by Ginger Marin
I am reminded about the line in the beginning of “Aliens” when Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley asked a bunch of stupid corporate types who obviously weren’t hearing her, ‘if intelligence had dropped in the last fifty years’. I am convinced that, in reality, it has.
Every time Hollywood produces another sophomoric, gross-out comedy made for people with I.Q’s of 2, I know that the world is not as it once was. These films are made for horny twelve-year olds or horny, stupid young adult men who aim to remain kids for their entire lives. They are obviously made by men of the same persuasion, men who perpetuate exploitative female nudity (under other circumstances it’d be called porn) and gross humor related to bodily functions. How upstanding and imaginative of them. I guess we’ll have to listen to them defending themselves later, saying they don’t push smut and downright crap. Is it any wonder that women will always remain exploited when men keep getting fed this garbage and stupid women keep going along with it?
“American Pie” for all its worth is being described as “a raunchy sex comedy”. Granted it’s being touted as a step up with lots of so-called ‘human values’ but it’s being advertised in magazines geared toward children as young as twelve. The studios will only admit to marketing it to 15 year olds and above. It happens to be rated “R” which means you have to be 17 or accompanied by a parent or adult. Wonder where the 12 to 15 year olds fit into that formula.
Stupid films today, as opposed to the “Porky’s” variety of yesterday, seem to actually fall into the same category. After all, ‘stupid is as stupid does’; we have dumb filthy jokes, dumb filthy men looking at dumb naked girls, and everybody’s having or trying to have sex, sex, and more sex. All of this, remember is geared toward kids.
“Dumb & Dumber”, the “Austin Powers” franchise, et al equal dumb, dumber and downright retarded. Yet they make money for the studios. How else would you explain it other than to suggest that the population must be getting dumber? You’d think that as the population ages (or so they keep telling us), the films would be geared toward that population, you know the baby boom generation, the ones in their forties. But, the studios actually gear their films to 12-year olds. I guess they are the ones earning all the big bucks. They must be because the rest of the population, the adults, keeps getting fired due to age discrimination.
New Line Cinema, which made “Dumb & Dumber” and “Austin Powers”, now has a two-picture deal with Adam Sandler and is contemplating a third Austin. “Dumb & Dumber” meanwhile may soon have a sequel and the studios everywhere are nixing everything that isn’t a stupid gross comedy. But remember, “they’re always looking for good stuff.” I guess the definition of ‘good stuff’ also changed over the last 50 years.
The sad thing is, studios will jump through hoops looking for the latest money grabber; they’ll shove garbage down our throats whether we want them or not, all because they think every stupid film will be a hit. Well, you know what? They won’t be. We’ll just have a slew of garbage out there. That’s how they do things. Overkill! That’s why in one year we have 2 volcano movies, a “Godzilla” and a “Mighty Joe Young”, 2 asteroid movies, 2 Elizabethan movies (which, of course, no one ever makes!) … get it? Now, we’ll be up to our necks in stupid comedies for the next two years. To tell you the truth, I think we’ll never get away from the genre, not when we have immature men running the studios. They love these films because it depicts themselves as they always were and always shall remain. Rich immature kids, but kids nonetheless!