InfinityBound comes out strongly against movie clichès

That’s our position and we’re sticking to it. Politics has nothing to do with it. Really. We mean it. (After all, we’re still promoting a screenplay for some close friends!)

Here’s the second in a series of anti-clichè posts by James Hudnall. The site is only political if you think that Hollywood consciously ignoring the taste of at least (At least! Yes, a conservative estimate. Eh hem.) 50 percent of the ticket-buying public is politics and not some wacky marketing strategy. The cost of staking out any exclusionary political position is quite high. We think it’s just bad business. Really some smart stockholder legal eagle will use all the accumulated evidence that these huge mega-corporations (see Hudnall’s ironic clichè #1 too.) that fund mainstream film are consciously not giving full value and make a killing.

We would like to see these clichès erased on general principle, doesn’t matter who identifies them. Our pet clichè? Ever notice that nearly all villains these days must be straight white males…who smoke.

We don’t watch much TV. We gave that Amsterdam a try for two episodes. Eh. (We were glad to see the Indian shaman save our hero by waving smoldering tobacco leaves over him, but the plots just did not grab us.) We are not anti-TV by any stretch. Give us a Seinfeld and we’ll stick for nine years. (And it was not about nothing, either. It was about the burdens inflicted and hurdles erected by friends and relations. Mm hm. You can check me on that if you like. Watch any episode with that theme in mind then come right back here. Go ahead. I’ll wait….See what I mean?)

Anyway a co-worker recommended that Life on Mars to us a few months back. Mrs. Shears and I looked at an episode online, down in the smoking lounge. Sure enough, the first show of any kind we watch in months. The bad guys? Straight white males, smokers. The guest villain was Robert Klein on that show. He was extorting the hero’s mom, trying to sign her up to his team of hookers. He and his henchman smoked cigars. Ostentatiously, I might add. Made a point of offering one to the hero. Of course he turned it down. He was from the future, after all.

Clichè confirmed. First try. We never watched it again to see how consistent this was. It had many other things wrong with it. For one, Harvey Keitel was a waste of a ratings lure. He never phones it but it was clear he should have had the lead. He could have easily. Much more interesting show if he did. But no, gotta have that young guy, no matter how bad he is. What about Keitel’s streetwise character? Was he corrupt or not in that episode? Yes. He was. For a while he was.  But later on, no. He wasn’t. It’s one thing to be ambiguous, but it’s another to be unclear. Near as we could figure it he was corrupt, and he was trying to lure the hero into being corrupt. Then all of a sudden he wasn’t, and then it wasn’t OK to be corrupt. Boy was Robert Klein surprised. Can’t say the same for the audience. Character arc? It is to laugh.

Plus they didn’t even use the Bowie song. And oh yes, the premise was ridiculous, with no attempt at all to address the well-known issues of time travel and its cunundrums. Just throw in the 70s references, pretty much at random.

We’d post some more about the horrific remake of Planet of the Apes we saw on DVD last night but it would just depress us. Mark Wahlberg in the Charlton Heston role? Tsk. If anything symbolizes how low the culture has been debased that would about sum it up. Forget about all the lame-o political bludgeons in it.

So have a look at Big Hollywood, whatever your leanings. You’ll get a whole different perspective on the business than you’re used to.