why i dont like old movies. (dvd, action, comedies, actors)
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I'm not a fan of old movies either. There are a few gems out there but for the most part, I have a hard time watching them but for different reasons than the OP.
I find the acting to be mediocre at best. The picture is terrible and it is irritating. The women are always overdramatic and the men are often very stoic. It's like they are the complete opposite of each other and every man and women has to fit the stereotype of each gender.
On top of that, the stories are just plain boring for the most part.
I'm not a fan of old movies either. There are a few gems out there but for the most part, I have a hard time watching them but for different reasons than the OP.
I find the acting to be mediocre at best. The women are always overdramatic and the men are often very stoic. It's like they are the complete opposite of each other and every man and women has to fit the stereotype of each gender.
On top of that, the stories are just plain boring for the most part.
actually, that's basically the reason i stated. well put.
thank you for this lucid and informative post, and for not being a judgemental wannabe thesbian like some of these other jerk-offs. understand, i dont mean to say i dislike all movies made before the 70's. i'm just saying that the style of the delivery that was prevelent before the 70's really makes it hard for me to connect with the characters.
just so we're clear, when i say people didnt talk that way, i'm not referring to the use or lack of use of obscenity, i'm talking about the way the lines are delivered - as if it were stage acting.
You have to remember a great many actors of that era were originally stage actors and that's where they learned their craft. Unlike today where every underwear model really just "wants to be an actor". Yes, there is a lot of very wooden acting in some of these black & whites BUT just watch a Bette Davis movie sometime and see how she chews up the scenery and really puts herself out there emotionally, especially in All About Eve. She plays an ageing stage actress in love with a younger man dealing with an even younger, highly ambitious and manipulative rival played by Anne Baxter. Davis was an older actress dating a younger man by this time and her vulnerability, strength, iron will, femininity, wit and wisdom in this movie are spectacular! Anne Baxter is pretty amazing too and there's even a brief appearance by Marilyn Monroe who plays her part of not-so-dumb blonde ingenue hilariously. Some of the lines in this movie are BRILLIANT! Just go look it up on IMDB.com.
Other old movies I would recomend are pretty much anything with Humphrey Bogart (eg; To Have and Have Not), anything with Ronald Colman (eg; The Prisoner of Zenda), Born Yesterday, The Little Foxes, Laura, Sudden Fear, The Blue Dahlia, Some Like It Hot, The Misfits. Seriously, next time you spot any of these on AMC or TMC, give them a try.
Also remember that when these movies were made there was no TV so the studios were cranking out movies a dozen a week, which didn't give actors/directors/writers a lot of time to create masterpieces. And yet, more often than people realise, they really did.
Linson: You're right that John Wayne basically plays himself, but what a lusty, likable character. I think all this simply boils down to what one likes. No need for anyone to get his or her knickers in a twist over it. I think of it as the evolution of movies; it's true that early movies were a lot like stage acting because they weren't far removed from a time when that's all there was. I happen to like good examples of all of them.
wow...youre a really judgemental *******, you know that. youve completely misread me and youve completely missed my point in your haste to get up on your soap box and act superior.
im not talking about the lack of special effects, ect, and i dont go see movies to look at special effects. i'm talking about how, in older films, an actress will stare blankly and deliver her line, not even looking at the person she's talking to. and how more often than not, the actor/actress' emotional affect is inconsistent with the circumstances the character finds themself in.
you show a certain shallowness in character to assume that someone who dislikes the way film was presented in the past is a fan of Twilight, Underworld, Fast and Furious, or any of that other crap - which i hate.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban?
Hey lady, you posted the thread with your opinion, then I posted a reply on my opinion, that's how it works in the world.
I'll keep in mind to be less abrasive, because you probably just watch He's Just Not That Into You, hahaha.
I don't see how anyone who criticizes old movies as unbelievable can like today's movies where everything is CGI.
I enjoy some well-written dialogue with the zingers and poetic lines I wish I could use (and sometimes do!).
If I want to hear something realistic, I will go to a cafeteria if I don't want to hear the "F" word used in every sentence and a bar or football game if I do.
Hey lady, you posted the thread with your opinion, then I posted a reply on my opinion, that's how it works in the world.
I'll keep in mind to be less abrasive, because you probably just watch He's Just Not That Into You, hahaha.
ma'am, you can be as abrasive as you want. i have no problem with abrasiveness. my problem is that you jump to irrational conclusions. i dont like the wooden acting style of some early cinema.
i posted my opinion about old movies - that they're overrated. what opinion did you post? that i'm some ****ing moron? and based on what? youre assumption that you have to like Batman and Harry Potter Movies if you dont like Gone With the Wind.
and for your own information, i've never seen any Harry Potter movie. you people are insane.
I don't see how anyone who criticizes old movies as unbelievable can like today's movies where everything is CGI.
I enjoy some well-written dialogue with the zingers and poetic lines I wish I could use (and sometimes do!).
If I want to hear something realistic, I will go to a cafeteria if I don't want to hear the "F" word used in every sentence and a bar or football game if I do.
again, it sounds to me like youre presuming that by realism, i mean obscenity. i dont. and the dialogue in movies like Fast and Furious, and GI Joe is worse and less believable than even a 1930's musical to be sure.
why do you people assume that i like movies with lots of CGI and explosions just because i dont like the acting in older movies? you think im gonna go see Twilight, Transformers, or GI Joe? i'm insulted. yet we keep coming back to this presumption. if it helps, these are some of my favorite movies, just off the top of my head:
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Big Lebowski
Unforgiven
Gladiator
Narc
Kill Bill Volume 2
Open Range
again, it's just ridiculous that you can say youre not a fan of something (for good enough reason IMO) and immediatley be labelled as a lemming.
Also remember that when these movies were made there was no TV so the studios were cranking out movies a dozen a week, which didn't give actors/directors/writers a lot of time to create masterpieces. And yet, more often than people realise, they really did.
That probably sums it up more than anything I've read in this thread. If someone is going to generalize to the point of saying "I don't like OLD movies", or "I don't like NEW movies" they're going to get a lot of people disagreeing.
I can certainly understand someone not liking a large percentage of older movies because so many of them were cranked out to supply the pre-TV puplic with something new to watch every week, but that doesn't mean that there weren't any great movies made before 1970. Once TV's became commonplace, people stopped going to the movies to see B-grade material. So a fairer comparison would be to include the movies & shows made for TV/video/cable in with your group of "new" movies. I think you'll agree that that waters down the quality of the post-1970 output considerably.
I for one think that a good movie is a good movie regardless of when or where it was made!
I for one think that a good movie is a good movie regardless of when or where it was made!
good point, and i agree with that completely. but for me, part of what makes a good movie is beleivable characters (ya know, if it's a serious movie, i mean).
so, maybe it would have been better if i had titled the thread, "Why I Dont Like A Lot of Old Movies".
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