To be fair I do think some netflix movies are really good or at least decent. The cultural impact may be on another hand but seriously most "non streaming" movies are also far away from being that memorable these days. I also wouldn't say doing movies just for entertaining is a bad thing overall. I do agree netflix could spend less money on bad action movies with no stories but on the other hand when you look at the top 10 people seem exactly to enjoy those movies. So maybe this generation is just deserving the movies netflix is serving us.
Netflix’s Culturally Irrelevant All-Time Top 10: How Many Have You Actually Seen?
With Scorsese’s “The Irishman” having been knocked out of the Netflix all-time top 10 by a lo-grade Jennifer Lopez action thriller, titled “The Mother,” I’m again struck by Quentin Tarantino’s fairly prescient comments from around a month ago.
Tarantino’s words might also apply to “Extraction 2,” a sequel to the original “Extraction,” starring Chris Hemsworth. I watched it last night and it aligns well with many other popular Netflix titles, preferably the kind of big, dumb action extravaganza that, as if powered by an algorithm, recycles story ideas from previous big, dumb action movies.
If you remember, Tarantino offered an opinion on the streaming phenomenon, calling out Netflix for making expensive blockbusters starring Ryan Reynolds that made no real cultural impact after being unceremoniously released:
“I mean, and I’m not picking on anybody, but apparently for Netflix, Ryan Reynolds has made $50 million on this movie and $50 million on that movie and $50 million on the next movie for them […] I don’t know what any of those movies are. I’ve never seen them. Have you? I haven’t ever talked to Ryan Reynolds’ agent, but his agent is like, ‘Well, it cost $50 million.’ Well, good for him that he’s making so much money. But those movies don’t exist in the zeitgeist. It’s almost like they don’t even exist.”
What he seems to be referring to are Reynolds’ two hotshot Netflix “blockbusters” “Red Notice,” “6 Underground,” and “The Adam Project,” which broke streaming records, but barely made a dent culturally.
You can also throw non-Reynolds streaming blockbusters “The Gray Man” and “Extraction” into the mix as well. These are, basically, made-for-TV movies with abnormally high budgets.
Yes, all of these big films might have been watched by millions of people, but their cultural impact has been fairly stagnant. Barely anybody talks about them.
Just look at the 10 biggest Netflix films of all-time:
How many of these have you actually seen?
As readers of this site, I gather that “The Adam Project,” “Purple Hearts” and company were never really on your must-see radar. Only Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” seemed to have made a dent in my world.
I've seen 7 movies of this list:
1) DLU (no words needed)
2) Bird Box (thrilling end time movie with Sandra Bullock)
3) Glass Onion (decent, fun sometimes but too less riddles, too obvious ending, stacked cast but miles away from part 1)
4) The Gray Man (worst movie of all time)
5) The Mother (I really like JLo and I really like her movies sorry not sorry, she's the coolest hardest bitch in town here, fighting her way through the awful crowded men to save her daughter gave me the 2 best action hours I had in a long time)
6) Extraction (fighting Chris Hemsworth for straight 2 hours if you ask me about the plot I can't remember. I only remember the gorgeous Golshifteh Farahani who deserved better. Maybe she should have been the main character in the 2nd part instead of that boring Hemsworth dude again. I might have even watched it then)
7) Purple Hearts (not gonna lie I watched this movie twice and would watch it again. I'm a sucker for love stories and Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine are electric together)