On 12/08/2012 09:51 AM, turquoiseb wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozguru@...> wrote: >> More addressing the title, I've mentioned before that film >> critics often don't "get" several genres and I often have >> to see those for myself. Principally a lot of them don't >> "get" science fiction, horror or ..... spiritual films. >> Now that may have changed a little in recent years as >> younger critics grew up being fans of Star Trek and other >> science fiction and even horror genre. But they may also >> be a little weak in the spiritual department. > Either that, or it holds no interest for them. That > is the way I am these days about most horror films. > There is so little "there there" that it isn't worth > investing any of my time in seeing something that is > merely a repetition of old cliches. Unless the film > does something to either play with those cliches or > play off of them (like "The Cabin in the Woods"), I > rarely find myself interested enough in the film to > bother with it. Some critics may feel the same way > about SciFi, and about anything "spiritual." > >> In the 1970s I noted that one Seattle up and coming film >> critic made bad calls on science fiction films. The bass >> player I worked with had a relatives who leased the Neptune >> theater in the University District and he was invited to >> attend distributor showings which are the showings for >> booking films and where many critics see a film in advance >> (nowadays they send them DVD and maybe even Bluray screeners). >> He happened to discuss this issue with said critic at a >> showing and indeed the critic admitted he didn't "get" >> science fiction films. > Well, they require more of a "suspension of disbelief" > than many films, and many people aren't good at that > unless they have a predilection in that direction > already. As a corollary, I find it near-to-impossible > to get interested in "angst" films that, for me, stray > into the realm of sappy drama queenery. Suffice it to > say that makes me *not* a fan of most Italian films > and a few French ones. :-) Not to mention the American > films that have more of a "Lifetime network" mentality > than an "American Beauty" mentality. > > It's not that I don't "get" those films, it's that they > simply don't do anything for me. It's like watching > people wallow in their misery and overindulge in the > afflictive emotions. > > In my youth, I would have had no problem with drama > queeny films, because -- being young -- I was probably > one myself. Now, not so much. Pure, honest emotion, > *not* used to suck in a jaded audience by going for > the melodramatic or sappy...no problem. But the sappy > shit...I say save it for those who still get off on > that sorta stuff. > >> Also with this genre a lot of American for some reason want >> to see certain things in these kinds of films or they are >> "not good." Netflix, IMDB, Redbox and a lot of other sites >> allow for critical comments and ratings of films. I don't >> know how many times I've seen a film rated 1 star because >> it didn't fit these peoples preconceived notion of what the >> film should be. In some cases I've posted a 3 or 4 star >> rating because these dummies didn't "get" it. > I've done the same thing. It's a matter of learning what > the boundaries of one's taste are and following them, > as far as I'm concerned. After all, the crappy films > (of any genre) wouldn't still be being made if there > weren't a perceived market for them.
I'm a big fan of horror but it has to be done well. Spain has been producing some good horror lately and so has South America. There is some good British horror too. And my all time favorite is Asian especially Thai horror. The latter deals a lot with concepts of ghosts and things in Eastern philosophy and they actually know how to make a film creepy. There are too many people peeing on a Hollywood production to make horror very good unless it is a indie shot by people who work on the tentpoles as something to do in between tentpoles. Not so many people peeing on those. BTW, this very subject of reviews came up this morning talking to a friend at Starbucks. He mentioned that he likes sci-fi and horror too but finds that he can't go by reviews on places like Netflix since people *do* have these preconceived notions. He though that "Monsters" was great but it got a lot of one stars on Netflix.
