I know that the movie Jaws is a classic, but!!!

[Robiwon]

Jaws was the FIRST summer blockbuster!! I remember the summer of '76, it was nothing but Jaws. The furor lasted right up until the next year when that lil' ol' space movie came out and shot it out of the water--so to speak...

You mean "Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea" by director Jindřich Polák?

:lol

 

[Zombie_61]

One of Spielberg's finest films, and he was only like 23-24 when it was made?

Spielberg was 26 when he was signed to direct Jaws in June of 1973, and 27 when it started filming in May of 1974.

Jaws was the FIRST summer blockbuster!! I remember the summer of '76, it was nothing but Jaws.

You must have waited quite a while before you saw Jaws then, because it opened in June of 1975. It was re-released in 1976, so that might be what you're thinking of.

 

[SPS]

i'm not totally a Transformers fn, but i think the comparison of that to Jaws is unjust, or maybe people doing it maliciously for cheap pops?
Transformers is, unashamedly, a popcorn, brain-in-neutral, smack-your-eyes-out summer blockbuster. it's not supposed to be anything but 120mins of adrenaline entertainment. Jaws is an entirely different animal. it's a tension movie. Deep Blue Sea would perhaps be more of a shark/robot comparison, if you wanted to throw Transformers into the mix.

if you wanted a good horror film w/ a good build and some jolts, you'd go for Jaws. if you were back from the pub w/ some mates and wanted kick-ar$e daftness, your go to Transformers. each is equally valid in its genre and trying to compare them is unfiar, i'd say.

I'll agree with this. If I'm testing out a new stereo for example, I'll probably reach for something big and stupid and loud. Although, the bigger point I'm getting from this thread, is that there are too many Transformers', too many CGI this, blue screen that, etc. We're in a serious drought of the 'finer arts' if you will. As an example, ask anyone to name some classics from the 70's or 80's, 90's even, and you'll be sure to get a pretty comprehensive list. Come the 2000's and onwards, aside from a careful list, I can't see it being as plentiful as the others.

 

[Robiwon]

^^ That was the point I was going for with my analogy. A blockbuster today, or even a good horror story, is all about excess. What the Hell happened to "suspense"? Jaws was so full of suspense you could feel it drip on you. The only movies where I felt any sort of that have been the Paranormal Activity movies. Not great films on their own but the suspense was there.

 

[SPS]

^^ That was the point I was going for with my analogy. A blockbuster today, or even a good horror story, is all about excess. What the Hell happened to "suspense"? Jaws was so full of suspense you could feel it drip on you. The only movies where I felt any sort of that have been the Paranormal Activity movies. Not great films on their own but the suspense was there.

The first Paranormal I saw was the original with the 'rocking back and forth' ending. I'm not big on the found footage thing, but this was a reasonably enjoyable film. I thought it was pretty groovy. Then as most sequels tend to, they got more boring from there. Talk about beating a dead horse...

 

[Too Much Garlic]

^^ That was the point I was going for with my analogy. A blockbuster today, or even a good horror story, is all about excess. What the Hell happened to "suspense"? Jaws was so full of suspense you could feel it drip on you. The only movies where I felt any sort of that have been the Paranormal Activity movies. Not great films on their own but the suspense was there.

People get bored by suspense. They don't have the patience to allow dread to crawl up their spine and raise all the hairs on the back of their head even BEFORE the monster is seen.

No, show the monster in a clear shot way up front in the movie, so every ADHD (only used as an example and not a jab on those actually suffering from it) kid doesn't have to wreck their brains being bored until the monster barely shows itself at the end. They don't know fear, they don't know suffering, they don't know how to sit the **** still and only concentrate on the movie instead of thinking a million other thoughts and being on 42 social networks and the mobile and playing games and listening to music all at once. No wonder kids are stressed out of their ****ing skulls and cannot sit down and watch something that doesn't have explosions every five seconds. THEY ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO RELAX and they have been taught that it isn't okay to just sit down quietly and do nothing - no, it's: DO DO DO!

 

[SPS]

People get bored by suspense. They don't have the patience to allow dread to crawl up their spine and raise all the hairs on the back of their head even BEFORE the monster is seen.

No, show the monster in a clear shot way up front in the movie, so every ADHD (only used as an example and not a jab on those actually suffering from it) kid doesn't have to wreck their brains being bored until the monster barely shows itself at the end. They don't know fear, they don't know suffering, they don't know how to sit the **** still and only concentrate on the movie instead of thinking a million other thoughts and being on 42 social networks and the mobile and playing games and listening to music all at once. No wonder kids are stressed out of their ****ing skulls and cannot sit down and watch something that doesn't have explosions every five seconds. THEY ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO RELAX and they have been taught that it isn't okay to just sit down quietly and do nothing - no, it's: DO DO DO!

I guess the current popular music scene is much the same too. Simple music and movies for simple minds.