Billboards and Bus Stops

Is it me or has filmmaking taken a turn for the worse lately?  Admittedly I'm more out of the loop than I used to be in terms of films, especially indies, and filmmakers, but could that explain how films like Wanted end up being what that film is, as opposed to what it could have been?  Vague enough for you?  Digression is imminent.  Seriously though, watch that film and imagine what the original treatment or script must have looked like.  There are some seriously dark, inventive ideas wasted in that commerce driven hack job of a film, and it frustrates me. Remember when filmmakers used to dread the "suits" visiting their sets?  Now it seems they eagerly rewrite scenes, or even entire scripts with them.  Product placement has overstepped it's bounds, and then overstepped whatever integrity the James Bonds series had left, and I know that's not saying much, but let's digress.

I just watched Casino Royal finally (the newest version), and what a pile of shit that was.  007 drives what?  His cell phone is what brand?  Nice _ _ _ _ _ laptop.  I'd originally written a paragraph where I named all the items' brand names I just made reference to.   How insidious is that?  Even I almost, subconsciously, included product placement in this blog.  

Not that any of this is connected, but did you watch the 2009 Grammy Awards?  The Jonas Brothers duetting with Stevie Wonder?  Al Green and Justin Timberlake?  My entire life I've heard older folks talk about the good ol' days, and I was always interested in their take on changes in American culture and society, but I was never entirely convinced that them old days were all that.  How about the degrees of racism, sexism, homphobia, etc.?  Plus, I'm way into technological advances, and can't imagine having to live in a time prior to all the innovation we've experienced over the last twenty years.  That said, you can finally see that there is a clear cut division in terms of people who were born prior to, and grew up prior to, and were socialized prior to the advent of the internet as we've known it for the last two decades.  That's it, period.  You could probably go back and say, for instance, there was the pre-industrial revolution generation and the post industrial revolution generation.  That might be a valid comparison, but when you have an entire generation of persons who can justify, or worse yet equate Stevie Wonder with the Jonas Brothers, then you're fucked.  On some level, you're fucked, whether you actually listen to or give a shit about either the Jonas Brothers or Stevie Wonder.  None of that matters, you're fucked.  It's gone beyond ADD, which is a big copout for my younger peops, and it's gone beyond minor differences like a push lawnmower versus a gas lawn mower.  The 2009 Grammy Awards were truly an eye opener.  Justin Timberlake duetting with  Al Green, while being backed by Boyz To Men was only the tip of the iceberg on a night that featured Lil Wayne duetting with Alan Thicke's kid, and then both of them duetting with various New Orleans' jazz legends in a misguided tribute to the birthplace of Louis Armstrong, and former hometown of the legendary Fats Domino.  Let us not forget the ghost of Huey Long, and the ghost of Huey Newton for that matter.  

1984 really did stand for something after all.

-Jay Unidos