# Is there any movie we ALL would agree is good (if not great)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 2, 2026, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271 "2026-01-02T14:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/301 "2026-01-05T04:36:42Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > How would you tell a story about a Black man wrongly accused in the Depression-era Deep South? I’m not an author, and the Depression-era Deep South is not an area of my expertise. I’m simply explaining what the criticism is. Take it up with those critics; I’ve included several links to that criticism of the movie and book. The first link below contains this definition: > [@](#): > > First off: definition time. The term “white savior” describes an American storytelling trope in which stories about people of color are framed to center the white people working to save, liberate, or otherwise aid them. A story in which white people are not the primary victims, but somehow end up becoming the primary heroes. Before anybody objects, “white savior” doesn’t dispute the historical reality that certain brave, selfless white people HAVE INDEED played a role in furthering the Black freedom struggle, and sometimes paid the ultimate price for it. (Mickey Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo …) It’s simply calling attention to, and questioning, the storytelling emphasis that decides the white perspective on this freedom struggle is the most important. That white folks’ efforts are most worth celebrating. > **[Let’s Talk About “To Kill a Mockingbird”](https://iamcharlesbakerharris.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/lets-talk-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/)** > > No beating-about-the-bush: let’s just dive right in. Have you ever heard anyone call Atticus Finch, the hero of Harper Lee’s beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird, a “white savior… > **[Now We Can Finally Say Goodbye to the White Savior Myth of Atticus](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/07/15/how-should-schools-deal-with-the-new-atticus-finch/now-we-can-finally-say-goodbye-to-the-white-savior-myth-of-atticus)** > > The anxiety and debate surrounding “Watchman,” lets us re-examine white liberalism in literature and how it shapes our responses to racial injustice in real life. > **[Q&A: Should teachers still assign ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’?](https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/qa-should-teachers-still-assign-kill-mockingbird)** > > The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel turned 60 this month, amid criticism for the way it handles race and racism. Geoffrey Glover from the Department of English offers ways to read the book in the context of today’s social justice movement. [https://pwperspective.com/editorial-its-time-to-kill-the-white-savior/](https://pwperspective.com/editorial-its-time-to-kill-the-white-savior/) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/302 "2026-01-05T06:20:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I only liked the one with the alternate ending. Ha! This reminds me of something. There is a reddit sub dedicated to the Mandela Effect, where every ‘change’ is discussed the death. Most people there (slight majority) understand it to be faulty memory, while a significant minority believe it to be a supernatural phenomenon where people can switch timelines and whatnot. The main point is that you can name any example (objects in mirror “may be” closer, Fruit Loops, Berenstein Bears, etc…) and find endless discussion of that example in countless topics. But as far as I’m aware, nobody there has ever brought up an alternate ending to Big. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/303 "2026-01-05T06:23:25Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > But as far as I’m aware, nobody there has ever brought up an alternate ending to Big. Shit, don’t point them to our board. 😉 > [@Anyone else remember the alternate ending to "Big"?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864): > > I was telling a friend the other day that I remembered the Tom Hanks movie ending different when I was younger. I saw it on video when it first came out and swear there is a different ending. In the version we all have seen, it ends with Josh and his friend walking down the street. Fade to Black. In the version I remember, it cuts to school and Josh is in class. The teacher introduces a new student named… the girl Josh was in love with. Yep, she went to the fair and asked the machine to become… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/304 "2026-01-05T07:59:08Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@John\_DiFool](#): > > > > My post on _2001_ never got any replies, pro or con, but might elicit that kind of reaction from some quarters. > > I’ve tried watching _2001_ probably 3 times over 30+ years, never managed to like it. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Drugs are the secret ingredient. Objectively, it’s a great film that that reflects both Arthur C Clarke’s marvellous imagination and Kubrick’s prowess as a director. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/305 "2026-01-05T08:36:23Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Objectively, it’s a great film that that reflects both Arthur C Clarke’s marvellous imagination and Kubrick’s prowess as a director. Objectively? I do not think you understand the meaning of the word. Pauline Kael from the New Yorker called it a “monumentally unimaginative movie”. Renata Adler from The New York Times described the movie as “hypnotic and immensely boring,” Joe Morgenstern of Newsweek called the ending annoying and banal. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/306 "2026-01-05T12:40:56Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Thelma and Louise- who didn’t like T&L? I didn’t. I understand and approve of the female empowerment theme, but it was applied with a sledgehammer, the male characters were all one-dimensional (although I suppose this was a nod to the thousands of one-dimensional female characters in films), and, as noted, the ending kind of sends the message that female empowerment is ultimately destructive. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’d say Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but it would be automatically disqualified if people won’t watch musicals. Ruined by the whole “we need to put Charlie in peril” change to the story, which Dahl himself complained of. Other than that, it’s an awesome film and much better than the Tim Burton one. > [@needscoffee](#): > > Pauline Kael from the New Yorker called it a “monumentally unimaginative movie”. There are many valid criticisms of _2001_ (particularly “hypnotic and immensely boring”) but describing it as “unimaginative” must involve watching it in the Bizarroverse. Have we had any naysayers to **Galaxy Quest** yet? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/307 "2026-01-05T12:48:53Z")
The Black people in the story aren’t fully human, they exist to show the nobility if Atticus and are often presented as almost childlike. It’s telling that the most beloved story about racism in America is told from the perspective of white people. It is a fable to make whites feel better. I’m hardly the first to make that point. [https://pwperspective.com/editorial-its-time-to-kill-the-white-savior/](https://pwperspective.com/editorial-its-time-to-kill-the-white-savior/) > **[Reevaluating ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ 60 years later](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/reevaluating-to-kill-a-mockingbird-60-years-later)** > > In the 60 years since “To Kill a Mockingbird,” one of the most widely read books in middle school, was published, the lens through which it frames race and its Black characters has come under scrutiny. NewsHour Weekend anchor Hari Sreenivasan spoke... ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/308 "2026-01-05T13:13:41Z")
In what way would white people “feel better” after experiencing this book/movie? That a Black man can be convicted in spite of evidence of his innocence? That trials at this time, in this place were used to enforce racial superiority? That doing the right thing has no chance of achieving justice? Just what are white people supposed to feel better about? If anything, it should make white people uncomfortable. Indeed, it is that very discomfort that is the reason this book is frequently banned in red states. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/309 "2026-01-05T13:22:40Z")
FWIW, back before I hated the Harry Potter book franchise (for a variety of reasons of which Rowling’s transphobia is only one), I loathed the first movie. The acting was wooden, the visuals were unimaginative, and it felt like it was checking off boxes for scenes from the book. I almost walked out of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/310 "2026-01-05T13:33:40Z")
I guess it is time to state what should be obvious: There is NO movie that all would agree is good if not great. There are scores of folks who dismiss entire categories of movies with a very broad stroke. Forrest Gump? I don’t like Tom Hanks movies. Toy Story? I don’t like animated movies. The Exorcist? I don’t like horror movies. 12 Angry Men? I don’t like courtroom movies. Pulp Fiction? I don’t like cursing in movies. Blade Runner? I don’t like science fiction movies. Cinema Paradiso? I don’t like foreign movies. Saving Private Ryan? I don’t like war movies. To Kill a Mockingbird? I don’t like black & white movies. The Godfather? I don’t like mob movies. Jaws? I don’t like movies that require a bigger boat. While this is a fun conversation to have, and I am enjoying the thread, the answer to the OP’s question is no. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/311 "2026-01-05T13:43:15Z")
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a solid effort for this question. It’s a well done movie. It’s a modern movie, in color with good practical effects. Though it is an action/adventure movie, it isn’t a niche movie, no wizards or space aliens or mystery or rom-com. It’s a period film, so it doesn’t rely on having to live in the era. It’s very much a journey, not destination, type of movie. It has enough humor to release the tension without being a comedy or making characters into clowns. It’s also not a slow burn, where you have to let it simmer for a while before it gets interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/312 "2026-01-05T13:44:51Z")
Forrest Gump? I don’t like Tom Hanks movies. Toy Story? I don’t like Tom Hanks movies. Saving Private Ryan? I don’t like Tom Hanks movies. Fixed that for you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/313 "2026-01-05T13:45:41Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > There are scores of folks who dismiss entire categories of movies with a very broad stroke. But, as I and others have noted, it’s possible to say “I don’t like that type of movie, but it’s still a good movie (of its type).” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/314 "2026-01-05T13:47:33Z")
I don’t want to turn this into a high jack about the movie, read the two articles I linked and do some more research on critical re-evaluation of the book and movie. Here’s another link to get you started: “Like many Americans, I read Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a high school student. In a curriculum devoid of explicit discussion about the impact of implicit and structural racism on both blacks and whites, the book stood out from the whitewashed reading list as one that directly engaged with the topic of race. It did so, however, in a matter quite conventional: Atticus Finch was the white savior, a good white liberal whose ethics and values compelled him to defend a black man who had been falsely accused of rape – and all this during a time when many whites would just as soon have lynched the accused without trial. Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for tackling racial inequality, no surprise given how America likes its stories about race: centered on innocent white protagonists benevolently exercising power, with black characters relegated to the margins even in stories about their own oppression.” Atticus Finch presented an enduring model to which many white liberals still cling. But besides being a fictional character, Atticus Finch is a myth. And a dangerous myth because he keeps good white liberals from reconsidering the fact that they live in white neighborhoods; from challenging administrators about the racial segregation of their children’s schools or white supremacy advanced in the curriculum; or from acknowledging how they benefit from a system that keeps people of color laboring in their homes but excluded from their social and professional spaces. Like Finch, it is sufficient that they simply “do their best to love everybody.” > **[Now We Can Finally Say Goodbye to the White Savior Myth of Atticus](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/07/15/how-should-schools-deal-with-the-new-atticus-finch/now-we-can-finally-say-goodbye-to-the-white-savior-myth-of-atticus)** > > The anxiety and debate surrounding “Watchman,” lets us re-examine white liberalism in literature and how it shapes our responses to racial injustice in real life. As someone mentioned up thread, whatever movie is chosen, it will have to appeal to old white men given the demographics here. There is no movie that everyone is going to agree is good, anything that appeals to the majority will be seen as anodyne and insipid by others. It’s not how art works, it can’t and shouldn’t appeal to everyone. There’s no point in getting triggered if someone doesn’t like the movies you do. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/315 "2026-01-05T13:49:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But, as I and others have noted, it’s possible to say “I don’t like that type of movie, but it’s still a good movie (of its type).” But if I don’t like Tom Hanks, and think he’s a bad actor, can I say a movie with bad acting is good? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/316 "2026-01-05T14:31:06Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Pauline Kael from the New Yorker called it a “monumentally unimaginative movie”. I just skimmed her review. I’m not sure if she simply missed the point or the core themes, misconstrued what was going on, or if the entire screed in question was just a huge pile of sour grapes topped with a generous helping of ye olde sci-fi ghetto snobbery-a meta commentary that has very little to do with what was actually on the screen. She calls attention to the hippies who would lay down, stoned to the gills, as the light show sequence plays. But if she considers **this** specific film to be “unimaginative”… It just amazes me that the other beings on this planet can have radically different reactions to a work of art. On another board I’ve taken part in certain discussions of the work of my favorite musical artists, and there are invariably people who think that what I consider to be their top cuts are yes boring, or ordinary, or just incomprehensible (reading between the lines I’ve gathered that in more than a few cases they yes just simply missed the point). Meanwhile they will praise to the high heavens something which I _do_ consider to be utterly ordinary if not trite. And I just sit there and wonder why (and how) we would possibly ever have such radically different takes, esp. when we ostensibly are both big fans of the artist in question. [which when it comes to musicians that only one of us likes makes said gaps even more incomprehensible] ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/317 "2026-01-05T14:34:02Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > But if I don’t like Tom Hanks, and think he’s a bad actor, can I say a movie with bad acting is good? How can anyone reasonably say that Tom Hanks is a “bad actor” though? He might not be your exact cup of tea, but surely the weight of critical consensus has to make one agree that he isn’t “bad”, right? In fact, going back to Apollo 13 for a second, I would dispute that he plays > [@madmonk28](#): > > the quietly decent man trying to conquer his fear for the greater good He’s a fricken’ astronaut! I can’t remember a single moment of that movie where he displays any fear whatsoever, actually. He tries to reassure his family, sure, and has some doubts about the risks he is taking (largely for personal glory, not the greater good). But fear? Nah. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/318 "2026-01-05T14:37:37Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > How can anyone reasonably say that Tom Hanks is a “bad actor” though? He might not be your exact cup of tea, but surely the weight of critical consensus has to make one agree that he isn’t “bad”, right? Because he plays the exact same character in every movie. He’s liked precisely because he’s safe and predictable. When you buy a ticket to a Hanks movie, you know exactly what you’re going to get: you’re not going to walk out of the theater troubled or confused; your going to feel fine and unchallenged. Some people don’t like that in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/319 "2026-01-05T14:59:10Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I guess it is time to state what should be obvious: There is NO movie that all would agree is good if not great. Unless…everybody agrees that good films and films they dislike aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. I can wrap my head around that (I don’t think everybody can) but disliking a film makes it almost impossible to assess if a film is, nevertheless, good. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271/320 "2026-01-05T15:01:14Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Unless…everybody agrees that good films and films they dislike aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. I can wrap my head around that (I don’t think everybody can) but disliking a film makes it almost impossible to assess if a film is, nevertheless, good. Can you define what you mean by good? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-movie-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026271.md?page=17)