I was watching Disney's beautiful adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic book Something Wicked This Way Comes the other night. I noticed something, there was magic there. On the screen, in the movie. In the words. I've seen it in many other films, many from the '80's. It could be that I was a child in the '80's watching these films or maybe it was the filmmakers or both. But what ever the case they had something that seems to be missing in 90% of film in the last couple of decades. A feeling of wonder, of heart...magic. Too many films now come across as trying to be too commercial, too knowing or too epic. I miss when films weren't about ticket sales and events and were about telling stories. Sure there are films that still have those elements nowadays, but most of them are: Explosion, CGI crap, explosion, witty dialogue. I have no desire to see something like Avatar. To me it looks like someone made a three hour intro movie to a Final Fantasy game.
Cujo, another film that I watched recently. It just came across as being a pure cinematic story. No bullshit. Here are some characters, we'll let you know them, so when the shit hits the fan you'll care what happens. On the other end you have The Collector. A well made horror film were I couldn't give a crap about any of the characters. Not once did I care who lived or died. The film left me cold. There were good actors and an interesting premise, but little else to hold my interest. I was more interested in the time elapsed counter on the DVD player.
Well, sorry about the rant, just wanted to share a few thoughts with you and see what everyone else thought.