Quality Vs. Quantity

My fellow blogger Tyler has been counting down the best and worst movies of 2009.  I have seen maybe half of the movies on that list and as I stand in front of the shrine to extortion that is known to mere mortals as Blockbuster Video, I can't help but notice the giant walls of movies I have not and will never see.  I have a few people I would like to blame for this.  They are in no particular order, as my outrage is naturally peppered with wit and not organization.

I Blame Hollywood. 
If you happen to have any unemployed senior citizens laying about (they might be refering to themselves as retired), shake them from their fourth nap and over a nice cup of Ensure ask them about "the pictures".  They will of course tell you how great movies used to be.  They can actually list all the movies they saw as a child and all the stars of those movies.  The reason being there were only twenty movies and ten stars.  Rent any movie from 1930-1950 and you will see the same ten people recycled into every combination they could make of them.  This might seem taxing on the actors except each studio only put out about two movies per year.  That is why your senile grandfather can't remember your name, but he knos Cary Grant was spectacular in that movie, because he was in every movie.  And when you are in every movie the chances of you winning an Oscar are almost a sure thing.  (Calm down Samuel L. Jackson... I said almost.)  But now since there are twenty movies opening every second starring the latest set of boobs to fall off the truck, it's hard to keep up.  Maybe if we tone down the number of movies and be a little more selective about who we call a celebrity (You know who you are) then we wouldn't have to let movies like Old Dogs take up space in the Theater.

I Blame Sony
Sometimes things are so good they change the game entirely.  Sony has made camera technology so good, so cheap, so accessable that anyone--and I mean ANYONE--can make a movie.  You used to have to have a budget, a studio, a crew... not anymore.  Now you just need a Handy Cam and a mediocre script and ZAP! BANG!  You win the independent film award.  I'm just kidding.  Sure that happens sometimes, but most of the time you end up with some toothless whino shooting Zombie Nazi Surfers IV.  Four of them you say?  You bet!  Straight to DVD shelves everywhere.  If you are lucky Steven Segal or JCVD will stop by for a days worth of shooting.  I'm exaggerating you say?

I Blame The Government
$9.50.    That is the price of a movie now.  $9.50  Not a 3D film or Imax.  $9.50  Just to walk into a theater the size of my living room and sit in a sticky seat that hasn't been cleaned in years.  $9.50 to fight Jr. High kids for seats.  And let's not even talk about the mugging that is "concession".  The word means to "yield to".  Yes, I get your mind game.  With every ten dollar bag of popcorn you get to slap me and force me into submission.  I would stay home and rent DVD's but...  $5.00 rents a DVD for one night (JUST ONE).  I feel a little bit of my soul slip away with each rental.  Which brings me to Obama.  Make my dollar worth more please.  And since we can't seem to get anything substantial done with Health Care... what about Entertainment Reform?  But before you get started on your new plan I just want to let you know that giving my tax dollars to movie stars and people who are already rich won't turn the economy around.  Spending money aimlessly doesn't make it worth more.  I only bring it up because of that whole "that's all you did your first year in office" little tiny thing.