May 9, 2006

  • With the summer movie season already starting, I thought I'd talk about the "popcorn movie" or the "fast food movie." Movies that don't exactly meet the criteria to be an art film, or a possible oscar nomination for best picture of the year. These movies are pretty much how they are described to be, entertaining and fun to watch. For a lot of movie critics, these kinds of movies are a waste of time for being very unimportant to the artistic value of film making. A lot of casual movie goers take offense to that point of view by the critics. I myself admit to avoiding those types of movies, because of the perceived notion that they are stupid. I'm open to watch a "popcorn movie" once in a while, but it's really got to interest me in some way for me to go see it.

    Consider this though. Maybe it's simply because a lot of them are just brainless. The most common argument to that statement, is that they are suppose to be brainless. The counter-argument to that would be that there is a difference between "brainless FUN" and "brainless DUMB." A movie like Mission : Impossible III would be something I would consider "brainless fun," while something like Scary Movie 4 is simply "brainless dumb."

    Critics and casual movie goers need to realize that middle ground, instead of criticizing someone that they "don't get it." Something fun and silly to watch can be good too. But at the same time, something fun and silly to watch can also be bad.