A good movie should have an entertaining plot. Doesn’t matter if it’s an action flick, a tearjerker, a horror movie, porn, detective procedural, whodunnit, or sci fi.
I would not have much interest in a tearjerker that was transparently only a device for bringing tears to my eyes, but then I wouldn’t have much interest in any other genre that was only a sequence of things going boom, things going bump in the dark, clues to decipher the answer before the reveal, seductive skin sequences, otherworldly settings, etc.
But yeah I definitely like a good movie with a plot, well-acted and well-cast, which makes me cry a bit.
That’s a decent point and you of course can rent anything you want. I do seem to remember that this girl had actually asked around her dorm to find a “crying movie”, and the women on her floor had recommended that one. I’m almost positive she wasn’t picking it for the plot or cast exactly.
Yeah, it seems that some people do this. Interesting phenomenon, to me, anyway. I also find it interesting that she didn’t seem to mind experiencing her catharsis in front of you and your friend. That sounds uncomfortable for all involved.
I know what you mean, but so many women seem to have a different idea about it than I do. I have 30-year old co-worker teachers saying, “this class is so much worse than last year, and the parents are half a nightmare. I go home and cry some days.” To them it’s so natural a reaction that they tell people at work.
It’s like they have a different way of thinking than most blokes. Who knew?
I’m a woman and I get very embarrassed if a movie or tv show makes me cry in front of somebody. And I’m talking about a couple tears that fall even though I refuse to blink, not the whole sobbing, waterworks, turn totally fug thing. Thankfully this doesn’t happen much cuz, you know, I like movies where shit gets blowed up, preferably taking a lot of zombies with it.
Romantic comedies where a man and woman meet, hate each other, grow to like each other, have a big falling out about 3/4 into the movie, then get back together.
Movies where the bad guys have this incredibly elaborate scheme set up where they can control basically any electric item from traffic lights to computers to your toaster.
I rarely cry. In real life or at the movies. But one movie always chokes me up, and that’s “Field of Dreams” The part that gets me is when he wants to have a catch with his dad.
Baseball is my favorite sport, and I played it through college, but I can’t remember the last time my dad and I had a catch. Kind of sad, really. That moment takes me right back to being a little kid and hoping he’d have the time to throw a few with me. He never did.
Here’s to hoping I remember that lesson when I have a son old enough to throw a ball.
I hate movies like this for a different reason. Case in point: movies like Freaky Friday. Parent switches bodies with the kid and then caries on like nothing happened!
I think if I had switched bodies with my dad I find a way to stay home from school the next day, thankyouverymuch.
The “inept underdogs win because they have greater heart” has also been done in non-sports, see Sister Act. I suppose Legally Blonde is similar though with an emphasis on “new girl comes to town and shakes things up” element.
The whole zombie/Terminator/Alien/Agent Smith/unstoppable and unkillable monster thing gets really tedious and predictable. Eight Legged Freaks, Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland were nice exceptions.
And another vote for JRDelirious’ “victory of the establishment squares”. Talk about an unexpected plot twist! The impulsive genius who worked alone and had a mad, improbable scheme to save the world…was actually wrong!
I have hit my saturation point, and then some, for extremely brilliant sadistic sociopathic killer who taunts and torments Our Hero (or Our Team Of Heroes) as they try to save the hostages / rescue the Next Victim, always guessing their every action and making asses of them at each & every turn.
The slick, self-important City Boy or Girl is forced to spend some time in the sticks and learns a valuable lesson about him or herself, community, taking it easy, etc. Also the somewhat less common Country Boy or Girl who moves to the soulless, corrupt city and winds up teaching his new city friends a valuable lesson about (and so on, and so forth).
When are we going to see a movie about the ignorant, too-religious bumpkin who moves to the city and learns a valuable lesson about secular humanism and the importance of fine art and respect for other cultures?
Films where our hero cops have arrested the bad guy and everything’s fine, but oh no look out, the bad guy hid a gun somewhere on his person and in slow motion he’s bringing it up to aim at the little rescued girl and her puppy and her kitty, enabling our heroes to shoot the bad guy without feeling bad about it. Laziest catharsis ever.
Any film in which the kid saw something incredible and tries to tell his parents about it and they don’t believe him. I know this is actually pretty realistic, maybe that’s why it drives me up the wall.
Movies starring the evil genius psycho killer who is an utterly insane lunatic incapable of functioning in our society, and yet whose amazingly complicated plans always work out to the letter, every time. Hannibal Lecter used to be the gold standard for this character, but the Joker in the last Batman film took this cliche to new heights. Hey everybody, look the other way while I load the holds of two busy ferries with hundreds of barrels of gasoline and explosives!
Movies over two hours long. People, we don’t have all day here. Get it over with already. If you can’t get it done in two hours maybe you should cut something out. Yes I know, trimming even a minute of your work of genius is like murdering a hundred babies. Get over it.
I will not watch:
Any buddy movie.
Any western. No matter how many times people say, “It’s not at all like a western,” it is.
Any movie with wizards or dragons (I know I’m in a tiny minority here).
Teen movies, esp. teen road movies
Plot where the city person fish-out-of-water in the country is told by the country folk, “That’s not how we do it around these here parts. I reckon you’ll find that out after ye’ve been here awhile.”
Julia Roberts
Any of these would be improved with the introduction of zombies.
