Film Courage: Would you say that 99
percent of all movies today are garbage? Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of
FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: In an age where most movies are referred to as
content, I would say that 99 percent of those movies are pretty…bad. I always try…when I say
99 percent I mean of mainstream. When you look at (and I think one of the best examples of this
is the sort of Zack Snyder's Justice League) and how that was bungled. How that was bungled,
how the Star Wars franchise was bungled, how they could not…I mean to me I’m the studio
executive in charge of Star wars and we're making a new star wars movie and the first thing I’m
going to do is I’m going to put Han, Luke and Leia in a scene together and the fact that that
moment we will never be able to have that moment in cinema when Carrie Fisher was alive, that to me
is I mean that's that's malpractice, that's studio malpractice. The fact that they had with Zack
Snyder's vision what he was building up to be, I think seeing the four-hour final product of
what Zack Snyder's Justice League turned out to be and that they made this garbage thing Joss
Whedon I mean it's disheartening to me to see that I will say on an indie level tend to take like a
glass half full view and I tend to always look for the positive when it comes to indie films because
you cannot compare the…you can't compare an indie movie shot in 12 days for $10,000 dollars
to Justice League whichever version you're talking about you can't compare because in my
mind there is no excuse for a studio to fail when they put out a blockbuster movie you have no
excuse. Your job is to entertain me, not lecture me. Not lecture me, your job is to entertain me.
Unfortunately we live in a time you know back in the day when Star Wars was first made I feel
like they were checking one box it was called fun and now there's not only there's a million boxes
that must be checked. There are all sorts of noting and committees and this thing and
this is where you end up with…you know that last Star Wars movie by J.J. Abrams is
unwatchable. I mean it's garbage. It's exactly it informs exactly everything wrong with the
studio system. It's terrible. So I look at like the Justice League debacle, the Star Wars
franchise and how that has been was mishandled and I look at that and I just think how
could that have been done? Where were the… where was the…we they ever like looking at the
fans and what they think? What do the fans think of this stuff? Are they satisfying the fans? Most
normal people don't care. Is it entertaining? Taking my family especially how expensive it is
to the movie theater experience which is is going away right? The theatrical experience of seeing a
movie is going away. You had better entertain me. and I think that whether Hollywood notices
it or not, I think that people don't really like politics woven into fairly mainstream (which
should be mainstream) entertainment experiences. And I think we're seeing that more and more.
It's unbelievable to me. I think you're leaving money on the table for not giving what the
customer is looking for in that experience. In my mind, studios there's no excuse to
fail. You have the best people in marketing. You have the most talented actors, craftsmen. When
it comes to special effects and cinematography, music - there's no excuse for that to fail
and I think part of the failing of Hollywood is that the marketing is so good. Sometimes I’ve
argued with friends sometimes that I believe that there should be a key art…I mean there are key
art awards you know for key movie poster art. I’m a fan of movie poster art. There's a really
good documentary about movie poster art called 24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters [Director
Kevin Burke]. Check out that documentary. But you know there should almost a marketing award and
here's the problem, the conundrum, the marketing for some for these movies is so good, the
product doesn't live up to the marketing. I got chills watching the trailers for The Rise
of Skywalker. I was so excited to see that movie. The ninth I mean, I was a kid when I saw Star
Wars. I’m seeing the ninth movie in this saga. I cannot believe how horrible it turned out. It’s
really to me, it's malpractice. What happened to that franchise and how it's divided fandom?
Fighting over things that are really irrelevant? I think it's well not entirely irrelevant, the fact
that they're just like you're seeing people from within that company attack the fans, it's just
like it’s…I hate to see it because I’m like nerds are my people I go to San Diego Comic-Con
every year. I have since the 90’s gone to San Diego Comic-Con and so to see people fractured
over this is really disheartening. But when it comes to studio movies there's no excuse not to
fail. Now when it comes to small indie movies, to make a good movie under those circumstances
without the resources, without the money, without the great people in marketing without the
budget, without all of the best of circumstances, to make an indie movie that like actually can you
can be touched and moved by that is something to be said. Which is why i've always gravitated
toward indie film. It's a miracle when you see something that's watchable out of a studio. But I
don't know like where the executives, I mean other than like maybe coming to mind like a kevin frose
which you know maybe his best days are behind him, you know I can't think of a studio
executive that is a visionary these days. Film Courage: Are those the jocks?
The nerds are the consumers? Chris: Yeah the jocks. I mean when we
look at like the era the 70’s being the last great era of American
filmmaking, we really are losing that American identity because we’ve
become so fractured as a culture and I think that where's the movie that we all love
without debate? That we've all loved exactly? I don't know that there is one and and
that's really, I really at the end of the day I miss loving Star Wars. I miss loving it. I used
to love it and now i'm saddened by that franchise. I’m using that as like the best example. There's
a lot of other examples we could talk about The Terminator franchise, we could talk about Star
Trek, we can talk about these these sort of dead franchises that have sort of lost their way. But
when you look at like I just saw a documentary called Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies
[Director Amanda Ladd Jones] about Alan Ladd, the visionary studio executive who basically
green lit Star Wars and protected George Lucas, I’m just afraid we're never going to see another
George Lucas right? We're never going to see another real creative visionary
that changes the industry because everything is so corporate. You know it's
like what did Francis Ford Coppola say, factory filmmaking. That's the age in
which we live. There's factory filmmaking which is a product and content and then
there's up-and-coming indie filmmakers and when I talked about checking those boxes
earlier a lot of it is like is it going to appeal international? I mean let's be honest, the box
office internationally and especially in China is much bigger than the United States. That market,
those dollars…so you can't make a movie for the United States anymore. You have to make a movie
for the world which is fine but I think in a way that's sort of diluting our identity as a people,
as Americans, as we’ve become more fractured and it's distressing to see. You see it when it's
like I was having a conversation with a friend because of course the movies are always an ongoing
conversation with friends. If you're in my circle, it will come up and it's like when you look at
like when certain decisions are organic or when you see when it's shoe horned in right? When
when certain things are shoe horned in like say the trope that's become a trope
now, the strong female lead it's just Ripley [actress Sigourney Weaver in Alien] was
a great character. Just write a great character, not try to shoehorn in a type right? You
kind of know it when you see it. You go “Oh this is cliche!” You're trying to shoehorn
in a type rather than like that's just a great character. You're also talking to a guy when I
ever play a video game I always choose a female character. I don't know why I just do that
as someone who has watched so many movies, as someone who has made their own films, why do
you think there's so many bad films that are made? Well I look, the reason there's so
many bad films these days is I think 1) the barrier to entry is much easier, but I
also think that you're there on an indie level I see bad indie films too right? I usually want to
want to help them and say “This was your lesson, okay you'll make a better movie in
your second movie if you don't quit.” But when it comes to studio films there's just too
many notes. There are too many people that it's sort of you know the modern day ball player right?
Just like it's not about the passion for playing the game. I don't have a passion of hitting the
ball and hearing the roar of the crowd. It's the licensing deals and it's this and the sales
of that and the tv commercials and whatnot. It's when I look back at the movie The Player which
came out when I first moved to Los Angeles Robert Altman's The Player [1992] things haven't
changed. The subject has changed. I mean that was sort of, it was erotic thrillers and it was Julia
Roberts and Bruce Willis were being cast in every movie that was pitched in that film. Now it's
superhero movies, but it's really too many cooks and I feel like the people being elevated to these
positions are good executives but they're not people that know the material. The heart of the
material and when you look at the history of creatives who really created something like a
George Lucas or a Gene Roddenberry things begin to lose their way when they get sidelined right?
You really need those. I just feel like the modern day Hollywood now and especially with
streaming changing the game, theaters, the survival of theaters being in doubt. Really
we may live at a time where maybe the billion dollar blockbuster may not be back for a long
time and that may end up being a good thing right? Like let's make…I’ll joke with a friend
and I’ll say my favorite Spider-Man movie is the one where Mary Jane is in peril at the
end which is pretty much all the Spider-Man movies or my favorite science fiction movie is
the movie where that thing blows up at the end that's every science fiction movie right?
Which is why and The Empire Strikes Back with such a because it wasn't about “we got
to do and blow up the thing.” That's boring. It’s just creatively bankrupt which is why Empire
Strikes back holds up everybody says “Oh it's the best Star Wars movie.” I mean you could argue it
but it's yeah because it didn't do that thing that happened in all the other movies and so trying
to go against doing that thing or fighting a blue light, there's a lot of fighting a blue light
that happens in films. Fighting a blue light, saving the person at the end, the thing that
blows up at the end and I say defy those cliches at all costs. It’s funny because you know there's
still people that are able to work within studio system and deliver worthwhile films, Christopher
Nolan being among them. I’ve quite admired his work although he has a tendency to make things a
little overly complex for no reason just to brag about how smart he is but there's always a point
in his films and you'll notice it once I pointed out where a character in a Christopher Nolan movie
will say “We have to go down the thing and grab the thing to do this and shoot this.” It's Captain
Narrative right? It's the person that stops the movie to tell you what's happening in the movie
to explain what's going to happen so the audience (the dumb audience) understands and to me so
you got that studio note and he compromises in a way that doesn't completely destroy what he's
trying to achieve as a filmmaker. So he's willing to play ball but I just see and I think the
most recent example being Zack Snyder's Justice League and the fact that that universe will remain
unexplored unfortunately which is disheartening. You look at that and i think part of the reason
that Zack Snyder's Justice League was suppressed was because once it came out and you see these
are the choices the studio executives made, they decided to hire Joss Whedon, they decided to
change everything about it in exchange for this like it makes them look bad right because what
Zack Snyder was trying to do is much much better clearly whether you enjoy it personally or not, it
was objectively much better than what Joss Whedon ended up coming up with which was effectively
a dumb cartoon, a live action dumb cartoon. Film Courage: So what about adaptations? Do you
think that's has that always been around or? Chris: Adaptations of what? Film Courage: Adaptations of popular books. Chris: Not necessarily, doesn't have
to be a franchise but think about, it's here's what's dead is originality. I
mean people forget what George Lucas created in Star Wars was something completely original.
I mean yes it was influenced by so many things, westerns, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials
and whatnot but almost nothing that you see isn't (nothing that you see in the studio realm) it's
all based on something, pre-existing material. It's a book, a graphic novel, a comic book, a
thing that kind of proved the concept right and then…or a franchise right? It's a thing that you
know whether it's Star Wars, Star Trek whatever, comic book characters that have been around for
years, it's very rare that there'll be something that's a wholly original concept. It would really
be interesting if studios rolled the dice more to get something like a Joker. What Todd
Phillips did with The Joker right? That Joker film which was a low-budget movie right?
I chatted with him about it. I’m sure you can look up quotes Todd Phillips talking about how he
pitched them doing some sort of DC Black Series. It would be these sort of one-off films that
would be stories that didn't really fit with any sort of larger continuity that were like smaller
movies we could explore a part of that universe and the fact that movie did so well from being
praised from in terms of at award season I think proves his concept was the right way to
go and people forget Todd Phillips came from independent film. I knew him back in the day
when he was making documentaries. He famously has that frat house documentary [Frat House directed
byTodd Phillips Andrew Gurland, 1998] that played Sundance and then never was released.
I think you can find it on Youtube. Film Courage: What about Mank? Chris: What about Mank? Yeah I don't know. How
you make a Mank? Here's the thing I look at Mank and I’m like I love Mank but I went to film school
and I’ve seen Citizen Kane 100 times and I’ve read books about Citizen Kane and one of my favorite
dvd commentaries is the one that Roger Ebert did for Citizen Kane. I know a lot of the backstory
and I feel like it's almost impossible to watch Mank. You have to watch Citizen Kane. Maybe
watch Citizen Kane first and then watch Mank and then re-watch Citizen Kane. I think Mank is
incredible. But i think Mank is for film nerds. I think it's brilliant that David Fincher was able
to get that film made in the way that he made. It's sort of a story about the genre made
within the style of the old school genre but with modern tools and then sort of laced with
political commentary maybe a bit too heavy-handed at times. But I really enjoyed Mank. But
that's not a mainstream audience movie so kudos to Netflix for that. But yeah most
of, I wouldn't say that. No, I like to be an optimist so I don't know that 99 percent of the
studio movies are bad. Maybe it's more like 97. We can quibble about the percentages
but you know stuff leaks through. Chris: That was a rant by the way. Film Courage: No that's
good. That's what you want, that's fantastic. I was going to add to it with
Game of Thrones but that's good. We'll stop. Question For The Viewers:
What do you disagree with?
In a follow-up he talks about a good character death, and he is very severe about the sequels. But more than that he glorifies George Lucas' creation: https://youtu.be/9K2THwBdVF0
What a weird argument to make with this franchise.
George Lucas threw politics into his films. Nute Gunray is literally a combination of Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan ("Gun-Ray" is "Rea-gan" backwards).
I'm also against anyone who claims to know what a film's "job" is. A film's job isn't to entertain you, or enlighten you, or whatever because every person who makes a film has a different point of view. George for sure didn't think his movies were just fun romps with spaceships; he'll tell you time and time again that it's a story about how empires fall and fathers and sons.
Then this guy mentions Zack Snyder's Justice League. Zack Snyder will talk to you for hours about the Arthurian and Greek Mythological structures inherent in each justice league member.
None of this is mindless entertainment. Disney's Star Wars is what happens when that's the impetus and not tying to actually say something about the world or the humans in it. It's just empty nonsense.
More: https://youtu.be/YVyBK4IF6oo
I've seen this video, it's a great watch!