Never mind the quality, feel the hype
Despite receiving largely poor reviews, Ghost Rider has topped the North American box office chart on its opening weekend.
And this is news?
I was going to write something here about the way the marketing people have moved in on the Hollywood mainstream, inflicting on us a seemingly endless series of films that are over-hyped, over-long and completely safe. Every week, a different film tops the box office and every following week it’s completely forgotten.
More and more films are being made, but there is ever less inventiveness on show. What we are getting is the same tired old formulae being regurgitated again and again, and then attached to a recognisable brand (comic book, remake, I dread to think what else) and regurgitated again. These films are bland, safe, boring and repeatedly sink without trace.
But what really irritates me is that, even knowing all this, we all still troop to the multiplexes and pay to see what we’ve already heard of - even if it’s only a name. As long as we keep on buying crap it’s no great surprise that the studios keep on selling it to us.
Monday 19 Feb 2007 | Paul | Random film talk
