Worst decade for movies?

Wow. Four movies. Very good example.

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“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so ****ing what." - Stephen Fry, The Guardian, 5 June 2005

So, saying "Whatever. You kids enjoy your entertainment. I'm the odd man out. Whatever." isn't condescending?

This is imo the "problem" of this discussion. People think of todays blockbuster movies and generalize that the whole decade is bad. I see a lot of great movies from the last 15 years - mostly smaller ones.

Four movies from the last 6-8 months. As an example. Should i list every great movie from the past 15 years. That's going to be a very long list.

Ok, I compiled all my posts on this thread... and added a couple bits too.


Everyone on here so far has simply said "this decade" or "that decade" is the worst and hasn't really given any argument toward their choice... and has simply defended their favourite decade and taken offence to anyone saying their favourite decade is the worst.


Here's my defence of the 80s and the reasons behind my choice of the 2010s.




IMDb, as rated my users rather than critics... the worst 100 films of all time, 66 of them, over half of them, are from 1995 to present day.
The other 34 range from 1959 to 1994.
34 movies over a 35 year period, whereas the other 66 are solely from the past 20 years.
That's a 300% jump in crap.


There are 202 movies on Rotten Tomatoes that have been rated 0% by users and critics alike.
107 of them, over half of them, are dated 2000-2015... 38 are dated 1990-1999.
The other 57 go from 1952-1989.


Just had a look at the biggest Box Office Bombs as well... the Top 50 Box Office failures are made up of 41 movies dated 2000-2015, the other 7 are dated 1997, 1998 and 1999.
That means 82% of the biggest failures in cinematic history are since the year 2000. The other 18% are from the last 3 years of the 90s.


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My own opinion on best and worst decades?


The 80s was probably the best tbh. Early 1990s was too.
That was when cinema hit a peak with originality and sheer imagination.


After 1996-1997 though, everything became all about sequels, remakes... and making copies of old movies, just under a new name.
Worst Decade? I'd say 1995-2015 is the worst 20 year period of film in History. Not just going by the stats I posted above either.


IMHO, the 10 years of 2001-2010 is the worst solid decade so far... but even so, this decade we're in right now is shaping up to be even worse if it carries on like this.
But, every decade had/has its Gold, even since 1995, and every decade had/has total garbage, even the 1980s.


At least the garbage of yester-decades were original ideas.
The garbage that's been puked out since 1995 are just gash remakes, sequels... and copies of old movies, just under a new name.
I'm not just on about the top of the box office either, like, the biggest budgets and Hollywood productions.
If you look at the smaller films of today, the non-Blockbusters and B-Movies etc, they're of similar ilk to the decades gone by.


That area of cinema hasn't really changed a great deal. They're made by people who have a hunger for making films and make them for the enjoyment. They put their blood sweat and tears into those films.
I say they haven't changed a great deal, the changes are that modern lower budget movies still use olde ideas from this film and that film.
But then take the whole lot altogether: Smaller films AND the top end of the biggest productions.


Movies today, over the entire range, from B-Movies to Blockbusters, are of a much lower standard in writing, originality and imagination.
The 80s was a peak.
Terminator, Predator, The Blues Brothers, the mini-creature feature like Gremlins and Critters, The Goonies, BTTF, The Evil Dead.
Original ideas.
Was there anything even remotely like Ghostbusters before Ghostbusters came along? Was there anything even remotely like BTTF before BTTF came along? The Goonies? Even an 80s crapfest like Basket Case?
Even theough Basket Case was crap, was there anything like it before it?


I'm not sure if I've actually seen or heard a genuinely original idea in ANY area of cinema, Blockbuster or not, since maybe Starship Troopers in 1997.

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No, it wasn't, before you let your persecution complex get out of hand. "Kids" wasn't insinuating movie-goers today as immature juveniles, but literally teenagers and children who prefer these 'entertaining movies'. I was merely stating that I don't want to be a part of this ongoing hype. But whatever, take it as you will.

Woo, or are you going to be 'offended' again? Read my signature, you wanker. Now that is what offensive looks like.

I didn't say sacrificed. I said spoiled. As in, there is a good narrative. It is original and inventive. But the CGI completely takes over the experience. You can't enjoy the story anymore even though it keeps being recognizable as good.

Many of the movies you mention here -a lot of them being sequels, by the way- are infamous for being bad and uninspired stories. Case in point with the Transformers saga which nobody praises for or even cares about its storytelling. Or the Matrix or Star Wars sequels which are widely agreed to not be on par with the first entries in their sagas, in every aspect, narrative ones included.

@90sAce
I got it, my issue here is that it is still a small and biased sample. It's like judging the 80s on their entirety for their cheesy action movies or for their slashers. Some people may be into them and some people may not but they don't represent the entirety of the decade, which is the topic we are talking about. And CGI is not the problem. I don't believe people have Wall-e and Transformers in the same consideration and they are both prevalent in their use of CGI. If anything the issue is the lack of other elements, or more likely -which is what I believe- the lack of quality displayed by these other elements. Like corny comedy, obnoxious characters or badly displayed emotions.

@JacobKyon
Here you get. Pick 10.

God you're worse than me when it comes to looking for a fight. Name-calling because (oh the horror!) someone disagrees with you about CGI. Are you 11 years old, or do you just have the maturity level of an 11 year old?

BTW Einstein, you don't even have a signature showing.

I agree with you about Pixar films being a different ballpark; what I had in mind is mediocre action or Sci-Fi/Fantasy films overrusing CGI, and CGI being the main selling point alone of so many blockbusters. As much of a rap as the 80s gets for 'cheesy action films' for example, let's just compare Terminator with the Terminator Genesis trailers; the action in the original 80s film was a lot more restrained and in line with the plot rather than just for show - it sure didn't feature CGI buses falling from bridges, or Arnie jumping out of helicopters I'll say that much.

FYI: signatures show on the person's first post on a given page, but not subsequent ones.

Good to know, thaks - never seen that feature before

Exposure and audience. The majority of people who use IMDB are likely to be younger people who have been mainly exposed to newer films and have likely not watched many older films.

Also time is a filter, I'm sure there are lots of bad films from older decades, but newer generations no not to watch them, or wont get the chance, because time has meant they have been forgotten.


Things like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have to source critics reviews of cinematic releases, and for many films pre 1990s this is difficult unless hey are re released. Remember these websites, IMDB included are new, so newer films get more ratings where as older bad films are never going to be re released or reviewed again by critics.


What is the definition of a box office failure here? In terms of money lost? If so that's because films are now generally more expensive to make, at least blockbusters - inflation, huge digital effects etc.

To label the 80s/90s the peak of originality/imagination to me seems insulting to a lot of the decades before and the geniuses who pioneered film in the first place, or helped transform it in to what it was.

This is the problem with these types of thread, nobody has seen everything. But this argument seems to be largely based on mainstream, hollywood cinema. If you look at auteurs and independent directors then you'll see that its not all remakes and sequels. There are plenty of new wave movements in lots of different countries recently, especially in the East.

Again, this statement wouldn't be so bad without the 'or not', but now its incredibly dismissive of non-blockbuster cinema, there are thousands of examples of original ideas in films since 1997, that aren't blockbusters.

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Which decade was responsible for causing Hollywood to focus on franchises, remakes and special effects? If you're not content with the state of mainstream film today, then you surely have to blame the decades that started the trend.

The 70s started it when they made Jaws, Star Wars and Alien.


Ok the sequels were made in the 80s, but the seeds were sown in the 70s.

If you want to go there it's actually The Godfather Part II that started the sequels/remakes trend.

I think that's giving too much authority blindly to "the originals" - I don't agree that just because someone started a trend or innovation means that they perfected it, and that they automatically deserve status above all others by sole virtue of being the ones who 'started it all'

Oh, Superman: The Movie as well. Also the 70s if you're interested.

Along with "The French Connection 2", "Jaws 2" and "Rocky 2". All 70's movies.

Yeah it's definitely The Curse of the Cat People that started it all because it's a singular example of a sequel

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Mubi

With 51 votes, it seems the 70's and 60's are the most well-liked, and that the most hated stuff is either new or really old.

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A remake of 1903's A trip to the moon.

They told me to stop drinking because it was destroying my mental health, but when I look at the results of this poll, drink isn't required to do the job.

Nah, it's like Daniel M said... it's because nobody on here has seen enough movies from the 60s and 70s to make judgment on them