Anthony Mackie Explains Why Hollywood Movies Suck Now

[VagueSimplicity]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Back then they would screen a wider range of arthouse and independent film alongside the big hollywood productions for a longer period, but these days you have to make sure you get off your arse and go watch the little films the weekend they come out because when they do show them (and that's becoming less likely these days) they show them for a day or two and then they are gone.

...it's the fact that these days blockbusters get stacked against blockbusters, so a Marvel film comes out a week after a big Pixar film is out or something, and having these two juggernauts plating together suddenly makes options limited, even in big 14 screen mega-multiplexes.

Another excellent point I overlooked. The cinema is bloated with blockbusters during the summer. Every week is an event film. Event films used to feel like Christmas. There was so much more anticipation, and thus they had more legs back in the 90s and early 00s. Now they’re so easy to come by like processed foods and consumed quickly rather than savored. They exit the box office as quickly as they came. I feel like Hollywood has put themselves in this corner by releasing so much content, that the public cannot keep up. I’m glad they’ve slightly resolved this by redefining when blockbusters and event films can be exhibited (February, October).

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Poya

Original =\= Good. Birdemic was an original movie. Wasn’t a good movie. You’re just a gate keeping elitist, and I hope all the Marvel movies in the future make movie just to see you cry.

Come on dude, you've spoke to me enough times on this board to know this isn't the case.

I like Marvel movies, I just don't stick purely on a diet of them. If those films are the only things you like, then that's fine. It's the people that complain about them and not branch out into the wealth of other things, take the list of things I watched last year, I've highlighted anything that's not part of a franchise or a remake:

Uncut Gems (Dir. Benny & Josh Safdie)
The Lighthouse (Dir. Robert Eggers)
Monos (Dir. Alejandro Landes)
The Irishman (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
Marriage Story (Dir. Noah Baumbach)
High Life (Dir. Claire Denis)
Parasite (Dir. Bong Joon-ho)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Little Women (Dir. Greta Gerwig)
Knives Out (Dir. Rian Johnson)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Dir. Céline Sciamma)
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Dir. Joe Talbot)
Us (Dir. Jordan Peele)
Ad Astra (Dir. James Grey)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Dir. Bi Gan)
Beats (Dir. Brian Welsh)
Climax (Dir. Gaspar Noe)
The Farewell (Dir. Lulu Wang)
1917 (Dir. Sam Mendes)
Pain and Glory (Dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Midsommar (Dir. Ari Aster)
For Sama (Dir. Waad al-Kateab & Edward Watts)
Ready or Not (Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett)
An Elephant Sitting Still (Dir. Hu Bo)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (Dir. Chad Stahelski)
The Nightingale (Dir. Jennifer Kent)
Beanpole (Dir. Kantemir Balagov)
In Fabric (Dir. Peter Strickland)
Transit (Dir. Christian Petzold)
Just Mercy (Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton)
Hustlers (Dir. Lorene Scafaria)
Ash is Purest White (Dir. Jia Zhangke)
I Lost My Body (Dir. Jeremy Clapin)
Toy Story 4 (Dir. Josh Cooley)
Honey Boy (Dir. Alma Har'el)
Top Knot Detective (Dir. Aaron McCann & Dominic Pearce)
Avengers: Endgame (Dir. Joe & Anthony Russo)
Dragged Across Concrete (Dir. S. Craig Zahler)
Atlantics (Dir. Mati Diop)
Waves (Dir. Trey Edward Shults)
The Peanut Butter Falcon (Dir. Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Dir. Vince Gilligan)
Bait (Dir. Mark Jenkin)
Joker (Dir. Todd Phillips)
Apollo 11 (Dir. Todd Douglas Miller)
A Hidden Life (Dir. Terrence Malick)
The Report (Dir. Scott Z. Burns)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (Dir. Jon Watts)
Knife + Heart (Dir. Yann Gonzalez)
Rocketman (Dir. Dexter Fletcher)
Jojo Rabbit (Dir. Taika Waititi)
Piercing (Dir. Nicolas Pearce)
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (Dir. Ben Wheatley)
Under The Silver Lake (Dir. David Robert Mitchell)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood (Dir. Marielle Heller)
Lords of Chaos (Dir. Jonas Akerlund)
Aniara (Dir. Hugo Lilja & Pella Kågerman)
Peterloo (Dir. Mike Leigh)
Ford vs Ferrari (Dir. James Mangold)
Judy (Dir. Rupert Goold)
Doctor Sleep (Dir. Mike Flanagan)
Birds of Passage (Dir. Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego)
Shadow (Dir. Zhang Yimou)
Shazam! (Dir. David F. Sandberg)
Daniel Isn’t Real (Dir. Adam Egypt Mortimer)
One Child Nation (Dir. Nanfu Wang & Zhang Jia-Ling)
Missing Link (Dir. Chris Butler)
Motherless Brooklyn (Dir. Edward Norton)
Queen & Slim (Dir. Melina Matsoukas)
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (Dir. Robert D. Krzykowski)
Amazing Grace (Dir. Sydney Pollack & Alan Elliott)
First Love (Dir. Takeshi Miike)
The Day Shall Come (Dir. Chris Morris)
Ordinary Love (Dir. Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn)
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dir. Dean DeBlois)
Dolemite Is My Name (Dir. Craig Brewer)
American Factory (Dir. Steve Bognar & Julia Reichert)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Dir. J.J. Abrams)
Sorry We Missed You (Dir. Ken Loach)
It: Chapter Two (Dir. Andy Muschietti)
Bliss (Dir. Joe Begos)
Greta (Dir. Neil Jordan)
Yesterday (Dir. Danny Boyle)
Booksmart (Dir. Olivia Wilde)
The Wandering Earth (Dir. Frant Gwo)
Captain Marvel (Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck)
One Cut of the Dead (Dir. Shinichirou Ueda)
The Dead Don't Die (Dir. Jim Jarmusch
Wild Rose (Dir. Tom Harper)
Richard Jewell (Dir. Clint Eastwood)
The Souvenir (Dir. Joanna Hogg)
The Two Popes (Dir. Fernando Meirelles)
Mega Time Squad (Dir. Tim Van Damman)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Dir. Michael Dougherty
Detective Pikachu (Dir. Rob Letterman)
Bombshell (Dir. Jay Roach)
Glass (Dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Relaxer (Dir. Joel Potrykus)
Klaus (Dir. Sergio Pablos)
Long Shot (Dir. Jonathan Levine)
Good Boys (Dir. Gene Stupnitsky)
The Hole in the Ground (Dir. Lee Cronin)
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (Dir. Mike Mitchell)
Fast and Furious presents: Hobbs and Shaw (Dir. David Leitch
Alita: Battle Angel (Dir. Robert Rodriquez)
Blinded By The Light (Dir. Gurinder Chadha)
The Festival (Dir. Iain Morris)
The Perfection (Dir. Richard Shepard)
Fisherman’s Friends (Dir. Chris Foggin)
Velvet Buzzsaw (Dir. Dan Gilroy)
The Hustle (Dir. Chris Addison)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Dir. Simon Kinberg)
6 Underground (Dir. Michael Bay)
Cats (Dir. Tom Hooper)
What Men Want (Dir. Adam Shankman)

Now I'm not going to say all of them are good, or that they're to everyone's tastes, but there's a lot of stuff out there that people that I'm sure people would enjoy. Again no problem with people who are happy with watching the Disney franchises, the DC stuff and whatever, if that makes them happy. It's the people who complain about all this stuff and do nothing about it. A huge portion of those films I did see theatrically, so they are out there, and even so, there's so many platforms to see this sort of stuff, it's almost baffling to see people talk about film is such a way.

EDIT: In fact, you may have given me the perfect argument with Birdemic. As much as I think it's a lazy straw man arguement to list just one bad film (I've probably got about 80 listed there that I at least found enjoyable. Over twenty on there I think are legitimately great). Birdemic is a film that recieved enough attention to warrent a sequel, it's probably a sequel no one wanted, but people managed to give it enough money and attention that someone took notice and gave the greenlight to number two.

If you want a less irony filled retort, Robert Eggers has recently been talking about his latest film and how much freedom he's been granted, as well as a larger budget. Largely thanks to the business and vocal fanbase to his films. Now none of his films are going to be Avengers level hits, but they don't have to be, they just have to warrent their own production, and the best way to do that is to show support, vote with you wallet. I don't think cinema is in a bad state (pandemic aside obviously), not flawless, I think Shingster brings up a good point about the sheer volume of films battling out in multiplexes. But I'm not the one complaining about it on a regular basis, nor are the people watching a lot of different films, Marvel movies included, it's the people who are watching nothing but franchise stuff.

[moreorless]

Originally Posted by octagon

Maybe but it's worth nothing that a lot of those 'fairly modest budgets' are still a shit ton of money

What's 'fairly modest' these days? Ten million? Twenty million? Forty million?

People look at a thirty or forty million dollar budget and think 'well, that's not much by today's standards' but yeah, it still kind of is.

In 1972 The Godfather cost Paramount somewhere around $7M which comes to about $43M in current dollars. Goodfellas cost roughly $25M in 1990 which works out to about $50M today.

And yeah, things change but even in today's climate I would submit that a good filmmaker could scrape by on thirty or forty million dollars.

I would put "fairly modest budgets" significantly lower than that, more like a few million raised from various funding bodies rather than studio backing much of the time. Even quite established directors making big projects would be limited to the $10-15 million range at most via this method of funding.

Moving into real mid budget range I'd say you see a handful of more established names with more commercial appeal able to push it but generally cinema that's less ambitious than was often the case in the 70's and 80's.

You could argue this isn't entirely a bad thing, if you do like really leftfield cinema then the current situation is probably the most viable its ever been. It is possible for directors to stay within the arthouse range their entire careers more easily now with established funding paths and audiences. There is however I think a very significant gulf between that and mainstream cinema now though which the majority of the audience never or very rarely crosses.

[Moviefan2k4]

I think Mackie was pretty much spot-on with his comments. The rise of the superhero genre has lowered almost everything else by comparison. Unless you're a mega-studio like Disney, its tough to get original films made nowadays.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Moviefan2k4

I think Mackie was pretty much spot-on with his comments. The rise of the superhero genre has lowered almost everything else by comparison. Unless you're a mega-studio like Disney, its tough to get original films made nowadays.

The list that Foggy posted says that your statement is not accurate.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by Foggy

“Hey cinemas dead, let me cash in these Marvel cheques and tell you how bad everything is”

Seriously, I’m fed up of hearing about how Hollywood doesn’t take risks anymore. It’s pretty much been like that since the 80’s, it’s been like this my entire life, I don’t know why people are acting like they’ve only just woken up and smelt the coffee now. You are all part of the problem, stop acting like films begin with superheroes and end with Star Wars, stop being complicit in your own navel gazing and go and support some original projects, independent films and world cinema and make a point to show there’s some interest in new shit.

I love common sense. Thank you.
Most of the complainers will talk incessantly about how Hollywood doesn't make a certain kind of movie anymore and then skips every single one of the kinds of movies until the new Avengers movie comes out.
The audience is more of a problem than the Hollywood system itself is.
And yeah, it may be tough to get movies made these days, but what the **** is a studio supposed to do when audiences don't show up for The Nice Guys (for example)? Or Motherless Brooklyn. At least support the kind of movie you whine about wanting so badly.
I'm proud to have supported movies like The Nice Guys, Overlord, Edge of Tomorrow, Bad Times at the El Royale and International pics such as The Square. So when I complain about wanting more of a certain kind of movie it's because I wanna actually see it in theaters, not for the sake of complaining. If you have no interest in supporting a certain kind of movie, at least shut up.
Mackie does have a point. But the audience is part of the problem.

[moreorless]

Originally Posted by -JKR-

I love common sense. Thank you.
Most of the complainers will talk incessantly about how Hollywood doesn't make a certain kind of movie anymore and then skips every single one of the kinds of movies until the new Avengers movie comes out.
The audience is more of a problem than the Hollywood system itself is.
And yeah, it may be tough to get movies made these days, but what the **** is a studio supposed to do when audiences don't show up for The Nice Guys (for example)? Or Motherless Brooklyn. At least support the kind of movie you whine about wanting so badly.
I'm proud to have supported movies like The Nice Guys, Overlord, Edge of Tomorrow, Bad Times at the El Royale and International pics such as The Square. So when I complain about wanting more of a certain kind of movie it's because I wanna actually see it in theaters, not for the sake of complaining. If you have no interest in supporting a certain kind of movie, at least shut up.
Mackie does have a point. But the audience is part of the problem.

Its true this kind of complaint can be an excuse to take a closed minded view to modern cinema but I suspect a big issue as well is the kind of divide a mentioned above.

The cinema of the 70's and the 80's I think you could argue there was more of a middle ground, films like say Apoc Now, Chinatown, Once Upon A Time In America, Paris Texas, etc. That were ambitious but also both easier to see and reasonably accessible were as with modern cinema I think most more ambitious work is more biased towards being challenging, films like say Under The Skin, Hard To Be a God or Embrace The Serpent.

[Damon1281]

Wah, why am I not an A-lister? Wah, Wah.

[Shingster]

It's quite remarkable how an actor expressing an opinion on a topic when he's asked a question at a Q&A is getting so many fanboys in such a tizz. Heaven forbid he not be overly impressed with the current state of cinema! We can't handle that, can we!

I can't say I agree with everything he says, but at least he's speaking from the heart and not giving some asinine "safe" diplomatic response. I haven't seen much off-set footage of Anthony Mackie because I don't really follow actor interviews, but he seems genuinely down to earth and earnest in the few interviews I've seen of him.

I wonder what the people whining about his opinion on modern cinema feel about his comments on race:

BLACK OR WHITE | Anthony Mackie gets passionate on 'race' - YouTube

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Shingster

I wonder what the people whining about his opinion on modern cinema feel about his comments on race:

BLACK OR WHITE | Anthony Mackie gets passionate on 'race' - YouTube

Clearly an intelligent guy who thinks before he speaks and would rather discuss difficult topics than label someone an 'ist' or 'obe'.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by Shingster

It's quite remarkable how an actor expressing an opinion on a topic when he's asked a question at a Q&A is getting so many fanboys in such a tizz. Heaven forbid he not be overly impressed with the current state of cinema! We can't handle that, can we!

I can't say I agree with everything he says, but at least he's speaking from the heart and not giving some asinine "safe" diplomatic response. I haven't seen much off-set footage of Anthony Mackie because I don't really follow actor interviews, but he seems genuinely down to earth and earnest in the few interviews I've seen of him.

I wonder what the people whining about his opinion on modern cinema feel about his comments on race:

BLACK OR WHITE | Anthony Mackie gets passionate on 'race' - YouTube

I don't have any problems with him not liking the current state of cinema because, mostly, I don't like it, as well. But his opinion isn't very insightful and well thought out.

I agree with the topic, but not with the way he expresses it. It's superficial and not very informative, and just comes across as the complaints made by people who whine about theaters only showings superhero movies and then only watch superhero movies in theaters.

"Hollywood sucks, they only make superhero movies --- ooohh, I gotta watch that Avengers: Endgame, last time I went to the theater was for Avengers: Infinity War."

Gimme a break.

P.S.: Why should I have any problems with his views on race. I like Mackie. I just don't think he hit the nail on the head with his views on cinema. I can agree with his overall view, but it's not like what he says about movies is exactly corageous, mindblowing or enlightning.