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Health & Fitness

Hollywood: Are They Even Trying?

Have you been disappointed with Hollywood's latest projects? Ubiquitous computer enhancement, cliche tired themes and overall bad acting have made for a less than profitable movie giant.

  The upcoming hullabaloo of such films as "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Friends With Benefits" gives one pause.  A frightful and disconcerting pause that forces you to wonder: are they even trying? 

  "Cowboys" is apparently a single drop in the deluge of graphic novels that are being put to the big screen. Heaven forbid anyone out there in California should think up something original. Just because it was a graphic novel does not mean it is necessarily a good thing. It is guised with "deep meaning" as a supposed commentary on the treatment of Native Americans and how folks in the nineteenth century would "plausibly" react to extraterrestrials wielding radically advanced weaponry. This plausibility apparently involves Daniel Craig being abducted and fitted with a device on his wrist that shoots plasma with no recollection as to how it occurred. 

  Glossy and glamorous with shiny new special effects is all the rage in such blockbuster type films as "Cowboys." All the supposed underlying themes do little to muffle the fact that it is yet another testosterone fueled money maker. No brain activity is required to indulge in such a feature as Craig mindlessly blasting away at aliens with his super duper wrist band. Exploiting the likes of Craig who portrayed James Bond and Harrison Ford who is famously known as Indiana Jones the makers attempt to give it star appeal lest the film itself is a mess. 

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  More and more we see such films that lean on the crutch of CGI (computer generated imagery) rather than having a heart and soul. It seriously begs the question of whether or not films are made with the same love and care as in the days of the silver screen. One may even hearken back to the classic "Empire Strikes Back" which featured an animatronic Yoda that seemed to actually live and breathe. Fast forward to the much disappointing "Episode One" and we find him brought to pasty green lackluster life. 

  And here we have "Friends With Benefits" but another dullard abomination from the land of make believe which totes the usual gender stereotypes. Timberlake as the sloth-like, sex driven, slack-jawed male and Kunis fitting snuggly into her usual role of the snotty, overbearing tart. Yet another excuse for audiences to view the beautiful people in their beautiful houses make beautiful love as all their beautiful relations coo in awe or cluck in otherwise apathetic disapproval. Bright colors and poppy modern tunes along with today's "quirky" humor reminds one of an ugly plastic Christmas Tree. As two friends who plan to only have sex for pleasure the film rehashes tired old "lessons" of previous movies that claim to have the answers regarding the differences between men and women. "The Breakup" and "What Women Want" are a couple examples of novice films that boast the same bloodline as this trendy, trashy movie. 

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  Quality, heart and soul are the missing ingredients here. Many years ago films were a labor of love. Without computers every detail had to be as genuine as the creators could muster. As a consequence of the reliance on computers to enrich our lives it has led to the dumbing down of our beloved films. Armed no longer with the whimsical curiosity of such films as "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" or even darker features like the infamous silent feature "Nosferatu." As an admitted cinephile it bothers me deeply to see something so timeless and endearing as film become a breeding ground for mediocrity. Our lust for technology has corrupted us on a level we may not even be aware of. Now it seems a new "blockbuster" is produced like clockwork every week without fail. Each more heartless and so shamelessly milked for every dollar than the last. It seems to me that the recent translation of comic books and graphic novels to film is the flag of surrender in regard to creativity. The bloated corporate movie giants seem to now subsist on the ideas of others, using them to fill the money gap. Our movies are no longer art but a business. I just hope it bothers you as much it does me.

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