7 ms·
It’s just slop par excellence. I’ve been watching a number of movies with my wife over Christmas. Everything is so bland, repetitive and ‘design by committee’.
by Argonaut998 2y ago
It’s just slop par excellence. I’ve been watching a number of movies with my wife over Christmas. Everything is so bland, repetitive and ‘design by committee’. It goes further than merely announcing what the characters are doing (in that new wannabe Die Hard movie we hear that they are expecting a baby three times in 5 minutes), you just know there are certain metrics used for every genre of movie accounting for every minute: “if it’s an action film with no action scene in the first 10 minutes then the audience loses interest”. They are all so soulless.
And this is fine when you realise that Netflix replaces direct-to-video movies and not that of cinema, as much as they refuse to admit.
- dist-epoch 2y agoYet you watch these instead of the ones with "soul". Seems to me they provide what the market wants.
- Argonaut998 2y agoMy wife chooses the Netflix ones unfortunately. What ones are good?
- mingus88 2y agoThere are a ton of great Christmas movies on Netflix. We just watched Christmas Chronicles again last night. Klaus is great. The Wallace and Gromit ones…I could go on Maybe you aren’t being suggested kids movies. Most Xmas productions are. The hallmark/romance style of Xmas movie seems to be for housewives. And there are lots of people who just want background noise. Before streaming it was just leaving the TV on while you did other stuff. Before that it was radio. Daytime programming has always been like this. It’s not a Netflix invention.
- magicalhippo 2y agoSome that I've enjoyed recently (or rewatched): Good One (2024) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30319516/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30319516/ Strange Darling (2023) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22375054/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22375054/ The Creator (2023) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/ The Night House (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9731534/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9731534/ The Empty Man (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5867314/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5867314/ Possessor (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5918982/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5918982/ Booksmart (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1489887/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1489887/ Volition (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6385952/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6385952/ Welcome the Stranger (2018) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5716280/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5716280/ Time Trap (2018) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4815122/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4815122/ Wind River (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5362988/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5362988/ A Dark Song (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4805316/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4805316/ I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4303340/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4303340/ Midnight Special (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2649554/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2649554/ The Devil's Candy (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4935372/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4935372/ Mr. Holmes (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3168230/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3168230/ The Witch (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/ A Most Wanted Man (2014) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972571/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972571/ Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/ Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1465522/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1465522/ Pandorum (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188729/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188729/ The Fall (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/ In a Savage Land (1999) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151047/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151047/ Office Space (1999) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/ The Double Life of Véronique (1991) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101765/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101765/ Don't have Netflix so not sure what's available there, and several might not be wife-friendly. Also I enjoy weird, so YMMV.
- verisimi 2y agoYou do know that its ok to turn off the TV too? Lol
- magicalhippo 2y agook recently was stretching it, I've watched these over the past year or so.
- 1123581321 2y agoWow, great to see The Fall is on Mubi. That's one I had to pirate as it wasn't available anywhere.
- magicalhippo 2y agoIt's getting a 4k Blu-ray release soon AFAIK. Will definitely pick it up.
- stavros 2y agoMy god I did not get the double life of Veronique at all. She was sleeping for 50% of the film, and random other stuff happened for the rest. However, it's worth it just for Preisner's score, SBI 152 is a masterpiece.
- PhilippGille 2y agoAre you asking in general which recent (past few years) movies were good? Or movies on Netflix? Or Netflix productions?
- openplatypus 2y ago> And this is fine when you realise that Netflix replaces direct-to-video movies and not that of cinema, as much as they refuse to admit. This. Netflix does have good productions. But they are often surrounded by the sea of mediocracy. Stopped subscribing to N over a year ago and haven't missed it a single bit.
- motorest 2y ago> Netflix does have good productions. But they are often surrounded by the sea of mediocracy. Isn't it true for the whole film industry? Among the highest grossing movies from recent years, how many follow a different approach?
- foobarqux 2y agoIt’s amazing the checkboxes that stick out: having a dog for no reason for dog lovers; the relationship slop that appeals to women; the violence and sex slop to appeal to men.
- CoastalCoder 2y agoI'm curious if heavy pornography consumption has become so prevalent that men care less about getting that thrill from feature films.
- technothrasher 2y agoI wouldn't describe myself as a "heavy pornography consumer", but I certainly get bored by the gratuitous sex scenes in many shows and movies these days, thinking, "I can get this and much more any time I want, so can we stop with it and move the plot and/or character development along please?"
- relaxing 2y agoYou’re meant to be watching it with a romantic partner, “and chill”-style.
- whycome 2y agoThe new Superman movie seems to be built on such checkboxes.
- jasdi 2y agoMcDonaldization - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwvL6XDq0BQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwvL6XDq0BQ
- raverbashing 2y agoHonestly I can't blame them if current audiences have the attention span of a puppy golden retriever The one use case I wanted to see for AI is "tunable" contexts for videos. If this is your first time, watch the whole thing but if you need less context just edit it so it skips over the obvious parts
- stevage 2y agoI would love to see movies come in many different flavours. Long, short, dial up the violence, or down, etc etc.
- zelphirkalt 2y agoThat would probably make every such movie rated 18+, unless you limit the controls somehow and they find a way to make sure nothing too violent happens on any given setting, or pre-render every single configuration and have reviewers check them all.
- thrwthsnw 2y agoWe should just get rid of the ratings. They’re a stupid system that hasn’t worked anyways.
- pbhjpbhj 2y agoCouldn't disagree more. They're not fine-grained enough IMO - IMDB's "parent's guide" is great for detailed content information. Similarly, with game ratings (video- and boardgames, as it happens), I appreciate them, but often they're trying to do two things, rate the game content and the gameplay. They fail often, and I buy outside the ratings, but I'm happier having them than not having any information in that space. I wouldn't want no ratings for film/TV as that would mean I'd have to seek out spoiler-level information before finding if media was right for what I wanted to consume (or take friends/family to consume). I try my best to see little about the plot of films I'm keen to watch.
- 2y ago
- superjan 2y agoIf you’re curious to try arthouse/international cinema, give Mubi a try. There is less to choose from, but the selection rotates.
- bpye 2y agoMubi has some great cinema! Definitely more of the sort of cinema you’d see at a film festival than mainstream.
- smallerfish 2y agoI wish they'd fix their Chromecast support (they apparently only support recent versions).
- Yeul 2y agoLet's be real here look at the movies that make a billion at the box office. It's never the highbrow stuff.
- Retric 2y agoHighbrow and soulless are different axes. Disney may be a giant soulless company, but they do employ actual artists who sometimes make decent movies which in general do vastly better at the box office. Handing a talented team enough time, freedom, and budget doesn’t guarantee success but it’s definitely a prerequisite for success.
- rchaud 2y agoI'm more interested in movies that make money through the long tail of DVD sales. Box office numbers have always favoured blockbusters. The long tail content tends to be better, less one-size-fits-all, and allows room for multiple films trying different things, across different genres. That era appears to be over however.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ndsipa_pomu 2y agoI think the best modern productions are now the series rather than the films as there's so much more time to tell the story and have room for characters to breathe etc. Just look at the artistry and story-telling skill displayed in both seasons of Arcane - there's so many brilliant examples of "showing, not telling" on display there. As a counter-example, I enjoyed watching the "Flow" film the other day - an animated film about a cat (and other animals) trying to survive a flood and there's not even a single word in the entire film.
- isleyaardvark 2y agoI don't doubt that, but from what I've been reading Arcane is notorious for having songs in the background exactly describing the action onscreen.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y agoI haven't heard that at all. As I understand it, the music is written to go with certain scenes, but it complements the action and adds a lot of emotional beats. I can't think of an example where it's simply describing what's going on on-screen. The music is a huge part of Arcane though, and complements the emotional content. e.g. The Line (Twenty-One Pilots) was written after Tyler Joseph witnessed the passing of his grandmother and is written from her viewpoint - incredibly powerful and poignant, but also fits in wonderfully with what is happening with Victor (Arcane character). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Rj2gQAyPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Rj2gQAyPA
- zemvpferreira 2y agoMaybe 5 years ago but can't say I agree any more. Netflix in particular stretches 2-hour scripts into 10-hour limited series. I'm trying to watch Black Doves right now and continually get bored at how much exposition and background there is. There was clearly a tight, fun script in there somewhere before the committee performed surgery on it. I don't need everything explored and explained to death, give me something with rhythm instead.
- 2y ago
- rchaud 2y agoThis is precisely the tepid, data-driven "future of entertainment" that the genAI boosters are desperately trying to sell. Remember the hubbub about that ridiculous AI Seinfeld stream? Turgid LLM nonsense, but hyped to the skies by people who presumably haven't watched Seinfeld and have no clue what makes it a funny and iconic sitcom.
- m463 2y agoWhat I hate is that the slop killed the netflix DVD service, where I used to get the "real" movies to watch. It sort of feels like living in a town that is getting crowded and the infrastructure isn't being maintained. Then one day they decide to change all the traffic lights to stop signs and everyone goes the same slow speed.