Billy Bob Thornton on Paul Gale Network
Billy Bob Thornton

Actor Billy Bob Thornton recently told Telegraph.co.uk that the video game industry is the main reason to blame for the decline in quality of today’s films.

Billy Bob Thornton: “In our current state of affairs, especially in the entertainment business, we’re living in a time when we’re making — in my humble opinion — the worst movies in history. They’re geared toward the video game-playing generation. And these video games, which I’m on my son about constantly, these games are people killing for fun, and I think traditionally in movies, there’s always been some kind of lesson in the violent movies.”

What do you think of Mr. Thonton’s claims that video games are the reason for bad movies? Personally, I have to disagree, because to generalize that video games are just about “killing for fun”, you really haven’t experienced the industry as a whole. Likewise, not all movies necessarily have some kind of lesson at the end, when violence is in effect. By the way, BBT is in “Faster” which comes out tomorrow (a movie that probably will have killing involved if the trailers are any indication). I wonder just what is the split in Hollywood on the subject. Something tells me though that Mr. Thornton is probably in the minority.

7 thoughts on “Billy Bob Thornton blames video game industry for poor movies. Do you agree?”
  1. lol thats so garbage -.-.
    Last i saw Harry Potter and Twilight fetish crap arent geared for game-playing people. Don’t blame gaming just because the movies are crap.

  2. So basically this guy has realised that movie scripts have been surpassed in quality by those in games and now, instead of actually DOING something about it by writing better movies, he instead decides to start crying and whining on the Internet all day like a little girl? It’s because of people like him that todays movies are such letdowns when it comes to storyline.

    The quality of writing in games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid or Uncharted are 10x better than anything Hollywood has ever produced, if they don’t like it maybe they should try making better movies instead of making stupid internet posts saying “It’s not fair! Waahhhhhh!”

    One could easily say it’s Hollywood who are dragiing down the games industry by making so many crappy videogame movie tie – ins. Ever played Iron Man: The Game? Developing a game that crap should be against the law!

  3. I agree and disagree. Yes, partially thanks in part to video games, we have all got a shorter attention span so movies are trying to get more of a punch crammed into every five minutes. However, it isn’t the fault of video games that the movie industry is trying to cash in on the success of the video game formula. Another problem is that both industries don’t seem to be able to keep their fingers out of each other’s pots! Hollywood wants to make every semi successful video game into a movie, and it doesn’t tend to end well as the interactivity which made the story engaging had to be removed for the new format. And the video game industry needs to freaking stop trying to convert movies into those sub-par titles which clutter the discount bins at our favorite game stores. Now the second point may not seem relevant but it’s helped to teach Hollywood that movie and video game fans are interchangeable and will buy whatever is shoveled at them.

    Oh and on a side note While Billy Bob is lamenting the atrocity of video games ruining movies, why not cry a river about the tragedy of BOOKS ruining movies? If it’s been written it’s been filmed- or it’s currently in the process of being transformed into a screenplay. I’m looking at you “Twilight” and all your ill begotten sequels.

    So in conclusion, it isn’t the medium that’s being stolen from, it’s the idiots who are running out of original ideas who are to blame. Oh and I hope no one is surprised that I guy named Billy Bob is now an old man on his porch shaking his fist at the youngin’s and their new fangled electronic daemons.

  4. First i just wanted to direct a simple comment toward Arwyn Ernesto. It’s quite interesting to hear someone say video games are a cause of short attention spans. I believe quite the opposite; most of these games now a day rely on a heavy attention span. In the last 10 years there has been a growing trait in video games in which they have very long time requirements. A lot of games today have longevity of upward into 50-200 hours of game play time just to complete everything, and a high majority of gamers purchase these games because of this.

    Now as far as the comment from this actor…i agree movies have been terrible. It’s a lack of originality, not video games. I won’t pay ten bucks to go sit in a room with a bunch of people, buy expensive snacks, and stare off at a screen for two hours only to feel upset that i wasted my time.

    Rentals are where i go for movies, as i prefer to sit with my wife at home. I own a Sony Playstation Portable (Go!) that has the option to downloading music, movies, and games. The portable gaming is my poison, but the console gaming industry is booming in much greater numbers. The games released to these systems have more content, and at time the same qulity of a story that you would see in a movie, yet you’re able to interact with the scenes, you’re able to spend a good three weeks of time on a single 40-65 dollar price tag, and a lot of the times you have community’s online that you can play the game with.

    Movies don’t have the same flare any longer. Sure, actors used to be in high status, but only because that was the only form of media that the public could go to and escape on a mass market scale. You can name a new actor or previous ones to the new population of kids, and they will be more likely to know who the character in Mass Effect was before they knew who Billy Bob Thornton is. The last movie i saw him in was Monster’s Ball….it was good, had a great story and a lot of emotion (not to mention an eye pleasing scene with a certain female actor) but in recent years it’s not as exciting as seeing a character develop over a period of time. Now we are able to go along for the ride in a much more detailed and personal sense, as well as interact with other characters and NPC’s.

    Billy Bob needs to go into voice acting. Perhaps he will find that the video game industry isn’t filled with slack jawed gamers and mindless stories. Sure, I own a few games in which i kill things for the sake of doing so…but i can name plenty more that still have that “moral value” and “lesson” he speaks of…but i can name a heck of a lot more movies that don’t have these traits compared to the ones that do, and that isn’t something new…it’s been happening since movies existed.

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