flicks with good acting and a good story too. I have seen too many Hollywood Martial Arts flick that really , really sucked on all levels.

Black Death was good IMO and I like Sean Bean. The guy is an excellent actor and can take just about any role and make it good.

Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema I thought was a good movie.

Valhalla Rising was a movie I did not enjoy at all but I thought I would mention. The movie was weird to the extreme.

[megabyteme]

What's disgusting to me is when hollywood goes political. Like those two cunts, James Cameron and Leonardo Di Caprio, tries to warn the world about global warming, and don't live what they preach. That to me should be shut down. Politics from hollywood is usually crap.

I don't think that was the point of Titanic, Speedy. Thanks for the reply, ntl.