Scott Hardie | March 22, 2002
The other night, Matt and I had a long conversation about why we like movies. It started with Matt saying that he had realized what kind of movies Kevin Fiore (his roommate) liked: Heroic tragedies, where a hero sacrifices something, especially his life. "Braveheart" is a great example of this and it utterly blew Kevin away. We discussed how Kevin likes just about all heroic tragedies, how it seems he can't dislike one. Then we got to thinking if we have such weaknesses.

Matt has two of them. For comedies, it's farting, plain and simple. He can't help but laugh at any fart in any movie. Even truly execrable movies, like "Bring It On" and "Double Dragon," have been saved by single fart jokes. For dramas, it's macho men. Matt is attracted to tough guys who are unflappable in the face of danger. He likes movies like "Payback" that are only okay otherwise, if they have that masculine code of dignity.

For me, it's a well-made movie. I love movies that are perfectly made, when someone is demonstrating that they've thought of the best way for each scene to go. Watch a throwaway scene in a movie, like two characters talking in a diner or something, and look for effort on the part of the director, the cinematographer, the writer, the actors, to make the scene work. That's evidence of care being put into the movie. The movies that I hate most - the Evil Dead trilogy, "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" - are ones that seem to be made by amateurs, who have no sense of plausibility, continuity, or rhythm. No well-made movie can get be completely bad in my mind, and vice versa.

So then, what kind of movies do you like?

Anna Gregoline | March 23, 2002
I like movies with some fucking cinamatography (pardon my swearing, I'm fucking drunk right now so you're lucky if everything is even spelled correctly). Anything with a shot that could stand alone as a picture, as a well-thought out photo just blows me away. That so much care was taken with just the images that the rest usually carries itself with me.

Scott Hardie | March 23, 2002
Did you see "Snow Falling on Cedars"? So-so movie, but some of the best cinematography you'll ever see.

Hmmm - I had some trouble writing the paragraph about Matt. I don't feel like I explained well enough what he likes. An hour or two after I wrote it, Matt said on ICQ that I "tore him a new one." Re-reading it now, it doesn't sound bad to me, just neutral. Matt likes farting in comedies, and masculine heroes in dramas & action films. What's so negative about it?

Also, I should stress that what I'm discussing here is the kind of film for which we have weaknesses. That is a bad film still has these elements, we tend to like it anyway. We're suckers for these things. I don't know if that came out in what I wrote.

Jackie Mason | March 23, 2002
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