Bill Maher: "The top grossing films of all time shows people need to grow up". Is he right?

On Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, when he was interviewing David Mamet,he made this observation,that the fact the top ten grossing films of all time contain subject matter, that to him,is rather infantile, like space battles (Star Wars),pirates (Pirates of the Caribbean),dinosaurs (Jurassic Park),and a superhero with spider powers (Spider-Man). David Mamet pointed out that working in dramas,that when he goes out to see movies its usually stuff like Borat,so he doesn't mind so-called "popcorn movies",but Bill Maher said that for movies he can't relate to a talking fish,so stuff like the kind of things David Mamet puts out is more up his alley.

But I just gotta ask: Does he have a point? Me,I don't think so,because sometimes when I see movies I want to see extraordinary things,people going on adventures in distant times and places,and if the guy who starred in such films as D.C. Cab and The Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle of Death thinks that's infantile,well,that's his problem.

 

I have a funny feeling Mamet would feel differently if he ever had anything
to do whatsoever with a movie that was IN the top 10. Maybe a little professional
jealousy at work? He's an absolutely terrible film director, a solid writer of
dramas, and has rarely been within a thousand miles of a commercial success in
filmmaking, his fine script for the Untouchables being the rare exception.

Is it news to these guys that people go to the movies for entertainment and escapism?
After all, that's what people have been doing for over a hundred years.

As for Bill Maher, while I occasionally agree with one of his opinions, this is not one of
those occasions.

 

Or maybe it's because lots of kids go to the movies too....?

 

I think its a combination of things but for the most part:
people dont want to see a movie of your everyday average people, they wanna see something special that they never get a chance to see...

you catch my drift?

 

Yep. Loud and clear. Its called theatre goers vote with their wallets, so if Studio A makes a LOTR-style escapist fantasy movie and it makes alot of money or wins a whole bunch of awards, then Studios B,C,D and E will try to copy its success.

 

Movies/films that make the audience think are great, but sometimes i just wanna laugh at stuff and see thing get blown the f up.

 

Bill Maher? Is that guy still around?

 

You are giving Maher far too much credit, everyone knows Mr. T was the star of D.C. Cab.

 

His best film is the severely underappreciated House II: The Second Story.

 

the simple fact that we want to "escape" reality not be bogged down in it when we enter the theatre is the reason. there are tons of good realistic crime dramas or even unrealistic action thrillers, but even movies like Die Hard for example, are unrealistic, but seated in reality, and movies like star wars are just off the wall. that having been said i dont believe any of the top 10 grossing films are in my list of top 10 films as far as quality, even star wars(sorry guys). and Bill is hardly ever WAY off the mark in his opinions, he is very insightful. it is a commentary on us as a society, but no more than whats on TV, and again nothing is wrong with paying 10$ to escape for a few hours

take "cool hand luke" for example...imo one of the best movies ever made. it captures the very nature of the soul, there is no better way to describe it, its beautiful. but it is not an escape from reality like spidey is or star wars, its slow and takes its time developing, not a 10$ theatre movie =D and its important to remember that not every movie needs to be viewed on the big screen, just an opinion, but i ration my theatre going trips just because of cost, if its not a "big screen flick" i am on the wait.

 

QFT. Sometimes its fun to watch a heavily armed, badass SEAL team run around and kill everything that moves while brandishing really big guns.

 

Bill Maher has pretty much been been playing to the psuedo Intellectual Let's despise anything popular crowd for some time. His HBO show is pitched directly at them.
Good thing he on HBO,becuase he would not last a week in a ratings competition.

 

Bill Maher = Fatuous gasbag

He is out of touch with the regular folk. Ask any regular joe who works for a living, as in not on some silly HBO talk show, and they will tell you that movies are an escape from the drudgeries of everyday life. The top grossing films are those that really pull the audience away from reality and make them feel good (though not all). And those top grossers also win the theater popularity contest, whereas a David Mamet film will not. Personally, I would rather go to a movie, watch really big explosions and sometimes terrible acting than an intellectual film.

Sometimes it is easier to dumb yourself down, be a part of the people, and enjoy simple entertainment instead of pretending to be a part of the people.

 

first of all i havent seen his show since PI, i dont have HBO, but i will say this...anyone who gets paid to do anything in the entertainment field is out of touch with blue collar reality, especially Jeff Foxworthy =D and whats his show called? hell just living in LA puts you partially out of touch with reality so lets not be to hard on Bill in that respect. he is a very hardcore liberal, which i like better than hardcore conservatives, but that is all opinion. and from a liberal mindset, i have found him to rarely be too far offcenter. i can see why one mite be offended by his pseudo-elitest attitude towards fantastical movies, and i would agree, he is falling out of the loop by trying to appear like he is in the loop. he has no buisness talking about movies, or at least trying to appear educated when he does. but in fairness to Bill, TV talk shows are filled with gasbags commenting on things they havent a clue about.

 

Escapism is an essential part of motion picture entertainment, and has been since its inception and the silent film era. It has nothing to do with being childish, but, typical of people like Bill Maher, he likes to believe that he's smarter and more mature than most people, so he takes shots at things like this. Problem is, he is neither, and by taking these shots he is proving it.

Bill Maher is not right here, he doesn't have a point, and he should be flogged in public for reasons too numerous to count.

I have nothing against David Mamet, I thought the Val Kilmer movie SPARTAN was severly underrated and very good. But Mamet should consider doing other shows. If it's flattery he's looking for, he should do Inside the Actors Studio when they do another director's week. Bill Maher is already cramping his style.

 

anyone name me their 10 favorite films of all time and i will guarantee that at least half of them are not realistic... its basically normal to wanna see a film out of the oridnary... nobody wants to watch something like napoleon dynamite(horrible film, not even funny) with no explosions or comical events... thats just a waste of time not to see someting interesting...

 

making bold blanket statements to support your OPINION is no different than what Bill Maher has done by discounting the value of certain cinema. i find i get really frustrated with people when i see qualities they have that i dont like, but usually i have those same qualities, and dont want to acknowledge it. you mite be more like big Bill than you realize, maybe they can squeeze you in for a flogging too when they are done with him

did like the shot at Actors Studio tho =D wow they kiss everyones backside, Lipton treated Angelina Jolie like she was Geoffery Rush, and not just a nice piece of eye candy

 

I think Maher underestimates these films. Finding Nemo is a movie about a talking fish, yes, but it's also a film about grief and loss and the anxiety of love. I found it quite moving actually, on a very adult level. I think Maher is the one who needs to grow up if all he could see was the cartoon.

 

That's how I feel about the Harry Potter books. They deal with death, grief and loss in a very grown-up manner, in addition to putting characters into very adult situations, like Harry witnessing not one, but THREE murders in as many books.

 

This is a very good and insightful point.

Beyond this truth I don't go to the movies to be preached at, and increasingly I find that something that Hollywood just can't stay away from. Nor do they seem able to see any point but their own.

It isn't that movies with great thought aren't something to be appreciated, but too often we have now turned away from that and can expect a political platform, and even false ones that will not be challenged, because the environment in Hollywood will not allow such disagreement, are winning the highest awards available.

Let me enjoy the few moments of escapism for stories that are fantastical fantasy and allow me to continue to think in reality what I wish, not what Hollywood and Mr Mahrer would brainwash me into.

 

Bill Maher just needs to rediscover his imagination. Like many adults, he seems to have lost it when he grew up.

 

Here's some excerpts about movies from Bill Maher's book,New Rules. Just thought it'd be interesting to share:

"When I was a teenager,Hollywood didn't give a damn about me-and that was good! Good for the movies and good for me because I was challenged-to smarten up instead of dumbing down. Besides ruining movies,we've also managed to ruin our kids by making everything be about them. And now if I want to see a movie,I had better like loud noises,things blowing up,and Colin Farrell."

"Before I die,could someone please make one more movie I want to go see? I'm not asking for the moon here,and I'm not some film snob with ponytail who only likes subtitled Albanian documentaries. But to middle-aged people like me,a good movie is like good sex-you don't have to put out every day,but when whole seasons go by without getting one,you do start to get horny for entertainment."


About Hollywood making smart movies when he was a teenager-Haven't they always made dumb movies? It's just the greats overshadow those.

 

The top ten grossing films of all time are a list of popular, entertaining films that sold a lot of tickets. That's all. Mr. Maher, it's not a list that tells us people's intelligence quota or maturity level.

I'm obviously a huge movie fan, as are all of us around here, and while I'm picky, I also understand that films are a marketable commodity. They cost huge sums of money to make and the people that spend the money want a return on their investment. They don't want the money to disappear down a hole. Therefore, it's reasonable to want to market them to a large enough audience so they can get their money back. The movie industry has always been an uneasy alliance between art and commerce.

I think Bill didn't think his comments through very well. I don't think the film industry has ever been healthier or more DIVERSE. In the last decade, the film business has given us Titanic, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Departed, Snakes on a Plane, Children of Men, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Crash, Shrek, Capote, Pirates of the Caribbean, American Psycho, Little Miss Sunshine, Finding Nemo, Saving Private Ryan, Signs, Gladiator, Good Night and Good Luck, Oceans 11, Scream, Saw, the Ring, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Almost Famous, Flags of Our Fathers, the Producers, Almighty Bruce, Troy, Gangs of New York, American Pie, Rocky Balboa, Eyes Wide Shut, Match Point, the Queen, Friday Night Lights, the Fountain, the Prestige, Babel, the Aviator, good grief it's all over the map!

That's an amazing range of films that film executives are approving. They are chasing all kinds of audience dollars, comedy, action, historical drama, crime stories, kids, I mean heck, that list I made up off the top of my head includes a lot of stuff and I didn't even scratch the surface!

There's plenty of stuff out there Bill, if you can't find ANYTHING you like, you aint looking hard enough.

 

Or at all.

 

So Maher thinks people who watch movies need to grow up??? Hmm at first I took offense to this but really if you think about it he is right.

Film is a medium that defies logic. Its an illusion of movement created by 24 frames of slightly different frames constantly changing their context from one to the next, every second. It requires our undivided attention for nearly two hours at a time to take us away to a world that doesn't exist. While fantastic or not its still fictional...it never happened or is a dramatized recreation of something that did happen. The entire experience is further enhanced now by 360 degrees of synchronous sound that envelopes use into this other world. But its all engineered. Its fake. Yet we pay good money and willing spend our time to see this fake show, to be entertained. We allow ourselves to be manipulated vissually, aurally and emotionally in order to find entertainment. And we do it all willingly.

We willingly suspend our disbelief to be whisked away by a scientific marvel that defies our understanding...but we don't care because for that approximate 2 hours we are entertained while we gaze on that screen with innocent wonder.

Sounds pretty childlike to me.

So while his smug attitude about his definition may not be necesary I think he hit the nail on the head. And I am proudly someone who needs to grow up...but never will.

"Yeah, I'm a mogul now. And I love the work the way Patton loved the stink of battle. But when I grow up, I still want to be a director." Spielburg