[lbo-talk] why movies suck

Gary Mongiovi MONGIOVG at stjohns.edu
Tue Nov 17 11:43:08 PST 2009


I'm curious about the criteria Doug & perhaps others are using to gauge quality. I've seen almost all of the movies on the list, and by & large they're reasonably amusing entertainments. Some of them, like the Spider-Man

and Lord of the Rings movies, transcend their genres and are intelligent and genuinely moving. Aside from Mama Mia! and Hancock, which truly did suck, and Passion of the Christ, which is just grotesque, what's the objection to these movies as enjoyable & relatively inexpensive ways to kill a couple of hours & relax?

If the argument is that these sorts of movies somehow crowd-out more thoughftul work, you might have a point. But I'm not sure they do. Plenty of good movies get made, and get seen. I wouldn't deny that poplular culture is in many ways debased, or that good stuff has to struggle to find an audience. My top fifty list wouldn't contain more than a few of the movies on this list. But as popular culture goes, the movies seem to me to be in pretty good shape.

Gary



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