Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

In many popular narratives of the period, it was the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960) who “ruined” the movies. Here’s the pretentious film snob summary of the death of Hollywood’s alleged second Golden Age, as popularized by Peter Biskind. The seventies were filled with bold, dark art and transgressive intellectualism. Then the greedy Baby Boomers – like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas – made “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T.” All of a sudden Hollywood did not want to make serious, grown-up pictures. Now it was the age of blockbusters so simple that 3-year-olds can summarize them.

It was the 1980s when Boomer Blockbuster filmmaking would arrive in the event pictures of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. We see this tendency further in the films of arch-Boomers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. For a definition of Boomer cinema just look at the output of their company Imagine Entertainment. These aren’t the New Wave-influenced pictures of Roger L. Simon’s generation.

It was the Boomers who also gave us our most strident and simpleminded cinematic leftists: Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Michael Moore. Think about these three careers. Over the past 30 years have any of them shifted an inch in their political thinking? Of course not and neither have most Boomers who are still arguing over sex, race, and the Vietnam War as though it were still 1975. (more…)

The Who Should Have Won/Been Nominated For the Oscar debate is a fun one, for participants and observers. It’s always funny to me how seriously critics take themselves, and they get even more prissier and more sanctimonious around Oscar time. I thought’d it fun to look back at the Oscars, starting with the year I first watched the ceremony, and give my take on why I thought so-and-so should have won.

I will take a given year, narrow down the Best Picture Nominees to two, maybe three, one of which will be my favorite. Then I’ll pick which movie should have won, and patiently wait for all of you to tell me how wrong I am. I might jump from year to year if I get bored, but for now, the rules are that I start with the year I started watching the Oscars and continue on chronologically. Another rule certain to be broken: I’m writing about Best Picture nominees and winners, other categories are not included.  Oh, and I will try to refrain from hopping on the soapbox to trumpet a movie that wasn’t nominated, like, say Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979), which was and is way better than either Apocalypse Now (consensus shoulda won) and Kramer Vs. Kramer (winner winner French Toast for dinner).

I first tuned in to the Oscar telecast in 1982, when I was eleven years old. At the risk of over-defending myself, please understand that I became hooked on the Oscar telecast for nerdy reasons, not for faaaabulous reasons. Just putting that out there. (more…)

With all the excitement surrounding the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back – a true masterpiece by any definition of the word — it got me thinking about the iconic films of my childhood that left such a permanent impression that I can still vividly recall the experience of seeing them for very first time in a theatre. Not the look of the multiplex or the color of the seats, but how these movies made me feel. How they transported me into their world to the point that when the lights came up it felt like an unwelcome alarm clock on a school day.

I’m probably forgetting some but between my twelfth and sixteenth birthdays these were the epic cinematic moments of my life: Superman: The Movie, Star Wars, Empire, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Each not only blew my young mind with their simple but effective stories, unforgettable scores, and beloved (and hated) characters, but to this day each holds up marvelously. This can’t be said for every film that came out during this time of my life, so you have to credit the films and filmmakers. They just are that good. Each transcends the blockbuster spectacle and deserves a place among the greatest films ever made. 

And the moments! That’s what really keeps each of these triumphs forever in our hearts. Superman saving Lois Lane that first time still gives me chills; the opening of Star Wars with the music and ships overhead; Indy escaping that first tomb; James Bond skiing off a cliff; Kirk dropping Khan’s shields and Spock dying; Vader emerging victorious at the end of Empire. Good grief, processing that ate up the rest of the summer. 

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I give up. I knew there’d be a tipping point eventually, but I didn’t expect it to involve little red and white plastic pegs and my 4-year-old Godson saying, “B6…Hit!” I surrendered to the idea that there is very little hope for genuine or inspiring creativity coming out of Hollywood while Universal is forging a deal with Hasbro to bring Battleship to the big screen.

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

The idea of turning a board game into a movie isn’t earth shattering. Jumanji did it about a fictional game, and there are already deals on the books to bring Ouija Board, Candyland and Monopoly to your local multiplex. But when you mix the “you sunk my carrier” news with the scoop that Disney is making a movie of Tomorrowland as a follow-up to Pirates of the Caribbean, and toss in just a dollop of the ongoing march of mid-80s remakes like the approaching new Videodrome, Red Dawn and Fright Night, we must at least consider prosecuting for fraud anyone in Hollywood who calls themselves “creative.” (more…)

I hated the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, not the Citizen Kane homage rosebud scene at the end – I loved that – but the ending of the movie. I didn’t want it to end. I hadn’t enjoyed a film that much since, well, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, or Jaws. I wanted it to continue. I wanted more. 

I got more and I didn’t want it. 

Why don’t sequels do well? Obviously, I’m not alone in feeling the way I do about Raiders or Star Wars or Jaws or any other great character-rich, dynamically set film that pulls you in and doesn’t fully let go even after the end titles trail up and we see that film certification symbol fade out. So, why is it that more of what we love, we hate? Well, maybe not hate, but not love quite so much. What’s going on here?  (more…)