How do I tell whether a movie is good or not?

aw man - i totally thought the title of this thread said: "How do I tell whether a man is good or not?" and i was like "good god, how'd I miss THAT one??"

slip. me. my bad. as the Dest says...carry on!

If you cheer when the main character dies, then you're watching a bad movie.

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...uh the post is up there...

Unless it's a comedy

if you like it then it's good. you don't need to be a film student, or feel u have to like those artsy pretentious films purely because the critics say theyre good.
a film has many purposes, and of those main purposes is to entertain, so if it did, its a good film.
deciding what a good film is entirely subjective. critics try to make it objective but theyre just there to provide an opinion, and everyones opinion is equally as valid.

Seems like the thing about musicals and the thing with sci-fi and fantasy are sorta the same thing. That does seem to happen with some people, and I can't tell why. There was a member here a long time ago (Ryan Paige, I'm sure a lot of the longtime MoFos remember him) who we all liked and who seemed to genuinely appreciate good films, but just couldn't enjoy fantasy films...even the best of them, like The Lord of the Rings. Never could figure it out. We all insisted that it was a beautifully crafted film that held real-life lessons and illustrated real-life truths, but he wouldn't budge.

Anyway, that's what usually does it, for me: finding a moral or message that applies to our world as well as the fantasy one, and I'd say all good fantasy films have that. Ditto for Sci-Fi. In fact, a very good argument can be made for the idea that both genres largely exist as a way to comment on real world affairs from a distance. Sci-Fi, in particular, seems to almost always have a view on just where humanity is going, and it usually has an opinion about whether or not it's good or bad (usually bad, it seems).

Without that kind of commentary, I tend to tire of it pretty quickly. In a nutshell, I can buy into the craziest world if the people inside it still behave and react in a way you or I might if we were simply transported there. Location, environment, etc...I can believe in any of those, so long as the characters inside them share a common humanity with us.

Would be interested in hearing more about why you don't like war films, though. Too depressing? Too similar to one another?

Ah, it seems like we're just using the phrases in different ways, then. I am, indeed, using it to refer to someone who's merely bold in private, or as you say, highly libidinous. Art is a safe way, with lots of built-in deniability, to express those things, I think. Not that everyone does, of course.

Can't say I expected that.

I haven't forgotten about this and I do intend to present some thoughts on the matter, at the moment though, I'm having trouble forming coherent thoughts (on anything) into something I could put down.

Did you mean my thoughts on the question that I put forward? Or the question that started the whole shebang? I just want to make sure that I address the 'right' question.

I must say though that since you've clarified "inspiring" to merely mean "uplifting", the argument seems pretty null and void, to me, as I certainly wouldn't consider a film which was uplifting to be better than any other film which entertains.

I mean your thoughts on the question you asked me.

Re: inspiring/uplifting. The problem is that I don't think films really do generally inspire us to do things. They may provide some kind of impetus, but I think, invariably, such things are things we largely want to do and are looking for reasons to do, and if a film hadn't provided that last kick in the butt, something else would have. It would take a truly special film indeed (once in a lifetime, perhaps) to actually alter our career or life in some meaningful way, and even then I'd be skeptical of the idea that the desire was not already more or less formed independent of the film.

That said, I still think a film which uplifts is far more valuable than a film which entertains. You remember films that elevate you, but we constantly forget the films that merely hold our attention while they're on-screen. I think the degree to which we remember films, and think about them afterwards, is a pretty decent barometer of the relative importance of what they provide.

Yeah, my dislike of musicals and my dislike of sci-fi and fantasy all pretty much hinge on the suspension of disbelief thing, but also the showtunes themselves just annoy me (and, for the record, spontaneous song and dance is the one exception to the "anything goes" rule for children's animation. I dislike animated musicals just as much as I dislike their live action counterparts).

I do understand that fantasy and sci-fi often mimic or comment on real life, but I just can't seem to connect on an emotional level with a wizard, a hobbit, an elf, an alien, or whatever. And if I can't connect, I get bored. And in the case of both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, there are certain little green creatures hose speech annoys the hell out of me. (Sorry, but I really can't stand Yoda or Gollem/Smeagle.)



Your suggestions are a big part of it, certainly. I do find most war movies to be pretty much interchangeable and quite depressing (though there are a lot of other depressing films that I very much enjoy). A small part of it is that I am anti-war but also I really hate guns and bombs. I see no honor in annihilating a bunch of people by dropping a bomb on them from the sky or gunning people down from behind a trench or some other form of cover. Hand to hand combat and swordplay I'm fine with. Even things like bows and arrows are far less repugnant to me than guns, because archery to me takes a lot more skill and you have to get within much closer range of your target.


I am, of course, not entirely serious with that comment. For the most part, I still believe that there is just different taste, but it boggles my mind that someone can dismiss an entire genre as being "boring" (especially coming from an adult, albeit a young adult). If Ish1987 had said that he/she doesn't like drama because he/she prefers movies that are more escapist in nature, I could respect that. But to just say they're boring? I can't accept that as a valid reason.

Besides which, the whole Hugh Grant thing... First of all, drama encompasses such a huge range of films (and overlaps in pretty much all other genres as well. Even most comedies have an element of drama to them), not just romance. Secondly, I don't I think I've ever seen a drama that starred Hugh Grant. I wasn't aware the man did anything other than romantic comedies.

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Re: Musicals, this must be where I mention Cabaret as being vastly different from the kind of musical which you describe.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Basic objective of a movie is to entertain. If you were entertained by a movie, then it's good for you as a watcher/moviegoer. However, it becomes different when you take away yourself as a moviegoer and become a critic. You evaluate the movie not just in a personal perspective but as a reviewer of different movie aspects such as plot, effects, sound, editing, etc. Bottom line, it's really up to you and what you want and feel.

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