Sex as usual (yawn)

[sifutofu]

I couldn't get into Blood and Sands because omg slow motion all the time.

Slo mo all the time? Seems amateurish. The main gripe viewers had in the beginning, it seems, was the unreal blood spatterings. "Folks, blood just doesn't DO that!", was the comment.

[Anjasa]

I can handle and, even, enjoy stylized violence and sex, but everything was in slow motion. It was really distracting.

I don't know if it improves, because the first episode sometimes doesn't suit the tone of the rest of the show, but I have too much to watch to keep trying right now.

[sifutofu]

I can handle and, even, enjoy stylized violence and sex, but everything was in slow motion. It was really distracting.

I don't know if it improves, because the first episode sometimes doesn't suit the tone of the rest of the show, but I have too much to watch to keep trying right now.

So you noticed that too, eh? About how the tone of the pilot seems to have recieved an adjustment for consecutive episodes.

[saintjon]

Sex was around a long time before visual media. Being hung up about the portrayal of it is something we invented. I don't know that there is a need for it to be a part of entertainment, I do know there isn't a real need for it not to be. You give people a tool to work with, whether it's one for construction, expression, whatever, mistakes will be made in the perfection of its use. So you get trashy sleazy shows with tacked on sex just for the sake of it (okay not NECESSARILY a mistake but probably at least distasteful) but things get better over time, the good shows get better at being good. I know that sounds dumb and vague but compare 60's Batman to the Dark Knight. Creative people get better at what they do all the time, so if all the sex seems silly and pointless now someday it will become less so and someday it may become the opposite.

[sifutofu]

Take, "Journey 2: Mysterious Island", for example. Could that kid, Vanessa Hudgens, get any more naked? When she was crawling out of that tunnel, with her butt stuck up in the camera, didn't any of you feel just a tad manipulated? If that kid turns out all right, and doesn't start robbing banks like Dana Plato (?) of, "Different Strokes", I'll be shocked. What's that, you say? She's 23? Too late.

[kshRox]

Take, "Journey 2: Mysterious Island", for example. Could that kid, Vanessa Hudgens, get any more naked? When she was crawling out of that tunnel, with her butt stuck up in the camera, didn't any of you feel just a tad manipulated? If that kid turns out all right, and doesn't start robbing banks like Dana Plato (?) of, "Different Strokes", I'll be shocked. What's that, you say? She's 23? Too late.

I have a real issue with hollywood and children.

Lindsey Lohan was a beautiful talented young lady with nothing but the promise of a fantastic adult career - look what happened to her.

Hollywood exploits and destroys children with their hollow, value system that strikes some bizarre balance between hedonism and nihilism.

Bit of a rant I know - but it is just so wrong.

[Loerwyn]

I think that's perhaps a bit too generalised. I think Hollywood can exploit a child but a large number of child/teen actors have come through relatively unscathed - Dakota Fanning, for example. Her scenes in The Runaways could sometimes be a little... exploitative, but they were supposed to be and they were supposed to make you uncomfortable. Mind you, probably not a "Hollywood" movie anyway.

It's not just Hollywood that does that, though, it's the music industry too. You can point out singers like Britney Spears and what happened to them.

And surrounding that, you have this "gossip" culture. You've seen the magazines in supermarkets and shops and stuff. Page after page of gossip, bitching, lying, "oh-mah-glob who does she think she is??", romance-speculation, privacy-invasion and so on. There's hundreds of websites dedicated to it, too. One website I was on collected stories like that and reduced the titles to their simplistic form - an example could be Actress X Has Emotional Reunion In Airport With Her Husband Singer Y And Child Z, and the reduction would be "Woman Gets Off Plane And Cries". Pointless, huh?

[kshRox]

I think that's perhaps a bit too generalised. I think Hollywood can exploit a child but a large number of child/teen actors have come through relatively unscathed - Dakota Fanning, for example. Her scenes in The Runaways could sometimes be a little... exploitative, but they were supposed to be and they were supposed to make you uncomfortable. Mind you, probably not a "Hollywood" movie anyway.

It's not just Hollywood that does that, though, it's the music industry too. You can point out singers like Britney Spears and what happened to them.

And surrounding that, you have this "gossip" culture. You've seen the magazines in supermarkets and shops and stuff. Page after page of gossip, bitching, lying, "oh-mah-glob who does she think she is??", romance-speculation, privacy-invasion and so on. There's hundreds of websites dedicated to it, too. One website I was on collected stories like that and reduced the titles to their simplistic form - an example could be Actress X Has Emotional Reunion In Airport With Her Husband Singer Y And Child Z, and the reduction would be "Woman Gets Off Plane And Cries". Pointless, huh?

Perspective is a funny thing.
Dakota Fanning is one I consider exploited to her detriment.

I remember seeing her in the movie "Push" where she looked about 12 and dressed like a promiscuous young woman in her early 20's. Then she moves on to movies that are sexually explicit and she has to be still in her teens.

When you are just a kid, and you are already doing that kind of jaded material where do you go from there?

It's like seductive clothing.
A woman who drapes her body in seductive clothing is mysterious and erotic.
A woman who stands before us nude has no secrets left to reveal.

I believe I'm probably not the only one who saw great promise in a young actress and now has no interest in any movie she would headline.

As to your point about the music industry - I agree with you 100%.

[steve12553]

Sex and violence are a part of life. I've actually enjoyed several good films with graphic sex and violence in them. Unfortunately, many films and now television shows are masking poor quality writing and production values with excessive sex or violence or both. The level of violence can only be ramped up so far before the audience becomes numbed to it and it no longer serves a purpose. In the lae 1960s the rules for censoring movies changed and with a mere submission to a ratings board a film could be released to mainstream theaters with much higher levels of sex and violence than ever before. In 1969 I left a screening of Easy Rider somewhat shocked but a suprise violent ending that left everyone in the theater shaking as we walked out. I had never seen anything like this before. The problem today is we've all seen this so many times that it's lost its dramatic value and has become rather cartoonish. The same is true for non-pornographic sex (and I'm referring to intent rather than graphic quality). If the sex is intended to portray romance a little goes a long way. If the nudity is intended to be comical or portray shock or surprise, the same it true. I have found that over the years I have missed watching literally thousands of interesting movies. I have been trying to catch up and really don't have a big need for new films if they can't truly offer me a good story and an occasional interesting idea.

[phil_geo]

I think there's many kinds of movies/TV shows with sex out there - ones that use sex as a cover for a bad movie are one example. However, I think many movies now simply have sex because it is an interesting topic that can now be uncovered.

The characters in "I Love Lucy" had sex - how do you think they got their kid? They just didn't have an episode about it because they couldn't due to censorship and values at the time. Modern Family occasionally has sex in it, and it is hilarious and handled well and simply one of the plot elements because now it won't get censored.

It's just one more thing that can be in a movie - it can't make a bad movie good, but it does add one possible plot element that had to be ignored 50 years ago, so it can make a good movie a little better.

[sifutofu]

Perspective is a funny thing.
Dakota Fanning is one I consider exploited to her detriment.

When you are just a kid, and you are already doing that kind of jaded material where do you go from there?

It's like seductive clothing.
A woman who drapes her body in seductive clothing is mysterious and erotic.
A woman who stands before us nude has no secrets left to reveal.

I believe I'm probably not the only one who saw great promise in a young actress and now has no interest in any movie she would headline.

As to your point about the music industry - I agree with you 100%.

I concur with you, especially about hrt being exploited to her detriment.
It really is true... when an actress goes nude, much of her mystery is gone. From that point on, whatever money she spends on clothes, hair, makeup, a personal trainer, etc., is wasted. We've seen the big reveal, and that was the end of it. This phenomena seems to be a vicious cycle w/ career-destroying potential. An actress becomes concerned that she is no longer getting the publicity she had been. So, a la Britney Spears or Janet Jackson, she "accidentally" has a "wardrobe malfunction", or does a nude scene in a movie...ironically, maybe the beginning of the end for her. Jackson really insulted everybody by going on TV, and saying her exposure had been accidental...BIG LIAR!!!

[sifutofu]

I have a real issue with hollywood and children.

Lindsey Lohan was a beautiful talented young lady with nothing but the promise of a fantastic adult career - look what happened to her.

Hollywood exploits and destroys children with their hollow, value system that strikes some bizarre balance between hedonism and nihilism.

Bit of a rant I know - but it is just so wrong.

...for her acting ability, as well as her down-to-earth personality and outlook (if genuine...after all, she is an actress, right?). I just found it strange that an account of, "Winter's Bone", said she was raped in a scene. No, she was beaten up. Big difference. Though glad she did't have to do that, it's weird that Hollywood lies about such things, like, "SEE Jennifer Lawrence getting raped, in, "Winter's Bone! Now in theatres!"

[kshRox]

...for her acting ability, as well as her down-to-earth personality and outlook (if genuine...after all, she is an actress, right?). I just found it strange that an account of, "Winter's Bone", said she was raped in a scene. No, she was beaten up. Big difference. Though glad she did't have to do that, it's weird that Hollywood lies about such things, like, "SEE Jennifer Lawrence getting raped, in, "Winter's Bone! Now in theatres!"

I think the same thing happened to Natalie Portman.
She was this huge rising star, then she did this sexually explicit film, Black Swan.

Now she is still in big productions, Thor, but she's not headlining, she's a supporing actress. I'm not saying its right, I'm just saying it is.

She's also done some low budget stuff that didn't help her image or career either.

[Loerwyn]

Natalie Portman was a big-name actor before Black Swan even flopped into theatres.

[kshRox]

Natalie Portman was a big-name actor before Black Swan even flopped into theatres.

Exactly.
Thats my point.
I wonder if Black Swan is what torpedoed her career.