To me, Mean Streets and Saturday Night Fever are paired up in an odd way. Both movies take a specific slice-of-life angle on a group of people who normally live in the fringes in a way, and both are basically plot-less character studies. I think that many USA movies in that decade did this a lot. It was new and interesting and not the typical Hollywood film style .

In that same decade the opposite was also prevalent, what with the opulent heavily plot-driven films such as The Godfather.

For the love of God, Martin Scorsese, please shave your eyebrows!

Some good points here -- it's INSANE to watch mainstream films from the 70's; been watching lots of Sidney Lumet lately.. y'know, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, and so on.. and they're great, but they feel like they're from ANOTHER FUCKING PLANET compared to films coming out nowadays.

Really, I don't think a film like The Godfather could even exist today. It's so bizarre. There really aren't any directors crafting films in that style anymore. It seems like movies nowaday go overboard on music, cutting, etc.

I've also noticed music is simpler. Listen to popular "classic rock" songs; hell, listen to pop hits from 80's. Those songs are downright complex, they're fucking MATH ROCK compared to the forgettable, simple, disposable pop songs on the radio today.

We live in an age that shouldn't exist, pure fucking sensory overload, and everything is being designed to get in, do its thing and make money, then get the fuck out. SIMPLICITY. Everything is simple, direct, and meant to constantly entertain in obvious ways. Disposable, forgettable garbage...

disposable forgettable garbage is a good description of stuff like Pineapple express, the american pie crap, etc. not to mention the horrible spoof Wayans films that seem to keep making money..

it wasnt great by any stretch of the imagination but it wasnt the worst film of his i have seen either.

DiCaprio's problem isn't a lack of acting chops but a difficulty adapting physically to more adult roles. I thought he'd overcome it with The Departed (which I do think he's great in) but saw the awkwardness creep back in with Shutter Island. I do rate him as an actor but suspect that he'll have trouble finding really suitable roles.

Very true. It truly is as if hollywood has diluted their "art" so much to try to create mass-appeal fodder. This is a strange thing to see, because there are so many awesoe movies being mae, yet, comparing the big budget primo studio flicks from the 70's to the big budget flicks of today is sad. Think about the artistry inherent in soemthing like th Godfather. It came from the director, from the cinematographer, from the use of extremely thought out visual/musical/audio cues to inform the audience.
Then you compare that to a similarly budgeted movie from today like AVATAR, which was all flash, using every pssible gadget and trick in the book but no fucking artistry. No fucking real humanity. It was basically a fucking saturday morning cartoon for adults, equally inane, equally devoid of anything deeper than bumper-sticker platitudes.

What's the last great, multi-character, multi-plot-line, intelligent studio masterpiece the hollywood studios have put out? I wonder.

100% agree! Two of my favourite movies ever and, as you say, very similar.

rob who is that in your avatar pic? don ramón from el chavo del ocho posing as jim morrison?

Again, I'd probably have to say Goodfellas.

What I find weird is the way in which the industry has no problem doing this for TV (The Sopranos, The Wire, Desperate Housewives, Six Feet Under) but seems incapable of transferring those qualities onto the cinema screen.

holy shit, it IS don ramón!

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demoño-- desperate housewives?? furreal??

it is Don Ramon (or Ron Damon) as Jim Morrison!

You think it is a case of too many cooks spoil the broth? Modern movies are made with not only endless studio assholes weighing in, and with endless producers weighing in, but with fucking FOCUS GROUPS! fuck focus groups. Let the director make the fucking movie.

Can you imagine how horrible something like the Godfather or Apocalypse Now would be if left to focus groups to determine whether it would "appeal" to the fanbase?

I don't think I'm as bothered by DiCaprio as you all seem. I dont think he's all that bad. I thought he was good in The Departed. He's definitely better than Keanu Reeves anyway. Haha. I mean c'mon.

Yeah, i think the first few series of DH at least were great, and certainly far more intelligent than anything I've seen Hollywood make for the cinema recently.

okay, the first season was amusing, a kind of ongoing screwball comedy with a bit of murder mystery that begged to be directed by almodovar. i know this because at the time i was living next door to my wife's parents and we'd come visit on sundays and sure enough my mother in law would watch this thing. so yes, it was funny-- but no way near what the sopranos, the wire or 6 feet under were doing at the time. the 2nd season it became a sad fucking cartoon and we couldn't bear it any longer. then we moved away.

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re: di crabio (for NR)

he's actually a good actor, believable. the problem i think is that his face was all over the fucking place in the late 90s/early 00's and it became a fucking overbearing presence in the media to the point that it is hard to forget he is di crabio. plus he got to make out with claire danes and for that i will never forgive him. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

The big difference is one was a major network locked into the morals clauses and the others were made free of a morals clause. I too also enjoy DiCaprio to even compare him to Keanu Reaves is an insult to Tom Cruise who is definitely related to Keanu.

As far as multi plot lines and characters I would say the Dark Knight deserves some consideration with the mob, the cops, Harvey, Batman the Joker, the Japanese, and the lovely Rachel.

i'm gonna say NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN but that's not a "studio" movie like that shitty jerry bruckheimer makes, that's a coen brothers movie, and they get a different treatment than most directors.

I agree 100% with this, but seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which is overload at some points, but that's the beauty of it) and hearing Mastodon does give me hope.

Granted, Mastodon aren't a pop band and Scott Pilgrim has bombed at the box office, but they have made money...

Sure, but when did Hollywood last produce an intelligent scewball comedy? Of course it can't be compared with The Wire but in its own way it's further illustrating how Hollywood's TV sector is continually out-doing its movie one.