Looking at this past weeks new theatrical releases a though struck me when I noticed 28 Years Later. There was a time when Zombie movies were huge, and it was not that long ago. A few good ones like Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and the Dawn of the Dead remake caused the sub genre to really take off and give us all kinds of zombie mayhem, comedy, action, etc. Similar to westerns of the past fantasy movies in the 80s or quite possibly Superhero movies of the present, the genre was around for awhile, took off and then died down, but did not completely died off as new zombie, western and eventually superhero movies still get made after the heyday.

And this is the nature of the movie industry. Something hits it big, often unexpectedly, then someone else puts another one out, often with their own clever twist, it does well. Next a few more join in as executives start to pay more attention and make more movies. Eventually the market will become saturated as everyone races to cash in and quality starts slipping as more and more movies are rushed out. Then as box office returns (or these days streaming clicks count as well) start to go down, so too do the number of movies being made of a particular type. But a movie ‘type’ never completely goes away. We still get zombie movies (28 Years Later), Westerns, 80s style action films and a lot of these movies are still really great.

Which leads me to this weeks prompt, simply: What is a favourite movie released past the craze/hey day of it’s genre/sub-genre? There is a lot to choose from and a lot to think about, but for me I kind of want to go with Battle Creek Brawl/The Big Brawl. This was Jackie Chan’s first attempt to break into the North American market and while it did not meet expectations it was a pretty fun movie and it was great to see him break away from the earlier films where he is basically trying to emulate Bruce Lee (the first period of the kung-fu/martial arts craze/fad). Short write-ups this week (and probably next) but I am in pre-vacation end of school year mode, I will get more jibber jabbery in a bit.