Jews are wonderfully funny. But why?! (Larry and Jerry)Ok, let's talk film. Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times writes a blog that is much what I say. He must read this little pathetic blog! He must! How is it to explain his thoughts paralleling mine. A stoke of genius could be the answer. I would not put genius above me. Why not? Most often it floats under me. Goldstien is a Jewish name. Now this is a thought that perplexes me. Why do the Jewish people run Hollywood anyway? I mean New York Jewish is the funniest. It drives our sitcoms like Seinfeld, Friends, and yes even SATC. All those writers are Jewish. But what makes them funnier than other writers? I have no idea. I love New York Jewish humor. I could write it all day because I know the style. I know how to write a Seinfeld episode, maybe not like Larry David did, but I can mimic the humor pretty well. So I am not sure what makes the Jewish Humor that funny. Neil Simon and Woody Allen were the fathers of this humor. I dunno why they are funnier and more popular than other religions. I don't have a problem with this at all. I love Jewish people. My best friend growing up was Jewish. I was just bring up a curious point.
Well after all that to do I want to talk about Goldstein's blog in the LA times here. He talks about 20th Century Fox's awful summer. They haven't had a hit since the new Star Wars Prequels, X Men, and Mr and Mrs Smith Summers. He says that studios like to run their businesses like other business. Let's tke a couple quotes here to analyze.
And with good reason. This is the first summer since 1997 that Fox hasn't had a $100-million box-office hit. For 10 straight summers, the Fox assembly line has churned out every kind of hit imaginable, from "X-Men" movies to "Dr. Dolittle" and "Big Momma's House" family comedies to last year's "Simpsons Movie." Even more impressively, in three of the last four summers, the studio had three $100-million-plus hits each year (perhaps its best summer being 2005, when it had "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," "The Fantastic Four" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," which all topped $150 million in the U.S. alone).Well Fox is eating crow right now and Paramount for that matter. These two studios are buffoons. They strive for the quick buck with no development. Its like they throw money into nonsense to get a quick response and quick buck. Here is another quote.
But having suffered through years of having their chain yanked by the studio's business affairs department and having seen virtually every creative decision approved by Rothman, top talent learned to avoid Fox like the plague. After making an "X-Man" movie there, Brett Ratner complained that Rothman even had approval of releasing key photo images from the film. Innumerable agents have complained to me that Fox doesn't want filmmakers--it wants no-name traffic cops to direct its movies. Here's the people who directed the studio's 2007 summer films: James Wan, Tom Brady, David Silverman, Len Wiseman, Tim Story and Carlos Fresnadillo. I bet some of them are genuinely nice guys, but there's not a Warren Beatty or Tim Burton in the bunch.
Well what Goldstein doesn't say is that Hollywood doesn't care about big name directors anymore. Look at Sahara of a couple years ago. Paramount got all the funds and good actors together, and then they hire a total novice for a director. Michael Eisners son I think it was. I mean a 100 mil movie budget and they bring in a no name really to direct what could have been an Indiana Jones for Matthew McConaughey. They screwed up. But its the Michael Bay syndrome here. This is what Jerry Bruckheimer has done for years. Bruckheimer found Bay and Simon West and these commercial directors who had a lot of visionary talent and they spent their money on actors thinking that actors can take care of themselves Well, they can't.
I know a lot of actors and they need direction. Ever wonder why all these HUGE name films like Bad Boys, Transformers, Armegeddon, Con Air and Bad Boys 2, were just that. Pieces of glorious excess without a great performance and good stories. Because they do not care about that. Hollywood wants to hire cheap directors and have the Director of Photography and the actors dictate the direction. In short , the directors are there for show. Well we don't like that as an audience and actors hate it because there is not direction for them. No challenge. Actors loved to be challenged. No good director is like the boss being away on Vacation. It's chaos. There is frustration and lack of order.
If you have ever been on a movie set, you will know that without a stern and talented director, there is chaos on the set. It's anarchy. People on a film set stand around until a director tells them what to do and if the director does not know what to do, they there is frustration. That is why these popular directors like James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Steven Spielberg are so popular and successful. They know how to story board and tell people what they want. Again Frank Capra said that a film should be the work of one man. The vision of only one man. And how more right could you be. One man should have one singular vision and stop at nothing to achieve that. That is passion that is what sells. That is what we want to see. The director should be talented and a true leader telling people how to help create a work of art.
In reality here to add to Mr. Goldstein's very good article is that there is a total lack of passion and artistic drive. I mean since the 70's Hollywood has always been about the numbers, the bottom line, that's nothing new. But now, they are trying to run the studios like Starbucks. Its absurd. Its lunacy. Films are works of art and I really believe that aside from all the trash talk I do about MTV taking over the world, I think we are a very smart audience and we will not let that happen. Even the Miley generation will grow up one day and demand better film. Whether or not Hollywood will comply remains to be see. Would you like a Dark Knight Latte? We need to make next quarters numbers! Drink up! Until tomorrow, let's talk film!
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