Screenwriting : Stir up some controversy by Jason Mirch

Hey, Jason Mirch. I don't think I have an unpopular opinion, but excellent blog/prep guide! I redid some things in my treatment and pitch deck after reading your blog, and the treatment and pitch deck are better! And I still need to see Love Actually.

Don't try to become screenwriters if you can't spend thousands of dollars to promote your work.

Ridley Scott should've retired from directing after The Martian.

His lastest movies are very mid.

Have to agree about Ridley Scott, hasn't made a half way decent film in years. Don't like the fact that he sees his directing as just a job.

The level of violence and graphic results, the glorification of people who violate laws, and the intricate visuals that fly by before anyone can register what they saw have created generations of people who ignore mores, ethics, and positive values and can't handle reality.

Die Hard is a Christmas movie. There, I said it. Ho. Ho. Ho. :)

I'll certainly think about something!

Jason Mirch what me? Say something controversial, well, here goes. You did ask for it.

I went to watch Gladiator II the other night with my son and I thought it was lamentable. It was all just a pastiche of a truly great film. What was originally a cinematic event, is turned into spectacle, a mere action movie wherein no real clever intrigue arises, the music was mere background noise and poor Connie Nielsen must have been sick of the direction to ‘cry’. It sounded to me like the dropping of quotes from the first film was just too earnest and trying way too hard to be profound.

There y’go, I’ve got it off my chest. Time for bed…zzz.

Super hero movies aren't really movies (stolen from Martin Scorsese).

Nostalgia is a helluva drug. After Hours, Animal House, and Withnail and I aren't funny if you watch them for the first time today. They were funny when you saw them when you were young! Don't shoot me:)

Oooh - I love to stir some shit. I'll say this; legacy studios that make up the AMPTP will cannibalize themselves in the next five years and a new generation of studios led by those who don't kowtow to Wall Street and CEO incentives will reshape the industry.

So. Many. Topics come to mind.

I'll keep it to 2 of them:

1. Remakes/reboots/long-awaited sequels need to stop. Not forever, mind you. But I'd be happy with them halting all of them for, like, a year or two.

2. Studios need to be more forward thinking about hiring someone who's good and training them to be better. I remember the scene from "The Godfather" where the producer was telling Tom about how much $$$ he'd spent on the actress. I believe he mentioned singing lessons, acting lessons, equestrian lessons, etc. And I've even heard of that being the way the silver screen stars would have it too, be it acting lessons, sword fighting, equestrian, stunts, etc. I think that if studios did that with their employees, be it actors/actresses, directors, writers, etc. then they would get better products.

Prequel movies are a waste of time and hold no real stakes because we already know the main characters will survive just fine and couldn't care less about the new random ones they create.

Jason Mirch has terrible taste in rom coms!

David Melbourne, Ridley is still doing a better job at making movies than you!

Dan MaxXx, Gods do not retire but you should!

Laurie Ashbourne finally someone making sense on this blog!

Americans are not that funny!

... Stage 32 needs to put Kay and Amanda in charge... they would get shit done!

Fun fact Nick Phillips has confessed he has a thing for unicorns. (in scripts)

"Rogue One" is one of the worst films I've ever seen. Such a disappointment. It destroyed the magic of the original Star Wars films for me. If only they'd taken more care with the script, Felicity Jones might have had a chance.

Interesting point Bear Kosik. For the past few years, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. I spent years of my life off grid, meditating in the mountains. However, now I see that we are trying to find balance within and our sovereignty as human beings. I see that most of these movies are feeding an emancipated masculine market that has not had exemplary male examples in society and women who also have had their masculine energy suppressed to fit the expected norms. Unfortunately, women are also struggling with being feminine due to the unhealthy masculine energy in society which is getting further agitated intentionally by the online community who want followers.

It's time that new energies were introduced to the market to give people examples of healthy balanced masculine and feminine energies and hopefully this will impact all areas of society for the better. Personally, I believe Marvels greatest mistake was making the God's human and it is possibly America's greatest mistake, as well, from an international branding perspective.

In movies, heroes save cats too often. It makes me sick. I want someone to take out a gun and shoot a stray animal on the contrary.

Despite recuperating health, I want to fly to the moon, and make a movie, so need you all help!

I agree with many of these.... Stop the remakes/reboots/comic book movies. And Jason Mirch : I go out of my way to avoid Love Actually. Not a fan. I'm sure there are all kinds of better ways to analyze it, but for me it's just visceral: it doesn't leave me feeling v. happy.

Contemporary cinema is following the same path to cultural irrelevance that opera began to tread in the mid-20th century.

Talk about controversy. What about Dalton Trumbo? He certainly had his share of tribulations. Yet he certainly was lauded for his steadfast courage. I had the pleasure of meeting him before his passing. He has been my spiritual mentor my entire writing career and continues to be.

Erin Leigh Love Actually, visceral? Please explain. Or is that a satirical comment?

Geoff Hall I mean I'm basing my analysis on my personal feelings only. I haven't analyzed the script or stories in any intellectual way. The movie leaves me feeling down, so I avoid it. I know plenty of people who liked it, though, so to each their own. :)

Whatever the analysis, learn from the experience but don't you dare give up. Believe in yourself and your talent as a writer. Not everyone liked Ernest Hemmingway, yet he was one of our greatest authors. Neither did everyone like Dalton Trumbo because he was a confessed communist. His writing was exemplary.

I have - loathe - Star Wars...

Stanley Kubrick's films are overrated. There, I said it. Get your pitchforks ready. :)

"Billy Elliott" does the same for me Erin Leigh . Everyone raves about it, but it just left me feeling utterly depressed.

Casino Royale" (2006) sucks. Terrible Bond movie.

(A) The action scenes don't progress well.

(1) opening fight, good.

(2) parkour on construction site, great

(3) embassy shootout, great with clever escape

(4) airport, really awesome... and never topped.

(5) hallway fight, meh. low scale, it's as if the movie's restarted.

(6) car chase, bond drives on valium and crashes, lame.

(7) torture, not bad, real gritty. best part of the 2nd half of this movie.

(8) Venice finale, lame, doesn't top anything previous.

(B) The Bond-Vesper love story was poorly executed.

(1) When he wakes up after torture and she is suddenly in love with him i's total cringe. The line about Bond's finger made me spittake on first watch.

(2) After a series of beautiful Bond girls, Eva Green was blah and ugly. The Brosnan era ones from Natalya to Jinx were great with Jinx finally giving Bond an equal.

(C) The delivery of "Bond James, Bond" was lame without any punch much like the this film's whole finale.

I have another hot take: exercises like these are pointless unless the poster also shares their criteria for what they consider to be good or positive in comparison. A frame of reference helps with understanding.

I don't know how much of a hot take this is, but this would get me exiled (jokingly) from my family gatherings at the holidays - Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation" film isn't that great. Kind of boring, really.

Just showing off intelligence:) ! Regardless of negatives. Lessons are learnt. Garbage Trucks can be good for showbiz. I want to paint one in gold ) !

Dawn Prato For shame!!!!!!!!!! Lol

PORKY'S (1981) and PORKY'S REVENGE (1984) not winning any awards was a sin. p.s. I think the best BOURNE film is the one with Renner.

All right, Jason...I'm going to weigh in with something controversial:

That Oscar Al Pacino picked up for his lead role in 1992's "Scent of a Woman" should've gone to Denzel Washington for his own role as Malcolm X in the movie of that name.

Jason Mirch Here are 4 for you Jason.

1) I hated Streetcar Named Desire. There's not one character in the story I liked or was rooting for.

2) Jim Carey should have won an Oscar for Ace Ventura: Pet Detective for the consistent craziness he kept up at such a high level throughout the movie.

3) Dennis Quaid played a more believable Doc Holiday in Wyatt Earp than Val Kilmer did in Tombstone..

4) William Friedkin and Peter Hyams were better directors than both Stanley Kubrick and Robert Altman.

Bond movies reminds me of myself, back in the days of series "Remington Steele"! Pierce Bronson said in an interview he had visions of staring in a Bond movie back then. How about a film for the big screens and the future...."Remington Steele"!