Canadian Politics Today

You can go ahead and try to define it for yourself.  I think that if you write all of the reasons down, your humanity will find an example that delights you that meets none of the criteria.  Dumb and Dumber was one such film for me.  It went against all my rules but I eventually was broken down by the sheer silliness and started laughing.

If your "rules" didn't allow for the possibility that a silly movie could give you a genuine laugh, your rules may need to be reexamined.

A really simple "rule" I believe in... did the movie accomplish what it set out to?  If so, then it's quality.  A comedy that makes you laugh?  An action movie that provides thrills and excitement?  A speculative fiction film that makes you think about the future?   It's unreasonable to evaluate a story by standards it never intended to meet.  If you're watching a Jackie Chan movie and you're upset because the movie didn't provide thought-provoking social commentary, you missed the point.  That's not Jackie's fault, it's your fault for watching the wrong movie.

I personally have very little interest in horror movies. However, I'm willing to consider that there could be quality horror films. I'm simply the wrong person to evaluate whether a film in that genre has achieved the goals it set out to.  And I'm open to the idea that even though a horror film has little to no value for me personally it could still have value to someone else.  Those movies have been around for a long time... they must have value for somebody. 

I liked it too, and I thought it was well-made.  I certainly think that there's a place for escapist films in the same way that I order desert from time to time.  But not every single meal.

I'm not suggesting otherwise. I'm just saying that that sense of awe and wonder was a "real" and "valuable" experience for me, and that a movie that can provide me an experience like that is worth my time.  It doesn't matter to me whether the movie will be looked on by critics as a masterpiece of high-brow entertainment, and it doesn't matter to me whether in 25 or 50 years the movie will still be remembered.
 
 -k