Review This!

I may be the only librarian in the world who has never read a Stephen King novel. Hell, I may be the only person in the world who has never read a Stephen King novel. But, I do read his column when it appears in Entertainment Weekly. In the fall movie preview issue (august 20/27, 2004) he seemed to be speaking my language. I don't always agree with his comments, but I completely agreed with him this week. This topic: people who bad-mouth regular ole films.

There seems to be a trend (I've noticed) where a movie has to be "good" for it to be worth watching. Not entertaining. Not amusing. It has to be good. How would you know it was "good" without having seen it? Well, a reviewer would tell you if its good or not. What makes it good? It has a "message." It says something "important and enlightening." It has Oscar winning actors in it? Whatever. I understand that you might want some assurances when you have to shell out 8 bucks for a show, but I don't think that is the real issue. It just seems to me that a lot of people I know are movie snobs. They will only see a certain kind of movie. Blockbuster movies, or "summer flicks" are beneath them. And, like Stephen King, I feel sorry for these people. Life is too short to be snobby about a damn movie.

And, to quote the ever quotable Buffy Summers, "Thus endeth the lesson."