Nothing personal, it's just I've got a question and am wondering whether it's me, whether it's another sign of aging (thus I want to ask others over 50) or whether there's something to it...but

I swear movies just aren't as "good" as they used to be. Now don't get me wrong, there have been some fine movies made in the 21st century... I'm not saying that hasn't.

But, I dunno, movies made over the past 4 to 6 years and especially the past 2 or so just feel so "different" and when I say different I don't mean in a good way.

I can't really put my finger on specifics, so I was hoping other old farts might chime in and help me identify what it is I'm trying to say..... or point out that I'm still a complete moron... whichever holds true.

But I watch movies a lot. always have, but especially since I became disabled on Nov 24, 1999. (Well, once I got out of the hospital in December of that year anyway). I watch them on DirecTV. i watch them on Amazon Prime. And I used to watch them on DirecTV dot com but that hasn't worked ever since AT&T and DirecTV merged. And I swear the newer movies feel...... I dunno, like they're just thrown together... or something.

This is probably another feature of getting old but if so I'm ok with this one. Because you know what? As far as I'm concerned, today's movies really aren't as good as the movies a few years ago. If that's just because I'm old, so be it. It is what it is.

Hope you don't mind if a 35 year old chimes in, but I strongly agree. It feels like creativity is gone and most movies are just worse rehashes of older classics. I do think some decent stuff comes out from time to time but it seems pretty rare. For example, I really enjoyed that recent Batman trilogy from Christopher Nolan. That type of movie is of course not for everyone, but I still love sci-fi and horror, especially combinations of the two.

Don't get me started on comedy movies lately... they REALLY seem to be in the gutter. The last comedy I found to be genuinely funny was Tropic Thunder.

Horror is also in really dire straits with atmosphere, build up and tension gone in favor of having something come out of a corner with some loud blaring noise to make you jump. Yeah... real scary guys. As scary as your jerk friend popping a paper bag behind your head.

That said, I DO think TV has been actually fantastic lately. I barely watch movies anymore instead watching shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Westworld (LOVE that one!) and Ash vs. Evil Dead. TV often has it's own problems. Shows frequently ruin their endings, like Dexter and The Sopranos.

Well... yeah... never really thought that might be controversial. The music of the 60's was amazing. And while I can tolerate some of today's stuff, and there were a few really great releases here and there post 60's (Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" as an example was in the 80's), the music from that time period was just so...... well, amazing. lol. It touched on so many levels.

No, my radio station in my car stays FIRMLY planted on Big 100.3, classic rock. Classic, and still the best.

Of course, I am a proud DFH. And you know,we were right. .

Movies tend to reflect the sensibilities of the current generation (as interpreted by those with the power to get the movie greenlit in the first place). Their demographic is the highly coveted 25-54 market, either as direct purchasers or as parents. This age group is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as having the most money the spend and the greatest willingness to part with it.

I'm not really into today's rom-coms and chick flicks, but in all honesty neither was I thirty years ago. Likewise with outright goofball comedies: my own sense of humor prefers the cerebral over the slapstick. However, I have become very much a fan of movies based on sources which I've already spent a lifetime enjoying in another form: sci-fi and comic books.

So the current crop of superhero movies appeals to me, as do epic adventures such as Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts. I also have a soft spot for well-made animated films, despite not having any kids of my own. A caveat, though: I'm usually in no hurry to see them in the theater; I'll gladly wait six months for them to hit cable, or head to my brother's house to watch them on DVD with my nephew and niece.


TL;DR: It's not me; it's you. ;)

I'm 45 and i find that movies tend to get better in general.

Commercial TV stations on the other hand is a different story, what a load of garbage!!

Why why why do i care what some morons opinion of some other morons dress or food or renovations are??? Please someone tell me?? Do we really have to constantly stop the show and listen to what every moron is thinking? Just, just kill me now please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OFG, my personal view is that it's because we've seen so many movies and tv shows (and read so many stories/books or heard so much music) that little of it seems new and fresh anymore (with the rare exceptions). I've just learned to go into my entertainment with little to no expectations and most of the time I've come out entertained enough to say it was pretty good. If I go too far into analyzing, though, much of it tends to fall short. So I try not to over-analyze.

The idiots who come up with those reality shows should be publicly flogged.

Dating Naked, Big Brother, Master Chef and Married At First Sight, what sort of idiocy is this?

Then there's the nauseating Repo Wars and the other dozen shitty programs.

As a 24 year old millennial guy... I can't say you are completely wrong, a lot of movies these days specifically the mainstream ones are just kinda meh. There are still really good movies out there, but you have to go searching to find them.

As another old fat guy I will just say that you don't need to look any further than what is playing right now.

Beauty and the Beast...again!!
Power Rangers...need I say more!!
AND Chips....who thought this was a good idea!!

I'm not even 30 yet (though soon enough :P) but know exactly what you mean, althought I also find it difficult to clearly describe or name the issue. I watch movies and TV series all the time, I love cinema. Watching a truly great movie is too me a thrill like no other.

Like you said, there have been some great movies in the 21st century. No question. But by and large something is missing. I'm not sure if we're missing the same thing, but for me it's something I'd describe (clumsily) as a certain artistic quality, some aspect of attention to detail maybe, of fully using all aspects of the visual medium, of crafting a shot with care and patience. I think of John Carpenter's or Micheal Mann's work in the 80s and 90s, the way they could carefully craft the visuals and music to create scenes speaking lauder than a thousand words. Just look at the ending sequence in the Last of the Mohicans. It's phenomenal. It's poetry in motion.

It's the same with TV, just looking back at the famous "In the Air Tonight" scene from Miami Vice pilot- it's in a league of it's own, the way it uses everything together, music, perfect shots of the city's neon lights reflected in the polished car combined with the absence of the city and traffic noise, the shot of Crockett in the phonebooth, the dialogue with the wife, subdued but full of emotion. It's so perfect at driving home the sense of alienation, loss and strange, almost dreamlike clarity the characters feel approaching the final confrontation it blows my mind every time. You just don't get quality like that now. Budgets are higher, effects are better, but the artistry is almost gone. I can think of some, but very, very few movies from the last decade ad a half that I would consider as skillfully crafted.

Not over 50 yet, but I'm on my way...

My two cents: Just say goodbye to Hollywood blockbuster movies and start watching indie movies and movies from all around the world. There's still a lot of amazing stuff to discover. :)

I am not 50 (yet) but I've had exactly the same feeling. No idea if it is because of the movies, or me getting just jaded. It is quite hard for me to get excited of new movies for some reason, and when I think about movies I really like, they tend to be over a decade old or more, much more.

It has also happened that some movies or series that I thought were the hottest shit, feel quite awkward nowadays and I don't like them much anymore. Like the three Matrix movies (especially the last two), Fight Club etc. Then again, I still love the first Terminator move, Aliens and Robocop (1987) as much as back when I saw them the first time.

Especially all the superhero movies of the last 10 years or so, I don't quite get the point why they are so popular. How many more Spiderman rehashes are we going to get, in how many different ways can you tell a story of a nerd becoming a hero who can shoot webs and climb walls?

Here and there I am positively surprised by some (semi-)new movies. Movies I recall enjoying quite much in recent years:

- Inception (ok even that is already a 7 years old movie...)
- Kick-Ass 1 & 2
- G.I. Joe (I was really surprised how entertaining I found it, considering I don't like e.g. Marvel superhero movies)
- 21 Jump Street & 22 Jump Street (again, quite surprised I liked these, but what can I say, I was laughing my ass off, brilliant movies)
- Pretty much anything Clint Eastwood has directed (not sure what is the newest movie I've seen from him, but he seems to have a golden touch and grabs the genuinely good stories for his movies).

etc.

So I haven't completely lost my ability to enjoy newer movies too, but maybe I am only demanding more from them (something different).

Also one thing: I've lost my ability to enjoy cool looking scenes, car chases etc. in action movies. Back in the 80s or early 90s you might be "Wow! How did they manage that?!?", but nowadays you just think "Meh, made with computers...". Like the trailers for Ghost in the Shell, Scarlett Johansson flying through a window while shooting... who cares? MEH MEH MEH MEEEEEEHHHH! MMMMMMMEH!

I've read somewhere that entertainment is cyclical. That is, trends come and go and, then, come back again with time. The size and reach of the associated industries, though, has increased a lot. And so have the financial expectations.

As with any business, money is the focus and you want to invest your money on the surest way to obtain large returns, and so, the copying and pasting runs rampant, because the people that produce the entertainment themselves don't always figure out why this or that worked in the first place. So a lot of stuff that is simply an agglomeration of perceived "tried and true" things is mass produced and distributed. As always, the only way this is going to stop is when the market is so saturated that it crashes.

That said, think about it for a moment. Back in the 70's, Star Wars felt absolutely unique and fresh, but it was, really, a rehash of ancient sci-fi and fantasy movies merged with some concepts blatantly copied from japanese movies (read that comic that adapts the first version of SW's script and then, watch The Hidden Fortress to see what I'm talking about). Back then, it was highly unlikely that most moviegoers or even the more cultured one's had seen or even heard about most of SW's influences. Nowadays, a few minutes online can give you access to most, if not all, of a movie's/comic book's/song's/book's influences and, not rarely, you'll find it way better executed in the original font (itself, certainly an amalgamation of a lot of other influences).

The Matrix, back in 99, was a lot like SW in this regard, but blended a lot more books and comic books than movies. And, like SW, it brought a lot of new visual tech bundled with its rehashing of stuff.

Thanks to the modern high speed internet, there's a shitload of easily accessible entertainment out there. The more you watch/see, the more you'll be seeing concepts and ideas reused and, often, badly blended together. Also, don't forget that, usually, only the good stuff survives the test of time in the pop culture's memory, so we frequently have the impression that only now the market is riddled with awful stuff, when in reality, it has always been.

P.S.: My god, this text looks like a bad blending of ideas. Sorry I couldn't write it better organized and cohesive. :(

Let's try an example for 30 years ago.
IMDB lists 1823 titles as feature films released during 1987. While there should be about 100 movies of that year that you've seen and can recall, the most probable case would be that there's at least 1000 movies that you've either never heard of, or have erased from your memory. Due to the logistics of the then movie renting business and the limited time for showing movies on television, the not so good ones would be really hard to find in the next few years, other than maybe a single copy lying forgotten in a warehouse.
With the current digital business model though, all 8836 of 2016 movies are available for one to watch, if he does so choose. So even assuming the same percentage of "good" movies, that would leave at least 4 thousand turds, that you do have access to, unlike the 1987 ones.

There were always good and bad movies (and music, and bands, and games, and books). In the current digital age, it's much easier to stumble on the bad ones than it was 30 years ago, which makes the good ones harder to find. Unless you first read the reviews and then decide if you'll watch it or not.