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> But Hollywood have always done this - recycling old ideas in new wrapping. And Hollywood have always been criticized for being vapid entertainment, empty spec

> But Hollywood have always done this - recycling old ideas in new wrapping. And Hollywood have always been criticized for being vapid entertainment, empty spectacle etc. Not to this degree. The last good year for movies was 1999. This is the list of major releases that year: The Matrix Fight Club The Sixth Sense Toy Story 2 The Green Mile American Beauty Being John Malkovic Office Space The Iron Giant Magnolia Austin Powers American Pie The Talented Mr. Ripley Eyes Wide Shut Dogma Galaxy Quest The Insider Notting Hill Man on the Moon Analyze This Detroit Rock City Mystery Men Bicentennial Man This is not even the entire list, just the ones I enjoyed and I'm bothering to type. You can't look at that list and honestly say nothing has changed, because it's just not true. The energy and creativity has clearly moved somewhere else, to TV and streaming services. This year alone there's two FANTASTIC shows, Chernobyl and Stranger Things S3 that definitely deserve praise.

webwanderings 7y ago
Good point. I think “Hollywood” got eaten up by globalization (China) and easy route of super hero movies all-the-time. The Disney’s and big studios alike have no patience to make money off of creativity. Why do we even need Toy Story 4 to begin with? And how many super hero movies one need to drive same points again and again?
nappy 7y ago
This is anecdotal to the point of being noise. How about comparing the top X grossing movies of 1999 vs. last year? Still subjective, but a step forward from "just the ones I enjoyed and I'm bothering to type" and two Netflix releases.
fouc 7y ago
That's almost 20 good new movies in 1 year. I feel like I have trouble finding 20 good new movies for the recent years.
goto11 7y ago
Why did you exclude the highest grossing film that year from the list? It seems you just selected the movies you thought helped you point. Movies among the top ten grossing which you left out of the list: - Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace - Tarzan - Big Daddy - The Mummy - Runaway Bride - The World Is Not Enough - The Blair Witch Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1999_box_office_number-one_films_in_the_United_States#cite_note-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1999_box_office_number... I do agree Hollywood is different today, but rehashing ideas is nothing new. The Godfather was a book. Twelve Angry Men was a play. Ben Hur (1956) was remake of Ben Hur (1925). All the songs in Singing in the Rain was recycled from previous movies. The Lion King was the first Disney animated movie with an original story (and even then people say it was plagiarized from Kimba). As for TV shows and made-for-streaming, do you exclude this from Hollywood? It is increasingly the same talent writing producing and acting, so it is more a question of format and distribution.
jackcosgrove 7y ago
I worked in a multiplex in 1999, and that was a great year for movies. The Sixth Sense in particular was the little movie that could. If I remember correctly it was shown for like six months.

webwanderings 7y ago

Good point. I think “Hollywood” got eaten up by globalization (China) and easy route of super hero movies all-the-time. The Disney’s and big studios alike have no patience to make money off of creativity. Why do we even need Toy Story 4 to begin with? And how many super hero movies one need to drive same points again and again?

nappy 7y ago

This is anecdotal to the point of being noise. How about comparing the top X grossing movies of 1999 vs. last year? Still subjective, but a step forward from "just the ones I enjoyed and I'm bothering to type" and two Netflix releases.

fouc 7y ago

That's almost 20 good new movies in 1 year. I feel like I have trouble finding 20 good new movies for the recent years.

goto11 7y ago

Why did you exclude the highest grossing film that year from the list? It seems you just selected the movies you thought helped you point. Movies among the top ten grossing which you left out of the list: - Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace - Tarzan - Big Daddy - The Mummy - Runaway Bride - The World Is Not Enough - The Blair Witch Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1999_box_office_number-one_films_in_the_United_States#cite_note-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1999_box_office_number... I do agree Hollywood is different today, but rehashing ideas is nothing new. The Godfather was a book. Twelve Angry Men was a play. Ben Hur (1956) was remake of Ben Hur (1925). All the songs in Singing in the Rain was recycled from previous movies. The Lion King was the first Disney animated movie with an original story (and even then people say it was plagiarized from Kimba). As for TV shows and made-for-streaming, do you exclude this from Hollywood? It is increasingly the same talent writing producing and acting, so it is more a question of format and distribution.

jackcosgrove 7y ago

I worked in a multiplex in 1999, and that was a great year for movies. The Sixth Sense in particular was the little movie that could. If I remember correctly it was shown for like six months.