Unknown

Every year Hollywood keeps a schedule of releases that rarely deviates. March is a month of movies with limited, but big, demographic potential. May begins the traditional summer blockbuster season. August brings horror. December brings a more eclectic mix of decent to good Hollywood fare. January is chock full of Oscar bait movies. And then there's February.

February is traditionally the month when studios take the movies that they don't have faith in and throw them at unsuspecting, older crowds. People who are sick of being stuck inside on cold and snowy days head out in February for a quick visit for some good old fashioned commercial entertainment. Unfortunately, what they are given is garbage.

Occasionally there are some exceptions to the rule of awful February movies. "Shutter Island" was released in February of last year. While not Scorcese's best work, it was an interesting thriller that some thought might see some Academy love this year. Like "Shutter Island", this year I was hoping that "Unknown" would be another rare February gem.

The Oscar Race for the Best Picture of 2010

2010 was a pretty mixed bag as far as movies are concerned. Hollywood still seems to be in re-make and re-boot mode with such wonderful films as “Yogi Bear” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. While there were some bright spots, they were few and far between.

Luckily this year’s Best Picture nominees were around to make up somewhat for how lame Hollywood has been lately. While I didn’t see 2 of the best picture nominees, the rest were all pretty good for their own part. I don’t know if any of the nominees are films for the ages, but each had something going for it and are worth seeing.

On The State of Movies

I haven't been here in a while. Actually, in almost a year. The real problem is that I lost interest in many of the movies that were being released. It seemed that out of the many movies I'd go and watch each year, only one or two of them truly made me happy. All of the rest were either just flat out bad, or weren't worth discussing.

That still holds true for me today. I think most movies today are just not very good. The ones coming out in the future don't look too hot, either. I don't know why this is. It just seems like the overall talent pool in Hollywood has sunk to an all time low.

Perhaps it's the lack of truly imaginative storytellers working in film today. It is so rare to get a movie that entertains and inspires, making you so happy that you saw the movie. Most movies are best described as "forgettable". It's such a shame.

I think one reason for the downfall of the movie is the final maturation of television. I've discussed in a previous article how television seems to be at least rivaling movies lately, and I think that trend continues. There have been and still are some truly remarkable dramas on tv. "Battlestar Galactica", "Mad Men", "Justified", and "Sons of Anarchy" have all been terrific television shows, not to mention some good comedies like "The Office" and "30 Rock".

This has made me re-think what I was doing in the past with "RB On Movies". I think I'm going to change directions a bit and begin talking more about movies and tv that are on DVD. There's so many interesting things that I missed in theaters over the years, with many more that were made before I was born. I would much rather discuss those in my articles than the dreck that is in theaters.

That doesn't mean I'll never talk about movies that I go see in theaters or ever talk about anything contemporary. It just means that modern movies won't be the majority of articles I write from now on.