Agree! Someone most certainly can judge a film they haven’t seen!
I think I knew that High School Musical was going to be dumb, I can say how stupid it is even though I didn’t see it. The same can be applied to different sorts of films. I think though some people tend to judge a movie by it’s actors (similar to judge a book by its cover) and not see a film JUST because a certain actor is in it.
When you’ve seen lots of films and observed the comings and goings in and around Hollywood you can assume certain things with a degree of confidence: The next Michael Bay film will be loud and shallow, the next Ron Howard film will be predictable and dull, the next M. Night Shayamalan film will have a silly twist at the end, and the next Ewe Bolle film – assuming some idiot fronts him the cash – will be a complete waste of celluloid. I don’t believe I have to see these directors’ films to know what they’re going to be like. Just as I believe I know enough about Paul Blart: Mall Cop ahead of time to know I’m definitely not going to like it.
I agree. If you were wrong about Wolverine you would hear it soon enough. If you know which reviewers to look at you’ll find out if Wolverine turns out to be a masterpiece that transcends it’s genre and ranks with Renoir. I skipped it too. There’s just not enough time not to judge it when there are so many classics to watch.
In an ideal world you’d be able to see everything, make your own decisions, keep an open mind and still have time to have a healthy social life. But it ain’t possible. This means that I normally try and skip things that don’t look like they would appeal and maybe for every ten I skip, one would have been worth seeing. Still, I’m willing to take those odds.
Simply put, you can’t. Of course there are films we all choose not to see and dont give them a chance but this is near imposssible to avoid. We only have so much time on our hands so if its a choice between say seeing the new Wolverine flick which I feel I won’t like….or an old Bergman film I never got around to seeing, the choice is obvious.
There’s a difference between gaging your own interest in seeing a film and judging a film per se. The former doesn’t require you to see it, the latter does.
act like you know what you are talking about. use big words. impress the kiddies on the board. no reason to see the movie at all
I agree with Matt Parks. I’m often surprised by films I initially didn’t want to see. Even if every indication tells me that something like, say “Wild Hogs” should be garbage, I can’t judge it since I’ve never seen it (I have judged it though, I cringed and lambasted it’s success and I was technically wrong). I can only tell you that I have no interest in watching it. Sometimes dumb films are refreshingly entertaining and sometimes films you expect to be great can let you down.
Matt’s right. Being uninterested in or dismissive of a certain category of movies (teen comedies, for instance, or superhero movies) is not the same as being able to judge the merits of an individual film.
mostly Hollywood shit(and Bollywood could answer in front of a judge’s desk,but that isn’t sooo overreacting like Hollywood is by taking matters seriously..)and of course,as many of u mentioned,the instinct of one’s ability to detect shit before watching them…
it’s amazing but the only film am curious of watching from this week’s U.S. releases for example(am checking Rotten Tomatoes at the moment)is probably Dead Snow…for the primary reason of..Nazi zombies :P not even Woody Allen’s latest films appeal to me on instantly watching them and not even a Larry David can improve that :)
I’m with Mat and Justin here. I can assume that I won’t like certain films, and make jokes about them, but if I haven’t seen it, there’s not much I can say about the film per se. Saying that the latest High School musical (or Godard) is probably a waste of time (an assumption based – hopefully – on your experience) is completely something else than claiming the same without having seen it.
Fortunately there are many more things to talk about the film than the film itself, so you don’t have to see everything. :-)
I can normally assume that a film is going to be awful just from watching the trailer. I clearly can’t have a justifiable opinion on it, but I tend to be right. Case in point: Yesterday I heard someone say, “I just saw the worst film in the history of film. Crank 2: High Voltage.” I knew that from the trailer. But if you think Crank 2: High Voltage was bad, I dare you to sit through “Dracula 3000.”
you can’t.
How? Thrrough sheer PREJUDICE.
The director- I’ll never watch anything by Bay or Night, for example
Actors- Never watch anything with N Cage
The Poster
The Trailer
The country of origin- I dont watch Turkish, Israeli or Egyptian films. Yeah I know… Sorry. Sue me.
As some of my favorite films have been complete surprises, I wouldn’t put any kind of limitation on myself. In the above post, for example, you’d miss out on Raising Arizona.
That being said, I think by this point in my life I’m safe saying the new Eddie Murphy movie is going to suck and I’m not going to see it.
Umm why no Turkish, Israeli, or Egyptian films? That seems kind of random.
Also every once in awhile Cage decides to do a good movie.
Raising Arizona, Bringing Out the Dead, and Adaptation to name a few.
Francisco,i’ll agree with Cage but…hey,u can give him a chance on Raising Arizona as the next viewer said,hehe,not because of him,but because it’s Coen Bros.,oh…and in Leaving Las Vegas being one of Figgis’ best..
and sorry to say this but u’re prejudiced against auteurs like Zeki Okten or Yilmaz Guney from Turkish cinema or Amos Gitai from Israeli cinema or even worse,Youssef Chahine from Egyptian!!!no one is gonna sue u but u need a better argument for refusing to watch cinema from 3 diverse countries…judging a country of origin is the foremost mistake of a cinephile..
Josh,i’ll not just avoid Murphy but even those catastrophic blockbusters like T4 or Land of the Lost and basically,it’s obvious what will one avoid,it’s logic sometimes and none can call us close-minded by the point we’ve already succumbed to shit in the past :P
There is always a chance you will be wrong but when I think of “judging” film I think of deciding i will probably never see it. I cannot swear that Wolverine is bad but if someone asked me about it I will tell them it looks so awful to me that I won’t waste time seeing it. Unless their is a cute girl involved or some other circumstance. If you know your own tastes it’s okay to judge. I feel that for me Wolverine would just be painful and possibly offensive.
I don’t necessarily avoid the blockbusters. I grew up on Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark so there will always be an inner child that wants to be swept away by that kind of film. And I liked The Dark Knight, though I have no illusions about how flawed it was.
I also very much enjoyed the Lord of the Rings, being an admitted Tolkien geek, not because they were flawless, important films, but because they captured enough of the spirit of the novel to mean something to me.
I have no issue with appreciating different levels of artistry for what they are.
turkey, Israel, Egypt- In the 80s I was burned by films from those countries so many times that I decided to never watch anything from them.
@Francisco – I loved Three Monkeys, which was from Turkey.
And Cage can do some pretty terrible films. But he’s also willing to take chances, with interesting choices in Matchstick Men, Adaptation, The Weather Man, & Lord of War. I don’t typically seek out his films but if I know he’s working with an interesting director, I can expect his performance will be unusual, to say the least.
Regarding the topic, I think you can “judge” a film you haven’t seen as you judge any film before deciding to see it or not. Based on the trailer, I’m judging I would hate The Proposal and therefore will not see it. However I would never get into a deep argument with somebody who has seen the film because they obviously know more about it then I do. To say different would be completely arrogant and dishonest of me.
i saw Star Trek the other day…and i felt that even without seeing it,i wouldn’t need to shut my mouth up towards individuals who had seen it as well..i felt i wasted 2 hours of my life and i honestly admit that even without seeing it,i could have argued,u know why?because it’s experience with trash ;p
how can u possibly judge those countries from one decade?i can accept the Cage issue but that strikes me as ignorance…not only Ceylan from recent filmography but refusing to watch a country or give it another chance is like missing a portion of its cinema…ok,so Greece had one of the worst decades in the 2000’s,should i stop watching Greek films because of that??seriously…
great blockbusters have ended,Lord is one of the few exceptions that last decade which a blockbuster of that sort will hold up the test of time…Dark Knight for instance is a flare,decent one but a flare…none can beat Burton’s vision..
Sorry dimitris, i dont understand your post.
Burton’s Batman isn’t nearly as good for me today as when I saw it in 1989 at age 14. It still has moments of beauty, and I love Danny Elfman’s score.
As an aside, has anyone ever noticed how similar Elfman’s theme to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure is to the theme from 8 1/2? I was taken aback watching it the other day.
a film by godard? no reason to see it —-it will be awful. there, it is judged
“a film by godard? no reason to see it —-it will be awful. there, it is judged”
AH! but see, it is your PRIVILIGE. We all have prejudices. So dont watch any Godard then.
in short,u said u were bombed with films during a decade,yes?so…just because u were fed up for some years,it doesn’t mean u should refuse watching those countries ever again!!probably because u were pissed off by some movies or generally,the amount of movies u watched…c’mon,lame excuse for avoiding to watch great films…
at least they’re not full of heavy doze of “drama” like Nolan’s possess..Batman Begins is fine but Knight is repetitive,still better than Schumacher’s versions…in no way Burton’s Batman films are equal to Nolan’s!
damn u Josh,the only movie by Burton i haven’t watched is Pee Wee :P
Budrose,u probably haven’t seen a Godard film,stop trolling abt the same thing over and over on threads …
@ Roman
Maybe somebody can talk me out of it, but I have a real hang-up as far as trailers are concerned.
More often than not, some dim-wit takes a perfectly good film and turns it into pure gobbledegook; a mish -mash of zooms, jump cuts and Christ knows what else that loses any thread of continuity and character and seems calculated to baffle the viewer at every turn. And some moron is actually paid for producing this kind of dog’s dinner!
I would no more go to see a film on the basis of its trailer than I would attempt to go to the Alps for skiing at the height of a hot summer.
No I was not “bombed” (whatever that means) but the ones I saw made me avoid others. Funny. There are people on this forum who admit they would not watch american films and I dont see much of an outcry about THAT.
This thread is about prejudices. We all have them. As I said early- “Sue me”.
Sammael
How much does this stance on film (or art in general) piss you off? I find it be both irritating and ignorant. For example my brother (who couldn’t even make it through LOTR) seems to thinks it’s ridiculous that I refused to see Wolverine with him. I mean to people with this mentality value their time at all? Do they never ask themselves if there’s something more useful they could be doing then watching Robert Pattinson sparkle benignly for the 7th time?