Monday, February 05, 2007

Little Miss Sunshine

This morning I was at work listening to NPR when a story came on about the up coming Academy Awards and one of the nominees for best picture Little Miss Sunshine. The interview was full of softball questions and arrogant comments made by the writer/directors. During the entire interview something was nagging me at the back of my consciousness. It finally came to me around the time one of the co-directors was likening the scenes with the family pushing the car to a start to a big Hollywood dance number; this movie has been done before.

I then began to recount through my mind the plot and individual characters and scenes in the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation. Tell me this plot summary couldn’t be for either film.

The _____ family embarks on a hilarious cross-country trek
in their broken down vehicle. Along the way the grandparent dies, the father comes to grips with his life and the mother tries to keep the family together. There are run-ins with cops, several life lessons and colorful characters. Finally, the family makes it to their destination only to find it isn’t what they expected and that only by coming together as a family can they salvage the trip.

I thought best picture was supposed to be about originality and so on. It is unbelievable that this movie was accepted as a nominee. Now, I will admit that the characters are darker (the suicidal uncle, overly angsted teen, and the drug using grandfather), but damn it, those are new modern day stock characters. The mothers even dressed virtually the same in both films.

If you don’t believe me then rent both and tell me they aren’t the same picture just separated by a generation and rewritten by some preening ass, who would pass off a work of comedy as his own “art”. Son of a bitch. Personally, I felt that national lampoon did a better job of making the film entertaining.

There you have it kids. Great things can be accomplished through plagiarism. Don’t bother writing your own reports just change some words around, dress it up differently. You never know you may just win a prestigious award someday off of someone else’s back.

*This post not plagiarized. Not even the picture, though I know it looks totally awesome.

5 comments:

cj said...

Well, you've finally had an epiphany like many of us who are older and been around the block a few times. Sometimes Dad and i wonder if there are ANY stories out there as yet untold. Of course, I guess it's hard to think of something new when people have been telling stories for centuries. Just look at how many times poor old Shakespeare gets dressed up in new clothes and language so someone can make a buck. I say, steal from the best if you're going to steal!

Da Beef said...

Quite true Sir ...same plot, different characters. But isn't that true of almost any movie? And story for that point. There is a very vague quideline, and then add some twists and unique peole and then there is anpther movie. The same goes for Sci Fi movies-chick flicks, etc. I can't tell you how many chick flicks I've seen that were almost the exact same movie...but I still watched them, enjoyed them and moved on to the next. Hollywood has just lost it's Spark..I'm still waiting for that one movie to really break the mold.........oh wait, there is ................TRANSFORMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEHEHE....

Singularity said...

A truely unique idea is very hard to come up with that's why I'm currently writing a few of my own screenplays right now. One has to do with a couple of gollege guys, one straight laced and one uber crazy and sex starved, going cross country to find the one who got away in the mean time getting in to some interesting quandrys and much debouchery. It's gonna change the genre for ever.

Singularity said...

What the Hell, why did my display name change?

Anonymous said...

I thought that this movie was completely original. I mean, who has ever heard of a cast of characters facing their own personal demons and then overcoming them?