You’ll Never Go Broke Underestimating the Taste of the American Public
by Jason at 6:06 am on March 30th, 2004 in Entertainment
With a few rare exceptions, the entertainment industry has simply given up on developing new ideas. And you know what? The public doesn’t care. How else can you explain that Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed was last weekend’s #1 grossing film? Even more disturbing, the $29.2 million that SC2:MU raked in was more than double the second place film (The Ladykillers). All this for a sequel of a movie based upon a mediocre television cartoon…a movie that garnered some pretty savage reviews way back the good ol’ days of 2002.
Enough is enough. Even if you harbor warm and fuzzy feeling for the Hanna Barbara “golden years” of Scooby and Shaggy, do you really feel satisfied seeing the same cardboard plots being acted out by Buffy The Vampire Slayer and a fifth-rate CGI mutt? For many people, the answer is obviously “yes”.
Hollywood won’t complain…it loves films like SD2:MU because they can be churned out on the cheap. Take a recognizable animated property, add a couple fart jokes and a theme song from the pop flavor-of-the-month, and presto! An instant movie with built-in name recognition. You have to wonder what’s next: A live-action Garfield? How about the Transformers? I’m almost shocked that some young Hollywood type hasn’t yet optioned Fat Albert for a revival; it will be like Barbershop, but with more “Hey hey hey!”. And the Mushmouth hats are a sure bet to become a fashion trend…
Waitaminute. A Garfield movie will be out in June. A Transformers movie is in development. And someone is already making a Fat Albert movie. Fucking hell. We’re doomed.
(Someone tell Rep. Peabs that his running-mate needs to concentrate a bit more on the campaign, instead of adding fire to my cynicism)
tom wrote:
i can think of some things id like to see sarah michelle gellar acting out, but theyre not anything that would make it into a PG flick thats for damn sure.
anyone see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? probably too arty for matt, but a spectacular film nonetheless.
Posted 30 Mar 2004 at 8:18 am ¶
matt wrote:
no chance of me seeing Eternal Sunshine. charlie kaufman: most overrated writer evs.
Posted 30 Mar 2004 at 8:33 am ¶
Aaron wrote:
That’s too bad because ETERNAL SUNSHINE is brilliant, and seriously the best film I’ve seen in the last couple years!
More importantly though, you unfortunately missed mentioning the other film (not GARFIELD) coming out this summer. None other than Thunderbirds directed by …
wait for it …
JONATHAN FRAKES! That’s right … Cmdr. Riker himself. Talk about some recycling … they’re taking it behind-the-scenes now. (And yes, I know he has directed other films.)
Posted 30 Mar 2004 at 1:05 pm ¶
tom wrote:
i know you matt, youre too straightforward to handle things left of center. its all good though, hopefully other people who read this will go see it….
Posted 31 Mar 2004 at 9:02 am ¶
Ellogoods wrote:
Hey, at least, Scooby Doo is silly fun. It is waaay more disturbing for the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre (the Passion of the Christ) to be out grossing (in more ways than one) tons of other movies- not that is really disturbing. And while I haven’t seen any of the scooby dooo movies, I would guess that they are a lot less anti semitic than T.P.T.C.
Posted 31 Mar 2004 at 10:11 pm ¶
Jason (1115) wrote:
Too bad. You obviously missed the part where Fred and Daphne had hot dirty sex while screaming passages from Mein Kampf at each other.
Posted 01 Apr 2004 at 11:52 am ¶