Dustin Hoffman says the cinema is at it's worst.

No one is bemoaning "old" people. Maybe if some old people didn't act and think so...old!

 

I'm not nearly as old as Dustin but I remember the 1980's as being a painfully bad period for films both big and small. Anybody who is saying that the current time period is inferior to that one has a pretty short memory, IMHO.

 

Growing up during that period, I have to disagree with you there. The 80s were the peak of "popular" entertainment as exemplified by Spielberg type filmmaking. Not all of it was good, but it was cinematic.

 

All movies are "cinematic".

 

Are you serious? Let''s list just a few (there are countless more counter examples to your assertion):

Back to the Future
The Terminator
The Breakfast Club
Amadeus
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
National Lampoon's Vacation
National Lampoon's European Vacation
The Karate Kid
Stand by Me
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Ghostbusters
The Shining
This Is Spinal Tap
Aliens
Top Gun
Footloose
Rain Man
Die Hard
Spaceballs
The Elephant Man
Dirty Dancing
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Raging Bull
Blade Runner
The Blues Brothers
Flashdance
Scarface
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Back to the Future Part II
The Thing
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Full Metal Jacket
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Poltergeist
Dead Poets Society
Predator
Pretty in Pink
Airplane!
....

 

Iron Eagle and all of the Top Gun hooray for Amurica type movies including Rambo et al
Leonard Part 6
sequel madness - Death Wish, Smokey and the Bandit, Meatballs, Halloween, Friday the 13th etc.
Shanghai Surprise
any Bo Derek movie
Can't Stop the Music
The Pirate Movie
the unfortunate 3D comeback (Jaws 3D, Spacehunter)

Oh yeah, those were golden years for cinema...

 

I think the 80s were lackluster for "serious movies" but great for comedies and action fare...

 

Come to think of it, I've walked out on three movies in my lifetime - and all three were produced in the '80s.

And I've seen a lot of movies.

 

Every decade had its share of horrible films. You could look at films from the true "golden eras" and find as many bad films such as the 1930s or 40s. It was only in the era of CGI and "Orange and Teal" where cinema became obsolete as an artform.

 

GREAT LIST! I have them all on DVD!

 

...and I'm saying the 80's were heavy in that department.

...or do you want to argue the merits of Howard the Duck?

 

If you were to ask me at this moment which film I would rather watch, "Howard the Duck" or "Hugo", I would pick Howard the Duck. Gotta love Lea Thompson.

 

If you asked me if I would rather drink Drano or watch Howard the Duck I'd have to think about it...

 

The only movie I've walked out on (well, drove out on) was 22 Jump Street - and that movie got a 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was the second feature with either Neighbors or Transformers 4 if memory serves. There's no accounting for taste, I guess...

 

well we are going to get a few clunkers...big whoop. Yes, it is quite bad! LOL!

 

In contrast, I think the 80s was the second golden age for movies. The rise in the popularity (and affordability) of home video helped.

But, you keep picking out two or three of the worst examples to make your argument, which no one really agrees with.

 

Your list pales in comparison to Deesky's list.

Admittedly, the 80s was the time where people weren't as serious about most things, or they wanted to keep thing more lighthearted or patriotic. But, the heavy stuff came near the end of the 80s. "Wall Street" and "War Of The Roses" were two examples. Even though the black comedy of films like "Full Metal Jacket" or "Born On The Fourth Of July", serious issues were addressed.

 

I sure as heck won't defend that one. But there were a lot of great films in the 80's - "Brazil", "Raging Bull", "Heathers", "Amadeus", "Born On The Fourth Of July", "Platoon", "The Falcon And The Snowman", "Birdy", "The Verdict", "The Color Of Money", "Prince Of The City", etc....

Do you really feel like most of those were junk?

 

I doubt that cinema is at its worst yet. But it's true. Sometime after 2012 the quality of pictures just plummeted. Maybe earlier. Avatar - horrible. Interstellar - stupid and overthought... So far, 80s-2010 remains my favourite film for films.

 

Hmmm, I can't let that one pass. Avatar was a fantastic flick, but yes, Interstellar was stupid, but certainly not 'overthought' - if anything, the script was 'underthought'.

 

When I go to the movies I see about an even spread of age groups. Lots of middle aged couples looking for a night out, which is half about what movie going is about. It's not about a desperate need to see Iron Man VII that makes most people head down to the cineplex, it's about getting out of the damn house for awhile. In most towns, movies are the only form of entertainment readily available to people.

These Marvel movies aren't made for 17-year olds, they're made for all age groups. To say that the best of the best, Iron Man I and Spiderman I are crafted to appeal to a video game mentality is way off the mark. They're built on strong characters, acting and story. If the video game hypothesis was true, you could drop some talentless actor into Ironman's suit and have it be a hit. But it wouldn't be, Robert Downey Jr. made that movie with a very sophisticated and sly performance -- it had nothing to do with appealing to a bang bang crash crash video game sensibility. These films are also written, directed and produced by people in their 40s and 50s, so you going to get a far more sophisticated outlook in them than if pimple-faced Freddie the Call of Duty champ wrote and directed it.

 

Sorry, I can't let that pass.

 

overthought in terms of all of these time fluctuations stuff, etc. making a film about something mankind doesn't know much about and yet presenting it as something valid - bad idea. And here I was thinking that McCounaghey would be my biggest problem in the film... little did I know...

 

I'm not sure what you mean. If you're referring to the relativistic time dilation aspects, then it's actually the one thing the movie got right and that I give it credit for. Time dilation is actually something we know a lot about - it's part and parcel of one of the two great pillars of scientific discovery in physics - general relativity (the other pillar being quantum mechanics).

So it was a very good idea, but unfortunately, the only good script idea.