A Few Good Movies

I just finished watching A Few Good Men for the first time in my life.  What a brilliant reminder of why I used to love movies, and why I don't give a crap about watching them anymore.

A Few Good Men was made in 1992, and had more big-name actors than People Magazine.  Ahh, those were the days.  The days when actors were paid huge sums of money, but not so huge that studios couldn't afford to star more than one of them in a film.  The days when movies had deep, interesting storylines that taught you something.  In watching a movie, you could lose yourself for 3 hours at a time and actually feel like you were a Marine who cared only about staying a Marine. The days when you cried at the end of the movie because you could empathize with the characters, not because it was such a horrible movie and you're sad that you just wasted 3 hours of your life on it.

These days, actors make more money than whole countries.  They spend more on a set of bed sheets than I spend on food for a whole month.  And I know this because said actors flaunt this information on ridiculous reality TV shows that really only showcase their stupidity. 

These days movies seem to be less about making you think deeper about life, and more about making you think deeper about how you just wasted $10 to go see a dumbass movie when you could have spent the $10 on toilet paper....it would have been a better financial decision, and the end result is about the same.

I can't help but think about how disappointed I am when I leave a theater these days.  Even the indy films that are supposed to be life-changing make me wish I had saved my $$ and instead simply rented a movie from 20 years ago. 

Sure, there have been some good movies lately.  Juno was good, I did really like that one.  Marley & Me was ok, but the book was better.  Same for Harry Potter.  Up was pretty entertaining, and I cried in the first several minutes because I could empathize with the cartoon man whose wife dies.  Yep, there were A Few Good Movies in the 2000's.  But I can think a lot of good movies from the 90's....