'Unoriginal Sins' - Joe Queenman
Basically, here's a peice I wrote back at the start of the topic. We read an article which featured in The Guardian, wrote a summary about it and then afterwards I added a little extra... as you'll see. Enjoy!
"Unoriginal Sins by Joe Queenan is a light-hearted article about the idea that many current popular films are simply ‘acting out the same old story’. Queenan set himself the task that he would go see a different film each night, for seven nights. He did not plan his viewings and simply went along and watched whatever would be showing at the time he arrived at the cinema. The seven films he saw varied in genres, target audiences, style and budgets. He denotes that even though all the films, aimed at different audiences seemed to use the same cli
chés, such as mostly all films feature a female as a ‘reliable understanding mate’ that many of the films have the under-line of revenge. G-Force, a new digitally animated 3D Disney hit featuring none other than... guinea pigs... features a computer savvy mole who attempts to wipe out man kind to punish those responsible for the death of his parents. The same appears in Harry Potter who seeks revenge for those responsible for killing his parents and branding him with a scar, in an epic 8-Film collection. And then in Inglorious Basterds, the new Tarrentino flick, a young French Jew plans to annihilate the Aryan swine responsible for her parents’ death. He notes that all three of these films have different audiences, Inglorious Basterds especially, and that Hollywood movie makers are simply relying on the same plots, characters bottled up in a formula suited to all different audiences.
Why I didn’t like the article?
I know this wasn’t asked for, but me and Sophie have been talking about how it’s a really pointless article, and indeed argument. I agree the article does have a reasonably humorous tone, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. The whole article does indeed point out similarities between these films, but they’re reasonably small, aren’t they? To sum up the article Queenan could have said “I watched some films, here I have picked out some similarities, I’ve not put this into context ‘cos... well they mean nothing.” He’s almost complaining that they have similarities and then saying, “but it doesn’t bother me”. Then to finish off the article he writes a humorous anecdote about ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ which doesn’t really relate to the article, except he watched that film in his week of watching films. The article isn’t as much a complaint about the ‘Unoriginal Sins’ of today’s Hollywood as it is a collaborative review of 7 of the latest films. I don’t quite understand the mind-set that Queenan must’ve been in writing this article (nor do I quite trust his opinion on film as he was intent on writing an entire article on why ‘The Hottie and the Nottie was a poor film, when that’s quite apparent), was his intent to go to the cinema, spend £45.50 on films he didn’t really wanna see just to point out that they had little bits that were similar? Or did he decide to spend £45.50 (based on Vue Norwich’s Adult prices) to do a bit of research on film? I think this is why the article feels so empty, because he went expecting to hate the films because they’d be similar, yet found he enjoyed them none-the-less and had nothing to complain about but still had an article to write... bravo Joe Queenan!"
chés, such as mostly all films feature a female as a ‘reliable understanding mate’ that many of the films have the under-line of revenge. G-Force, a new digitally animated 3D Disney hit featuring none other than... guinea pigs... features a computer savvy mole who attempts to wipe out man kind to punish those responsible for the death of his parents. The same appears in Harry Potter who seeks revenge for those responsible for killing his parents and branding him with a scar, in an epic 8-Film collection. And then in Inglorious Basterds, the new Tarrentino flick, a young French Jew plans to annihilate the Aryan swine responsible for her parents’ death. He notes that all three of these films have different audiences, Inglorious Basterds especially, and that Hollywood movie makers are simply relying on the same plots, characters bottled up in a formula suited to all different audiences.Why I didn’t like the article?
I know this wasn’t asked for, but me and Sophie have been talking about how it’s a really pointless article, and indeed argument. I agree the article does have a reasonably humorous tone, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. The whole article does indeed point out similarities between these films, but they’re reasonably small, aren’t they? To sum up the article Queenan could have said “I watched some films, here I have picked out some similarities, I’ve not put this into context ‘cos... well they mean nothing.” He’s almost complaining that they have similarities and then saying, “but it doesn’t bother me”. Then to finish off the article he writes a humorous anecdote about ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ which doesn’t really relate to the article, except he watched that film in his week of watching films. The article isn’t as much a complaint about the ‘Unoriginal Sins’ of today’s Hollywood as it is a collaborative review of 7 of the latest films. I don’t quite understand the mind-set that Queenan must’ve been in writing this article (nor do I quite trust his opinion on film as he was intent on writing an entire article on why ‘The Hottie and the Nottie was a poor film, when that’s quite apparent), was his intent to go to the cinema, spend £45.50 on films he didn’t really wanna see just to point out that they had little bits that were similar? Or did he decide to spend £45.50 (based on Vue Norwich’s Adult prices) to do a bit of research on film? I think this is why the article feels so empty, because he went expecting to hate the films because they’d be similar, yet found he enjoyed them none-the-less and had nothing to complain about but still had an article to write... bravo Joe Queenan!"
Ahh I see,giving everyone the chance to read your criticism!
Why not...