One of the joys of vacation for The Murphy Family is seeing movies. It is a long tradition for us, and we have improved on it in recent years by seeing two movies near simultaneously: a kids movie and a grown up movie. Our sojurn in Memphis was no different. So while the Fruit of the Murphy Loins enjoyed the latest Scoobie Doo movie, the Fearless Leaders watched Jersey Girl — chosen mainly for scheduling reasons. The Fruit have seen very few kids movies they didn’t like; I wish the Fearless Leaders could say the same about their movie choices. While Jersey Girl wasn’t bad, ultimately, it wasn’t good either.
Hollywood makes a lot of movies every year, yet only 4 or 5 are worth seeing. As we watched the trailers proceeding the movie, I was struck repeatedly by the thought “who in their right mind would think people would want to watch this hunk of junk?” A tidal wave of movie crap washes over us. There is a reason video games have passed up movies at making money. I don’t know if there ever was a true golden age of Hollywood movies, but it today it seems the industry is driven less by the desire to make a buck and more by the desire to pamper stars. How many lousy Kevin Costner pictures were made flattering his ego and confirming that he is completely out of touch? The star system in both movies and sports (another industry where stars are overpaid and overpraised) is worsening the product.
