Hollywood Hasn't Figured It Out

Thanks to the ice storm, I am stuck at home. My driveway has about 1/2 inch of ice, which is covered by about 2 inches of snow. I'm not sure that the roads near me are much better yet. So while looking for something to watch on TV, I noticed that there were several Bruce Willis movies I had not heard of. But checking with the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), it is clear why I haven't heard of them.

There was a time (not that long ago) that Hollywood thought all they needed for success was a bunch of flashy special effects, and people would flock to a movie. Did you see any of the 3D stuff from the 1980s? (Here is the trailer for Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone if you're unclear on the topic.) For a longer time, they thought that everyone would run to see a movie if you could sign a "Big name star." Neither is really true.

There was a brief time when the tiny minds in Hollywood realized that people want good story-telling. This was when the Sundance Film Festival was new. But that kind of movie is hard for a studio to create. There isn't room for the suits to put their stamp on it. There isn't room to change the script to make that "Big name" happy. And besides, it doesn't have explosions featuring aliens or mutants or both. That time of story telling seems to be over.

I haven't delved into any of these movies, and based on the ratings they've recieved from IMDB I probably won't. IMDB ratings are out of a possible 10 points, but because of the way people rate things, I don't usually watch anything less than a 7 rating, unless a trusted friend recommends it.

Movie Title	IMDB Rating
American Siege	3.6
Deadlock	3.5
Apex	3.1
Survive the Game	4.3
Trauma Center	4.2

In fact, the only production featuring Bruce Willis in the past few years that could breach 7 on the IMDB scale was a Die Hard Battery commercial featuring John McClain of Die Hard. It is 2 minutes long. I haven't seen it.

There are more movies that "star" Bruce Willis that can't reach a 5 on the IMDB scale. While a couple of the movies in this list seem like someone had a fresh idea, or they decided to remake an unrelated movie from the 1970s or 80s or 90s, most them appear to be a variation on the Die Hard series. And really Bruce Willis is getting too old for that kind of thing.

In other words, Hollywood has run out of ideas.

Do I think that Hollywood will go back to story telling? Not any time soon. They are still mesmerized by the MCU and exploding aliens.