Keep the change, yeh filthy directors!
f Call me conservative, but I don’t think I am the only one who has noticed the huge scarcity of quality family films these days. I’m tired of searching for films at the DVD store which I can see with the entire family in tow, little cousins et all.
Though I’m not a great fan of Chris Columbus (and after what he did to the first Potter movie, aint gonna happen any time soon), but I know things have reached a sorry state when I start looking back at Home Alone with nostalgia. Now that was one perfect example of a clean, feel good family movie – A novel story, good writing and John Williams with a perfect score, Home Alone is a landmark in the family movie genre. And then there were the classic Disney animated films, which reached a peak of creative storytelling in the late 80s and early 90s with such unforgettable movies like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and of course, the pathbreaking Lion King.
What are the options that we have today?
Hardly anything. Sure you have some really great romantic comedies or dramas these days (I personally loved 2004’s The Notebook), but most of us would squirm in out seats if we are to watch them with our families. Sexual innuendo and nudity is everywhere, and just when you thought that you saw a great movie, you know that you can never show it to your cousins to enjoy as well. Comedies are either the adult gross out variety like the awful American Pie series, or the saccharine cutesy pie animal movies that no self respecting adult would wanna see. I cannot spot a single family movie these days that takes the middle path.
Even the blockbuster films these days give far too much screen time on violence, gore and sex. Even Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the most well made action spectacles, are plain eww sometimes, and most 8 year olds wouldn’t take those slimy half dead skeletons too well. Whatever happened to stories that children, teens and adults could equally identify with? Remember Tom Hanks’s Big or That Thing You Do? The wonderfully written Back to the Future trilogy?
Yes, one can say that Disney/ Pixar has always managed to bring the two together very well. Finding Nemo and the Incredibles are modern day classics no doubt – but they are still animated movies aren’t they? It’s been ages since we have had a great live action family movie that everyone can watch together. Looking at the trends of the last few years, it doesn’t look like it will happen soon.
Though I’m not a great fan of Chris Columbus (and after what he did to the first Potter movie, aint gonna happen any time soon), but I know things have reached a sorry state when I start looking back at Home Alone with nostalgia. Now that was one perfect example of a clean, feel good family movie – A novel story, good writing and John Williams with a perfect score, Home Alone is a landmark in the family movie genre. And then there were the classic Disney animated films, which reached a peak of creative storytelling in the late 80s and early 90s with such unforgettable movies like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and of course, the pathbreaking Lion King.
What are the options that we have today?
Hardly anything. Sure you have some really great romantic comedies or dramas these days (I personally loved 2004’s The Notebook), but most of us would squirm in out seats if we are to watch them with our families. Sexual innuendo and nudity is everywhere, and just when you thought that you saw a great movie, you know that you can never show it to your cousins to enjoy as well. Comedies are either the adult gross out variety like the awful American Pie series, or the saccharine cutesy pie animal movies that no self respecting adult would wanna see. I cannot spot a single family movie these days that takes the middle path.
Even the blockbuster films these days give far too much screen time on violence, gore and sex. Even Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the most well made action spectacles, are plain eww sometimes, and most 8 year olds wouldn’t take those slimy half dead skeletons too well. Whatever happened to stories that children, teens and adults could equally identify with? Remember Tom Hanks’s Big or That Thing You Do? The wonderfully written Back to the Future trilogy?
Yes, one can say that Disney/ Pixar has always managed to bring the two together very well. Finding Nemo and the Incredibles are modern day classics no doubt – but they are still animated movies aren’t they? It’s been ages since we have had a great live action family movie that everyone can watch together. Looking at the trends of the last few years, it doesn’t look like it will happen soon.
posted by Faizan at
3:33 AM
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