|
...or maybe Airport.
The plot development is basically like this: "we'll take 10 people from various backgrounds, show the audience a little slice of their lives, then put them all in the blender while we blow stuff up."
Even SWAT has an element of this (but sounds like it even falls into stereotypical characterization).
That being said, they don't HAVE to be bad -- but directors/producers/screenwriters get lazy (and/or poor).
I was thinking about the movie 'Independence Day', for example. Now on first glance, it's a basic 'Irwin Allen'-type movie. But it didn't have to be. Will Smith's character didn't have to be so overdrawn. Randy Quaid's character could have been done non-comedically, Jeff Goldblum's character (and his 'father') and relationship with his ex- could have been a lot more interesting. But the problem is, they wanted to keep rushing to the money shots, so the scenes in-between were thin, and didn't ring true (they were like TV characters)
Big budget, Big Name, Action Thrillers can be good, if sufficient effort is put into them (and the pacing changed). "The Great Escape" had a TON of huge name actors in it, lots of subplots -- on the surface, another 'poseidon adventure' (but predates it, I believe). But the script and direction pulled it into one single great STORY -- it could have sucked!
I don't think it's just as matter of, "it's all been done before", either. Papillon and The Great Escape are almost the same movie, if you boil down the plots to their essentials. Yet, due to the treatment by the director and screenwriters in each case, they stand on their own as classic stories.
Hell, even the 'buddy movie' can be done well if they want to. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a shining example, but even the FIRST '48 hrs' and 'Lethal Weapon' were actually not that bad (in the same way). The sequels sucked wind, however, because they were just formula movies.
'Gladiator' was good, because they had a good script, and because the director was trying to tell a story, not just show a bunch of stuff exploding and people getting eaten by tigers (although there was plenty of that, it wasn't the point of the movie).
It's like television has infected the cinema -- that's what it is...Directors don't often take the time to tell us a story anymore -- it's a lot harder than following a 'box office blockbuster' formula.
|