Why aren't you people focussing on the atrocious TV programming here in Australia ? It's ten times worse than what Hollywood dishes up. Australians really need to stop blaming everyone & evertyhing else & stop physhing for excuses when they lose at sport etc. Our own TV content is now so bad that it drives up the membership of discovery & Sky Channel to new heights. Just look at the insane, yes utterly insane repeditiveness of commercials & promos on each station. Many times I have observed he same promo played twice in a row. We now have about ten channels in FNQ & when you flick from channel to channel you get at least 5 channels playing either paid presentations with that screaming moron & his knife sharpeners or japanese cartoons. Then you have multiples of cooking shows, multiples of everything on Tv literally. Is it any wonder at all that many people go bananas watching so much idiocy ? The quality of autralian TV would rate as one of the lowest were there a survey. That Hollywood rubbish you talk about is gobbled by whom for cheap, soul destroying Tv ?
Don't rubbish the rubbish if you're buying the rubbish to make profit at the expense of ruining the mentality of our young & bombard them with nothing but rubbish.

Agree with Jon J!
As for the bad movies, to quote the perpetually bewildered, sentimental bloke? You plonks your money down and you takes your chances!
Or Forest Gump. Life is like a box of chocolates, you just don't know what you're going to get.
Even the best actors and actresses have their names added to this or that dog of a movie.
Perhaps Moulan Rouge would become an overnight box office smash, if it followed the example of Hair, and was produced as a nudie?
Rhrosty.

The last movie I went to see was "The Man from Snowy River", (my wife liked it) far too many Kirk Douglases, one is more than enough--anyone old enough to remember the movie?

The behaviour of the average suburban bogan moviegoer was bad that long ago, it's probably even worse these days. Pilger has a point in regard to the "Emperor effect", I joined a film society in the 1970s and endured many hours of tedious, pretentious Euro-crap before the truth was revealed.

Seen five movies seen them all. Movies were once a unique experience only available in a theatre, that era is over.

Three of my favourite movies are 'Citizen X", "The Dish", and a never-released-on-DVD Australian telemovie, "Riddle of the Stinson."

Citizen X is based on a true story, the hunt by Soviet police for a Soviet serial killer in Rostov, USSR, during the pre glasnost era. It is produced by HBO and it is a real gem.

The Dish, I really loved for its characterisations and its look at life in a small country town in the 70's

"Riddle of the Stinson" starring jack Thompson is, in my opinion, the best Australian movie ever made. Pilger would hate it because it presents white Australians as good people. It won an award in the USA for being the best family movie in the year it was judged. No sex, violence, car chases, or explosions, just a very interesting story full of decent people relating positively to each other in a time of stress. It can be bought through Ebay.

What movies do OLO readers like?

The following have stuck in my mind for a long time, but perhaps I saw them at an impressionable age. Ridley Scott’s ‘The Duellists’, based on a Joseph Conrad story. Stephen Speilberg’s first feature film, ’The Duel’. ‘Providence’ with John Gielgud, Dirk Bogarde and Ellen Burstyn. ‘A Dream of Passion’ – Melina Mercouri in a modern retelling of Medea.

One that comes to mind:

"Double Jeopardy"
Intriguing plot.
Bruce Greenwood plays a good slime ball.
Tommy Lee Jones always puts in a good performance.
And, Ashley Judd, WOW, what can I say ...enchanting.