From our Midwest Bureau Chief Dan Brochstein:
So I’m laying here thinking about seeing the movie “Nobody.” William wants to see it, so I’ll wait for him to return to his mother’s before I see it. But it has me thinking…are we reaching a zenith of movie stories? Could be reach at time in the not so distant future where original stories will be extremely scarce?
I think of the 1990s, a time in my generation when the best movies were made, and I’ll defend that stance with a long list of great films representing original thinking.
- Pulp Fiction
- American Beauty
- The Usual Suspects
- Reservoir Dogs
- Heat
- Silence of the Lambs
- Fight Club
- Barton Fink
- The Matrix
- Boogie Nights
- Fargo
Then I see where we are now. Comic book movies…more than I can count. Comedy that is carried by sole chops of a single actor’s shtick, instead of a funny script with a good story. Space films that live or die on the strength of the CGI.
I can count good movies from the last 20 years on two hands, and I know that’s purely subjective. I get jazzed for movies now that I wouldn’t have paid to see 25 years ago, because I’m constantly having to lower my bar.
What happens when the comic book sagas are all told stories? When the current generation of bombastic comedians have run their course? What about when Scorsese, Howard, the Coen Brothers, Tarantino, Soderberg, Levinson, Bong, Phillips and Lee stop making films? There may be rising stars out there, but I’m unaware of them.
So I return to Nobody. I want to see it because of Bob Odenkirk. But the story has been told and retold so many times before that I don’t care about it. Unassuming man has secret deadly talent from a past/double life. I immediately think of Liam Nesson in Taken, Bruce Willis in Red, Arnold in True Lies, Gene Hackman in Target.
Could it be that in 30 years movies will be just recasting old stories, with a smattering of original stories? Is this what people thought in the early 1970s?
Just my $0.02.
