In the beginning...

A friend of mine and I were talking over dinner a year or so ago, and we got on the subject of movies. I can't recall exactly what film we were talking about; you could probably pick any one of the fifty action flicks that came out last year and it would be as good a guess as any other.

I asked her if she was intending to see it, and she responded with a marvelous little piece of wisdom about the state of the movie industry now; in the age of computer generated graphics, THX sound and green screens, you can do absolutely anything and make it look real on screen. Her hopes would be that the art of storytelling would reassert itself on the screen again soon, because it apparently was out to lunch.

I'd like to say its not really enough to make a visual feast on screen anymore and completely ignore storyline, but ticket sales probably indicate otherwise. Avatar was epic on the visuals but pretty weak on story - Dances With Wolves meets eight foot tall blue aliens - but it raked it in at the box office. The continued success of tech wonder films, high on visuals and low on plot, leave those of us who are hoping for a good American film to come along high and dry.

"ToTonka!"

In creating this blog, I hope to explore ways in which Hollywood makes or breaks movies, critique films old and new, and enjoy new and different points of view. In this blog I get to rant about my peeves in film and rave about scenes that blow me out of the water. Feel free to comment and help me armchair-quarterback the movie industry.