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Forum namePass The Popcorn Archives
Topic subjectsee, but where's the litmus test?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=23&topic_id=34609&mesg_id=34665
34665, see, but where's the litmus test?
Posted by Professor Calculus, Sun Jul-10-05 01:06 PM
With the exception of Traffic, I think every movie you listed, that I've seen, is good, if not great. However, I think that I am, like a good number of the people on this board, somewhere between the snob and the anti-elitist, leaning slightly in one direction depending on the mood. But people like KF, colonelk, and S&S--and again, it's not so much antagonistic as it is as an plain observation--represent the "high art intellectual" side of movies more drastically. If memory serves me correctly, from their previous posts, all are not thrilled about the movies you've listed. So to get their quick reaction to the list would be the best way to measure the film's capability as a "happy medium." But since it may seem that they're not pleased with me labeling them as I have throughout here, that may not happen.


>Goodfellas
>Casino
>Jaws
>Do The Right Thing
>The Exorcist
>Traffic
>Se7en
>Being John Malkovich
>Rocky
>The Breakfast Club
>The Hustler
>Shawshank Redemption
>One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
>Raiders Of The Lost Ark
>Platoon
>Toy Story
>Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
>Silence Of The Lambs
>Chinatown
>Stand By Me
>Rebel Without A Cause
>Cool Hand Luke
>Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
>The Wild Bunch
>L.A. Confidential
>Back To The Future
>Bonnie & Clyde
>Stand By Me
>Heat
>Network
>The Big Lebowski
>Groundhog Day
>This Is Spinal Tap
>
>Some more recent ones that maybe are too new to say but seem
>to fit in this category:
>Batman Begins
>Spider-man 2
>Pirates Of The Carribean
>
>Most are films that were succesful (or at least, made decent
>money) at the box office while being heavily praised by the
>critical community.

you have three levels of critics:

1. Gene Shalit
2. Roger Ebert
3. David Walsh

and I think they may represent three broad types of filmgoers

>That said, there will be no film that is universally praised.
>For one, there's always someone who wants to be the dude who
>hates the movie everyone loves. Several people here take
>pleasure in being THAT dude. If we all love City of God, it's
>pretenious. If we love Batman Begins, it's boring. Etc.

of course