Hey, C:

I think you're right, generally speaking about the current new generation. I kid my oldest son that if there isn't a car explosion in the first 15 minutes of the movie, he's walking out. He reads movie reviews carefully and only goes to movies that get one star. Of course, that's an exageration, but there's some truth to it. I sat around a couple of years ago on a Holiday where my nieces husbands and a couple of other men their age were talking about how great the first Matrix movie was (which had just come out.) After expressing wild enthusiasm for it for awhile, one of them said, "Did you understand it?" they all answered, "no." The special effects and fight scenes don't require a plot or understanding what is happening in a movie like The Matrix. They are exactly what the are move-ees.

And, it's not just fifteen year olds (or 22 year olds) who don't like watching black and white movies. I know a lot of people in their fifties and sixties who don't. It's taken a long time for my wife to appreciate movies in black and white. After all, color has been around our whole lifetime, even for old codgers like me. I guess it all depends on why people watch movies. If they're just looking for popcorn movies, they'll enjoy special effects, color, action and the broadest of humor. Whether we like it or not, it's the 3 Stooges who've had the longest lasting effect on comedy. Except now it's the 3 stooges as slackers with dirty mouths and no steady jobs. At least the 3 Stooges had jobs they were constantly getting fired from for incompetence.

And of course, there are new heroes and heroines in the movies that arise with every generation. They aren't lesser (or better.) Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Russel Crowe and a newer generation still finding their way will be the old-timers in another 30 years. Adam Sandler will be the Jerry Lewis of the 90's and early 2,000's. Echhh.

There are still great movies being made. I'll go see just about any movie that has Billy Bob Thornton in it. It's just that "blockbuster" movies rule the world, and you have to look harder for movies with good scripts and good acting.

Jerry