In his final film column for the LA Times, Patrick Goldstein assesses of the current state of Hollywood:
When it comes to marketing an expensive movie, brand familiarity is the name of the game. The majority of this year's top 25 grossing films are sequels, remakes, reboots or rereleases, and films based on familiar characters from books and comics. There are some exceptions — Pixar built its brand on new ideas, and we just had a blast of irreverent comic fresh air from Seth MacFarlane's "Ted." And soon it will be Oscar season, when audiences will hopefully have a fair number of distinctive new films to choose from. But many of today's most gifted filmmakers — notably Sam Raimi, J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon — have spent too much time working on studio plantations, putting their talents to use on sequels and reboots of familiar material.
The Dish 