SCARY MOVIE 3: Hollywood, will you EVER learn!

[Chadzilla]

...what is good and what is bad is subjective, I guess.  What works for you may not work for me and far too often mass market movies simply play to the lowest common denominator for the highest cross market appeal.  As far as the whole 'mainstream America's taste sucks' argument goes, well that is highly subjective (not to mention more than a bit holier than thou), most people, I have found in my working as a video store clerk, give not real thought behind the movies they rent.  They rent the latest blockbusters, and either like them or think they suck.  Having any kind of conversation about the merits and minuses of any filmmaker/star/production company is an invitation to pain.  Chris K. you said it best when you mention that Spiderman was from the director of Evil Dead and you got blank looks in response.  Most people simply do not care beyond a simple desire to be entertained, the depths of a fan's attention to detail and a given individuals career just seems weird.  I am sure tha behind those looks were vague thoughts of "That guy needs A LIFE or a GIRLFRIEND" or "Maybe I should move a few seats away from this dead movie freak, he's weird...and I hope this movie isn't GORY or anything, if I knew an icky horror movie director made this I wouldn't have come."  Yes Chris K., mainstreamers think that way, bless their hearts.  Some can be mighty condescending about it to.  One guy was livid that Clint Eastwood's wonderful Oscar winning western didn't have enough killing in it.  Clint's only good for blowing people away.

And very few filmmakers set out to make a 'bad' movie intentionally (there are exceptions to that rule of course, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and the title movie within the movie Amazon Women on the Moon, which are usually what are called Camp Comedies - a sub-genre I'm not particularly fond of because I just don't find it very funny when played in a overly broad "Gee look how stooo-pid I am!" Moron Movie way, I like my Mororn Movies played with relative straightness).  I think it is a weird mix of various different root causes, some of which are

1. People who do not understand the appeal of the material they are handling.
2. People who think the material they have been handed is 'beneath' their talents.
3. Those handed said material don't care one way or the other about its actual quality, just as along as it makes money ASAP (yes, they are THAT short sighted - that's how misfires like Batman and Robin happen).
4. Those who want to change the material to make it more marketable to a broader auidence or (see Ken's Superman IV review about 'camping' superhero movies up and making them vanity pictures) communicate a 'personal' or significant message.
5. Bad marketing based decisions.
6. Ego.
7. Lack of money.
8. Lack of time.
9. Lack of resources.
10. Lack of internal support.

And so much more can go wrong and slaughter a movie before it's even made.  I don't know the point of some of these ramblings and my train of thought as derailed, so I'll just stop now.

[Chris K.]

Though personally I DON'T try to say 'mainstream America's taste sucks'. Everybody has their own "taste", good or bad. I will be honest, MY TASTE is always highly criticized by people I know (And the comments that my associates make are negative ones if you remember the story I told about loaning a copy of BRAINDEAD to them and it ended with their disliking as well as telling me "I am a bad critic"). They didn't get it, they never will, and that is just fine with me.

I do remember watching BRAVEHEART in my Religion class and I kept looking at my watch alot as well as commenting on the battle scenes being too "comic book" (it's a Mel Gibson film, isn't it) as well as being too boring. And like you said, "Having any kind of conversation about the merits and minuses of any filmmaker/star/production company is an invitation to pain" is quite true. But they have their own ideals of entertainement, and I have mine.

Hey, mainstream has it's moments. And then mainstream does not have it's moments. And along with the independents, it's really a mixed bag.

[Jay O'Connor]

I tend to avoid mainstream movies for a simple reason.  The prices are way too expensive to go to the theater and by the time they come around to the videostore as a cheap rental, I've either fogotten or lost interest