Originality

[Pak-Man]

After hearing about this:

http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,8429.0.html

and this:

http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,8379.0.html

It dawned on me...

Hollywood hasn't come up with an original idea in a long, long time.

OK. That might not be news, but look how MANY ideas came out of the '80s. Look at all the interesting concepts and universes were made back then that are still being milked today: Terminator, Transformers, Back to the Future, Robocop, Bill and Ted, Short Circuit, Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles...

So when did the new ideas stop? Really, the only interesting and original concept I can think of to hit Hollywood in recent memory are the Matrix movies. Beyond that it's all remakes and reboots and adaptations.

Now a lot of the '80s ideas were, frankly, silly, but I think that endeared them to us. Is Hollywood just afraid to be silly now? Is it the overwhelming demand that nostalgic saps like me place on Hollywood for more of the good ol' '80s stuff? Maybe what we really miss about the '80s is ORIGINALITY.

Thoughts?

[jewishcarpenter]

I'd like to pitch a tv show about unoriginal production studios and director's remaking everything, I think there's a lot of original material in that, One of the main character's names could be Bichael May.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

I think I just like to be entertained, doesn't matter if it's a remake or whatever, just as long as it's a good story

[Courtney]

It would seem to me that for every decade, many of the films have reflected society in one way or another.  Greed and money movies in the 80s, slacker "winter of our discontent" movies in the 90s, and films that reflect what's going on at that time.  Unfortunately, this decade started with war and tragedy and that's pretty much all it's given us, and we've seen that movies about the war in Iraq don't make money, and there's really not much else that stands out in society for people to make movies about, or at least that's what Hollywood seems to think.  So remakes it is then.

[SmilinJackRoss]

While Pakky is correct to a certain extent, in that remakes & sequels are more "guaranteed" money-makers for studios than new original concepts, Hollywood is not without it's creative talents.  I'm thinking of the original voices of The Coen Bros, The Wachowskis, M. Night Shyamalan, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Charlie Kaufman, and I would also argue that Pixar is coming out with some great original stuff too.

In response to Courtney, if I had to pick a trend for this decade, I would say that superhero/comic book films and fantasy films have been a dominant presence.  Look at the popularity of Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, The Incredibles, Lord of the Rings, & Harry Potter.  And I think that one could view this as a reflection of our current social climate.  In a time of war and tragedy, we hunger these superheros who fight for justice and all that.  And the fantasy films offer us temporary escape from our current stuation, as well as sometimes offering allegory of it.

[Tyrant]

Hollywood is like everything else in our country. It's out to make money in the end. If remakes make money, that's what Hollywood will do and screw originality in the process. I still maintain that if anything should be remade, however, it should NEED to be remade. Ergo, it makes no sense to remake a film that did pretty well at the box office originally and was well made to begin with. Meanwhile a whole plethora of failed B movies sit on a shelf somewhere begging to be remade and remade better.

[gbeenie]

I think part of it is that the dominant cultural zeitgeist of the last decade has been the emergence of DIY entertainment. The irony is that the cluelessness on the part of mainstream entertainment that drives so much of the content of new entertainment media is also the reason old-school forms of entertainment are unable to successfully capitalize on the trend.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

During the HBO special "Mr Warmth", Rickles and Bob Newhart talk about how different Vegas is now (that it's owned by businessmen) as opposed to in the old days (when it was owned by the Wise Guys).....

That back then it was enough that they would make their money at the tables and the slots.  The rest of it was run for the love of the entertainment and fun.

These days everything - "from the Coffee Shop to the Main Room" - has to show a profit.

Same thing happened in Hollywood.  It used to be run by people who first loved the medium, then worried about making money.  Now it's all about profit.  And you get the feeling that unless it was a textbook on the law or something on how to get rich quick these people have never read a book in their lives.

[Fortis]

During the HBO special "Mr Warmth", Rickles and Bob Newhart talk about how different Vegas is now (that it's owned by businessmen) as opposed to in the old days (when it was owned by the Wise Guys).....

That back then it was enough that they would make their money at the tables and the slots.  The rest of it was run for the love of the entertainment and fun.

These days everything - "from the Coffee Shop to the Main Room" - has to show a profit.

Its true, I dare you to try and find something older than 15 years old in the main area of the strip that hasn't been "revamped" "remodeled" or "added on". If something doesn't make money here in Vegas, it gets imploded

[Tripe]

That's a shame because if ever I go to Vegas I only want to see the old and faded places, there's great beauty in decline.

[Fortis]

That's a shame because if ever I go to Vegas I only want to see the old and faded places, there's great beauty in decline.

We have no culture here, I mean we obviously stole everything from everywhere else. Want to go to Egypt, Paris, New York, sail the high seas, and go to an opera? All in one day? With gambling in between? Then Vegas is for you.

But if you want to go to Vegas, for Vegas, and not these other things. You are out of luck, Vegas stopped being cool about 50 years ago.

Though if you want to see something really cool about 40 minutes out side of Vegas. Because Lake Mead is drying up because of our drought status (its not as bad as you would think, you can still water ski) the town called St. Thomas that was here before they built Hoover Dam and Lake Mead was created, is starting to be seen again because of the receding waters. Ever wanted to see a ghost town that has been under water for a really long time? Come see St. Thomas, just outside of Vegas.

That is the extent of our culture

[bratpop]

Name any original movie and I can tell you what's unoriginal about it or name its sequel. Yes, the 80s was a hotbed of creativity due mainly to the special effects that Star Wars made possible. But that was over very quickly, and most of these "original" movies you like so much are ripoffs of something obscure, or based on something else. We had ten years (twenty if you're generous) of high profile special effects movies that seemed original because we hadn't seen them on screen before. But now we live in a society where it's much cooler to hate a movie like Hulk than to appreciate the fact that we've never seen a giant green mofo smashing stuff in a movie before. It's more fun to hate Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within than to acknowledge its importance. It's easier to rip on The Matrix Revolutions because it borrows stuff from anime which is now much more mainstream than it was when RoboCop stole from it. Hollywood doesn't come up with ideas. Writers do. And every year there are more and more movies to compare an original idea to. Every year there are more and more movies to remake. Ghostbusters didn't have the option of being a remake or a sequel or a ripoff. It had to be original because there was nothing else. It's easy to be original when there's nothing to rip off. The movies haven't changed. The audience has. Eat that with your cornflakes.

[GregMcduck]

Hey, bratpop, you just wrote the first post I actually liked, good job! 

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Yes, the 80s was a hotbed of creativity due mainly to the special effects that Star Wars made possible.

And I hate to tell you this but....Star Wars and the Indiana Jones films are really rip-offs of the serials of the 1940's and 50's.

In fact, that bit of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with the water pouring out of the side of the cliff was lifted straight out of a serial.  I don't know the name of the serial but that footage is in the middle of the film J-Men Forever...the part with Clair and Lance.

[bratpop]

And I hate to tell you this but....Star Wars and the Indiana Jones films are really rip-offs of the serials of the 1940's and 50's.

Oh gosh... I am so ashamed... well, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. You'll just have to spank me then. Hard.

I know this, and it only supports my point. The reference was not to originality however, just to the fact that it introduced big budget movies and special effects (and special effects houses and companies) to Hollywood and started a chain reaction that took concepts that were previously b-movie fodder and made them into something good like Close Encounters (with a very few prior exceptions of course; The Day The Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, etc.)