There are those out there that would say I am over-critical of movies. It would be foolish to try to deny these claims. I do pick up on little details and let them bother me more than they should. One the same token though, I don't usually let these details ruin a movie for me. Correction, I don't let them if the movie is good.
I do not consider myself a "film snob." If you've ever run into a stereotypical film student, that is what I consider a film snob. If you were to go through my collection, not only would you find that some classic films that any proper film snob would include are missing, you would also find many movies that no snob would touch. Seriously, I don't think any film snob would have a copy of Puss in Boots starring Christopher Walken in their collection even if they were trying to be ironic and hipster. Now, don't think that it is in my collection for any good reason beyond it being just too bizarre to get rid of. Well, that and having it around to inflict on people.
Ignoring for a moment those previous couple of sentences, I consider my critical opinions and general pickiness to come from my having standards. That sounds rather snobbish, I know. My standards come from the variety and number of movies I've seen and have collected. The problem comes from seeing so many really good films. Sadly, at least for Hollywood, the majority of these really good films seem to be foreign or independent. We you watch and collect these quality films, other films, especially modern Hollywood made ones, fall flat. I'll save my tirades and opinions on modern Hollywood for another blog.
Since I can't seem to do anything simply, this is a good place to mention that my "standards" vary depending on the film. I am not going to hold a '70s Blacksploitation to the same standards as a Period Epic. That would just be silly. In order to be able to justify this varying scale of standards when it comes to film, I must address an X factor. A movie should simply be what it is. This gets a bit philosophical. We're seeing lately in American Cinema a push (not just the remakes and being generally uncreative) to try to capture an essence or style from other movies in an attempt to be one of those movies. It seems like they want to recreate "exploitation films" and the whole "grindhouse experience." Or, there is this idea of trying to make independent films have this "independent film" feel. These "feels" they are trying to create pretty consistently hurt the quality of the movies. If the movie has a good script, good director, and some good actors, generally speaking the end result will be an good movie. If you are trying to give the movie a certain "feel" that is unnecessary to the development of the film, it will show. You'll be able to tell that they were "trying too hard." Just let the movie be what the movie is.
Let me give you some examples. Hobo with a Shotgun had many elements that would make it fall into the exploitation genre. The problem is that the elements were taken from the '70s but none of their essences were. They tried to make it an "exploitation film." They failed. They simply made a bad movie. Had they simply tried to make Hobo with a Shotgun instead of Hobo with a Shotgun the grindhouse-style exploitation movie, it may have worked. In not trying to become something, there was a fair chance that they would have actually become that very thing. Let's look next at all those so called parody films that got mass produced straight to DVD based of the success of the first Scary Movie. I don't think I really need to go into any kind of detail as far as the "trying too hard" argument goes. A joke is funny simply because it is funny. A forced joke loses its humor. I think I could easily make the comparison of these types of movies to the deterioration of something as you continue to make copies of copies. ("She touched my pepe, Steve.") The problem can be traced to the very first copy. Scary Movie based its parody off of Scream. This is problematic. Why? Most people, I'm assuming the makers of Scary Movie are included here, missed the fact that Scream was a satire of horror movies. So they made a parody of a satire. Of course they threw in a bunch of topical jokes and toilet and drug humor too. Given that those are three areas of humor that require a subtle touch and are rarely understood by the people who use them, they probably weren't the best choices to add to their "parody." Granted, topical humor generally doesn't translate well years later. Although, a properly done topical bit is still funny, just not as funny as it would be if you knew where it was coming from. The other problem was that there people were trying to make a "Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker film." I would be remiss if I didn't say that I know at least one of the Zuckers was involved in some of the Scary Movies. Regardless, we are still looking at copies of copies.
I think I should reel this back in. Simply put, stop trying to hard to make these movies something that they aren't. You can imitate a director's style, but you'll never make one of those director's films. So yeah, anyway, standards. I hold the movies to the standards of their fellow films. It's just a shame when so many foreign, independent, or older American films set the bar so high. So, I for one, am not going to sit back and eat, drink, or buy into what the machine is saying is good. That is a different rant though.
Highly critical though I am and holding the high standards that I do, I can say one thing for sure. I don't recommend movies lightly. If I don't think you'll like it, I won't recommend it to you. If I think it is one of those movies that is simply fantastic, I will probably recommend it to everyone. I hate to put it in this pompous way, but if the general populace finds many of the modern mediocre movies to be really good, imagine how blown away they would be if they saw a film that was actually really good.
Regardless of your level of love for film, music, literature, or whatever is your thing, at the very least, I hope that you love them for what they are. I hope that you love them because you love them. Don't like anything simply because others say you should. If we can't love our entertainments for simply being what they are, how can we ever learn to love others simply for being who they are?
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