The shlock coming out of Hollywood

I've attacked Hollywood before (here, here, here and here), so I really appreciated Greg Crosby's take on what's wrong with today's movies. Some sample Crosby gripes:

* I recently saw "Jerry McGuire" on TV for the first time and hated that they had two young kids (one looked to be about 8 or 9 years old, the other couldn't have been more than 5 or 6) saying the f-word. Bad enough for anyone to use that kind of vulgarity on screen, but five-year olds? Why isn't that considered a form of child abuse? And what's with their parents? I guess anything is fine as long as their kid is in a big movie. * Today's style of movie kiss really repulses me. I know you think I'm probably just an old prude, but if you knew me you'd know that I'm not. It's just that the way the kisses are handled isn't very romantic — it isn't even sexy — it's simply vulgar. Part of it is the way the kisses are staged, part of it is the over the top Foley sound effects which replicate the slurping of an overripe peach. It's a total turn off. *** * Studios catering to the 12 year old movie-goer have kept me away from about 80% of the films being produced today. I can't identify with teen angst let alone teen humor. Bodily function jokes stopped being a rip-roaring knee-slapper for me at about the age of eight. And when will the studios stop with the ever-popular ‘kick-in-the-crotch’ joke? Enough already!

I couldn't agree with him more. My husband likes movies, so we usually have four or five a week streaming through our home -- and I usually walk out on each of them after suffering for 5 or 10 minutes. For example, we recently tried to watch "Garden State," the young Zach Braff's much heralded new movie. Even my husband, who is much more tolerant of movies than I couldn't stick it out for more than 15 minutes. By that time, we'd watched a boring lead character be an ineffectual waiter, attend his mother's funeral, and go to a drug fueled party that ended in a semi-orgy. Aside from the total ickiness, there was, after 15 minutes, still no plot nor any sign that there would be a plot. I guess I can understand why critics, who have become jaded and desensitized from spending hours watching unutterable garbage, might think that this miserable excuse for a movie is something meaningful, but why are ordinary people bothering with this kind of garbage?