The Movies

I'm a big movie fan so I was looking forward to this series. Episode 1 is a big disappointment. It's nothing more than a collection of films from the 1980s slapped together with some commentary, mostly from the people who made the films. There is no attempt to analyze what was going on in the film industry itself, how economic and political events influenced the films, nor how the 80s represented any trends that occurred earlier. No one squandered a single IQ point making this series. Think of it as a "coming attractions" that goes on and on. Some people will enjoy it. I did. But how much more valuable would this have been had they made an attempt to do more than show us a bunch of films. FWIW - Episode 2 shows the same trend. A great for movie fans but a missed opportunity to really inform.

I can't believe David Lynch was not mentioned once during the nineties episode. Since all the movies in the documentary are American anyway, why isn't this great artist being recognized at all?

And by the way... There are so many great films from the rest of the world as well, but this documentary only focuses on classical Hollywood.

Apart from that, nothing new or shocking is revealed. These are mostly just actors and directors saying they like a movie, one of them actually said it in the form of 'this movie is one of the best' which is the type of comments you often see on the internet that I find ridiculous. I believe this should always be rephrased as 'I find this movie one of the best'. It's all subjective no?

As with most of the CNN-produced mini-series in this ilk, if you are watching for deep, original revelations about the subject matter then you might be a little disappointed. That isn't the way that CNN operates. Instead, this is more like people sitting around talking about their favorite movies, completely with incredibly high production value graphics and clips.

Basically covering a decade per episode (the 1930s-50s are sort of smooshed together in one), "The Movies" looks at the trends of each ten-year span through a variety of lenses. The "big ones" are always covered, but perspectives are also given each episode on women, minority, and independent-led films. As such, it leads to a pretty well-rounded discussion for such a surface-level show.

Of course, as I said, there are really no "deep dives" here. This is meant to capture the eye of casual, all-age viewers sitting around on a Sunday night, not jump-start huge philosophical or in-depth discussions.

So, your enjoyment of "The Movies" will likely depend on what you are looking for. If you don't mind--like me--just sitting back and watches clips & brief commentary on your favorite flicks, you'll burn through this in no time! If you want more nuanced content, you may want to look elsewhere.

1/3 (at most) of each episode dives shallowly into timeless movies of the decade. 1/3 focuses on movies that have political undertones and slants it towards our political enviornment of the last few years. Finally, any movie that fills the emptiness of the current new social movements.

This series brings you down after every episode.

First off, the show tried to cram too much into each episode. Most the episode is having people say "this was a good movie" and then moving on to the next film. The show doesn't have that much of a direction. It becomes obvious that it is about people in Hollywood wanting to say what movies they like and nothing more.