I don't know how old they are, but 36 is not old either, especially not old enough to not be aware of pop culture or shows like The Hot Ones. You're right in the exact demographic for it. I think you'd have to be at least over 50 to start to not be aware of young folk stuff
My parents are 60 and 64 and they watch Hot Ones… H.O. gets the largest figures in pop culture on their show while those figuring are promoting their new endeavor. How they’ve never heard of Sean Evans before now is wild.
Krystal is spot on. In movies, in music and even in advertising. Remember when ads used to make you laugh? Creativity is not something we see much of anymore.
yes and much of what is on today is woke garbage with 'the message' forced fed to the fools. go woke, go broke? The Shapiro Studio seems to be doing allright.
@@eneveasi For a very long time, I have not heard anything from the music industry "more creative than ever before". But I'll bite....hit me with three examples.
On the contrary, we have created so much that the creative industries are over saturated with artists who aren't really breaking the mold and are just trying to recreate greatness. I knew that when Dubstep became a thing that music had reached a point of no return. It is damn near impossible to be an original these days. Counter-cultures are getting swooped up and commercialized before they even have time to flourish.
Not in corporate multimedia. You can find creativity elsewhere. TikTok and RU-vid are good examples. There's not need for an astronomical budget to make something good nowadays.
@@alexojeda9048 Asks the person who just posted that half the movie-going audience have the attention span of a 3rd grader and you're not sure about me? Go figure.
@@ouknow1446 Obviously your questions are convoluted. What makes you think he wastes anytime of a source of entertainment that doesn't captivate him? Frankly you're missing the point. So much for go figure.
@@outlawfly664 I have to figure out why are you missing what should be simple. My comment was a question. Do you understand "question"? My question is meant for you to consider that attention spans are short because of so many other alternatives to give attention to. Got it?
Most movies these days feel like they are random ideas of corporations to check off all the boxes. But they don’t tell a story anymore. They know comic book movies cause they make money.
Hot Ones routinely gets surprisingly good answers from their interview questions. It seems like struggling with the spice really seems to short-circuit the surface level preprogrammed pr responses. Also helps that they routinely do well formulating interesting questions, far more so than typical celeb interview shows.
And by the time you make it to "The Bomb" (#8) you are fully focused on the burn. Your brain is not thinking about filtering responses. The Bomb has a delayed burn that is searing!
His head is screwed on straight. He is very liberal but calls out the woke. What he nearly got cancelled for--saying there are nuances in sexual offenses, and rude language is not the same as rape--is just plain true.
I get Damon's point about making 'arthouse' movies, but the issue was born before streaming services really took off. Hollywood was taking less and less risks when movies studios were bought by large corporations, and when streaming came along, a lot of the best writers especially went there, because there was more room (literally, spinning a story over many episodes) to have their ideas produced. Hollywood was partly responsible for the situation it is in, and it digs in even deeper with regurgitation, while the audience hungers for a much more varied diet.
In the past, the big tent productions, like the Indiana Jones, would give the artists some money to go and make their art house or passion films. But with streaming services, its so measured now, they know what you watch, for how long, and exactly where in a movie or series you pause or just give up entirely. They will only produce things that have the same components that "work".
Sort of disagree...I could never see a movie like Team America being distributed in theaters these days....that was less than 20 years ago. Sad, but glad I got to live through that time culturally...😑
Exactly. I agree with Damon, but I don't think its giving us the full picture. Box office sales have sunk but not by much. What has really changed with the percentage of profits Hollywood is getting from box office sales. Its about 30 percent. The rest? Streaming, direct purchases, and merch from franchises. The industry's market cap has been consistently rising despite streaming and piracy. So of they're making way more money than they ever had before, how come some of that isn't going into lower budget films that are more experimental? Is it because there's more care that goes into making profits or is it because they can't afford to anymore? Regardless the solution is super clear to me. Reduce the cost of production and marketing dramatically and you'll get more nuanced content that we enjoyed in the before time.
This also happened with the music industry. Large labels bought out so many of the small ones, and while some of the small labels may still be around in name, they are now in the hands of labels that have a lot more overhead. The larger overhead means that less risks can be taken because there are larger investments and more investors to appease. There is also the issue in both industries where they go all in on certain projects or artists and give way more money to those projects than what would actually be needed, and thus a lot of movies and music being made need way more money to even break even. This also leaves less money to invest in smaller projects or artists.
Not gonna lie, I really like hearing them talk about lighter stuff like pop culture just as much as the "real news" - would love to see more segments like this!
I mean partly yes, but then he goes and tells people to buy crypto. That made me dislike him somewhat. Seems like deep down he's just another celeb that will do anything for a buck. I mean the celebrity lifestyle is cash flow dependent.
@@ollipolli4799 you people who dog on celebrities crack me up. But I bet you follow what these douche righties tell you, even when they have zero knowledge of what they talk about. Your envy is palpable
I really really really miss the video industry, and the video shops! we used to spend hours discussing movie selections with other humans in video shops, both other shoppers and employees. The films were arranged by genres and novelties, and the selection was all the theatre selection, and more. The internet has been catastrophic at so many human levels. The streaming companies are WAY too expensive.
Searching for a new movie from the wall that wasn't an empty case and an older one from the aisle to get the combo deal while waiting for your pizza or hot chips to cook next door
I was just thinking the other day that shopping has become a very dull and depressing experience... Shopping day used to feel like an exciting trip out. My local supermarket used to devote an entire floor to entertainment. Aisle after aisle of DVDs, books, games and CDs. With the gaming kiosks in the centre. Plus there was the bargain bin, which felt like winning the lottery when you found something you really wanted dirt cheap. Now it's just one shelf of books, and one small section of a shelf for a handful of new games. They don't stock physical music or films at all now. The upstairs floor that used to be the entertainment section is now a restaurant and clothing department.
@@bluesrocker91 holy shit, I’m in my 20s, grew up in SE Asia, and I know _exactly_ what you mean. That description gave me whiplash back to when I was in shopping areas when I was younger. I didn’t even realize how different it has become until you pointed it out.
Too much access, availability and convenience dulls the pleasure, anticipation and even experience of the movie or music itself. I remember going to the music store and buying an album and would open it up, look through the booklet inside and all the artwork, check to see if the lyrics were there and truly owning it and having it in my hand meant something that downloading something in seconds can never replace.
Well most people share accounts. When netflix stops that, everyone will go the illgal route for netflix stuff. Most steaming sites, will allow you to share accounts.
Sean Evens is the best interviewer working today. He's a friendly interviewer bc the show is not confrontational. He asks great questions, and you can tell him and his team have dug deep to ask interesting questions. The hot wings kind of tear down the walls to get honest answers. It's a great show. I recommend everyone watch it. The wings, and his questions seem to break down the walls. I would be shocked to see a politician on the show, but it's great fun.
Cool, I gotta check it out, but I did not hear about it until it was out. The Northman had a much better ad campaign and fared better despite being an arty historical drama. I saw that in theatres
@@Bonesawisready926 I just want to make sure that was a serious statement or was it more of a humorous take on the movie. Not trying to be snide, just wondering. A story told from the point of view of the three people involved. But it wasn't exactly the same story. Each person looked at it and presented it with differences. That was the whole point.
I think part of the problem is the corporate takeover of Hollywood. Too many people who aren't artists and have no appreciation of art and artists being put in charge of things. And I think the next thing is, because all content is available 24/7 from so many outlets, it not only cheapens the experience, but also it's immediately obvious how much content is not for them. When you can endlessly scroll through channels and movies and see just how much content you have no interest in whatsoever, it's a big turnoff.
What you mean corporate takeover? Hollywood was always owned by big corporations for a very long time, with only a few great movies done by independent movie makers.
@@Alkis05 Not to the degree that it is now...........There was a time where even ''bad movies'' were actually good and now it's like everything is the same where people just want to preach to you instead of entertaining.
@@KrisBryant99The difference between Hollywood in the 1970s and today is that audiences have much greater expectations. Special affects were just getting started and the budgets were low compared to today. Why would you go see a movie that looks like high school kids made when you can see the avengers 10. There are a few independent studios putting out good movies but the vast majority of the independent studios are small for a reason. Money talks and audiences vote with there wallet.
@@KrisBryant99 I think it has been equally bad in different aspects, actresses in the 40s (what is considered the golden age of cinema) were subjected to so much abuse to please the studio executives. Just google what happened to the actress who played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, they basically turned her into and addict so she could keep up with the filming schedule.
I saw it in theater as well! I took my mom to go see it. Afterward she said “I understand why this movie isn’t doing well.” We both thought the movie was a fantastic piece of art. It is easy to understand that a period piece with a purposefully repetitive story, violence, and a rape scene did not perform well. The marketing was tough too, I had no idea the movie came out until after it flopped and I went to go see it.
@@mattturner5429 Oddly enough, it had the exact opposite critique by most. Idk I thought it was a well done. and a risky yet compelling way to tell a story like that
Me too. Saw it in theaters and I was just amazed by it and thought what a shame no one was watching it in theaters because it was a really good film. But then I also thought well maybe I just like sucky films lol. I’m glad I’m not alone.
To Saagar's original point, The Last Duel also flopped because it was made under previous ownership (20th Century Fox) before Disney bought all its entertainment properties. By the time the merger happened, Disney couldn't care less about the Last Duel so they essentially dumped it in theaters because of contractual obligations for a theatrical release before they could put it on a streaming service. A lot of movies made with 20th Century Fox were dumped in theaters, even some of their arthouse fare like Del Toro's Nightmare Alley. The revenue stream is a lot different than theatrical. Streaming relies on people being subscribed to services so they spend money on content. Theatrical was a studio that makes a movie, they release it exclusively to theaters for 90 days then it comes to the home video mass market. I will say services are investing a lot in filmmakers that normally would not get the same amount of creative control or budgetary freedom from a standard theatrical studio. The reason Scorsese made the Irishman with Netflix was that no studio wanted to give him the money he needed to make, for as long a runtime he wanted to make. His next movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, is being backed by Apple. Studios don't want to invest in the filmmakers that made their studio as popular so now streaming has to pick up the slack because they can make valued content because the filmmakers are brands onto themselves. Hell, Netflix just released a teaser today for Noah Baumbach's adaptation of White Noise, a Don Delillo novel, with a speculated budget of up to $100 million. That's insane (if true), so I would say to Saagar and others that the adult dramas do exist, they just get lost in the ether because there's simply too much content and entertainment to pay attention to that a lot of it slips into obscurity.
The problem with the Irish men was it just wasn't that good. The actors were to old and not believable. The story was mostly based on a lie and really was kind of boring.
You touched on this so I am going to respond. The streaming services have too much content so each project does not get the special attention it deserves. Unlike the way the film studios marketed each film.
Sagaar: "A lot of old people don't listen to new music anymore." New 'music' is corporate manufactured disposable crap lacking in artistic quality. Two of the top five best selling albums of all time belong to Pink Floyd. Neither Elvis nor the Beatles could accomplish it. Nonetheless, they were all talented artists.
These days, we listen to sounds that couldn't even be produced by a human being (without auto-tune and studio magic etc). Artists aren't people, they're products, assembled by a team. If you worship fakeness and impossible beauty standards, are we really surprised people are now trying to graft their bodies and self-image to turn themselves into a bunch of vapid barbie dolls?
Shit that has never been mainstream like Death metal is still good. Just don't listen to the mainstream. Most people could find music they like if they dig a little.
@@nicholasvogt5123 Yup. Luckily music is relatively low cost to produce (some metal bands like Periphery just do it from their houses). You can find amazing stuff that was independently made. Pop music nowadays is dog shit, and honestly makes me feel like such an old man because sometimes it grosses me out. You know there was a pop song called "Throat Baby" that came out last year? Like, this is what 7 and 8 year olds are hearing regularly?
The advertising for The Last Duel was abysmal -- essentially non-existent. I'm a huge history buff, and a lover of Ridley Scott's films, especially Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and his premier film from 1977, similarly called The Duellists, yet I only heard about The Last Duel about a day before its release. I'm all over the internet every day, and not once before it came out had I heard anything or anyone talking about it. The marketing department of that film has much to answer for.
Most gung-ho, brave, tough moviegoing lads like me who loved Gladiator and films of that ilk shied away from The Last Duel when we found out it centered around some wife getting raped story. Had it been a story set in the same time period about Frenchies fighting English knights or something, with Matt Damon and others, I would have seen it in the theater, but I just ended up renting it later. No real interest in the premise.
@seanolaocha940 I totally disagree that it effectively used the Rashomon structure. It abused the Rashomon structure most heinously! Rashomon delicately displays alternate perspectives to create profound ambiguity. This movie makes you sit through the same thing over and over like a torture chamber, repeatedly cramming its simplistic ideological lard down your throat.
Given how in touch Saagar is with popular culture and how popular Hot One's is, I'm really surprised Saagar wasn't familiar with the show at all. Sean Evans is one of the best interviewers.
The Last Duel was a beautiful movie. Great sets, costumes, actors , story and one of the best directors. It's a shame it didn't make money. Top Gun Maverick is the exception. A great movie that banked and still is grossing big time.
@@moloney55 It's got one of the best knight duels ever. The only other duel of that kind comparable is "El Cid" starring Charleston Heston. A great movie shot sometime in the sixties, I believe. That is also worth a look.
@@cartrips9263 Which CGI? From what I've read most of the stuff was real with VFX overlays to make it look like planes were different models or the actors were flying them
I think we’re actually seeing a resurgence in new, original voices in film atm. The Safdie brothers, Daniels, Ari Aster, Sean Baker, Jordan Peele… Though these films are usually smaller budget (~$5m) and made outside the big studio system. The era of big budget mainstream films with original stories is pretty much over, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still plenty of talented young directors out there with unique visions and smaller studios willing to bet on their success. The film industry definitely isn’t what it used to be, but there’s still plenty of original stuff being made these days
@@007Hutchings I thought Get Out showed a lot of potential but was still far from perfect. Us was more refined but a little on the nose. NOPE, however, was incredible imo. Really excited to see what he does going forward now
What's frustrating is that physical media technically isn't even "obsolete" in the strictest sense that 4K blu-ray still offers superior video quality to streaming. But people seem to be content with just not owning any of the movies they watch anymore, despite the increasing number of streaming services and fragmentation of the market.
Breaking Points is full of crap. So is Matt Damon. I guarantee that Top Gun will break records with their DVD and 4k sales. All you need to do is make a good flick and they'll make billions because people are so hungry for just a good story instead of propaganda
@@joshvarga3591 Same here. I'm a stickler for picture quality, and besides that I genuinely love certain movies enough that purchasing them on physical media as part of a collection is a must. The artwork on the covers of the blue-rays, the booklets, the supplemental material....love all that stuff. I guess I'm just old-fashioned.
Jesus, does comedy fly over people's heads these days? He told you their subscriber count but not the name? are you sure he didn't know the name and it wasn't just a bit?
Just finished watching A Scent of a Woman, a timeless classic of a gem movie. Made me laugh, cry, and cheer. I doubt in this day and age that we live in it would make a lot in the box office let alone get made...
There are two versions of A Scent of a Woman. The original one is an italian movie from 1974, the 1992 version is just a remake. Which one are you talking about?
I like when you two break down pop culture. You're both smart and insightful and offer valuable commentary. Art is such a critical piece of who we are and it's a shame when the market prohibits great art from being made.
The Last Duel was like a remake of the 50s Japanese masterpiece Rashomon, in which you are shown three versons of a story from th eperspectives of three people involved. Each very different versions with overlapping common script. Really enjoyed it
I actually thought it didn’t work. It was almost obvious the rapist would not see his aggression in that manner and was predictable. More than anything it just slowed things down for me.
@@sbeaber Same themes. Man and wife, third man rapes wife, each tells the story differently from own perspective; there is a trial to decide (by combat in this case). I would not put it so high as Rashomon. But the film undoubtedly inspired. Struck me pretty quickly. A lot grimmer skies though
The Last Duel was a beautiful piece of art. Surprised it didn’t garner more attention considering the messaging. I realized long ago we won’t be getting movies like we used to. Just like music. I thought it was just greed, but I see other factors play a part too Also, Hot Ones is great show
There is incredible music out there of all genres, but you have to try to find it. Record labels only advertise and push the most mundane and boring music.
IDK, The Last Duel could have been better - I suppose telling it from three different perspectives - made it boring for me ... it seems like that format, made all sides look bad. Strange, I know!
It flopped because they had half a helmet on Mat. Everyone knows that no one jousted with half a helmet, so people thought there would be other dumb things in the movie.
@@drx1xym154 I don't think he emphasized enough that it was based on really recorded history. In regards to the Movie, I agree it would have been better told as 1 story vs 3 versions. After the second version, I was kind of like "I get it", then there was the duel which was cool.
Matt is trustworthy and honest. It only took him 20 years to call out Weinstein. He also watches out for the little guy, urging small investors to buy crypto.
Well it comes down to personal responsibility. Do your research and learn about what people are offering you. Celebrities are the last people you should look to be your role models or taking advice from. 😂
I tried watching the Last Duel with my Chinese family, but no one even understood what a European duel was all about. They didn’t know what knights and squires were, etc. So… no one understood or enjoyed the movie except for me.
You even see this in video games, especially all the “safe” projects that get pushed out year after year in the AAA scene. You have to look at the indie games market for any fresh ideas.
Yeah I don't see Game Pass as a net positive to be honest. It's a volume play over actual quality with an authorial stamp on it. I don't want a "Netflix of Games" from the company that obstructed stability and innovation in the entire computer industry for decades with Windows.
It's the same process in every industry. Corporatization is the deathknell. Specifically, PUBLICLY OWNED corporations. They are required by law to wring the most money out of their customers per year as possible.
@@zeriel9148 A small family owning things isn't much better - look at the hideous Walton family with Walmart. The core of the problem is the prioritisation of profit and growth over every other concern and public good including artistic expression. That's why entertainment is becoming this one gloopy, non-specific blob with a suit and a cape that can just rake in money in 50 countries and have no nutritional content whatsoever.
I see where he's coming from, but the stories he's talking about can still be made.. just not by people who command a Matt Damon level paycheck. I'm sure there are a ton of up and coming actors who can play these roles, and be just as good at them as Matt Damon or other a-list Hollywood stars... and all of a sudden, a 100m movie becomes a 50m movie and it becomes much more sustainable.
Blumhouse has developed this model that sits between Indie and Big Budget films, and they do so by mostly getting their stars to accept backend compensation rather than upfront. Now, that still requires the film do relatively well in theaters, but it does lower the upfront investment. They pretty much exclusively do horror, but that model could work with other genres.
Another theory: action movies tremendously benefit from movie theaters and dramas are arguably much worse in the theatre. Even a cheap home setup can give you a big picture, usually better sound and for longer, slower, and more complicated movies is much better when you can pause, rewatch a part if you missed something etc.
Exactly! Character movies need that, and DVDs provide for that. You can watch twice/3 times. The 1st one is to absorb it and the 2nd watch is to now understand it better. I am fan of such content and it's sad that we are seeing less and less of them now.
I think everything is better in a theater, the way movies were meant to be seen. We can always examine certain scenes or dialogue later at home, but for the first viewing it's best to let the filmmaker's vision and pace unfold without interruption.
I was about to say this. Exactly. If ppl are gonna spend the substantial money to go to the cinema, they want an experience that's made for the cinema...it doesn't mean the ppl prefer the big action movie over the thoughtful dramas, only that they prefer seeing the big action in the cinema, and the thoughtful drama in their home.
@@pickenchews also, Marvel films are a family day out. Smaller indie films are more personal, and better viewed in a personal space. Nobody is taking their kids to see the new Kelly Reichardt movie.
"A good way to go from being a billionaire to millionaire is to invest in movies" -Mark Cuban One of the problems are the bloated salaries to these actors. When a movie "costs" $25M, how much of that is paying a big name actor?
Without big name actors nobody goes to see the movie, though. I work for a theater chain and we see it every time. No matter how good the movie is, if it doesn’t have recognizable big-name actors then nobody comes to the theater to see it. That’s why they get paid so much, because they’re the real draw unless it’s something like a Tarantino movie, which has a built-in audience.
The movie industry has been a corrupt way to wash/bilk money for decades. Some of the biggest blockbusters of the 2000's were supposedly money losers. It's why actors salaries were able to shoot up so dramatically and became public fodder when you didn't see as much earnings talk before. It also became a way for reps to hike their client's price in foreign marketing commercials and brand deals. If Brad Pitt made 20 million one year and 50 million the next his cost for a one day Japanese beer commercial then tripled and then obviously so did the percentages of his manager, his pr firm etc. All the while there was the boon of tax exempt money (loophole jumping) and the patriotic concept of extracting money from other countries biggest companies rather than our own. Getting people with a ton of money but no social prestige invited to celebrity investment parties, getting them drunk on famous shaved --erm nethers and champagne and then spinning the dream of plotlines and profit potential, not to mention a producer credit, was too appetizing for the cash rich, excitement poor to pass up. It was/is just a Hollywood shiny version of a snake oil hucksters game.
"When a movie "costs" $25M, how much of that is paying a big name actor?" The movie star is a dying breed to. The last one to me is Tom Cruise. Big actors don't sell movies anymore. Now it's just CGI wanking and shitty feminist storytelling. The thing about Hollywood is when they all got on social media, they revealed themselves to be a total pack of cunts that you'd never want to be.
Movies are the same as Television and Music nowadays - they don't suck, but you do need to sift through the crap to find the gems. The problem is extreme saturation more than lack of quality.
Dune, The Batman, Maverick, and pretty much every a24 film that has come out in the last 3 years are all pretty damn good. There are film studios that do make those lower budget films that do release pretty good physical media and that is A24, Neon and Anapurana, yes they are indie studios/distributors but still they exist and are the anthesis to the MCU, Star wars stuff that comes out like every week
Japan also has quite a lot of good movies though most of the good ones are outside the entertainment genre. The best movie last year (Drive My Car) and probably what will be the best movie this year (Wandering Moon) are both from Japan.
Imagine movies being made that elevate and educate people rather than ones that demoralizes and showcases the worst of humanity. Films like Baraka deserve mainstream success.
MY GOD....you went for "Baraka!!" I used to have that DVD. There's an older documentary (same format) from the same director. I forgot the title, though.
No he hasn’t, only blames it on “woke bad..” Damon pointed the actual reason why original properties isnt made anymore.. He was also nice about it. Streaming service and the audience has a big reason to do with corporation not taking on risky concepts… see Bladerunner 2049, Northman, nice guys all non woke and great movies of recent. All bombs
Most movies assume some kind of activism; they cant help but put in the "The Message" into the film. People are sick of it. Characters don't struggle and overcome, instead they are born with skills and excellence. Over reliance on CGI over actuakl character development - its a shallow, politicised hot mess.
Films from the 70s-90s make up most of my all time favorites. There's a rawness to them that you don't see with much modern stuff. Better writing, better characters, had to be more creative with effects leading to major innovations like with Jurassic Park or T2. Filmakers like Spielberg, Cameron, Scott, etc in their prime. So many are timeless and that era of horror films will never be repeated. Krystal is right about music following the same path and it would have been cool to hear her talk about it more. She's likely referring to 90s and early 2000s hip hop and RNB which was the golden age for that genre. I think there's more to it besides DVD sales because before DVDs there was VHS and sometimes VHS took a long time to come out making a film rely on mostly box office. It's the attention spans modern audiences have which makes apps like Tik Tok popular. Those type of people want to be constantly engaged and they'll turn something off if it's a slow burn or be doing something else while watching it. Then the films flop like The Last Duel and studios don't trust audiences anymore so they go back to ADD style stuff like the MCU or cheap jump scare horror. Or go down the remake, reboot route because those are recognizable things instead of coming up with new things. TV Dramas have likely never been better but films lost a lot of their heart. Maybe the success of Maverick will cause studios to go in a new direction but usually Hollywood learns the wrong lessons from that type of success.
Have u seen everything everywhere all at once?, parasyte, inception, memento, the prestige, Lord of the rings, City of God, whiplash, black swan, The hunt, Inglorious bastards modern movies are just as good as the 90s modern music is good to. Kendrick lamar entire discography is just amazing.
Yep even the films I didn't like during that time frame are better than the films nowadays. Just have to look at the 70's and the number of absolutely brilliant movies released each year. 1977 alone, wow.
the last duel could have been a great premises for a HBO mini series. i agree with the attention span problem but i also i think money is also a thing to consider. remake and reboot are made because families will not buy a ticket for something untested or graphic. that why most cinemas make bank from film under pg13. the only genre of film that i think will survive this trend might be horror.
@@kevinayala1380 You got to be kidding me? The 90s list of films (an endless list) blows away modern movies out of the water in every single category, in every single genre from pushing the envelope, innovation/originality. I refer to modern movies everything post 2010. The thing is everything post 2010 you will only find a handful of films of good quality, most of them are foreign films while quality films in 90s was overwhelming annually, across every genre. Movies like Parasite is one of them, or Iranians films which i recommend like A Separation or The Salesman. It's quite ironic how even Iranian cinema despite that small budget and sanctions for decades manages to even put out more quality films, because they take those risks. I also put early to mid 2000s i the same category as the 90s as a continuation. The prestige, memento, Lord of the rings, City of god etc all came out in early to mid 2000s. The last great narrative based masterpiece based on a character i saw was There will be blood in 2007, it's was mostly thanks to DDL performance which was pretty much highlighted at best in the 90s. Inception is one of the most overrated and convoluted movies i have ever seen, i can't see what people find with that movie that's exceptional or original? Ever seen Dark City 1998? That movie was one of the most underrated and way more original practically based near identical plot points. Inglorious bastards are also one of the poorest Tarantino films i have seen which i'm not such a fan of, it doesn't come close to his earlier films such as Reservoir dogs or Pulp fiction. I mean i can keep going on making analogies, what Matt Damon says makes sense, only partially. Based on the structure of the modern movie industry they will not take the same risks again until they know it guarantees a huge stream of revenue given their greed. Hence why remakes of classic movies, rehashes of established franchises along with superhero flicks are the norm these days. Small budget innovative projects turned into mega success like Home Alone will not happen in this current climate.
Love that y’all have started discussing pop culture. Creativity is important, too often overlooked and the essence of humanity. If it is used and abused by big business and the general audience it is sold to, we lose a lot more than what may be considered. Artists deserve more control and dictation over their trade and what they love and live for, rather than those that are indifferent and couldn’t care less. It’s their stage, not the audiences.
They all have a camera and a phone and a connection to the internet. What’s stopping them? Artists have 100% control and dictation over their trade right now… unless they take a shit load of money from someone in order to make a shit load more money. Then the producers writing the checks make the decisions and you work for them now. You don’t have to take the money. Do it all yourself. Or work for the man, save up, then produce your own shit.
I watched mostly movies made before the 1960s. They're definitely exciting. They've got a lot of morals and messages and great acting and beautiful people. And you can actually see most of them on RU-vid now.
And this is why, even to this day, I still buy blu-ray and even 4k bluray combo sets of movies I absolutely love and want to support. I have movies still in their original packaging. Bought them just because I felt those involved deserved the financial support... Also, I don't like the idea that I could be without my movie collection if there is an internet outage or if the streaming servers crash for some reason. Hard copies for life.
@@michaelneufeld4515 Nardwuar still got bigger reactions but Evan's has the wings to throw ppl off guard so its really smart. Plus he promos the sauces. Winner Winner Chicken dinner.
I'm a millennial, I listen to Pink Floyd... it's not just old people who would rather listen to older music. A lot of the music today isn't on the same level.
Exactly i'm a millennial myself, these unfounded"nostalgia" excuses are just obsolete. Frankly entertainment today isn't on the same level as it was before.
Matt Damon forgets to mention that the actors still get paid 25 to 30 million dollars. The cuts are coming from everywhere else; including the crew members. If actors actually cared about the art, they would take a pay cut.
Saagar is on point re Netflix. There is no editing on that platform. Everything could be 50% shorter without losing anything. Also think it should not cost $50M to make and market a "small" movie. The pricing of these "stars" is way out of line.
When the last duel released, we were still coming out of the pandemic. I had friends who had family members who had died. My dad was in the hospital from april to june for instance. Basically, I just wasnt in the mood for a medieval drama about rape and revenge. I needed something dumb and fun. I think i saw the suicide squad instead. If the last duel released now, I would totally see it in theaters.
Movies suck today because of 1) too much reliance on CGI, and 2) too many sequels. Not many movies nowadays that don't fall into one of those two categories. Gone are the days when new movies were unique and relied mostly on acting. Movies like Shawshank, Glory, Usual Suspects, Leaving Las Vegas, or even Damon's own Good Will Hunting.
Last Duel was amazing. If you liked that, check out Rashomon. Great non-fiction book too! The guy who wrote it, also wrote a wonderful mystery set in the same era. A medieval true crime non-fiction piece. I'd honestly rather see Hollywood concentrate on long form series rather than movies. I get the appeal of the amusement park ride that is blockbuster movies, but for me, they're not that engaging. Eye candy with little substance. Marvel is the best example, and for the most part, they manage to have just enough substance to engage a big audience. But it's a ride, not a film. There's still a place for film, but until the technology makes small budget films more profitable, and until they embrace direct to streaming, they'll suffer. Give me a 4-5 season, long arc series that has good production values, acting and story any day over a 2-3 hour movie.
Meh. I prefer to just watch the *original* version of *Rashomon.* Story and movie made by a Japanese guy name Akira Kurosawa. That's the man George Lucas stole Star Wars from. For those who can think past the male menopause of the Marvel universe and read subtitles, there's a whole world of *unstolen* art to enjoy 🤨
I like the Last Duel, but I thought it was too long. The theatrical cut literally showed the same scenes 3 times. I just hope that the new Dune movie was popular enough to warrant some sequels.
It's a strange landscape for art these days. Steve Conrad, a brilliant screenwriter, has been passed over and had his shows canceled so much that he even continued one of his series in the form an audio drama he releases for free without permission from Amazon who owns the rights. Some of the best writing you'll ever hear is being given for free to an audience of less than 200 subscribers.
is he? it seems to me that he forgot about streaming. netflix is producing some great stuff and they advertise on their own site and dont need theaters.
So what do you think is a course for change? Sounds to me like production and marketing budgets expanded too much in the 2000s due to DVDs, but they did not adapt after the bottom fell out on that so they need to find ways to use resources more efficiently or to expand their revenue stream. Like here in Japan, often films and series go hand and hand and you get a film after a series has completed.
For my 69 year old self, "The Irishman" was an excellent movie. A swan song for the genre ini the 21st century. The cast are like old familiar friends to me. It's clear that this type of content doesn't resonate with the majority of the population in the 21st century. "The cinema I grew up with and that I’m making, it’s gone...The theater will always be there for that communal experience, there’s no doubt. But what kind of experience is it going to be? Is it always going to be a theme-park movie? I sound like an old man, which I am. The big screen for us in the ’50s, you go from Westerns to Lawrence of Arabia to the special experience of 2001 in 1968. The experience of seeing Vertigo and The Searchers in VistaVision..."Martin Scorsese .
I loved the Irishman, and I'm not that old, it also gave me some context as to why so many people keep talking about Jimmy Hoffa and the unknown circumstances behind his alleged demise.
Hot Ones is a GREAT interview show and Sean asks great, well researched questions. The eating hot wings gimmick actually serves a purpose. It forces the celebrities to drop their public facade for a moment because they are literally in pain - so you get more honest answers and not ones you would get from a PR firm.
Am not sure I buy the DVD argument. If you go back to 50s 60s 70s, there was no recorded aftermarket. Money had to be made at the theaters. And movies were art
Krystal, you should look at what's happened with Star Trek. They ruined one of the only mainstream media franchise's that positively portrayed progressive values.
Actually, Strange New Worlds isn't that bad. They're going back to a more exploratory planet to planet and episodic style like the original. It's better than STD which was filled with far too much crying and emotional affirmation. It felt like I was watching a CW drama, except it was Star Trek.
@@GROGU123 STD was an abomination, it basically looked like the writers had zero desire to write a real Star Trek show, and just wanted generic sci-fi, but they forced them to use the Star Trek IP. The best Star Trek show out there right now is the Orville, it really captures the spirit of Star Trek without the Star Trek IP.
@@GROGU123 "Actually, _Strange New Worlds_ isn't that bad." Ouch. Damned by faint praise. And therein lies the problem, when the best is only mediocre.
@@OgamiItto70 lol yes, but to be honest, most of the other Star Trek's muddled their way through the first season. They didn't really pick up until later seasons.
The problem is the capital investment that is just frivolously thrown at the movie in development. Yes more money usually means more spectacle - however if those investments aren’t bringing in a proportional audience increase then the movie is dead in the water. The key to innovation and success is working with smaller budgets. That constraint breeds creativity, and the bar for success is much smaller and more feasible when you don’t have to make back 200 million in production and marketing costs. EDIT: very interesting segment. Thanks for changing it up.
"Eating the seed-corn" is so amazingly spot on. Disney has been the worst offender, literally stopping all other new story development to mine their old content, but it's become an obsession in Hollywood -- almost as though the company executives don't want to even pay writers for prospective projects that could get them out of this rut... it's so much cheaper to buy scripts and take 30 gambles on small projects than to pump hundreds of millions out these massive remakes, only for audiences to roll their eyes when it comes out. Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, matrix, jurassic park, alien movies -- all are $$$s that could have gone towards new tent-pole films of Today
Honestly I think the DVDs are just a scapegoat when the real problem was the industrys greedy attempt to pivot from DVDs to pay per view and electronic "rights" vendors like Comcast that charged insane rates to end users for content that could souly be viewed on their closed platforms.
Sorry but the real problem is lack of creative talent and leftist ideologues. These are just made up reasons used by people that are deflecting inaqequacies.
I used to go to fine art movie theaters to see more movies with higher integrity in their stories. They had lower budgets and less flare, but they were well worth seeing. I do watch netflix at times, but I honestly find more of the movies I like through Kanopy, the streaming service through the library. I believe we need to find more avenues like this to give artists, directors and producers more incentive to make films that really change people's lives. Movies now are too often just a distraction from life, rather than an opportunity to integrate it or change one's paradigm. I know I don't know everything about the costs, but I don't believe we need higher budgets. We need an industry that offer a better alternative.
But I blame covid to inflation for making it feel as if film is only being developed for being labeled as “ a distraction “ from the stress of the real world.
@@YOURMINDMOTIV Thank you for your kind comment . I think we have certainly needed a distraction. Wouldn't it be great if we could find both distractions and art that changes our lives?
Eh, I have found it to be exactly the opposite. Couldn’t be happier that we are now freed from the banality of cable or the never ending stream of trite nonsense that used to fill up the average North American movie theatre. Unless you were fortunate enough to have an art house theatre in your area and could access independent films or movies from abroad. I now have access to movies and shows and music from around the world. I think Matt and older stars like him are just not adapting to the reality that you’re not going to have a captive audience anymore. The days of only having a few other movies at any one time to compete against are long gone. You aren’t going to be able to demand $50M for a lead role in every movie you star in anymore. But it also means that MORE actors and writers and directors will have a shot at making a living, even if it’s a modest one, doing their craft. I think that’s a good thing. The same in the music industry. I hear older musicians whining about the state of streaming but they never mention that we the consumer now have access to thousands of artists we would NEVER have heard of or had a chance of discovering and we can now support them via buying directly from their own sites or going to see them in concert (which Spotify does a great job of letting you know about) at whatever small venue they might be at if they aren’t a big stadium artists. The world keeps on spinning. Things change. Saying that change necessarily means what we have now is crap compared to what came before … well, you’re entitled to your opinion for sure, but I certainly have not experienced it that way.
@@northwoodfalls1403 It is a rare that I come across a response that is so well written, cogent, and detailed that it makes me rethink my position. Given the persuasive case you made, I am inclined to agree with you. I appreciate you taking the time to write all of that.
If you’re wondering what all the eyeballs have turned to watch, you mentioned it at the beginning. RU-vid shows like Hot Ones are absolutely massive. They routinely cross 10+ million views. Newer generations are virtually done with traditional filmmaking. It’s all about RU-vid and tik tok.
I think the series format of streaming has really changed the level of a storytelling that could never have been done in a movie format, such as Game of Thrones, Queens Gambit, etc. if done well, we get much richer stories. I have also seen some amazing movies come out on streaming that might never have been done on the big screen, like the Professor and the Madman and The Dig. I think with every major technological shift. there are a few gems among a lot of other mediocre materials. Another thing streaming has made possible is access to an amazing amount of good foreign content.
@Eric I’m sure there’s people who don’t want to watch 80 hours to get a full story. Also look how GOT stuck the landing, the producers were ready to move on and the story suffered for it.
On the flip side of this. You can also get a lot of stories that are "rich" to the point that they're boring. I'm trying to get into Foundation and after 2 episodes I'm bored and don't have any idea what this is going to be about.
@@elizabethkraszewski6603 I'm so far liking Foundation after having seen the first season. I read a couple of the books in the day, but tried to go back to the books recently and found that the lingo was just two archaic.
@@ragnakak yeah, but you could never watch serialized shows anytime you want it to. You couldn't binge like you can today. And TV shows had never gotten the kind of budgets they are getting these days.
So basically the whole thing could have been summed up in one word... GREED. This is a good followup to Crystal's radar on why Woodstock 99 was such a disaster.
Not greed, just not willing to waste money on a losing battle. In this curent climate, if your not a super hero movie, a remake of a remake, or a reeboot of a reeboot, or some popcorn action franchise, you're probably not going to make a profit.
@@esnips123123 From what I hear, back in the day Studios understood that character dramas were not going to be a money maker for them, but they made them anyway because they used the big blockbusters to subsidize the smaller movies. In those cases profit wasn't the only motivation. Some of those were Oscar bait, some were there to keep up the Studio's profile, or to attract specific directors/actors. The bottom line was that they were willing to take a chance on something that did not guarantee profits. Right now, like you said, they don't want to take any chances, and it's only about the profit.
I fundamentally disagree with Matt on this one. From his perspective he's probably correct, however the point he will never understand is: there is no reason the movie should cost all of those millions to create in the first place! If you need an example, look at the movie "Upgrade". Total budget was $8 million dollars. And that's for AAA amazing effects. The core issue is that to get Matt Damon to star in your movie, your gonna have to pay him $20 million dollars. And THATS why they won't gamble on movies nowadays unless it's with cast that are not household names.
I agree. Big-budget movies are big-budget coz of the star fees going astronomically high. Besides, DVD business is not gone, it's simply taken over by streaming services. Which much easier to deal with as once the rights are sold, all headache is passed on to the streaming services, unlike DVD which the producer still have to be involved in making, marketing and selling.
You ever watch the credits of a movie? You do know ALL of those people need to get paid? There are so many more financial factors than the actors salary!
Agreed! Even look at the first Home Alone movie which had a very modest budget of 18 million which included top notch actors like Joe Pesci with two academy award back in the day that wasn't as greedy, nor the directors of the outcome yet was a mega success.
Completely disagree with your point about music. It's so much easier for artists to start out without labels these days. So there's a lot more genuine and unique stuff out there. Just cause you don't like the current mainstream, doesn't mean there isn't good music being produced. You're just not finding it.
@@bojassem12 You get paid fractions of a penny for each play on a streaming service while physical media you can sell at your shows (nevermind tour only releases, signed copies, etc.). Physical media has nothing to do with labels. And if there "a lot more genuine and unique stuff out there", show me the continuation of the rock opera, the American standard, or even champaign music being done by artist that started within the last decade.
He is a diplomat not to say that current movies are trash because of the woke, LGBTQ, feminist, social justice and progressive agenda and nobody likes these movies anymore.
The majority of movies are based on comic books and I have no interest. Also, I don’t want to have subscribe to all the streaming services to check out one movie that interests me.
The last duel flopped because they had half a helmet on Mat. Everyone knows that no one jousted with half a helmet, so people thought there would be other dumb things in the movie.
It's almost like The Last Duel was released in theaters during a thing called a 'global pandemic' and amidst a period rising inflation, both coinciding with dramatically increased theater concession prices in an attempt to make up for losses during that whole 'global pandemic' thing and theaters being dirtier than ever and smelling like stale broccoli bathwater farts. But yes, the mystery of how and why movies like The Three Rapes of Jodie Comer--I mean The Last Duel, and Tenet, and even money printing blockbusters bombed at the box office is surely just that people don't buy or rent DVDs now. It's those damned Millennials ruining yet another industry because they're just too lazy to spend money on Stuff.
Mainstream movies can be awful and extremely formulaic. But if you delve into indie movies you could still find some amazing movies. I actually think that the number of good to great movies released every year has significantly increased. It's just that movies with big marketing budgets make the industry in general look really bad.
"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares. "But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us. "This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right." From "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business" by Neil Postman.
Let’s not forget how expensive it is to go to the movies. When I was a teen in the 80s you could spend a little money for a few hours of entertainment. Today it’s a lot of money and people (of all ages) would rather spend that money elsewhere. Entertainment like this isn’t affordable anymore. You have to budget it is as a special occasion which takes the spontaneity out of it. Takes some of the enjoyment away. If you walk away disappointed you realize you just spent a weeks worth of groceries on something you didn’t really enjoy
Similar stagnation is occurring in the big budget side of the video game industry. The indie scene with all its fresh ideas is a big part of why I'm still a gamer. I'd like to see a thriving indie scene for movies. There are indie movies, but they need way more exposure.
Word! But unfortunately at the same time, AAA games is what gives us the incentive to actually game, to me indie projects doesn't hold up in the long run.
@@outlawfly664 My niece and nephew enjoy indie games a lot, like Broforce and Calico and Friday Night Funkin'. These are some of their favorites. Indie gaming is getting better and more popular.
@@daytimesky I will look out for those titles, thanks. Hopefully it get better and popular, unfortunately for me i haven't find those yet that really pushes the envelope. All i'm saying is that AAA games is the biggest incentive for gaming, it's been that way across many generations, today it's a barren wasteland when it comes to quality fully agreed. It's like consoles not having first party AAA exclusives, then there's no incentive to buy it.
@@daytimesky Video games still have a medium that allows consumers to buy. That is not the case for the theaters who only show a certain type of movie that has driven people out of the theaters. That audience that is staying away will not be easy to get back again.
That's not true at all. Marvel keeps releasing crap but because its familiar it makes money. You can make a great movies but if it's not based on a familiar story already popular its a huge gamble
