[July 4th]

Great leading role in Get Carter. Just saw it for the first time this weekend.

[Condor51]

I think Caine is spot on. And yeah, he's been in some stinkers but as he once said (IIRC), he's got bills to pay.

Instead of a Lana Turner we have a Kathleen and Tina Turner
Instead of Marilyn Monroe we have a Madonna
Instead of Elizabeth Taylor we a Elizabeth Hurley
Instead of Bette Davis we have a Geena Davis
Instead of Susan Hayward we have a Susan Sarandon
Instead of Lauren Bacall we have a Laura Dern
Instead of Katharine Hepburn we a Katharine Ross
Instead of James Cagney we have a James Spader
Instead of Cary Grant we have Hugh Grant
Instead of Alan Ladd we have an Alan Alda
Instead of William Powell we have a William Macy & Will Ferrell
Instead of the likes of Orson Welles we have Quentin Tarantino (who I do like, but come on, lets be real)
Instead of John Ford we have Oliver Stone
Instead of Alfred Hitchcock we have .... Nobody

Then there were the Character Actors or 'co-stars', like Sydney Greenstreet, Edward Arnold or a Ward Bond. Now everyone is a 'star' (gag).

And how, short of selling one's soul to the Devil, that a Ben 'Aflac' (quack) can be a 'movie star' is beyond me.

(and anyone who evens mentions J-Lo should have their tongue cut out) /s

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I like Michael Caine.

But he lost me after he made "Cider House Rules" playing an abortionist hoping to tell the world what a noble profession it is.

Some jobs need to be passed by with malice.

[Monti Cello]

Too many good films, “for people who understand dialogue”, were being sent straight to DVD or television

This makes perfect sense - if a movie's quality is in its dialogue, there's not a real need to pay a premium in order to see it on a 40 ft screen with popcorn crunchers all around you, is there?

Sounds like a rational consumer response. I will agree though that most movies are crap.

[xzins]

lamenting how the pursuit of money is stifling creativity and imagination.

If it sells, one would think that money would buy creativity and imagination. I don't think I could handle funding a supposed money-maker that I was sure would lose money.

[HairOfTheDog]

It's true there's a lot of crap being made, but there's a lot of good stuff still being made too. You want epics? Lord of the Rings... You want quotables? Look to any Coen brothers film :~) There's just more choices.

I don't think it's the really ~good~ stuff that's being sent straight to DVD :~)

[Psycho_Bunny]

I'm sort of surprised Caine would say all this without parsing his words better.

Hollywood is going through the same kind of glut that the music industry is going through:  the fact that it is easier to make and distribute the media means that more mediocre productions will saturate the market. 

Simply put: it's easier for people with little skill or talent to produce a CD or a movie.  That leads to more crap being produced.

But that doesn't mean there aren't gems being made.

 

[weegee]

The hits reflected Hollywood at its trashiest, with an emphasis on special effects, action and violence, he said. Singling out Beerfest, a comedy about excessive drinking, and The Worm-Eaters, a horror drama about boys who eat worms, he added: “Some of the pictures are so gross.

As opposed to the movies of 30 years ago.