Going with the gut. Mixing politics with the flicks.... Or, How George W Bush ruined movies.

I think I'm probably the biggest Batman fan in the world. There are few people who can match my Bat knowledge. There are even fewer who can recite every word from every Bat film (animated or live action). Also, apparently, I'm a big nerd.

Back in 1997 I was a bike courier trying to save money for college. One day I picked up a roll of film to go drop at a local movie theatre. The film was Joel Schumacher's epic disaster film, Batman & Robin.

I remember secretly and ever so carefully opening the package and holding the film up to the sun. It was an extremely useless attempt to see a few frames from the film that I was holding out some hope for.

Could it be as bad as it looked in the trailers? Could Arnold Schwarzenegger actually pull off Mr. Freeze? Will I want to hunt down and destroy Joel Schumacher for destroying my hero?

The answers turned out to be yes, not at all, and I'm still contemplating it.

The film was horrible. Did I say horrible? I meant abhorrent, appalling, awful, detestable, disgusting, dreadful, frightful, hideous and horrendous.

It may be the worst film I have ever seen. A veeeeery close second is the Nicolas Cage comic book extravaganza Ghost Rider.

Here's a major difference between the two of them.

Batman and Robin bombed at the box office. Ghost Rider was a box office hit.

With Batman and Robin, people knew they were watching crap.
They didn't stand for it. They used their brains for once and told Hollywood that if you feed us movies that are cast with stars that don't suit the parts and have no story, soul or characters, we will not support it.

I remember thinking, even ten years ago, maybe Hollywood will get the message that people don't want to be fed stuff that "shuts your brain off" for two hours. They want to use both their brain and their gut. They want to feel something for the characters and the situations, but they want to know that some effort was put into making these characters and situations. They like using intelligence coupled with emotions.

Everything was looking good. Of course next year came Armageddon (the movie not the apocalypse) and Godzilla.
Godzilla bombed dramatically

Unfortunately Armageddon did okay at the box office, but Saving Private Ryan was the box office champ. There was still hope.

"Sure we swallowed Armageddon! But we want more movies like Saving Private Ryan!"

1999 came Star Wars. Which, even though I dislike it, the nostalgia factor made it the number one movie. The other big hits? The Matrix and The Sixth Sense. Intelligence and emotion… hope sprang eternal.

Then George Bush took office and hope sprung a leak.

Actually, to be fair, it wasn't after George Bush took office. It's how his lasting Presidency has affected the American psyche.

In 2001 Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter ruled. 2002 it was Spider-man. All good, smart, imaginative movies.

2003 Lord of the Rings, Finding Nemo…things seemed to be going well.

Creeping up, however, were films like Bad Boys II and 2 Fast 2 Furious.

2004 Van Helsing, The Day After Tomorrow, Aliens Vs Predator!
2005 Mr and Mrs Smith, Saw II, Fantastic Four! (Though Batman Begins saved my hero!)

2006….ah 2006. The year started movies, now almost unalterable, downward trajectory.

X-Men 3, Talledega Nights, Night At The Museum, Scary Movie 4, The Pink Panther, You Me and Dupree, Jackass 2, Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift.

It has all lead to the worst summer of film I can remember,
2007
Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3, Fantastic Four 2, Wild Hogs, Transformers, Norbit, Evan Almighty and the amazing Ghost Rider.

How is it that all of this George Bush's fault?

Bush is responsible for a new way of thinking in the US. He was the President they elected because they wanted "A regular Joe like us". They elected a guy who wasn't a smarty pants egg head. They wanted one of them.

This became his calling card. He used to call himself a "Washington Outsider" even after he became President. I'm not sure you can get more "inside Washington" than when you're Commander in Chief.
Being an intelligent, thoughtful and logical person became something that only "Elites" do. George Bush doesn't have time to think. You shouldn't either. You go with your gut America.

This, I believe, took hold.

Going with your gut. Not thinking it through. That's exactly was the GOP is all about.
Mainstream America responded.

And filmmakers responded.

You can see it in the films. Let's use my favourite film to bash this year as an example.

Transformers.

Michael Bay is the worst offender. Even in on camera interviews he comes across as a guy who says,

"Hey, I don't make movies for the smarty pants critics and film nerds out there. I make it for guys like me. I make movies from the gut"

"From the gut" was responsible for the epic disaster that was Transformers.

It's a huge hit. People love it.

People like checking their brains at the door nowadays. The President pretty much told them to.

What I don't get is that people hate George Bush these days. His approval rating is in the low twenties…the worst since Nixon!

But it's too late. People would rather not think if they don't have to anymore. Bush's damage is already done.

A lot of liberals say that they should impeach Bush for his numerous crimes against the Constitution. I say impeach him for his numerous crimes against the film going public.

Maybe if Barak Obama is elected we can start thinking again.