As for the suckiness of movies, I overdosed on them about 7 years ago and only rarely dabble nowadays. I think they blow in part because creative decisions are made by executive types who think they can ensure financial success by following certain packaging formulas, i.e., if you put Actor X in a movie featuring Plot Twist B with sexy Co-star Y, you’ll net Z at the box office. The truth, however, is that box office success is never predictable and the bulk of a film’s earnings come from ancillary markets (like foreign rights and DVD) which are even less predictable than box office. Remember Office Space? Box office disaster, DVD blockbuster. The film industry has become virtually encrusted with self-appointed “winner-pickers” who crowd their names into the producer credits then claim responsibility for every success while dodging the blame for every failure. Add to this the fact that directors (despite their “auteur” status) are increasingly the least experienced people on set and you end up with a formulaic piece of star-packaging slapped together by amateurs. But what do I know. I retired from this miserable business seven years ago.

But yeah, tv has gotten amazingly good.

i think tv is actually better suited to novelists. because you can’t really get to know a character in 120 minutes. but you can in 24 42 minute episodes. there’s much more depth of character*, more time for things to develop and simmer. Sexual tension works sooo much better in tv. i think it’s one of the reasons why there’s never been a really perfect jane austen film made. you just don’t have time to squeeze everything in.

* i’m only talking about the good ones, here.

I wonder if you’re viewing the past through rose-coloured glasses a bit, though. There were plenty of truly crap movies in the 80′s and 90′s, too. Only the good ones have survived in our memories and DVD collections.

There’s been a few movies in the past few years I’ve enjoyed a lot. Thinking about it, though, they fall into two categories: Chinese films done well (not all them) and some romantic comedies that I’ve enjoyed with friends and talked about a lot afterwards. The first group might be because I’m not up on the typical Chinese cliches, though, so some of my favourites might suck if you were Chinese. And my friends will be the first to point out that my sense of humour is pretty weird, so the second category could be dubious, too.