Monday, April 09, 2007

I Don't Mean To Be Negative, But...

Below is the poster for Bratz, a film spin-off of the popular toys-and-trinkets line for tween girls. The film has been directed by Sean McNamara who, once I caught sight of Casper 2: A Spirited Beginning, displaced Steve Miner from the position of Least Competent Professional Director Working Today in my special log of people I moan about loudly in pubs.

I wish films like Bratz weren't so dreadful. Why can't tweens have decent film's too? Imagine something like this with a script by Amy Heckerling (on a good day) and directed by, I dunno, Robert Rodriguez maybe or.. heck, even Amy Heckerling herself. Films for teens are often very good, films for tweens less so.

And don't try telling me tweens aren't so discerning. They'll swallow anything for a while, I'm sure. Make that extra little bit of effort and they'll really go for it. Pixar are the living embodiment of this ideal. Bratz, on the other hand, is a kind of low effort/medium return project that shows no ambition, imagination or respect. It is the very model of what is wrong with modern filmmaking. And it's not just an American thing either, Hollywood haters - in a very different style and definitely different genres, the vast majority of French cinema distributed in the UK falls under the same category.

Low ambition, minimal respect, mediocre financial reurns.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are right. It doesn't matter what audience they are dealing with. If they make a good movie, it would make more money and perhaps mean something.

It reminds me of Kevin Smith's comments about writing a Superman movie. The execs could sell toys and make a good fill. They didn't get that.