Seriously?!!?!?!? Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? This is out of control now. I commented to a friend just the other day that there weren't really any movies that I was interested in going to see. That was before I saw a trailer just moments ago for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611224/. Now, I am not sure I will ever go to a movie again! When did this happen to our society? And what was I doing while it was happening to keep me from noticing the downfall of society?
The Best Picture nominees in the year I was born were Tom Jones, America, America, Cleopatra, How The West Was Won, and Lilies of the Field. Now, I have to be honest, the only Tom Jones I have ever heard of sang "What's New Pussycat" and I have never heard of a movie called America, America. But still I am fairly certain that there was not a single vampire hunting dead president featured in any of these movies. My point is that back in 1963 screenwriters, movie producers and even the gigantic movie studios who were probably more about making money than anything else, actually created a real story that could exist without the AWESOME, RADICAL, OUT OF THIS WORLD 3D SPECIAL EFFECTS that now seem to alleviate the need for a script or indeed any redeeming value whatsoever.
Seriously! Are there humans who will pay $10 per person to see this movie? If so, how did they get so damaged? More importantly, how did they get the $10? Really! I am unemployed and those people have jobs???? I don't know about you, but I don't want them to be my doctor, lawyer or child's teacher. Although, I'm fairly certain that some of them are currently working in our government.
In 1964, My Fair Lady won Best Picture. Who doesn't know a quote from that movie???? I can think of 5 right off the top of my head..... "She's got it!", "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain", "I'm a good girl, I am!", "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait!" and "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" What I'm saying is not only was I entertained the first time I saw it. But I have been entertained thoroughly on each subsequent viewing over the last 45 years or so.
The Sound of Music won the Best Picture Oscar in 1965. Do I really even need to say more. It was a beautiful, wholesome movie that is still repeated every year on TV at Easter time, not because it is an Easter movie, but because it is a great movie to watch with your entire family. Do you think 40 years from now, they will watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter on Easter weekend? I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say no. At least I hope not. But I could be wrong.
The Best Picture in 1966 was A Man for All Seasons. Quite frankly, I have never seen this movie. But I just read the synopsis and I really want to now. This is the premise according to Wikipedia:
Sir Thomas More was the 16th-century Lord Chancellor of England who refused to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and resigned rather than take an Oath of Supremacy declaring the King the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The King is Henry VIII of England and his wife is Catherine of Aragon, the first of Henry's eventual six wives.
This sounds very interesting to me. I think I need to rent it. What I find most remarkable about this movie is that no where in that synopsis is there any mention of dead presidents hunting blood sucking non beings. And yet, the movie probably did very well at the box office. The movie wasn't even made in 3D.... how could they possibly have kept anyone's attention for more than a few seconds? Perhaps through a quality script, good direction, good acting? Nah!!!! That couldn't be it. They must have drugged the popcorn in the movie theaters.
In 1967 In the Heat of the Night was the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture. Who doesn't remember Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs demanding "They call me MISTER Tibbs!" Pure greatness. Not a single vampire in the movie.
1968's Best Picture Oscar went to Oliver! a musical about orphans based on Dickens' Oliver Twist. I remember going to see this movie at the old Main Theater in Nacogdoches one afternoon. I was five. I thought it was sad, but those kids sure could sing.
1969's Oscar for Best Picture went to Midnight Cowboy not my favorite movie of all time, but still it had substance. And who hasn't walked across a street at least once since then and yelled "I'm walkin' here!"
The point I am trying to make in my so drawn out way, is that there was a time when movies had meaning and...... wait for it..... a POINT! They weren't based solely on shock value. This is exactly why I am such a fan of Idiocracy. Although it is actually a shock value movie it is a comment on what our society has become. We don't care anymore about taking care of our world and each other. It is all about our individual entertainment at any price including ultimately the downfall of our way of life. In what kind of a world is the most popular thing that people are watching for days on end a video of pimple being popped???!?!?!? How does that get to be bigger than a parent coming home from war and seeing his or her kids for the first time in months? Or bigger than the funeral of a soldier who fought and died for a way of life that now consists of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.
I have had it with vampires, self centered teenagers and all that that entails. The 16th President of the United States did not hunt vampires. But I guarantee that 6 months from now there will be teenage girls who will believe that he did. If this is the best that Hollywood can do, count me out.
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