Being someone interested in the field of video editing, etc. It's simply just overused. The majority of the average joes running around won't notice it. In fact, normal people prefer highly contrasted footage; myself included.
I was flipping channels the other day and landed on the movie Unforgiven. Now it took me maybe 5 seconds to figure out what it was, but in those first five seconds my brains was definitely thinking late 60's, 70's western. I don't recall it looking so "old" when it originally came out (1992), but now it really has that old western feel. Will True Grit look older than it is in 20 years? Probably. Unforgiven trailer below. even it has a fair amount of orange/teal type colors going one - but reality is I think those are everyday colors. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4Df0KtJ01Ew" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
How bad is the orange / teal tint on THIS ?!? <div><object width="576" height="324"><param name="movie" value="http://d.yimg.com/nl/movies/site/player.swf"></param><param name="flashVars" value="vid=25116575&"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed width="576" height="324" allowFullScreen="true" src="http://d.yimg.com/nl/movies/site/player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="vid=25116575&"></embed></object></div>
When done right, the use of color schemes can really add a lot to a film. I did a whole paper on the Colors of Stanley Kubrick films back in college (early 90's). The difference is he did it for a reason..to convey a sense of grittiness in Full Metal Jacket, to give a sense of the coldwar in Dr. Strangelove (it was black and white when very few films were black and white anymore), surrealness in Clockwork Orange, creepiness and fear in The Shining...etc. One thing he did well was setting a mood with lights and colors. Today though, color is used often to just give a "look" with no real purpose or intention...or when it is used to set a mood or feeling its often overdone (someone above mentioned Traffic - I was actually annoyed by it because it was so "in your face" and not subtle at all").
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bXGWZxI9lAs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NI6DVO3lC_U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The 2nd one I can't even watch all the way through because it's too accurate.
This was popular in the late 90's when they wanted a film look for big budget tv commercials. I'd guess when Hollywood went digital they hired these people as they had the experience and it's become standard.