Why 99% Of Movies Today Are Garbage - Chris Gore

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?