Hollywood is (almost) out of ideas, and is turning to tasteless subject matter

Over the weekend, I went to see “Inside Man.” I really enjoyed it, as did my wife and good friend Mark who joined me. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in seeing something original and exciting, but that is not the point of my post.

The point of my post is to discuss the lack of originality in Hollywood lately, and the cheap excuse that “Hollywood is out of ideas.” After seeing “Inside Man,” it is clear that Hollywood has plenty of new and original ideas. It’s a complete cop-out by the industry, trying to make excuses for weak box office revenues. Witness the stark irony:

One of the previews before “Inside Man” was for a movie called “United 93.” Yes, you guessed it. It’s about United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. I simply cannot believe that Hollywood is so out of ideas that studios have to resort to tasteless, unoriginal movies like “United 93.”

Now, don’t take this to mean that I’m against recognising the courage of those aboard the flight, but seriously, can’t we wait a few more years until the wounds have healed a bit? This is still fresh material, there are still families out there who are mourning from their losses. Maybe I’m UNAMERICAN, but seriously, this is insane.

Like I said, I am not against making movies about tragedies. “Tora! Tora! Tora!” was a great movie about Pearl Harbor, but at least they waited until 1970 to make it, 25 years after the fact. “A Night to Remember” was a great movie about the Titanic, but it was made in 1958, 51 years after the tragedy.

I hope that there is a mass boycott of “United 93,” but it will probably just end up being like “The Passion of the Christ” with parents taking their kids to witness carnage just because “it’s an important story” or just for the sake of NOT being “UNAMERICAN.”