A Short Thought on Film

A trip around the outer wall of your nearest Blockbuster should astonish you by the sheer quantity of very poor quality offerings made by Hollywood. Not just bad vampire movies, Zombie Strippers, which at least has Jenna Jameson in it, and made for DVD sequels. I talking about the big blockbuster crap like Jumper, Hancock, and National Treasure 2. Then there's the God awful chick flicks like The Holiday and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Was a sequel really necessary?

Soon to be added to this list, and which saddens me because the original is fantastic and shouldn't be associated with its remake, is The Day the Earth Stood Still. Initially, I was excited. I thought it was a can't miss thing, but then I realized they were going to change the concern of the aliens from nuclear war to global warming. I always wonder whether filmmakers were better at making political points in the past, a la the original version of The Day the Earth Stood Still and MASH, for instance, or whether it's that I am comfortably separated from the debate that I find those movies less ham-handed with their politics.