Stale Genres

johnny_ultimate

Watched Diary of the Dead the other night, and once you get past the gimmicky handheld camera, it really feels like a very stale film. Typical zombie fare that adds little to the genre: shame such stuff is coming from Romero, the man who more or less shaped the zombie movie as we know it, now being outgunned by people remaking his old films.

Same with the slasher films: been a good long while since that once beloved formula got a much needed dismembering.

Any other genres which you feel have ceased to be relevant? Any that feel as fresh as ever? And any which have effectively been reimagined (like the rom-com with Eternal Sunshine, or the superhero film with Batman Begins)?

Karl Hungus

I don't think it's the genres as such that are stale, but the film makers who lack ambition or vision. Zombie films are fairly stale, because I think they're all focused on re-telling the same outbreak/infection tales over and over, when the concept of the genre allows for so much more. George Romero was working in that direction with Dawn/Day/Land, but seems to have gone back on himself with Diary.

I think any genre has to potential to be fresh, if a film maker wants to take it by the horns, and pull it in a new direction.

Pride Fighter

There is no impetus to make Sci-Fi. I miss the odd good Sci-Fi coming out, now there are none:(

Karl Hungus

Pride Fighter wrote: »

There is no impetus to make Sci-Fi. I miss the odd good Sci-Fi coming out, now there are none:(

Sunshine was pretty terrific.

Pride Fighter

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Sunshine was pretty terrific.

I've never seen it, whats it about and is it cheap enough to buy?

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Sunshine was pretty terrific.

I dunno... thought a good first half was let down by a weak second that turned all formulaic. Way too reminiscent of Event Horizon, 2001 etc... Not a bad film, but one which felt sort of limited by sticking so close to what came before it. Actually think its a good example of a relatively stale film: had they really tried to do something different with the story, the superb visuals and soundtrack would have been enhanced. Instead the descent into slasher movie territory wasn't a good choice IMO.

As for your earlier point, I totally agree that in the hands of any film-maker a genre can feel fresh again. Problem is that alot of genres haven't got that film-maker to reinvent it in quite some time.

Karl Hungus

Sunshine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2-xR54UDU

Pride Fighter

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Sunshine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2-xR54UDU

I remember seeing the trailer and wanting to see it but I completely forgot about it. I'll give it a view ASAP.

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I dunno... thought a good first half was let down by a weak second that turned all formulaic. Way too reminiscent of Event Horizon, 2001 etc...

I don't agree...

The "Slasher" element (I hate calling it that) I find is too often dismissed, without consideration to what that character represents. Sunshine is very much a film where the basis is science vs. religion, and the character of Pinbacker was the fundamentalist. In that sense, I don't think there's any comparison of underlying themes between Sunshine and Event Horizon. It's usually down to the physical resemblance of the burned man in the two films.

Aside from that, Gattaca was probably one of the last original sci-fi films I've seen.

senordingdong

Slashers...I think Death Proof had something going for it!

mike65

Bloody Stupid Parodys.

Mike.

Dont be at yourself

Guys, as mentioned in another thread, World War Z is going to be a huge kick up the arse for the zombie genre.

You also can't discount Shawn of the Dead. It may have been a comedy, but it was still a zombie flick!

I thought Sunshine was excellent, but it wore its influences on its sleeve. Lots of references to stuff like Event Horizon and Alien.

Minority Report was also a top notch sci-fi film, and very unlike what went before it.

Parrish_Crooks

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Sunshine was pretty terrific.

That was weird... As soon as I saw the 'Sci-fi genre has gone stale' I immediately thought to myself, I'll recommend Sunshine! Beat me to it!

Pride Fighter wrote: »

I've never seen it, whats it about and is it cheap enough to buy?

Great film. Unsettling, thought provoking, well made, moving. It's actually €6.99 in HMV at the moment. I picked it up last week! Well worth a look!

shenanigans1982

my problem is not so much with genres going stale....its that 90 percent of movies coming out now follow the same formula.

Bad guy makes good.
Does something stupid and nobody likes him
Before returning to save the day an win everyone over.

Have movies always being like this and I am just realising it now or have writers become really lazy?

Duggy747

Yea, it's just that you've seen it all before. It's just that nobody will (or can) try to pull a movie in a different direction. The flavour of the month is comic-book movies but fortunately they're faring quite well this year; Iron Man, Hulk, Dark Knight *drool*, Hellboy (Got great reviews so far). The reason these have worked so well is because they've done things differently. Director's and actor's assigned to these movies not because of who they are but of what their abilities are, thus helping a movie lean towards a different direction. I mean, I don't think anyone (including me) could've seen Heath Ledger as The Joker, Ron Perlman (B-movie regular) cast as the hero in a big-budget movie, or even Downey .Jr as Tony Stark.

Enough with generic muck, actioners with slow-mo shoot 'em ups, goulish-horror movies which are just poor remakes of Jap movies and, for Christ's sake, I hope rom-coms die...........they never will, bloody wimmen with no taste in entertainment will ensure that!!

P.S. Though Rambo was nothing original it gave us a wonderful throw-back to the 80's where actioners were actioners. Which is strange really.

Eoin

mike65 wrote: »

Bloody Stupid Parodys.

Like all the teen spoof movies coming out? I agree with that - especially movies that parody other parodies.

L31mr0d

I'm going to say Sci-Fi is going stale also, I'm not as partial to the "Dystopian" Sci-Fi as I am to the "galaxy exploring/alien" Sci-Fi.

I liked Gattaca and Sunshine, and even though they are technically "Sci-Fi" they feel more like period pieces set in the future, like AI or Children of men. It's hard to define but I guess most recently "Serenity" was the closest to my type of Sci-Fi. There really hasn't been any good futuristic/alien movies in the last few years

Jack B. Badd

Pride Fighter wrote: »

There is no impetus to make Sci-Fi. I miss the odd good Sci-Fi coming out, now there are none:(

I know it's a few years old but the likes of Primer puts paid to the notion of a lack of good sci-fi films...

Funnily enough, I thought film noir was becoming a bit of a dead genre but after watching Brick recently I think I may have spoken too soon...thankfully

pixelburp

The comedy genre in general has ground to a massive creative halt. No one is making genuinely funny movies anymore. Although there are still plenty of witty indie comedies that rely on "kooky" characters and heavy sarcasm (though even that area is beginning to tire itself with material like "Juno" or "Smart People" that's playing it by numbers), I would be talking about laugh-out-loud mainstream comedy.

Of course, we all know who can take the blame for this & what line of movies are at the forefront of this steadily dying genre - those damned "XYZ movies" and the endless stream of parodies. "Date Movie", "Scary Movie", "Superhero Movie", "Meet the Spartans" etc; it's as if script writers have forgotten how to structure a joke, panic & just insert 90 minutes of conveyor belt pop-culture "jokes". It's damned depressing to see what passes for face comedy these days.

Parrish_Crooks

pixelburp wrote: »

The comedy genre in general has ground to a massive creative halt. No one is making genuinely funny movies anymore. Although there are still plenty of witty indie comedies that rely on "kooky" characters and heavy sarcasm (though even that area is beginning to tire itself with material like "Juno" or "Smart People" that's playing it by numbers), I would be talking about laugh-out-loud mainstream comedy.

Of course, we all know who can take the blame for this & what line of movies are at the forefront of this steadily dying genre - those damned "XYZ movies" and the endless stream of parodies. "Date Movie", "Scary Movie", "Superhero Movie", "Meet the Spartans" etc; it's as if script writers have forgotten how to structure a joke, panic & just insert 90 minutes of conveyor belt pop-culture "jokes". It's damned depressing to see what passes for face comedy these days.

I agree, Juno-esque films are SH1T. Juno being the worst film of last year.

I'd have to disagree with the statement that there is no good comedies being made anymore. Ever heard of Mr. Judd Apatow??

Look no further if you want good comedy!

Galvasean

For those of you doubting the versatility of the rom-com I suggest you check this out:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490170/

seriously though, don't

L31mr0d

Galvasean wrote: »

For those of you doubting the versatility of the rom-com I suggest you check this out:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490170/

seriously though, don't

runtime: 180 minutes :eek: