Dispatches | November 16, 2009

This blog entry by Barrelhouse, made me sad because it is true. The post, which talked about a film and how utterly disappointing the film was, got me thinking about the films I see these days. How very few have anything of a good plot!

Under my nostalgia lens I lament, have we forsaken good stories containing thought provoking questions for CGI effects and cheap, charming romance? Are screen-play writers in Hollywood simply tapped out of ideas? I find the latter hard to believe, considering the competitiveness of getting a screen-play published. But still, I am left to wonder how directors get by with making a film from such a horrid and/or overdone plots.

All is not lost however, for although terrible ideas like 2012 and Twilight’s New Moon will always be around, there are still a number of directors turning out some movies I cannot wait to see. The two (and drastically different) I have in mind right now are Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus. Eastwood’s, if you haven’t heard about it, is “A look at life for Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his first term as president when campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen.”

With actors Morgan Freeman (who plays Mandela) and Matt Damon, once you get past Freeman trying to speak in a South African accent, and Damon an English one, it seems pretty good.