It’s Wednesday and that means I’m back with something else. I wasn’t entire sure what to do today, to be honest. I like using Mondays for reviews and Fridays for Top Ten lists (until I run out of ideas, of course). Wednesday, however, is a wild-card day. It’s the day that will be different from week-to-week. Unfortunately, some of the ideas I have aren’t fully developed for various reasons (mostly I’m not sure on the layout of them).
I was kind of stuck. Do I just do a review of The Men Who Stare At Goats? I did say I was going to do one. Two problems with that. One, I really only want to do reviews on Monday. Two, I think my twitter review summed up the movie well enough already. So, what was I to do?
Luckily I was reminded of the small controversy Kevin Smith was involved in a month or so back. And, no I’m not talking about the airline fiasco. It was when his movie Cop Out was released. The critics bashed it as expected. But he brings up a good point and it’s one I’ve been making for years: “I made a stupid movie and it’s okay.”
I know this will sound somewhat strange coming from a (VERY) amateur movie critic, but I happen to enjoy stupid movies from time to time. We tend to forget that movies provide a means to escapism. Certainly many are thought provoking. They make a point, provide an insight into our souls, have a twisting plot, and have great character development. Others are technical marvels. They show us things we have never seen before, things we didn’t think were possible. However, there’s another group that often gets ridiculed: the stupid movie.
Sometimes I just want to turn my brain off and watch things blow up or laugh at a fart joke. Yes, I said it. It’s a shocking revelation, I know. What has happened to us that we can’t admit this? Movies like these make a ton at the box office but apparently no one in the world enjoyed them? Something is very fishy about that.
Is there any other franchise better to illustrate this than Transformers? I will be the first one to admit that I absolutely loved the first one. It had it all for a summer popcorn flick. I sat back, watched all the action and laughed at all the silly jokes. Sure there were insane plot and logic holes, but what were people expecting? Citizen Kane? Apparently they were. They cried about the previously mentioned holes, the lack of character development, the bad acting. All from a movie about giant robots fighting. Seriously.
The sequel was even worse. Don’t get me wrong, unlike the first one there were points even my hibernating brain woke up and said, “hey, wait a minute…(Robot Heaven? Really?),” but it’s essentially the same movie. People came back with the same problems as they had with the first, some even saying, “I didn’t like the first one, either.” So, you saw a sequel to a movie you didn’t like and are now upset about it? Somehow I don’t think the movie was the only stupid thing in the equation.
So, what’s the point? Is it okay that you didn’t like Transformers? Of course it is. It wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I didn’t like Titanic, a movie a lot of you seem to love. Liking or disliking a movie is not the end of the world. My point is this: it’s okay to like a movie even if it is stupid. Sometimes the point is to make a dumb movie. Maybe the purpose was to just entertain you for an hour and half, but ultimately be forgettable. That’s fine. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Again, movies provide escapism. Sometimes that escapism makes you think, sometimes it makes you laugh, sometimes it explodes in a giant ball of flame. There’s room for all of it. Don’t allow yourself to become a snob. Try to enjoy movies for what they are and what they’re trying to be.
That said, I know I’m reviewing a movie next week that I’ll hate. And yes, it’s a very dumb movie. You can tell by the title alone. That’s for next Wednesday, though. This Friday will be another Top Ten (Best Sequels) and next Monday will be a review of Kick-Ass, a movie I’ve been waiting for ever since I started reading the comic.
Comment assignments: List your favorite “stupid” movies and your favorite sequels.
Until then…