Kendall’s Korner: Movies these days…

On January 24, the 84th annual Academy Awards nominations hit the front page of newspapers across America. But as I skimmed the list of ten movies for Best Picture, I cringed—no movie was worth carrying such a prestigious title.

“War Horse”? Really, Guild of Actors? A movie about a horse? (Spoiler alert: the horse doesn’t even die… so with such a picture-perfect ending, how can we look at it as a Best Picture, we might as well make a remake of “Black Beauty.”) Or what about “Hugo”? Graphically pleasing, perhaps, but nothing about the movie does much other than that. The plot line can only be described as predictable. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”: what an inspiring tale. It also seems like it received a nomination because you pity a young boy. In reality, it goes too far and borders on melodramatic, playing way too much on a poor publics’ emotions.

The first movie I ever saw in theaters was “The Little Mermaid.” I can still remember my excitement in simply going to a theater. The lights, the scenes, the animated acting—it used to be so captivating. The novelty of going to a huge projection to see two hours of a dream lifestyle still hasn’t worn off. I love sitting curled up in bed and watching a movie that just outright improves your mood.

Looking at the films coming out today, moviegoers have few genres to choose from. Raunchy comedies, misunderstood dramas and generic romance movies dominate the market. It’s difficult to look at a list of movies playing and generate hype for a film; looking at what’s playing at Regal now makes me want to go read a book. Obviously, there is always a lull during winter, and summer blockbusters pave the way for multi-billion dollar gains, but looking back at 2011’s summer blockbuster list, nothing stands out as life-altering.

Take a movie like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” It came out in 1986. Twenty-five years ago, a comedic movie made an impact on a young generation, an impact that still has an effect on the youth of today. “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Sixteen Candles”: all cinema classics that I grew up watching and loving. I idolized Molly Ringwald, even though she was sixteen 27 years before me. Trying to envision movies today that captivate such an audience is almost unheard of; most movies now are just bad imitations of their predecessors.

What most confuses me about this downturn is that technologically our society has advanced tremendously. Music, television, and the Internet have all moved light years ahead. Why is it that we aren’t artistically motivated to apply such inventiveness to the film industry? While the economic recession may play a large role (people don’t want to pay for rising costs of movie tickets and studios are consequently tightening budgets for films), there are ways around this. I guarantee paying those extra millions to turn a movie into 3D does not in fact automatically make me want to go see it. Save those glasses for the silly photo booth pictures.

I wish there were an easy solution to what seems to be a growing problem. I know that creatively, there is still a lot left in our generation. Soon I’ll hope to feel better about paying the eleven dollars to go watch a good movie. Until then, I happily open up my Netflix account and watch my favorite oldies.