My Brutal Honesty About Hollywood & Film Criticism Right Now
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Alright, it's time to address the constant string of bad ideas and terrible movies coming out of Hollywood the last few years. It seems to me that they are trying to cater to a fanbase that doesn't feel like supporting their crap. Meanwhile, movie fans have to pay the price. We are sick of it!
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Narrated by: Adam Olinger
Edited by: Adam Olinger
I appreciate the risk you're taking with this very level-headed video, LITERALLY. Thank you.
Adam is the level-headed middle ground that YT has needed for awhile.
That's what I'm looking for! :)
My man here is picking up where Stuckman left off... very refreshing. You're right in the perfect middle...you're not an angry reviewer made for laughs...and you're not an ass kisser and you call bullshit
Very refreshing and I'm glad I found some new background noise while working on my DVD collection lol. Awesome channel...keep kicking ass and growing. We need more of this!
As a black woman who still loves the original little mermaid. I never once paid any attention to what color Ariel was. All I knew was she was a mermaid. When they came out with the movie I was not interested because I knew Disney was not telling a different story. I agree the changes in the movies were to just check a box and stir up controversy. The great thing about being a kid we can see ourselves as anything no matter the obstacles. So I find it interesting how these big franchises can’t see that
So many of us here say we appriciate your mature, level headed approach. But do we really? Here Adam have some green love form The Czech Republic. Those pesky bills won't pay themselfs. I challenge others to dish out some cash and beat me! 🤑🤑🤑
Wow thank you!
one thing about wokeness stuff that i dislike is how really arrogant and annoying everyone always is. characters are written so annoying. theres no humility. no growth, always talking down on people. on the audience.
Devil wears prada LITERALLY rocks....
... ill see myself out
Thanks Adam!!
Thank you!
My opinion: too much social media and not enough imagination.
I'm exactly where you are my guy. Social media is overblown these days
You hit the nail on the head with "good old fashioned pandering." They no longer care about just a good story, but they just shoehorn in the characters they feel they need to include to get as many diverse butts in the seats as possible.
If you tell a good story, no one cares who is in it. Just don't base your story solely around political/gender/race ideaologies.
Agreed
I just wish Disney would stop doing LAR's of everything. The charm and the novelty has completely worn off and they should just stop.
Keep on keeping on, Adam, you don't have to apologize to anyone for your honest opinions.
That's why I love critics like Adam, no matter if u agree with him or not he always keeps it real with himself and his audience.
@@antwanjenkins6735 and I don't even care about negative reviews, I know some people complain about that but he's just being real. They can't all be winners, if every movie was good, then there would be no point in even having critics and reviewers. And all that said I feel like he's still more positive than negative overall, even really great movies usually have some room for improvement, there are only a handful of movies ever made that you can't really find a flaw in. Just saying "this could have been better", or "they could have improved in this aspect" isn't being negative.
The anti-woke channels can go overboard at times and its clearly big business but they're mostly correct about Hollywood. This is why I watch less and less new movies or shows every year. 90% of what I watch at this point was released before 2010. I'm a former Democrat and I don't know what the hell happened to the left. It just became a freak show and the things that these people support today is so nuts.
I'm a lifelong conservative/libertarian, at least lifelong as long as I've been old enough to care and have an opinion. But you and I probably have far more in common with each other than either of us have in common with either extreme. And the left has gone way extreme on cultural issues. It's really sad to see.
I agree 100%. I've always voted Democrat, but the left has become insane lately. It's sad, but no surprise, that Trump is going to be President again because of all this woke nonsense.
Funny thing is the conservatives are no better, they are more of a mirror image than they think. Both sides complain and have reactions, both use minorities to push their narratives both support lgbt, the right has Dave Rubin Caitlin Jenner rob smith Blair white etc both sides bend the knee to Israel. Trump signed an executive order to protect Israel so now any criticism will be labeled as anti semitism. Both sides pander to minorities just in different ways. It’s just a war right now, the difference is the left have the big celebrities on their side. The right has washed up celebs both pretty bad and have ruined entertainment.
The studios make movies not for women but for feminists. The movies are not what women, gays, men, blacks, Latinos, etc. like, but what activists say, they have to like. The studios don't pander to these groups but to activists. Like I always say, it all goes down when they beginn to belief their own lies and propaganda. The irony is, that in the end even the activists don't watch the movies, because they are not into for example superhero or action stuff at all.
The juice that erupted from polishing the Pander stone is too potent and has blinded all who used it.
South Park really nailed it.
Thanks!
Thank you!
I love these types of videos that you do b/c you don't pull your punches and I agree with most of your points. The old school straight movie reviews and these types of videos are where you shine in my humble opinion. Your schtick is being snarky, but you are secretly very insightful and astute from what I know of you from watching for awhile. Literally insightful. Lol.
Yep. Movie houses got their strategy backwards. To boost female and gay audiences, add more shirtless he-man hunks. That will please women, gay men, aspirationals, and hero worshippers. To attract lesbians, don't cover up all of the sexiness of female leads, which also works for male audiences. Not gratuitous - just throw the audience some bones, so to speak.
Also, people are different because we all have different limitations. The more perfect we are, the more similar we are. Since there is fear of giving a Strong Female Lead any weaknesses, lest they propagate a stereotype, all SFL's are perfect. And lacking personality. No sense avoiding one stereotype to propagate another. Ideally, writers would create a tale and any diversity should emerge as part of the story.
Movies could successfully add representation without being condescending and preachy, all the heavy handing is making movies unwatchable, boring messes with TERRIBLE messages. I don't need to be lectured by a bunch of rich people who don't even believe what they preach (see how A LOT of actors quickly wrote letters to get some other rich guy's sentence for SA ro be lowered since he is getting 30yrs in prison. And many of them were supporters of the me too movement kind of stuff)
I just want a dumb action movie thats fun and exciting, make the kead a man or a woman or a trans person, white, black, asian, Mexican, I don't care, just make a good, fun movie for once
I’m in the same boat man. My UA-cam is flooded with what I call the “curmudgeons” who hate on the woke stuff. I mostly agree with them but it gets tiring and old to see the same talking points on each new movie/video game that comes out. I’d like stuff to be fun again
I used to watch all of those guys because their storytelling critiques are insightful. But as you said, judging every tv show and movie based on a "woke-o-meter" became so boring I stopped watching all of them.
Hey Adam here's five bucks.
Good job!
Thanks!
Streamers/studios do seem to listen to social media closely to have a broader reach. But by doing so they have lost the plot, literally. I think the problem is bigger in productions that are 100% American. US/European, European, and Asian tv/movies seem to have the old fashioned way of thinking - doing good stuff without thinking so much what people MIGHT want to see.
I pretty much quit supporting big franchises and modern-day Hollywood movies/shows. It's just not worth it. I don't need to be lectured by rich liberals. I rewatch movies that I love but also try to find movies that I never watched before from more creative decades like the 70s, 80s and so on.
Well not everyone wants to see every cast and every film be 99% white, as was the case for 97+% of film's history of in this country, or movies where minorities were cast almost entirely as sidekicks, stereotypes, when they were even represented at all; or women where mostly just props to be saved or romantic interests for the men.
Yeah you definitely don’t watch movies because hate to tell you, those old movies are also written and made by “rich liberals”. Those movies also have plenty of social commentary. This is how you can tell conservatives don’t understand the content they consume.
Every American should live in New Zealand for at least a year.
@@ThePeacemakerDudeAh, yes, Quentin Tarantino was obviously very rich when he made Reservoir Dogs, working in a video rent store or whatever, Robert Rodriguez was obviously also loaded when making the super low budget El Mariachi, George Lucas was apparently also very wealthy indeed when he first made Star Wars, a movie he wasn't sure would do well enough for a sequel, Sylvester Stallone was also very rich, so very rich, when making Rocky and that is why he had to sell his dog and sleep in his car, and so on and son on. Obviously.
@@ThePeacemakerDude they were never as awful . RoboCop could never be made today
I'm in the boring middle on my channel too. It's tough because both sides dislike our thinking. Good video here - literally!
I agree with this take and said the very thing myself. The studios made a HUGE mistake in the genre properties that they VERY WRONGLY thought they "had men". Therefore they assumed they would "show up for anything", and could safely "expand the audience" to women and other groups, that did not traditionally like genre fair like superheroes and sci fi. This blew up completely in their faces. They completely turned off their base audience (boys and men), and women and other groups did not show up, despite the massive pandering. Because women do not like sci fi and superhero movies. Boys want to watch boys and men do cool stuff. They don't want to watch strong females. You have to know your audience. Just like Bud Light learned to their detriment.
But I also do agree with some conservative commentators that this decision is also very much in line with some execs and artistic opinions politically, and they have indeed made comments that not only showed this bias, but they were indeed making decisions in movies we like to further some "agenda" they had. People do not like being manipulated and this caused a huge backlash.
Thank you for this. I've disagreed with you on multiple topics but you are 100% right about this current insanity in Hollywood and modern media altogether. We are currently living in the twilight zone. I hope this episode ends very soon.
I think you might be being a TAD too cynical in terms of their (Disney, et al) motivations behind representation. I don't disagree for a second that some of it is virtue signaling, some of its trying to reach new audiences and expand revenue, but I do think that they realize how much media can both change or cement social norms, and that there's a desire to be on the right side of things. As society gets more diverse, it gets harder and harder to be in a boardroom constantly vetoing calls for inclusion and diversity. News of that kind of conservative, inflexibility particularly in the age of social media, can spread pretty quickly.
And had the movies actually been better (the incredible success of Black Panther being once such example) they could've had their cake and eaten it too. But the quality, was of course lacking, and the anti-woke crowd was able to latch on to those failures and create whatever narrative they wanted (these people of course live in insular echo chambers, and so these ideas quickly elevate to the level of gospel with zero pushback).
If Adam would have released this rant a year ago, he would have been labelled with all the "-isms" and thrown into the same lot with Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Az, Disparu, Chris Gore, Alan Ng and sorts.
Adam can claim being in the middle (i.e. being separat from them), but he shares a many opinions with them.
Same goes for Dan Murrell. They both try their hardest to be honest and critical without getting labelled "-isms". It's a actually funny to watch, when it is so obvious to see what "Modern" entertainment has become.
Disney lives rent free in the minds of morons like nerdrotic
Adam does not share many opinions with Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Az, Disparu, Chris Gore and Alan Ng. He shares ONE opinion with them: that Hollywood's movies have been routinely sucking for over a decade due to the focus on and poor execution of the good intention of representation. I used to watch ALL of those other guys but I had to stop watching all of them due to their persistent need to see every story through their narrow ideological lens. This is exactly what Adam criticized them for.
And let's not ignore the fact that the reason we're in this pandering situation is because for decades Hollywood actively limited and excluded, with a few exceptions, most demographics from their projects.The current pandering problem is an overcorrection to the exclusion/limitation problem.
Hopefully in the next few years we'll get to a point where a diverse cast is an unremarkable standard and they're simply part of a great story well-told.
@@KreatedbyKrauseNot really, they just forgot how to write characters. Everyone loves Ripley, Black Widow, Wonder Woman, etc. It’s called not writing shit characters. Not many would be complaining if these new female characters were compelling. Because they are writing so badly it’s easier to see what they’re doing. They just put woman in movies and just forget how to write character.
@@KreatedbyKrause what demographics did Hollywood limit/exclude? I call bullshit on that. If someone is a good actor, and suitable for the part, they will get the role regardless of their demographic. If they're not suitable for the role because of their demographic, that is fine and normal! If your story is set in 17th century Scotland for example, a black person would be unsuitable, because that would be historically inaccurate. Another example: if a character is supposed to be a total bad arse and hard as nails, capable of beating the shit out of most men, no woman would be suitable in that role unless she had superpowers. Because it's just illogical otherwise. As for gay people, there is no role they are unsuitable for unless it is clear as day that they are gay with lots of feminine traits abouts them. Ian McKellan is gay, he played Gandalf, because it didn't matter what he does in the damn bedroom! There were several gay actors in Frasier all playing straight men, because it didn't matter what they do in the bedroom in real life - they're actors, they can act the part of a straight man!
You can thank Anita Sarkeesian for all this shit. She was the catalyst.
I was thinking exactly that a day or two ago.
If it wasn't her, it would have been someone else. I'm not trying to defend her by any means, but it's not like all this madness single handedly started with her. She was just a product of a greater movement.
@@theywouldnthavetocensormei9231 I doubt it would have been as forced as it has been. It would probably flow in slowly and because of it we'd get much better characters and much better stories.
@@mesicek7 I don't think so, those of us that have been paying attention to politics for a long time have seen the writing on the wall for a long time. The left has been pushing further left as hard as possible for several decades now, it was never one big push at a time, always in tiny increments, but it all went in the same direction. Anita was just one of many inevitable conclusions.
@@theywouldnthavetocensormei9231 Yeah but it wasn't as drastic as it's become after Anita's stunt.
4:58 Adam your rant on *literally* was....ahem, *'Wild'.* Thank you (dodges bricks)
My best friend, may he rest in peace, worked for a movie company that tried to make a movie w/ Disney. He wouldn't tell me what the movie was, by the off chance it would eventually get produced, but he said that Disney had certain rules they needed to follow. One of those rules was that they had to change one of the couples in the script to a gay couple and there was no budging on that. He said the couple had no bearing on the story, Disney just required that they'd be gay. I wish I knew what the movie was but he took that secret to his grave.
You're right, it's lonely being in the middle. The last few times I've gone to the theater I left thoroughly unimpressed. Thanks for venting the frustration many of us are feeling about entertainment these days.
Hollywood executives are definitely idiots, that's an overstatement as well. The executives know nothing about film, yet they have all the control. That's why our movies are starting to suck
This why you gotta love Adam, normal dude that gives honest but level headed opinions
You're more right than you know. All conflict needs both sides to be self-perpetuating. Unfortunately fighting has become the goal in and of itself. And in the process it obscures the worst offenses. Bad movies and offensive comments get grouped up with the decent ones because that team divide is forced down the middle.
A few thoughts. 1) Woke, for me, has become a dog whistle. If I see someone use the word "Woke" in their video description (particularly when it comes to video games or film criticism) I click whatever I can to no longer get recommendations from that creator. I've seen enough of these videos to know that, soon enough, a deeper issue within these people rises to the surface. 2) I feel like Disney has no black people on their staff. Most people, regardless of race, want a compelling story, first and foremost. I didn't have to be black to love Get Out. I'm all for representation but making Snow White, Snow Black, for no reason, screams "trying too hard" and "low effort." How about you write an original story with a black female lead? Or stop remaking your own shit in general?
Exactly! Well said
Every point you made is LITERALLY dead on! LIterally, keep up the great work Adam!
I don't know about every point. Ariel being black, was because Halle was picked for the role. The "rage bait" argument sounds like a white man trying to look for a reason why a black woman was cast.
Its unrealistic but i think that film ceos should be actual movie lovers. Obviosuly you have to understand business but getting leaders who are actually passionate about their products not just share Holders would go soooo far
Like you said that's unrealistic, but what they should do is listen to the talented people they hire as well as their customers who are film lovers
@@idawg7332 that's fair! I think alot of the cringyness comes from studio expectations or orders. I just feel like creatives have a better idea then simply plugging in a minority, most of the time.
Yeah, those guys running the studios have absolutely no love for movies. They just love the money that movies can make. But they seemed to forget that before they can make the money, they have to make a GREAT movie.
I loved your video about you know who from a few days ago and I'm excited to hear you expand on your thoughts... 🤘🏻
Coherent, elegant, well thought out critique of the mainstream film culture/trends. Well said good sir
Good stuff, adam. I just wanted to clarify what I meant. Since race swapping has been going on for 80 years, why does the general public make such a big deal out if it.Thanks!
I’ll do an entire dedicated video to it through history
I think the issue people have is that it only goes in one direction. White male characters get swapped out all the time, but if you tried to make a black or female character a white male, the left would freak out and riot for 6 months like they did in 2020. And yes, we used to pretty much only have white actors, for the majority of the time Hollywood has even existed, but that's in the past, you can't cure past racism with present racism.
EXCELLENT middle ground take on the problem !!!
I feel like I just watched a therapy session, hahah. You were going through it here. Let it all out, my friend!
right
I actually think this could backfire very badly because personally I have lost the "habit" of going to the movies and so, to get me back, they can't produce just one or two good movies... we will have to go back to the late 80s /90s where almost every movie was good or great. I do disagree with you though, I think the weirdos in Hollywood were clearly trying to force beliefs on the audience via pushing them in the movies and media. They have been rejected. But they just keep trying. That isn't a mistake that is intentional.
"Guys will go to anything if there's at least a hot woman in it"...I hate that I can't argue with this truth.
We all want the same thing here: great art.
Imagine standing in a museum in front of a great work of art.
Shoulder to shoulder, we are all affected by it.
Before we know who we voted for or where we went to college, we look at each other in the presence of a magnificent creation and say “Wow”.
We could make a point to always start THERE when having these discussions.
I think that’s what you’re asking of us here.
The word "woke" just needs to go away. It was old 6 years ago in the middle of trumps presidency, and I just don't take anyone saying it seriously. It's like one of those things where someone unironically uses woke, and it's an indicator that this person isn't worth your time and isn't that bright. Also, spot on about the Netflix targetting demographics for attention. I'm surprised more people don't catch on to these things. There's definitely agendas being pushed heavily in movies and shows, and it's worse than in any time period of film. People can understand a different point of view and enjoy a character they differ from politically or racially or whatever, but alienating another group of people just because you want to target other demographics is dumb as well. Instead of having some considerate message, it's just "you're like this? Well, you're wrong. Be more like these people that we like."
I’m glad to see this channel grow and happy I found it. Great content and happy medium of criticism film and Hollywood. I agree with you Disney in my opinion is trying to appeal to the younger generation and I’m in my 30s and trying to be relatable to the few and loosing its audience of what made it so magical… now it’s tarnished what was a dependable brand of good entertainment to what we see or want to unsee today…
I truly enjoy your rants and it feels good that you are bringing them back. Looking forward to the next one already.
Its sad to see what the film industry is now. When i was younger everyone loved going to the movies and most of them were amazing. Today most movies are shit and the movie theatre is empty. The reason i choose to work in this industry is because of my experience at the theatre as a child.
"Most of them were amazing".
For every Lion King or Beauty Beast, you got mess like Space Jam, Pokemon The First Movie, etc. And between prices rising, and the fact that more movies end up on streaming services nowadays, there are different reasons why less people are going to the movies, not because "Most movies are shit". And while content oversaturation is the reason why bad stuff sticks out nowadays, movies like Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Dungeons and Dragons, Minus One, Puss in Boots 2, Spiderverse, etc, also demonstrate that there is still passion in Hollywood. Not all hope is lost.
The bright side is that there's never been more options of movies to watch and easy ways to do it. There are gems out there, you just have to be willing to sift through some turds.
@@Stew91space jam 1 is great
I’ve watched Adam for years. I’m so
Surprised with great takes like this that he hasn’t gotten way bigger on here. Keep it up dawg I love it all
Thank you!!! Every point you made I agree with 100%! I've been a fan for a long time (of your channel), enjoyed every thing you put out, but this really hit home. This dissection was beyond fair. Gratitude Sir.
Adam : I'm not anti-Woke.
Also Adam : I hate when Hollywood does the exact things that every other anti-Woke personality is complaining about in remakes. The gay couple added for no reason, diversity added in places that it traditionally isnt (Ariel's family is racially diverse (as is the Fantastic Four's), but most real-world biological families are not) the race and gender swapping (Ariel), the Message that must be in your face, specifically the culture war from the left's perspective (notice how the guy hero no longer saves the day in the final battle, but Ariel takes control of his ship to do it herself, because she don't need no man's help, even if he is the actual sailor, with actual skills she needs, who would know how to steer a vessel that requires surface world wind, something that a mermaid likely wouldn't understand.)
Adam, let me tell you why there will NEVER be a Little Mermaid side story about one of her diverse sisters (who DO appear in the movie, for about 5 seconds). The reason is, Hollywood is too creatively bankrupt to come up with any kind of interesting side story for that universe (or ANY universe), which is why we are stuck with all these exact plot remakes, but with exactly what Southpark called them out for, putting a chick in it and making her lame and gay. We know the core issue is creativity, because when they DO try to make an actual original side story, like in Star Wars, the results are incredibly lame, story-wise. There are so many things that could be done to make these diversity things work, but Hollywood just can't figure the logic of them, or Lampshade them in a humorous way, so the audience can accept them. OK, so Ariel has a diverse group of sisters, why not call out her non-traditional family in a humorous way, like having Ariel's father deal with some (or just one) of his mer-girlfriends getting angry about his two, three, four timing them, with lots of other diverse fish-women ? Ariel going to Girrrlboss the final battle ? Why not have her use something from her world, like a swordfish she could ride into battle on, or that cursed shipwreck which she visits in the movie, as the weapon, have it 'sail' on 'fish girl magic' and not wind ?
"The reason is, Hollywood is too creatively bankrupt to come up with any kind of interesting side story for that universe (or ANY universe)"
That's funny...I recall Puss in Boots the Last Wish being a great side story in the Shrek universe. My point is that they still exist. On a different note, with the Jordan Peele movies, Craig and the Creek, Spiderverse, Stranger Things (with Lucas), Arcane, Castlevania the series, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, etc, (yes, I am talking about movies *and* shows to talk about the industry as a whole), there is plenty of strong diversity and representation in the industry. But no - let's focus on Ariel instead.
These studios are out of touch and it's costing them fortune. They may get away with some pandering here and there but in many cases, they get egg in their face.
Oh yeah? How much did Barbie make?
I said it works here and there. Read my comment again.
I'm kind of obsessed with your arms waving.
On one hand, I completely agree with you and it kinda makes me sad that Hollywood is in this poor state.
On the other hand, I'm kinda glad that superhero movies and franchises pretty much all suck now, because it makes me appreciate the original movies like Oppenheimer, Barbie or Killers of the Flower Moon that much more, because I feel like had they come out just couple years ago, those movies would be completely drowned under superhero/franchise blockbusters.
A few years ago Donald Faison was cast as Booster Gold for the CW's Legends of Tomorrow. For those who've never heard of either, Donald Faison is black, and Booster Gold is white with blonde hair. I had an argument with someone about the casting and said the same about how Black Panther would never be race-swapped so why should Booster Gold, and the person said that Black Panther being black is rooted in his culture or something like that, but that Booster Gold being white doesn't have any cultural meaning or context, so apparently *that* makes it ok. The damn point is that the character has been established to look a certain way, and changing that goes against expectation and is very distracting.
People are full of shit, what the person defending the obvious hypocrisy really meant is "I don't care about racism targeting white people". That's what all of them really mean.
So a black Booster Gold is more important to you, then whether the character ends up being well written or not?
It's only okay to race swap if it's a white character being erased. Otherwise it's racist! 😅
This is a valid argument that most people are too scared to have. Why are characters changed from how they are written? Is that not a disservice to the writer?
I think Tarantino said it best: “if I wanted my character to be a gay Mexican, I would have written that character.”
Otherwise? How hard is it to stick to the source material. If I wrote a famous work, I probably wouldn’t option it unless I could negotiate that I have a final say on casting.
I would say the main idea behind changing white characters to black is that back in the day, most people who wrote popular characters (that got seen by a general audience) were white, and thus, most of the characters they wrote were white, because we write what we're familiar with. It probably wasn't easy for black people to get into the industry in the first place, and if it had been, there would have been many more black characters. It leaves black kids with not many "heroes" to look up to, and unless the race of the character is actually important to the character, then it's not very harmful to make a white character black (except being slightly annoying to the people who expect the character to be white).
It can work both ways - black characters can be made white too (assuming that their race isn't important to the character), except there aren't very many "classic" black characters to begin with, because black people weren't getting those jobs and weren't able to create those characters in the first place, and white people largely weren't creating black characters either. So they're trying to make up for the lack of black characters (which was largely due to systemic racism, in that black people couldn't have gotten these jobs back then).
Though I will say - I agree in most other regards. I think in most cases, someone "remaking" a character should mostly stay true to how the character was originally written. Then again, we have characters like Batman where each new iteration is doing something different with the character. Back in the day, Batman wasn't even Batman and was just this neo-noir investigator guy. But now we know him as Batman, with lots of bat symbolism, and in some of these movies, he straight-up kills people. That's a lot different than what the original writer was going for, so.... I dunno. I've heard plenty of complaints about the killing, but not many complaints about all these other aspects that are much different than the original character. If the end result is enjoyable and well-done, most people don't tend to care that it's different.
This is the realist video iv seen in a while. Got my subscription
Genuinely curious on your take of hollywood (mostly netflix) race swapping historical figures. Its just so damn tiresome and throws away any realism from the movie.
Quality rant! The sheer amount of anger you see online on both sides about what are pretty silly topics is interesting to watch. I do feel studios capitalize on outrage in hopes that engagement will equal box office.
For myself, I realized that I'm no longer the target demographic for many of these projects, and I'm fine with it. I became aware of this while watching The Last Jedi; the movie just made me sad, and that isn't what I look for out of a Star Wars movie. But a significant number of people really enjoyed that flick, so seemingly that was who Ryan Johnson was aiming at.
As for Marvel, it was a similar experience. I left End Game completely satisfied. It wasn't a great film, but as a capper to a decade's long storyline, it served its purpose. I felt it should have ended there, but obviously it can't, and so I initially checked out what followed with some trepidation. I was halfway through the first episode of Loki, and noped right out. Marvel wasn't for me anymore, and that's okay.
This guy is the best movie critic out there right now. Someone who's entertaining, funny, energetic, covers a wide range of topics, doesn't mail it in, and as this video proves, is thoughtful and opinionated in a way that isn't trying to alienate people or piss them the hell off. There's life and energy in his reviews. Jeremy Jahns, nice guy, but does the same god damned thing EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. It's like having the same meal every day of your life. Stuckmann isn't even a critic anymore, he's some sort of movie industry advocate or whatever the hell. Harloff is just Walmart John Campea, and John Campea, well, he's pretty damned good (when he's got his roundtable discussion with others), but 1 v 1 Adam is better. I appreciate this channel and always know something good is coming down the pike. I'd say he's got a talent for this, but that dismisses the hardwork that's clearly been done to bring the content to the level of quality which it's at. Cheers and well done, Adam.
If you're a fan of horror movies may I recommend Haunted Hippie.
I think the Joker 2 is going to be a huge dramedy musical with lots of big sets and tons of choreography. So that would explain where some of the money is going. I think it's going to be much different than the first movie (though dealing with similar themes and stuff). The director said it's largely influenced by Scorsese's musical from a while back.
Just a hunch, but I think the Joker is going to have these "musical" delusions where he finds love with Harley and then imagines that his whole life is a musical (because he's so happy, or whatever), not realizing that most of the things going on around him aren't real - and the audience will probably get to see his musical POV and then see the reality of the situation. I think it could work pretty well.
I remember an old classmate of mine showing me a meme many years ago. It was the timeline of Disney buying everything. By 2100 they owned the universe. It was hilarious and that memory was surfaced by watching this video.
Excited to watch this mate!
Likewise!!
I’m LGBTQ and I have not enjoyed a Disney product in five years. I hate the pandering. Like you I just want good films I don’t care about the identity of the lead. Ghostbusters 2016 was the start of this awful era, when suddenly you couldn’t review a film based on its content, only on its politics. I hate it, trying to force acceptance has never worked. It only makes life harder.
In my view Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is comparable the first two, but that's because I don't think 1 & 2 hold up as well as people think.
“…so that they don’t shoot me.” Is the funniest reason for diversity 😂😂😂
"The Message" is a reference to what companies do in order to increase their ESG score to satisfy their stock rating for hedge fund investors. If you don't know what this is, then look up what Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street are doing and how they influence media companies and specifically Disney to force DEI initiatives. Blackrock is even on record, describing how they intend to force media companies to pander even if they don't want to do it. Disney's board of directors is mostly people from these investor companies, that demand ESG conformatiy-- ie. delivering "The Message"...
Hey Adam, just wanted to say thank you for making this video. I very much enjoyed it, and you make a ton of great points that I feel the average person who goes to see a film will also make.
Keep up the good work, you've got a fan out of me :)
I think you have a LOT right Adam, but also I think you haven't gone down some of these rabbit holes to fully understand everything. I also am happy you don't go down these rabbit holes, because your love for movies is CLEARLY your #1 priority and I would hate to see that change.
I am thrilled that there are people on one side of barking against the "woke" films and shows happening, because honestly, there was never a place for it before. I do agree, and think its sad, that some projects that get thrown into the woke label may be honest attempts at film or TV that isn't pushing a message. It is what it is though, and the current culture is toxic and all encompassing.
I do disagree with you slightly, in that I do not think Hollywood is focused on giving you the best film possible. Right now I think the message is all they care about, and they are willing to take the losses in the short term because they think it will eventually catch on. They will need to wake up at some point, and started already, and will need to start veering away from this soon I hope.
Social media is hurting Hollywood because actors making comments shitting on the property they are in, or calling the writer of that property racist or sexist isn't exactly helping draw in the original fan. Or how about actors who can't stop talking about politics, alienating fan bases with their rhetoric.
Catching Disney execs saying they are forcing LGB ideology in a high percentage in their films shows they have zero interest in the property, and have focused on messaging, which most fans object to.
Take a show like Schitts Creek. Show had strong LGB vibes, but didn't push a message and was just funny. My wife and I loved the show. That's not to say they aren't bastardizing what the show stood for post end, but that's a different story.
Hollywood is being destroyed by unoriginal content, made with messaging being the focus over content, and the stars can't stop themselves from putting their foot in their mouths. Also, where are the Stallone, Willis, Arnold type actors that someone would just go see the film, despite it's story, jJUST to see Arnold kill some bad guys and throw out a cheesy one liner?
Hollywood in it's current form is dead, and it's a multi faceted cause and effect, mostly done by drowning out testosterone and beating down good stories with poor messaging.
Best review and analysis of the landscape. You’re not simply bashing for the sake of bashing like critical drinker and many on his panel do (I actually think drinker can be more nuanced at times but he caters to his audience and comrades)
Great video Adam. I agree with everything you said. These companies need to stop shoving this stuff down our throats!
I can hear the disappointment in your voice to want to experience movies as they once were. Karate Kid.. Ghostbusters.. Goonies... and Back to the Future were my all-time favorites because it was great storytelling. The missing ingredient to movies today is that it seems very drab and less inspiring.
I personally believe that hyper realism has removed how much we can imagine. I dont know if you see it with this time we are living, but I can recall that we 80s generation might have been the last who had an imagination. The canvas was so vast and was not driven exclusively by special effects. Nowadays.. computer generated imagery fill in all the gaps that our mind usually filled in the past. The film industry needs an overhaul
It's just nice to see a white male who isn't afraid to be a white male and speak his mind. Keep up the great work.
It’s the three things everyone has been saying 1. Studios paying millions/billions for an IP but deciding that they don’t want the fans that made that IP valuable enough to pay millions/billions for it. 2. Filmmakers and writers making movies for their peers and not the customers/ audience. 3. Likes and retweets don’t equal to $.
That’s why I’ve been on a binge on watching a lot of foreign films and shows lately
I think the problem with all this isn't so much the pandering but it's the people that are being pandered to. I truly believe that all these so-called victim groups should grow some agency and have faith in themselves to where they are not worried about what other people say or thinking it's pathetically sad to see that is not the case. Did we stop teaching our kids that sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us? Because it sure does sound like we've abandoned that lesson
I’ve recently discovered your channel by one of my friends (who’s a movie nerd like you) and I truly appreciate your takes, you just want good movies. Yes, there are some anti-woke channels who are complete nuts but I do think and believe there are some dark things happening in Hollywood as a whole. And like you said: do not care who you identify as or whatever…I just don’t like the children being exposed to that. Keep up the good work Adam!
Adam I wholeheartedly agree with all of this. I appreciate you mentioning the insanity from both sides as well. Woke gets thrown around entirely too much on some side. And calling someone a racist or a bigot gets thrown around way too much on the other. And all these studios 100% just force variables into a story so they can stand on top of a pedestal and brag to the world. I think the earliest example of my experience with this is last Jedi. I dislike that movie. And I remember people praising it for black and Asian representation and being dumbfounded. I couldn't understand why people were excited about a story line that was meaningless to the plot. And then years later people started waking up, for lack of a better term, to the fact that finn and rose's storyline didn't matter in the slightest and Disney was clearly just trying to profit off of the representation play.
Even at the time I was very critical of that movie and that plotline specifically and people came at me for it.
Heres 5 bucks good job.
Thanks!
"Messages are for Western Union."
- Samuel Goldwyn
Hollywood has budget and oversaturation issues, but when I see something like Oppenheimer or Parasite, Dune 2, or the next Spiderverse movie, it's a good reminder that there are writers who still care. I just feel like the bad is now more noticeable, since more movies come out. With that said, let's talk about one thing that annoys me. If a white character is a poorly written, they are just a bad character. But if a black character is the same, it's pandering. It's the same with Ariel - if the actress was white, people wouldn't bat an eye, but since she's black, if it's not woke, it's rage bait. I'm not saying pandering can't exist, but what is the line? We can't deny that there can definitely be bias in "Why does this black character exist", as opposed to a non-minority who doesn't get that flack.
"There's no good looking guys in Madame Webb" ... I mean, come on, it's a Hollywood movie, there has to be - *Googles Cast* OMG he's right!!
Pandering to the woke crowed and pandering to fans of certain popular IPs by ignoring good story telling and just go HEY LOOK, THAT IMAGE FROM UR FAVORITE COMIC BOOK, WASN'T THAT AWESOME? HEY LOOK ASHOKA FOLDED HER ARMS LIKE SHE DID IN THE CARTOON, WASN'T THAT AWESOME? HEY LOOK NOSTALGIA OF UR FAVORITE MOVIES, ISNT IT AWESOME, are all contributing to the downfall of the entertainment industry. They need to do less pandeing and focus more on just doing good writing.
Love your channel! Fresh takes with a good sense of humor
Hell yeah this guy is THE BEST reviewer imo! No kiss ass reviews, funny, real and knows what hes talking about. I always look forward to your take on the latest media releases. Keep it up Adam, youre the shiii!!!! 🎉
See Adam, if you paid a little more attention to “the message“ you would realize that the people at these companies that make these movies like Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy are more interested in spreading their ideology than making money which is what they’re doing. And that’s why movies suck right now. And we know this because those people say this
The Hollywood business model is dead as far as fans/customers that love the seventh form of art that cinema is/used to be depending on the perspective. There was a school staff at my high school who was a huge classic movie fan, thanks to her I watched Some like it Hot, which got me interested in watching more old school movies where the effects were less costly and the stories very similar to theater plays (I love theater, I was in school plays four years in total, theater is strongly underrated).
I get that with technology and modern means nobody can sit for four to five hours through Lawrence of Arabia, not just because installing the setting of the story required time but also the dialogue speed is old school and people want stories that get to the point now, people have less of an attention span than fifty years ago.
But I think there could be a healthy mix of both that only a few exceptions have managed, for instance while they were some elements that kinda threw me off, 1917 did a good job at bringing some fast pace with some very melancholic slow and dramatic scenes. I just wish that studios remembered that if they actually went for less expensive movies but good stories, maybe they wouldn't take have their movie revenue go into minus. I'm not talking about indie, I'm talking about small budget but stories that could be classics in fourty to fifty years.
The use of marketing is just not bringing any revenue when the trailers spoil 3/4rds of a movie, when the trailers shows a big actor to get people into the movie theaters and then the movie only has them in it for five minutes, it's not bringing revenue just because old memes are being used to try to get some younger audiences, encouraging watching to "spite the h8ers" isn't bringing revenue either.
The only good marketing is word of mouth, genuine one (not one that's trying not to vex anyone), and so far except for The Lost King about a woman looking for Richard III's remains in the UK in the fall of 2023, I can't remember the last time I watched a good movie in a theater.
4:58 I remember your old rant on the word literally, hilarious stuff! 🤣🤣🤣
I agree with everything you said and really enjoy your channel.
You also summed up my thoughts on the Little Mermaid perfectly. I just think that raceswapping on of the most iconic disney princesses was such a dumb move. Especially when you are doing a remake of a beloved animated film. When Ariel doesn't look like Ariel you alienate a lot of your audience who loved the original. It really should have been a slam dunk, but disney imo shot themselves in the foot.
I also understand what Disney is trying to do with Star Wars and Marvel, getting more women to go see them but its not working and like you said pushing the male audience you already have away. If it was me I would double down and appeal to the bigger audience I already have.
Back in my day, most of the movie makers were high on cocaine and burning thru money to make movies that catered to people wanting to use cocaine and burn thru money like they were rich playboys with all the bunnies.
Cia has long been in hollywood. The fact that you can laugh off the idea of them being a kabal means you don't know enough.
Having a superhero film with Sydney sweeny swinging around with them jiggling all over would be amazing.
Sidney with them Sweetneys hangin' out in a tight-yet-revealing spandex outfit
Yawn.
You're a eunuch. Nice to know.@@JohnnyZenith
Sidney's swaying ta-tas are worth the price of admission
My advice is that UA-camrs of your popularity level and higher should champion smaller, lesser known or overlooked movies instead of just endlessly commenting on the highest budget movies that you don't think deserve the attention.
I do all the time on my live streams!
@@AdamDoesMovies OK, sorry.
The thing that amazes most, specifically with Disney, is that the best and only truly enjoyable legacy sequel to anything recently has been Prey, yet they chose to bury that on a streaming service. I don’t understand how much more out of touch the executives can get. They made a fantastic female led action film and action/horror fans showed out to the point of forcing a physical release. Yet they refuse to follow their own success with it.
Yep. Loved that movie!
@@AdamDoesMoviesthe announced sequel and also Badlands from Trachtenberg has me hopeful to say the least
My biggest gripe with the female led Ghostbusters was: the trailer looked terrible. It wasn't FUNNY. The jokes were just awful. Melissa McCarthy doing prat falls. Leslie Jones screaming at everyone. Just brutally bad.
But boy could we not say that, because it mean we were women haters!
"Toxic positivity" is the new term. Rewarding people for being mediocre. Chris Stuckmann is gonna find out if and when he does make it to Hollywood when some UA-camr trashes his film. There's nothing wrong with criticism, but when Hollywood refuses to take accountability for making crap, they always blame us, the audience. When you're a billion dollar company it's easier to blame everybody else instead of the people at the top.
"Rewarding people for being mediocre" - Even though he talked about the terrible state of Sony and *why* Madame Web ended up being so terrible? Sure....
Love the rant. I want access to more people who are level headed and arguing from closer to the middle.
If live out the rest of my life and never again get a lecture from a leftist or from an anti-woke rager, it'll be the exact right amount :)
Joker 2 CAME OUT???!!!! WTF.. Clearly I have been ignoring movies for a bit too long now
I was wondering when he said that but no, releases in October. Still crazy that they've quadrupled the budget for the second one, when will they realize as long as the production team, writers especially are doing a good job, you don't need to throw hand over fist of money at CGI and overblown dramatic action sequences to make a box office hit.
I keep my hyper-bowl in the freezer so my milk for my cereal stays cold.
Halle Little Mermaid should have been a different character with parallel stories like the US office had similar stories to the UK office, but was different characters in the same universe.