cary grant is just awesome. but he was also an actor in a time where many movies weren't all that outlandish. perhaps romanticized, but possible- and many were based on true stories. and the vast majority of movies appealed to everyone.
admittedly, i like watching jet li action movies for the impossible yet neat fight scenes, but my all time favourite action movies will always be captain blood (errol flynn) and the mark of zorro (tyrone powers).
You're right about that. When we saw the previews last week, before "Star Wars" (first time I've been to a movie in 3 years), I noticed that the plots are all either remakes, totally bizarre, comic books, or all three.
They're obviously not intended to appeal to a broad audience. It probably has to do with there being so many other choices for entertainment ... videos, TV, computer games, etc. ... where in our grandparents' day, the movie theater was your only choice to see films.