Much ado about nothing

If one show has grabbed the attention of white people in this past decade, it has to be The Wire. Coarse, honest and full of ebonics (which white people love), the five seasons of The Wire was honest television, absent from any sort of sitcom or Hollywood glam, minus the occasional under armor or Dunkin' Donut plug (c'mon, it's a show about cops).

Yet, it's hard to find any product today that has that kind of independence, especially within movies. 

When reading about movies past and present, a critic made an interesting comment. He claimed that movies like One who Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Easy Rider would not see the light of day in the current film industry.

So what does this say about us, the viewers? Has Hollywood found the equation for a profitable movie and just churns script after script through the equation, rendering the art of filmmaking less artistic and more commercialized. It seems so. 

Think of the nationally panned Miss March. It's a story about young gents trekking across the country to get laid (Road Trip anyone?), and the antics that occur on the way. It's the Sex Drive of this year, minus the laughs. 

Let's look at another movie that is currently out, Transporter 3. The first Transporter was successful because Jason Statham was virtually unknown, unless you were a Guy Ritchie fan or paid attention to anyone but Jet Li in The One. So his swagger and harsh cocknean unorthodoxy and cool made him, well, cool when in a leading role. Now, Statham has been typecast into so many crappy movies (Crank, Death Race, The Italian "let's copy Ocean's Eleven" Job) as his Transporter character. Which was, in turn, based on his Guy Rithie character. Transporter 3 is a regurgitation of that typecast, meshed with the Crank premise, Statham's going to die, but not before he can enact his revenge (to be honest, I don't know if Statham died at the end of Transporter 3, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I hope he did, that way there would be no fourth part in the series. Well, I guess that's untrue, because Crank 2 will be in theaters near you). The point? Jason Statham success in one movie, The Transporter, led to plenty of follow-ups where he does the exact same thing and plays the exact same character, because Hollywood believes it will make them money. Try mimicking Citizen Kane or Casablanca you non-innovative bastards. 

This is what makes shows like The Wire so important. It proves that there is still a spirit for the unusual and the unorthodox, and people can enjoy it. Sin City is cool, but slightly unoriginal because it is an ode to past film noir. As the audience, we don't need odes. We need something new, and exciting in content, not special effects. 

Hopefully, someone can deliver. I have a feeling that the movie won't be on the screens of outr theaters, but on our Macs and PCs.

The Wire  is not a show about Mountain Dew drinks.