The Appreciation vs Enjoyment Movie Meme!

[alobear]

corone's favourite books meme sparked off a discussion with cholten99 about appreciation vs enjoyment. There are plenty of books I can appreciate as being good, but that I didn't enjoy (Animal Farm for example), but I can't think of any books that I did enjoy that I think are bad. This is probably because I find it difficult to get past stylistic issues to enjoy a good story, as the writing itself is just as important to me in enjoyment of a book.

However, this apparently does not apply to films. Therefore, I have devised the "Appreciation vs Enjoyment Movie Meme"!

The two categories are as follows:

5 films I think are good but I don't like - this turned out to be harder than I expected. I could think of lots of films that are generally considered to be good that I don't like (Bladerunner, for example), but they didn't qualify because I didn't actually think they were good!

5 films I think are bad but I do like - this was much easier, as there are loads of terrible films out there that I love anyway, for a variety of different reasons. I decided to discount films I first watched as a child, which have sentimental value because they are part of my childhood (The Care Bear Movie, for example), but instead focus on films I first watched as a discerning adult but loved despite their faults.



5 films I think are good but I don't like:

The Sixth Sense - This film scared the crap out of me. Now, this isn't difficult, as I'm a total wuss when it comes to scary stuff, but this one tops my list as the scary film that's stayed with me longest (and not in a good way). I can appreciate the cleverness of the story, the quality of the acting, and the effectiveness of the chills, all of which adds up to me thinking this is a good film.
However, while there are many people out there who enjoy being scared, I don't. I hate it, and I will always hate this film for giving me nightmares. I made my boyfriend at the time sleep on the floor in my college room (the beds were way too narrow to admit more than one person) the night we went to see it, and I still have trouble switching the light off at night if I think about the film before I go to bed.

Titanic - This film sucked me in and made me care about everything that happened in it. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the second half and cried buckets at the end. It's powerful and well-made.
The reason I don't like it is because I wanted to be able to ridicule it and I can't. It knows its job and it does it extremely effectively. I went in with a cynical mind and came out a puddle of goo, and, despite my emotional reaction and grudging appreciation of the film's merits, it wasn't an enjoyable experience in any way.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - This film is beautifully crafted and skilfully executed on an epic scale. I just can't stand stories where the characters are separated from the ones they love and/or die out of a sense of honour or duty. It just irritates the hell out of me when they make themselves suffer for no good reason that I can see.

The Searchers - A classic western, with a strong story, a good cast and emotive clout. It's just so damn depressing.

Lost In Translation - I had a situational problem with this one. I knew nothing about the film before I went to see it, and I spent the entire time waiting for something to happen. The problem was, nothing did, and I came out very disappointed and feeling somehow cheated. I'm quite certain this is an excellent film, and if I had known what to expect, I'm equally certain I could have appreciated its execution. Maybe I should watch it again.


5 films I think are bad, but I like anyway:

Batman Forever - This is another situational one. The year this came out, I went on a family holiday to the Isle of Wight. There was very little to do, so my mother and I decided to go to the cinema one afternoon and Batman Forever was what we saw. Before the film started, they showed one of the old Cornetto adverts with the silly Italian opera style song. As it played, a sock puppet stuck its head through the curtain to the side of the screen and mimed singing along.
When the advert was over, the lights came up in the auditorium and an usher came in to sell ice creams. The whole thing was absolutely hilarious and set the tone for the film that followed. Mum and I thoroughly enjoyed it (we're always more susceptible to silly films when we're on holiday). Since we didn't have much else to do, we decided to go back to the cinema the following day, mostly to see the sock puppet.
However, the only other film that was showing was Free Willy (which was saw on the second day) so, when we wanted to go to the cinema again later in the week, we ended up seeing Batman Forever again. I believe we saw it three times in the space of five days, and we still quote lines of it to each other to this day.

The Saint - Interesting that two of my "bad films I like anyway" star Val Kilmer, huh? I'm generally not that keen on him, but he's really cute in this one. The plot is nonsense and the script isn't much better, but the background to the main character appeals to me, and Mr Kilmer manages to get my attention every time.

The Three Musketeers - I'm talking about the Chris O'Donnell version. It's cheesy and ridiculous, but it's just so much fun, and I know every line.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - This had the potential to be a really good film, but it's not. It's terrible. However, I have a great fondness for it because of the circumstances in which I saw it. I was supposed to be out of the office all day, doing store visits in Birmingham, but I finished everything and was back in Oxford by 2pm. I had no desire to go back to the office for the afternoon so I played hookey and went to the cinema instead.
Now, being an utterly paranoid worker, this was the very first time I had ever bunked off work and my heightened adrenalin levels meant I actually really enjoyed the film. I rounded off the afternoon by turning up back at the office at 5pm and getting brownie points for dedication, since my boss said it would have been quite alright for me to go straight home, since I'd obviously only just returned from Birmingham...

A Ghost In Monte Carlo - This film is based on a Barbara Cartland novel, so it goes without saying that it's pretty bad. For some reason, though, I love it - it has a dashing hero, an idiotic damsel in distress, a scheming (moustache-twirling) villain, daring rescues, swordfights, and fantastic costumes. Overblown and ridiculous it may be, but I can happily give myself up to it and get swept along by the romance for a couple of hours.



So, there you go - any takers?

Comments

Film lists

[(Anonymous)]

It's a list, and it's a film discussion, so I'll join in. Apologies for whatever content below I have discussed far too many times before.

Five films that I like much less than they probably deserve:

Citizen Kane

Consistently voted the greatest film of all time by film critics for its innovations in narrative structure and camera-work, its bravery in attacking William Randolph Hearst and its poignant commentary on the loss of innocence. Sadly, by the time I watched it, I knew all about it and had seen numerous films influenced by it, so was rather bored.

The Dish

This is a charming and amusing portrayal of life in rural 1960s Australia. Unfortunately, the plot revolves around whether the plucky amateur astronomers will be able to maintain the broadcast of the moon landing, and the lack of any doubt as to their success kept me from being properly invested in it.

Fargo

Having seen several Coen brothers films, I believe them to be intelligent, skilful film-makers. However, they also have a distinctive sense of humour that I do not seem to share. Fargo's popularity suggests that it is one long joke that I simply don't get.

Romeo and Juliet

Visceral hatred always seems to me to be caused by a threat to an established mind-set. Baz Lurhmann's adaptation has good acting, especially from Claire Danes, and his (relatively) happy ending is perfectly justified by the text. It was just that the style annoyed me from the start, and I kept seeing more and more things that didn't fit my personal interpretation. Recent discussions mean that I really should reread the play. Watch out for a possible recantation.

The Thing

John Carpenter directing Kurt Russell is normally a good sign. The concept is intriguing and suspenseful. Then the dog started mutating, and I had to turn it off. I really want to know what happens, but I really don't want to see it. Does anyone have a screenplay?

Five films that I like much more than they probably deserve:

From Dusk Till Dawn

What do you do if you have two decent story ideas but can't turn either into a two-hour film? Stick them together, of course! Does it work? No. Can George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino act? No. Is the cinematography great? Yes. Do lots of people die in silly ways? Yes. How many sequels can they sell to video distributors? At least three.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

From a film which is actually two films to a film which isn't even one. There's no structure. There isn't even an ending. However, it is very, very funny indeed.

Quo Vadis

I can't remember much about this. I think that the message is that love and faith in God allow you to triumph over adversity and even death, which doesn't do anything for me. But you do get Peter Ustinov as a ridiculously over-the-top Nero, and Petronius' urbane politician trying to restrain his excesses is just as good.

Throne of Blood

More glorious over-acting, this time from Toshiro Mifune, ably supported by far too much dry ice and a non-CGI ending that proves fletching was just as lucrative in medieval Japan as in ancient China. Nevertheless, it does have the best Lady Macbeth I've ever seen, and even bad Kurosawa is still Kurosawa.

Timeline

One exchange says it all, really. Modern man: "Are you seeing anyone?" Medieval woman: "No, but they could be hiding in the bushes." The writers also thought they could get away without explaining time travel by having someone shout, "I don't care how it works!" The soppy ending is predictable, but it is appealing, and it makes a nice change for a British-American film to make the British and Americans the villains and let the French be the good guys.

Re: Film lists

[alobear.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming from the style and the film choices that this is David, right? :o)

It's interesting that both people who have responded to this with lists of their own have done the first category differently to me - you've done the "films generally considered to be good but you don't agree" version, which is fair enough. The ones I listed are films I actually think *are* good but that I don't like.

Excellent choices, though - and great justifications!