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Meghan McCain Will Save Hollywood, World from Mediocrity
Melrose: The Place Where Disbelief Dies
America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline

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BettyCrocker
09/23/09

In reply to Meghan McCain Will Save Hollywood, World from Mediocrity
Great. Now I can't get the ice-cream-truck jingle from Triffids out of my head.
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Tremonius
09/22/09

In reply to Meghan McCain Will Save Hollywood, World from Mediocrity
There is a lovely scene representing female adolescence. The beauty takes a swim in the Black Lagoon, and the oogling monster in love swims on his back just below her and out of sight. This is exactly how it is for all girls. They told me.

The rest of it is stock shock schlock (that's a fifties category, I think.) Something is different than us. Although harmless, let's kill it. Monster gets mad, then gets even. White humans prevail. Hooray! We go out and vote for white saviors forevermore, and against them commies in their Black Lagoons. That's how it was in the fifties.
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DoctorEcks
09/22/09

In reply to Meghan McCain Will Save Hollywood, World from Mediocrity
OMG! CFTBL (experienced in 3D) is one of my all time fave movies too! I should get to know her better and give up on J-Date. Is there a G(entile)-Date she could be listed on? It'd be so cool to call John
"Dad" and try to outsqueeze his hand every time we handshake.....
Sorry. Got carried away there. That really is one of my fave movies. I wonder how she feels about "The Loved One"?
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Experiment626
09/22/09

In reply to Meghan McCain Will Save Hollywood, World from Mediocrity
That photo is lovely. The textures of fabric and shoe are so clear...
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Lizawithazee promoted this comment Experiment626 was starred Experiment626 was unstarred

Lizawithazee
09/22/09

@Experiment626: And at least she (or someone) knows how to hit her mark.
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___
09/09/09

In reply to Melrose: The Place Where Disbelief Dies
Which one is the gay character?
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Trulymadlyme promoted this comment ___ was starred ___ was unstarred

Trulymadlyme
09/09/09

@__: The hot blond chick.
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DahlELama
09/09/09

In reply to Melrose: The Place Where Disbelief Dies
So thaaaat's why Riley looked so familiar--thanks! That was driving me so crazy I forgot that I could actually look it up and answer that question for myself.
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Understater
09/09/09

In reply to Melrose: The Place Where Disbelief Dies
yet her race appeared to change from shot-to-shot. One second she's white, the next she's Asian, the next she's vaguely brown

Thank Christ I wasn't the only one bothered by this. Pick a race and stick to it, bitch.
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PaisleyPajamas
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
I foogled with the Google to try to find the link to the lists that The Nicholl Fellowship used to have at their website--its a loooooong list each year of people that I NOW cannot find--all are unknown screenwriters trying to break in--who have written something that was read by contest officials who later said, "Yeah, I think this should be a movie," and the script went on to the next qualifying round. There are HUNDREDS every year, people. Why Ho'wood doesn't tap into this potential is ridiculous. Maybe one lucky one per year gets an indie production deal, but most are just gathering dust on somebody's hard drive. Most of it seems to be an art of futility--people proving their chops so they can be HIRED to write the remake.
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Spirit Fingers
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
I think Hollywood will have to start remaking films that were just terrible in their original form to really turn off the audience. Really, can you see it, Kate Hudson and Freddie Prinze Jr. starring in Bird on a Wire? Yah. By that point people will start bringing flamethrowers to movie openings. Perhaps then the remake genre will run its course.

Also, screw remakes. Just give me some decent prequels or sequels and we can call it even...new material + nostalgia = potential win.
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The Curse of Millhaven
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
If Hollywood makes nothing but bland crap, can people really be blamed for going to the bland crap they kind of know already? Oh, and since they keep packaging movies deceptively, making even the good ones seem like bland crap, how are we even supposed to know which ones are going to be good? Remember how the previews made Charlie Bartlett look like American Pie? Turned out to be a decent little coming-of-age movie. Since most people didn't see it, to them it might as well have been Porky's 9: The Reckoning.
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fuzzymuffins
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
broadway suffers the same illness... good luck finding a musical that's not based on a movie, disney character, or pop songs.

and not to forget the legacy of rap, where the reuse and 'theft' of other musician's original material created a new pop empire. where would 'white lines' be without 'cavern', 'you can't touch this' without 'superfreak'... or the p. diity empire without every other artist's work you can imagine....

does this make every cover song, every cover band a hack too?

i think this stems from producers/directors/studios wanting the "safe thing" too. it's easier to sell the idea based on a 'proven track record' than nothing at all. and now... you can sell a remake by the fact that remakes have a track record.
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BlinkyMcChuck
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
There's some irony to this with the Melrose Place ad on this page.
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Paul Duane
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
"no self-respecting artist would take someone else's work... and display it as an example of their bottomless creative well."

Four words for you: John Carpenter's The Thing. Maybe Zombie is no Carpenter but Carpenter was rubbished for remaking Howard Hawks, too.
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lionel-mandrake approved this comment Paul Duane was starred Paul Duane was unstarred

lionel-mandrake
09/08/09

@Paul Duane: Dashiell Hammet's Red Harvest: Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo: Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars: Walter Hill's Last Man Standing.
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nozer
09/08/09

@Paul Duane: I would like to add Werner Herzog's Nosferatu and Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, Both of which are fairly brilliant (and made by self-respecting artists).
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The Curse of Millhaven promoted this comment nozer was starred nozer was unstarred

The Curse of Millhaven
09/08/09

@nozer: Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein's Monster in a Box by Zombie Spalding Grey.
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Beau Nerd
09/08/09

@The Curse of Millhaven: Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (let's pretend The Invasion never happened, to say nothing of The Faculty)
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unclevanya
09/08/09

In reply to America, You're To Blame For Hollywood's Artistic Decline
Using this logic, once crack made it to the suburbs, it should have been legalized and added to the menu at Olive Garden.

I'm sure if given enough time, we could find a way to blame this on George Lucas.
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