Humor these days has no class. My husband and I (we're in our 20's) recently found the old show "Beverly Hillbillies" on DVD and have loved watching it. I laugh harder at that show and others like "I Love Lucy", "The Andy Griffith Show", "Gilligan's Island", and the old movies of the fifties, sixties, and seventies than I do at anything Hollywood puts out today. Entertainment back then had class and style. It was universal. I wouldn't have to worry about my children watching it. Hollywood should consider going retro.

Hollywood creates a product that appeal to the lowest common denominator. Everybody, no matter how dull, understands violence, sex and the use of the f-word. There's very little redeeming about any motion picture today. It's too bad. Between the crummy writing, the overdone special effects and the endless commercials and previews, it's hardly worth it to go to a movie anymore. We just rent what we want to see for the most part.

I fully agree with you. I walked out of a PG-13 movie for the first time about 4 years ago. Anchorman was the movie and was as bad as The Austin Powers movies which I never sat the whole way through either. The vulgar humor is not funny at all in any way shape or form.
I miss the good old days when comedies were at its best. Movies such as "What About Bob?","Dumb and Dumber", "Groundhog Day","National Lampoons Christmas Vacation","Uncle buck",and all the great films with Eddie Murphy,Chevy Chase,Bill Murray,and Steve Martin were just great and did not need all the sick humor to be considered funny. I am glad the TV shows Friends is no longer on. That show was very bad and full of it even though too many people wont admit it and deny it.

Everything was better 100 years ago! Change is bad! Make it stop, Chris!

"There's very little redeeming about any motion picture today."

I agree that there are lots of crummy films being made today - just as there were lots of crummy films being made seventy years ago. The only difference is that along with bad directing/acting/writing we now have just plain "grossness."

However, that doesn't mean all profanity, all violence, all nudity is gratuitous - they just are a good majority of the time. There are still a lot of great motion pictures being made today (I'd say there are as many as were made fifty years ago, but that would be too controversial,) they just aren't the same types of films. Many of the very best of what's being made nowadays (in terms of artistry, filmmaking quality, etc.) does have profanity, nudity, violence, etc. (think "Pan's Labyrinth", "United 93", "The Lives of Others", etc.) Those elements alone don't make a film poor - it's just that they're usually thrown in to films that were bad already. It's also true that a lack of those elements doesn't make a film good (as we can see from a vast majority of the G and PG-rated stuff that comes out.)

Sad but true, Hollywood makes what people go to see. If no one went to see the films with sex, violence, etc., then Hollywood would make something else. I rarely go to the movies anymore. I have discovered a treasure trove of old movies and TV on DVD. The old "Mission Impossible" series is a lot of fun to watch and you don't have to cover your eyes and ears at the "bad parts."

My wife and I are very selective when it comes to watching "romantic comedies" nowadays for the reasons cited in this article as well as the fact that many of them are just plain stupid. Last night however, we took a chance and went to see 'Definitely, Maybe.' Yes, there was a considerable amount of sexual dialog but I don't recall any of it being crude, vulgar, or gratuitous, as is the case with so many modern movies. It was surprisingly frank, which might be offensive to some but that is how we have chosen to talk about sex with our kids so it didn't bother us.
We thought the movie was clever, witty, poignant and funny.