Where have all the good movies gone?

(Originally posted on my Facebook page Monday, October 5. For more info, visit my page at Facebook.com)

This weekend at the box office, the number one movie was "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." Yes, a stupid movie about chihuahuas made $29 million of our hard-earned cash. I watched the trailer for it and said afterwards, "Wow, that's got to be a bad movie." And yet America ate it up.

Which makes me wonder: Where are those wonderful movies that we grew up with? Don't say, "Well, it's a family movie." I grew up with the "Muppet Movie," "The Secret of Nimh," "Wizard of Oz" and plenty of gorgeous Disney films, right down to "Beauty and the Beast." So that excuse simply does not fly in my book. Honestly, it seems like the only real thing that speaks in Hollywood today is a dollar. And since the majority of people in Hollywood are dying to make a buck, they're willing to put up with it.

But there were plenty of people in the past who defied this system. Think of Orson Welles with "Citizen Kane." Francis Ford Coppola had to fight the studios for the length of "The Godfather." Tarantino -- who, as many of you know, I love and adore -- totally bucked the studio system when he made "Pulp Fiction," doing things his way versus the old way and making his film a classic. Hell, "Gone With the Wind" paid $50,000 words to have the word "damn" in it. And don't forget "Rebel Without a Cause" and James Dean. There's a reason why these films -- and the people associated with them -- are legendary.

But the truth is that it's fancy special effects sell. Just ask George Lucas how much money he made off his CGI. It actually reminds me of a story my father told me, when he was a lighting director for theater. He lit the stage for a production, and his professor that he respected came out to see him. When my dad tailed him to the parking lot to ask what he thought of it, the professor sighed and told him that he forgot what lighting was for. It was to highlight everything that was going on during the performance. He was not the star of the show. Hollywood forgot that in the special effects wars. The explosions and fancy scenes are not the stars; the story that it is telling and the people who are venturing down that path are.

What happened to a great story? How about some great characters -- characters who we fall in love with, who scare us half to death, who we follow with anxiousness about what they are going to do next? What happened to cinema as art? Some indie films get it, while others are so pretentious you want to gag.

Mind you, there have been some great films this year, not to mention in the past five years. "The Dark Knight" was an incredible movie, filled with strong characters (not to mention Heath Ledger, who scared me like no tomorrow). "There Will Be Blood" was a great example of cinema as the platform for not only a strong character, but beautiful images. As for story, "Eternal Sunshine" was a gorgeous demonstration of where film stories can go.

Mind you, I am not against popcorn films. We need entertainment from our movies. But it shouldn't be brainless. Film should never talk down to us. It should move us, uplift us, inspire us, make us think and make us FEEL. Sometimes you just feel so numb in the dark of the movie theater it's scary, because the movie is just there.

Hollywood has forgotten where it came from. It was born out of beautiful stories and great characters. It was born from great directors and fabulous actors who took you where you needed to go, to make us feel desire, want, laughter, desperation and redemption.

Meanwhile, I am looking desperately for a film where I can fall in love, laugh, cry and come out of it thinking and discussing it for hours upon hours. Let me ask you, Hollywood: Is that so much to ask?