Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 Inspired by @wordsfromlee post about Austin Powers in the General Movie thread; Every year there seems to be dozens of films released that get rave reviews, capture the spotlight for a week or two then fade away never to be mentioned again, and it always fascinates me when something that is heavily hyped just disappears without leaving any cultural footprint whatsoever. I've been having a sort-out of old DVDs the past few weeks plus listening to some older film review podcasts and have been coming across tons of these, but thought I'd start off with just a few examples; Beasts Of The Southern Wild - In my memory, this was absolutely huge for about a month when it came out. Was all over the telly and film media and really getting the 'this is incredible' push. I think what's even more interesting is that nobody involved in this has gone on to do a fat lot - the director has made one middling film since and the two lead actors haven't done much either. CODA - This won the Oscar for best picture 4/5 years ago! And it's never been mentioned since. I bet even the director has forgotten about it. What examples do you have? Feel free to mention TV shows/albums/anything that was big for a fortnight then came as quickly as it went. Quote
Members SuperBacon Posted June 17 Members Posted June 17 (edited) Avatar. The biggest film to have left absolutely zero cultural impact. Its also utter shite, so that didn't help. TV show wise, Game Of Thrones. I loved it, watched it all and couldn't tell you a single thing, outside the huge scenes and moments (shame etc) that happened on the show. I can't even really remember how it ended. Edited June 17 by SuperBacon Boldy James Quote
Dr. Alan Grant Posted June 17 Posted June 17 The Artist. Best Picture winner, critically adored. And now? Never mentioned by a single person. In fact, I’m confident that I’m the first to utter it’s name in 15 years. Quote
DavidB6937 Posted June 17 Posted June 17 2 minutes ago, SuperBacon said: TV show wise, Game Of Thrones. I loved it, watched it all and couldn't tell you a single thing, outside the huge scenes and moments (shame etc) that happened on the show. I can't even really remember how it ended. If it had ended better, I think it would be held in higher regard. I mean they're continuing to milk it with the spin offs but it definitely doesn't feel the same. Quote
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 Grizzly was the highest grossing independent film of all time until Halloween came out two years after it. Fair to say it's not the one that has stayed more in the public consciousness. Quote
MVP RULZ Posted June 17 Posted June 17 Avatar definitely for me, maybe not the 1st one so much as I remember that being huge at the time and was on the cinema for months, I mean it was on so long I saw it whilst in Phoenix for Wrestlemania 26 in late March when the film was released around Christmas time the year before and it remained pretty big when released on DVD/Bluray later that year But The 2nd and 3rd ones are apparently the #3!!! and #16 highest grossing films of all time!!! and I've never heard anyone talking about them at all (I honestly didn't even realise the 3rd one had been released until the other week when I saw it mentioned about cominy to Disney+ this month) for a franchise of films that are 1st, 3rd and 16th highest grossing films all time they've left little to no impact whatsoever. Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted June 17 Author Paid Members Posted June 17 7 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said: Grizzly was the highest grossing independent film of all time until Halloween came out two years after it. Fair to say it's not the one that has stayed more in the public consciousness. To prove your point, this is the first time I've ever heard of it! The Avatar films continue to puzzle me. How something so bland and forgettable can be the highest-grossing film of all time. I also don't get why you would pump so much money into technology and effects and then waste all of that on such a first-draft story and script, but they make all the money in the world so they're doing something right I guess. Cloverfield was huge when it first came out and pretty much kickstarted the found-footage genre (along with Paranormal Activity which could qualify for this thread too) and at one point I think there were talks of making a huge franchise out of it consisting of interconnected movies, but the sequel with it's shitty tacked-on ending seemed to put an end to that. Actually, for the most part the found-footage genre could qualify for this. You couldn't move for found-footage horror films from 2007-2010, but outside of a few stand-out films none of them have stood the test of time and it's a completely dead genre in 2026. Quote
Members SuperBacon Posted June 17 Members Posted June 17 4 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: The Avatar films continue to puzzle me. How something so bland and forgettable can be the highest-grossing film of all time. I also don't get why you would pump so much money into technology and effects and then waste all of that on such a first-draft story and script, but they make all the money in the world so they're doing something right I guess Some 3D nonce will always turn up to defend the technology despite the fact that it has never once enhanced a film. I'm glad that fad sodded off pretty sharpish. Quote
Merzbow Posted June 17 Posted June 17 5 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: it's a completely dead genre in 2026. It found it's niche in YouTube alongside Analog Horror, still quite massive but in a different non-commercial way. Well, Backrooms might just change that and I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see similar films based on found footage YouTube channels. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 I've been listening to a podcast called Discomfort Blanket by Joel Morris and Will Maclean, who are both TV writers, wrote the Broken Veil horror podcast, and Maclean wrote Solace House, which is one of the best horror novels I've read in years. They mostly chat about '70s weird telly, but they did an episode on a 2013 found footage horror called Borderlands that I'd never even heard of. They argue that it's one of the best found footage horror films ever, does a better job than most of answering all the usual questions ("why are they filming this?", "why am I now seeing their film?", and "how hasn't knowledge of the horror/supernatural element of this changed the world?") as well as being properly scary, but that it flopped because it came along after the genre had basically become old hat and was seen as a bit of a byword for cheap and lazy tropes. Honestly, I think you could put half the best picture nominees of the last ten years in this category. Lots that were very worthy and generated a lot of chat at the time, but have you felt the urge to go and rewatch A Complete Unknown? Do you think anyone ever will? Quote
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 1 hour ago, BomberPat said: I've been listening to a podcast called Discomfort Blanket by Joel Morris and Will Maclean, who are both TV writers, wrote the Broken Veil horror podcast, and Maclean wrote Solace House, which is one of the best horror novels I've read in years. They mostly chat about '70s weird telly, but they did an episode on a 2013 found footage horror called Borderlands that I'd never even heard of. They argue that it's one of the best found footage horror films ever, does a better job than most of answering all the usual questions ("why are they filming this?", "why am I now seeing their film?", and "how hasn't knowledge of the horror/supernatural element of this changed the world?") as well as being properly scary, but that it flopped because it came along after the genre had basically become old hat and was seen as a bit of a byword for cheap and lazy tropes. The Borderlands is really good, I agree. I can't resist found footage horror films while acknowledging 95% of them are proper shite. But that's solidly one of the really good ones. Quote
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted June 17 Awards Moderator Posted June 17 I talk about Avatar all the time, or at least more than most people. I like those films! I do! I agree on the awards contenders, and I would say that goes doubly for ones on streaming. CODA has already been mentioned, but the likes of The Power Of The Dog, or Roma, or Mank. Triply for ones they probably hoped would be awards contenders and weren't, like Greyhound, or News Of The World, or something not starring Tom Hanks. Quadruply for films they just dump on there the rest of the year, like pretty much anything you've watched on Netflix in the past ten years that you forgot the moment it dropped off your homescreen. Quote
Paid Members Sergio Mendacious Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 I heard The Woman King mentioned yesterday — I swear, it was all the rage for about 10 days, and then yesterday was the first time I heard about it in two years Quote
wordsfromlee Posted June 17 Posted June 17 I think it might be a bit early to say for definite, but my shout is Barbie. I don’t know any whos seen it since the first week of it going to streaming. I’m not sure if I’ve heard anyone talk about it save for people saying “…like Barbenheimer” when talking about watching two movies back-to-back. Quote
Paid Members gmoney Posted June 17 Paid Members Posted June 17 I watched Barbie months after it came out, and I feel like I see references to it a fair bit, so I have to disagree with that one. Quote
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