My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.

I think it takes the same amount of knowledge to do well.

But cheap CGI looks better than cheap practical effects. Or it can be made cheaper. Maybe both.

Anyway, even Empire Strikes Back involved using computers for some work. Yep, late 70s' computers.

It's not one or another with these.

I think the reason for the drop in quality is moviemaking becoming corporate. Not "owned by corporations" kind of corporate (obviously that too), but "no way to get in without acquaintances or patrons inside" corporate, nepotism.

I always loved the behind the scenes for Eternal Sunshine. Kate was so excited about the production, she'd be like "I had to crawl through this hole into a different set and do a quick costume change so we could do it all in one take."

The making of Fury Road is quite fascinating, the bulk of the vehicles and stunts are real. A lot of the Fast and the Furious stunts and vehicles are real as well.

One thing I always appreciated about the Fast and Furious movies were their lean to practical effects, at least the earlier ones.

I am disappointed it feels like physical media is slowly going away though. It's not only nice to have a physical collection in my opinion, but it directly supports the stuff you like, and you don't have to deal with the bs that comes with digital "ownership" or the ever changing mess that are streaming services.

Discs mean too much hassle. I'd have to rip them all prior to storing the movies on my harddrives. Streaming subscriptions are convenient, but too limited and they don't offer the best quality. IMHO, a download option is the best of both worlds.

There's literally dozens of us

my local video store had the perfect setup. they were next to a pizza place and actually installed a window connected to it so you can order a pizza and look for a movie to watch while waiting for it to be ready. it was perfect. now its a stupid ass dollar store

Physical media isn't dead, you can still buy DVD/Bluray disks for popular content, unless it's a platform exclusive.

So if you really value physical media, buy it and refuse to use streaming services. I rip mine to Jellyfin so I get the same streaming platform experience, while owning physical media. If my kids want to watch something, I order it and rip it. If my internet connection dies, I still have access to it because it's on my local network. If someone wants to borrow it, I just give them a copy (or I can point them to my Jellyfin service, which is also available outside my house).

Yeah, it's definitely a vibe. I took a wormhole (time travel) to 1991, walked into a blockbuster and keeled over from nostalgia.

Nostalgia is such a complex/convoluted feeling -- you can't have it if you didn't have a past to draw the experience from, but when you do have it, it's almost like a religious or philosophical experience both acknowledging and becrying (or grieving) the passage of time.

Unfortunately, even with a "time machine", we the people who walk through the portals are ever changed. We won't ever live in the past again. We can see those places and experience them in our present states, but...

Just like a glass shattering on the ground and the pieces scattering: Entropy cannot be undone.