At the movies

Okay, this is a little more long-winded that I usually am. But it was an idea that caught my brain, and I thought I’d take you along for the ride on the train of thought . . .

I think I finally figured out the flaw in trying to read most movie reviews. Most reviews don’t take the audience into account. Other than the person who’s watching it. Either they think it was good or bad or didn’t suck. But for the most part, the reviewer watches from a very specific viewpoint. Most regular people don’t.

Take as a case in point a movie I saw this weekend, Secondhand Lions. I remember when it came out a few years ago, I barely gave it a second glance. It seemed to be some sort of a kids flick with middling reviews. I looked back at rottentomatoes.com and it had a 60% fresh rating. Pretty meh. But this Saturday morning, I was feeling kind of under the weather, so I just wanted to lay on the couch and take in a movie through osmosis. Secondhand Lions was the first thing I saw. And honestly, it was a lot better than I expected.

As art? Not so much. Even with Robert Duvall and Michael Caine. As an overall movie, maybe even then it wasn’t that good. But as a family flick, it way exceeded expectations. It was a movie that you could sit down and watch with a 5-year old and an 85-year old. A little action, a little nostalgia, a little romance, a little life lesson. And a lion. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and the kids could all sit and watch this movie and have a good time. That’s a lot of people to make happy. And it’s not an easy job.

But if you just went by an overall rating, you’d have passed it up. I did. But if I could break it down by categories, I’d put it like this:

Overall: B-
Art film: C (anything with Duvall and Caine gets at least a C just on cred)
Kids film: B+
Family film: A

Why the higher rating between kids and family? Any movie that kids can enjoy, but doesn’t make an adult want to stuff popcorn in their ears has a higher degree of difficulty.

And you could do this for genre films too. The Star Trek reboot movie was a solid A as a Star Trek film. But, gun to their head, any sci-fi fan would have to admit that as straight up sci-fi, it was only a B. No ground was broken. It didn’t push the genre envelope. Nothing that hasn’t been done before. And that’s a key element to go missing in a sci-fi film.

That’s really the flaw in most aggregator review sites. It give you more information. Just not necessarily better information. Most movies succeed and fail in several different arenas. And it depends on what you want at any particular time as to what you want to succeed. Sometimes I go to the movies as a chick. Sometimes I’m a sci-fi fan. Sometimes I’m somebody’s granddaughter or aunt. Sometimes I’m the 8-year old that still thinks fart jokes are funny. And sometimes I just go to the movies. A thumb or a tomato just doesn't cover it.