Michael Medved is a liar or just stupid!

[romantico]

Heres Mr. Medved's take on why Hollywood is having a bad summer. Its because they are not moral according to Mr.Medved. This is why the liberals lost the 2004 election . "Its the values stupid!"

However, Mr.Medved fails to remind his readers that 'Meet the FOckers' made a ton of money last year (did EVERYONE who saw that film have no morals?) What about how well 'Wedding Crashers' is doing? Perhaps Mr.Medved is ignoring the obvious. Maybe the reason Hollywood is having a bad summer is because A) Theres crap out there. Remakes & tv shows are the ONLY movies to choose from & B)The dvd market. Most people would rather stay home & watch the movies in the comfort of their own home. Medved has his head up his ass & I be warned before reading the article, it will make you mad as hell. Why? Because Medved knows the reason Hollywood is having a bad summer. Medved HATES Hollywood because they hate him. Look at him. Whats to like about him? He's the unpopular kid at school who narks on everyone & wonders why he has no friends!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-07-25-hollywood-disconnect_x.htm

[peekaloo]

1. He can be both.

sorry but I refuse to read anything from this guy. It would ruin my morning.

[Orrex]

2. Why can't he be a stupid liar? (whoops! peekaloo beat me to it!)

Every word I've ever heard out of his mouth or read from his pen has been laced with self-righteousness and the affected air of Medved's tireless yet bogus crusade to preserve American Family Values, whatever they are. He has no qualms about distortion as long as those distortions suit his agenda or that of his masters.

What an asshole.

[NewJeffCT]

3. the RW has really gone after Hollywood in the past few weeks

First, that article from the woman at NewsMax, then another one from some Hoover Inst guy about how libruls in Hollywood like Cher should put up by running for office or shut up, and now this.

Here is my LTTE from the Hartford Courant on this:

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/letters/hc-lets0723.artjul23,0,5076482.story?coll=hc-headlines-letters

What's The Problem With Movies?

Govindini Murty seems to be echoing the usual right-wing talking points about so-called liberal Hollywood and box office receipts in 2005 .

The problem with movies this year isn't a liberal bias in people associated with the movies; it is that there haven't been many good movies. The blockbusters are still big, but there isn't any depth or quality. Also, the big summer kids' movie this year, "Madagascar," lags behind last year's "The Incredibles" by a significant margin. The remaining movies out there are sequels or remakes of old movies or TV shows.

Additionally, two of the first three movies Ms. Murty cited in her article, "War of the Worlds" and "Star Wars: Episode III," are hits. In the United States, "Worlds" has already taken in nearly $200 million, and "Star Wars" has passed $370 million.

Notice also that when we finally got an original movie with "Fantastic Four," it was a smash hit and broke the weekly box office slump. And for religious movies, Ms. Murty can look forward to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," coming to theaters this Christmas.

Ms. Murty complained that left-wing ideology was preventing production of a film proposed by herself and her husband. I'd advise her to come up with another script and try, try again. After all, it took more than a decade for Peter Jackson to bring the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to the screen. Why doesn't she blame herself for the script just not being good enough instead of resorting to the usual right-wing finger-pointing?

[Felix Mala]

6. And this winter when receipts return to normal levels...

They'll all be mysteriously mute.

[Felix Mala]

4. Too bad he's spiraled down into Pat Robertsonesque pablum

That is, anything that can be used to back of a hokey argument is used to back up a hokey argument. All expressed with the condescending, treacly "earnest" tone he uses.

He doesn't note that Mel's Bludgeoning of the Christ brought millions of people to the theater who normally don't go to movies. How does this year compare to 2003? Also, the special effects industry has to restock it's supply of fake blood and flayed flesh before they can put together their next Christian torture epic.








"There's more to the Bible than blood and gore."
-- Marge Simpson

[Zorbuddha]

5. Hollywood HAS gone vapid

but I can't vouch for Medved.

[Orrex]

9. When was it not vapid? (eom)

[Zorbuddha]

11. Hollywood was not always vapid.

It was once a dynamic cultural force: relevant, topical, educational. It guided our country through some rough times.

How old are you? Where were you during the Golden Age of Hollywood?

[Orrex]

17. Ah, nostalgia

Hollywood has always offered crap and quality in varying measures.

Anyone who looks to The Magic Store for guidance through the rough patches might as well wish on a passing hay-truck, IMO.

[Zorbuddha]

20. You know little about the history and cultural dynamics

of this country.

If you think popular culture doesn't drive America, you truly are clueless.

I wasn't only referring to the Golden Age. Until fairly recently, Hollywood was important.

[Orrex]

25. "Cluelessness" is the accusation of the rhetorically desperate

If it makes you feel better to believe that I am ignorant of the country's cultural dynamics, by all means continue to believe so.

However, I haven't claimed that popular culture doesn't drive America, but rather that it's a mistake--and has always been a mistake--to look to The Dream Factory for wise or deep guidance. This was true when Citizen Kane was on the screen, and it was true when Baseketball was on the screen.

If Hollywood makes money while portaying a culture that is objectionable to you, then that's you're problem, not Hollywood's.

[Zorbuddha]

30. I'm not trading insults. It was appropriate

in response to your dismissal of the historical impact of Hollywood on America.

Hollywood mirrors and focuses culture. That's what you don't get. Clueless, or not.

I didn't say Hollywood was a church.

[Orrex]

32. Ho hum

Even if you're not literally claiming that Hollywood is a church, you are ascribing a mystical better-then-than-now nostalgia to it that is poignantly reminiscent of those who long for the good-old-days when Bob Hope could act onstage like a sexist pig and people would find it charming. Have you read Santorum's book?

You've said that popular culture drives America. No shit! I hate to break it to you, Oh Sage of Film History, but popular culture is America. That's as true now as it was during the Golden Age of Film.

[Zorbuddha]

35. That's sheer crap.

You can twist anything into what you want to make of it. I have no interest in a dialog with someone with no interest in understanding my point, with just an irrational axe to grind.

You are awfully pompous for a liberal. Are you a liberal?

[Orrex]

37. It's clear that Hollywood's Golden Age has elevated your discourse.

You've insulted me repeatedly because I offer insufficent obeisance to your mighty wisdom, and I'm "awfully pompous?"

You're kind of a jerk, for a liberal. Are you a liberal?

In your arrogance you assume that if someone does not buy into your argument, then that person does not understand it. That's the height of hubris!

As I read you, your argument may be paraphrased thus:

Hollywood produces an abundance of films which, while financially successful, do not guide or edify the viewing audience to the degree that I would prefer. Independent films, in contrast, often offer the very edification that Hollywood films lack. Hollywood is both the mirror and the motivator of popular culture; it is my view that in the so-called Golden Age of Film, Hollywood produced a greater number of films that elevated popular culture rather than debased it.

If that's not your argument, please reiterate it clearly.

[Zorbuddha]

39. I haven't insulted you

I have accurately characterized your attitudes and assertions.

"Obeisance"? You stumble all over your ego. I never asked you to agree, but to at least grasp my point, which you are obviously unable to. You have missed or abused every point, and entirely misjudged me.

That's it for me. Think what you will.

[Orrex]

40. There's that hubris again

Let me see if I have this straight. You call me clueless because my assessment differs from yours, you call me pompous because I don't accept your argument, you accuse me of being unable to grasp your point (thereby suggesting either that I am stupid or that your point is so sublime that I just can't fathom it), and somehow I'm stumbling over my ego and have misjudged you?

The fact is that I asked you outright to state whether my paraphrase of your argument was correct, and, rather than replying to that request, you insulted me yet again.

You're quite a charmer--I'll give you that much.

[Zorbuddha]

41. Honesty is not hubris.

Adios.

[bryant69]

7. Slanting the Evidence

This happens in both conservatives arguments against Hollywood and their arguments against the "liberal media." Every story that advances their position is duly reported; every story that doesn't fit their story line is completely ignored.

They are inheriently dishonest.

It's a little sad for me because Medved's Golden Turkey book (the first one) was pretty funny (although even then his uptightness was on display).

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[bunkerbuster1]

16. His "Fifty Worst Films of All Time" was a classic of its era

While I deplore most of his politics, those of us who enjoy poking fun at terrible movies (that has to include all MST3K fans) owe him a little something for his pioneering efforts.

Bad movies. It's one thing I can talk about with RWers and not get into fisticuffs. That, and baseball.

[Modem Butterfly]

8. Hollywood is doing just fine

People are buying/renting movies, watching them through satellite and cable and pay-per-view. People aren't attending movie theaters as much. That's hurtful to movie theater owners, but not Hollywood, ultimately.

[Zorbuddha]

14. Hollywood is in serious trouble.

It is eating itself. Technodrunk and bloated, Hollywood is dying on the vine. Indie filmmaking is the future.

[Orrex]

21. The Phantom Menace was an indie film

Art has been dead, or so people have claimed, for millennia.

[Zorbuddha]

24. People claim many things, what's your point?

Not all Indie films are good, not all Hollywood films are bad.

[Orrex]

27. That *was* my point

And I'm not simply claiming that TPM was an indie film--Lucas funded it out of his own pocket; ergo, it's indie.

In declaring that Hollywood is dead and that the future is in indie films, you omitted the truth that you now embrace: Not all indie films are good, not all Hollywood films are bad.

It's that simple. It's always been that simple. The sky is not falling, even if you don't care for this summer's Hollywood offerings.

[Zorbuddha]

31. Gibson funded "The Passion of Christ", too. It's no Indie film.

Stop with the technical truthtelling, it's not truthful and the province of Republicans.

You need to retool your definitions and critical thinking.

The sky has already fallen, you just haven't noticed.

[Orrex]

33. What makes a film indie, then, Sensei?

Please, educate me. It's clear that you're the only one in the forum who has achieved Celluloid Enlightenment.

If the sky has fallen, then it fell many decades ago. People bitched about the death of film when they switched to talkies, too.

[JHB]

10. It's NOT a bad summer, it's on track for the 3rd or 4th highest gross ever

It's only "bad" (financially, that is) because it's down from last year's best-ever box office take.

There's two groups pushing this 'bad year' meme: 1) 'movie people' trying to prod people to spend more money going to the movies, and 'hollywood critics' using any opportunity to grind their pet axes.

[Zorbuddha]

18. Meaningless stats.

So BO is good because people will buy crap. That is not a good argument.

Big studios are making fewer and fewer truly great films.

[Orrex]

19. Criteria please?

What makes a great film, to you?

[Zorbuddha]

22. The same thing that makes art.

Aesthetics and substance.

[Orrex]

29. Criteria, please?

You're not defining any criteria--you're merely naming them. Aesthetics and substance are hardly the absolutes that you're making them in this thread.

Define aesthetics. Define substance.

Then we'll talk about the Death Of Hollywood.

[JHB]

23. Not to defend the likes of "the Fantastic Four" or anything, but...

...what was Hollywoods past rates of "truly great films" (in tgf's per year, or years per tgf) that it's so obviously making fewer of them now?

[Zorbuddha]

28. It's not about stats or rates but summary analysis.

Anyone with a love of film and some knowledge of the history of film will understand my point.

Techiniques are getting so slick and computerized, in many films, as to make them unwatchable. Part of the magic of filmmaking was successfully
casting a spell over the audience, making them forget they were watching a film. That is very rare today.

[JHB]

42. Whatever. The alleged complaint has to do with box office take...

...and it is without merit.

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. What a load of crap...

From mediocre film critic to right-wing proselytizer... Maybe he should just form his own church---Our Lady of Bad Film Reviews. :P

[romantico]

15. He brings up "The Passion of the Christ'

ALL THE TIME! Like, these are what people really want yet Wedding Crashers & Meet the Fockers do so well. Is he saying the same people who see's the Fockers & Crashers are also the ones who saw the Passion?

[bunkerbuster1]

13. Funny, he's one RW talkshow host I can stand in small doses.

Medved lies sometimes, and can be stupid, but he lies less often and is less stupid than the Hannities, Limbaughs and Weeners of the airwaves.

Also, unlike the aforementioned fascists, he actually does allow dissenting opinions some air time. He's not afraid of someone scoring some rhetorical points.

Yeah, he's a prissy little wanker, but I think it might be a tad over the top to say he "hates" Hollywood. the guy clearly loves movies, and actually does have a sense of humor (his book, "the 50 worst films of all time", written many moons ago wasn't half bad.)

The piece you linked is idiotic, don't get me wrong. I take special issue with this graf:

Meanwhile, conventional wisdom ignores all ideological considerations in explaining the sudden box office collapse, concentrating instead on purely material excuses (high ticket prices, availability of DVDs) that have, frankly, applied for years.

No, Michael, they HAVEN'T applied for years. Netflix (and soon after, blockbuster online) were the straws that broke the camel's back. In-demand video was expensive; downloading videos was usually illegal, but web-based DVD rentals are easy and cheap. And this delivery method only came into being in the last two years.

[Crankie Avalon]

26. HAHAHAHA!!!!...

...far from making me "mad as hell" as you warned, the article gave me a real good laugh for the first half, then bored me a little for the last.

Movie fans who have heard of Medved know he's a douchebag. He's a fellow who needs to raise his low self-esteem by castigating the exaggerated and/or non-existent "depravity" of others (and thus patting himself on the back for supposedly not being depraved, himself.) He also rants about "liberal" rather than "conservative" viewpoints making it into films without the least realization that the people who actually make the films are creative personality types, and creative people as a whole--by necessity--have to be "liberal" and imaginative in their thinking rather than "conservative" and moribund. You fundamentally can't create from a conservative mindset.

He wrote a "Golden Turkey" book with his brother slamming low budget movies. I never read the book myself, but people whose opinions I trust who have read it say he slams these types of films without the least bit of affection and purely with his snide, fauz superior attitude. He listed "Plan 9 from Outer Space" as the worst film of all time, and this revived interest in Ed Wood and his other films. I guess I can be tahnkful in a way because I might never have discovered what fun and schlocky films Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, or Plan 9 are without the light that Douchebag Medved unwittingly shone on them.

These films are now beloved by cult and B movie fans like myself, who would much rather watch them than any of the inane, didactic tripe Medved seems to get turned on by.

And incidentally, I, like more and more people, never watch movies in the theater. Giant screen TVs are very cheap these days (so long as they are rear projection and not plasma, and even plasma will be cheap within five years once the technology becomes easier and cheaper to mass produce). So, for the price of taking myself and someone else to a movie, I can buy most movie DVDs and watch them at home on my giant screen. It's not because the movies don't have enough of God in them, no matter what Medved desperately has to believe.

[Zorbuddha]

34. Yep

You got it, Crankie.

[Obamarama]

36. Michael Medved is a closet Jew for Jesus....

That's the only conclusion I can make based on the ignorant RW drivel this man vomits out whenever he opens his mouth. He's certainly an anamoly amongst Jews considering the man is not an orthodox Jew. He likely would have been a Kapo in the concentration camps.

[arwalden]

38. Medved Is A Tool...

... a real piece of work.