It seems to me that most Hollywood movies, no matter how awful, end up with something like eternal life in a world with hundreds of cable channels.
One movie, The Wicker Man (the remake with Nick Cage) has me questioning this. I haven’t seen it on TV for years. For me, this movie was sooooo bad that it turned a corner and became hilarious, if unintentionally so. I think of it as I think of Independence Day, another terrible movie that I thoroughly enjoy. But the Cage remake was considerably worse, IMO.
And I wonder why it’s not around. It doesn’t seem to be the kind of film that people fight over, claim as their own, and tie up the rights in court. And I thought, is it just that no one wants it – that whoever owns it can’t sell broadcast rights.
It’s just not fair! Why can I see one every week or so, and the other, maybe never again. Ok, it’s apparently available on DVD, but Og forbid I spend money to get it.
I think there are a lot of GOOD movies that have just … disappeared.
With bad movies, the problem is a lot have one-word titles, are basically the same story (mobsters, gruff cop taking on the bad guys, frat boy comedies) and they’re interchangeable and meld into one genre.
The good movies come out, huzzah! - and disappear. “Pennies From Heaven” is much hated because Steve Martin didn’t wear an arrow through his head, but is a wonderful movie IMO. “Runaway Train” with Eric Roberts - excellent and seldom shown. “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “Withnail & I” - each shown once on TV. “The Reader” which won Kate Winslet an Oscar - I don’t know anyone who has ever seen it. The entire works of Ken Russell.
As for these being shown on TV, I guess it depends on which cable channel, and at what time, and what demographic they are pitching to. AMC used to show more obscure Westerns and crime dramas, TCM will occasionally air a racy foreign import in the middle of the night, but the ABC Family channel will run Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings trilogy non-stop for years.
I have seen The Reader numerous times on TV – if HBO counts. I’m not sure how long it’s been since I’ve seen Pennies From Heaven, but I’ve certainly seen it listed numerous times on regular cable channels over the past several years.
The real reason is, the world has changed. Instead of having to fill 24 hours a day with 12 different movies, channels run the same movie five times a day. Less need for movies. More commercials though.
But who would ever find it preferable to watch ANY movie on TV when you can buy, rent, borrow or stream pretty much anything you want, without annoying bugs, pop ups or commercials?
And since it was brought up, Pennies From heaven isn’t “hated” because Martin doesn’t have an arrow through his head, but because it’s really kind of a bad movie. I don’t think it conveys what it wants to very clearly. However, I was upset to read this comment from Martin about PfH:
“I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don’t get it are ignorant scum.”
I don’t know if he’s joking or that’s what he really believes, but from this Ignorant Scum I think he’s coming across as an asshole. I “get” it, I just don’t think it does a good job at what it is trying to do.
There are only a limited number of channels (cable and broadcast) and time to fill with movies and also a limited number of movies available. In some cases, the rights owner is withdrawing the film (maybe because it’s too obscure, maybe because it’s too overexposed) or asking too much money. In other cases, the producers can make more money selling to Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu.
Networks tend to prefer certain types of movies (and audiences for non-TCM channels don’t like B&W) and nowadays original content is preferred to old movies.
And, of course, some of the films are shown on cable, but you don’t notice them in the listings, or they’re shown on networks your cable provider doesn’t carry.
Also fads with changing of time example the 90’s to 2006 we saturated the market with space base scfi shows and now the shift is to zombies ,vampires ,super heroe and super supernatural. Give it other 5 to 8 years and alien and space shows may make come back.
I can’t think of any cable channels that run the same movie five times in one day. And there are more channels than ever now, so the demand for movies is greater than it ever was. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Epix, and Starz all have about four or five sub-channels, each with their own themes and movie choices.
That said, more original programming is being created than ever before. So perhaps some of these movies are being pushed out by the nth rerun of Breaking Bad.
I submit you’re not looking. I’ve seen channels run the same movie back to back, then another movie, then the first one again twice. Naturally, I can’t find any examples in this week’s guide. I think it’s channels like AMC or FX or Universal, and admittedly not every day. But they do.
And I’m not talking* A Christmas Story* on Thanksgiving. I mean recent movies, like Battleship,Unstoppable and Spiderman.
I checked my guide before I wrote that and I didn’t see anything like that. So I’m reasonably confident “five times a day is an exaggeration,” but I’m sure I’ll spot an exception or two in the next few days. I know HBO has been running True Lies seemingly non-stop over the last few weeks.
FX used to show Zombieland all the friggin’ time. Great movie and all but still.
Probably helped that it’s short (90 min) so you can get more runs in per day than movies with 200+ minute run times or use it as filler between other programs without disrupting your schedule too much.
In lot of cases I find movies do not run enough or not at the time it is available for me.
TV shows marathon are okay but some times it gets too much.It seem only thing A&E is running most of the time 24/7 is Storage Wars and Duck Dynasty. I hardly watch A&E these days.
Some movies seem show over and over again like Independence Day and I-Robots well other movies hardly.
Netflixhas two The Wicker Mans. Should one of them be what you want you can watch it about 16 times a day for perhaps less than $10 per month. Somewhat more seriously, Netflix may be why you cannot find it on TV.
[ol]
[li]The Adventures of Pluto Nash[/li][li]Battlefield Earth[/li][li]The 2007 remake of Friday the 13th featuring Jared Padelecki from Supernatural[/li][li]Watchmen (until very recently)[/li][li]The 1979 version of The Lone Ranger[/li][li]Superman IV[/li][li]Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot![/li][li]Oscar (another Stallone “classic”[/li][li]Anything starring Jason Statham that isn’t a ***Transporter ***or Crank sequel.[/li][/ol]
Are all rarely shown on network television or even basic cable.
What annoys me are the movies that never make deals with premium cable at all, so unless you get it from a streaming service or On Demand – both of which cost money – you’re SOL until it gets to basic cable or network tv 3-4 years after release. Examples:
The Avengers
Hunger Games
The entire Paranormal Activity franchise
Star Trek (the JJ Abrams ones)
Shutter Island
etc…
Get Epix. All of those movies have been playing regularly on Epix (and its sub-channels) for the past year. A few weeks ago, I watched parts of The Avengers four times in a single weekend.
But I thought about this thread today when I was discussing Primary Colors (the sorta-Clinton movie from 1998). I hadn’t thought of Primary Colors in years, but it turns out that my wife had never seen it. So we checked the guide and its going to be on one of the HBO sub-channels TONIGHT.
I’m telling you, I think the movie channels do a better mix than we give them credit for.
I think it’s channels like AMC or FX or Universal, and admittedly not every day. But they do.