What makes a good movie in you opinion? (filming, theater, scene)

[skel1977]

Attractive actors/actresses: Lets face it, you would rather look at someone attractive than someone ugly assuming they have the same acting ability.

Good actors/actresses: Even if a movie has an awesome plot and hot people in it, if the people acting are not believable then the movie is a wash.

Budget: Im not saying there are no good low budget movies because there are. But lets face it. If you are watching a sci fi movie and you can see strings attached to the alien mother ship, chances are you will not enjoy it.

Good plot/story writing: I dont have to say much on this topic except I believe that this is the core to a good movie.

[hutch5]

Originally Posted by LauraC

I really don't care if a movie floats the boat of a bunch of professional movie critics. I just care that I like it. Whether it's good is irrelevant. This is my criteria:

1. Three days after seeing it, I remember it.
2. Three years after seeing it, I can still talk about it.
3. I own the DVD.
4. After the movie is over, I don't have a lot of plot questions.
5. After I see the movie, I tell people about it before they ask me what movies I've seen lately.
6. I've seen it more than once.
7. The movie is just as good or better than the trailer/preview.
8. There are things I remember about the movie that go beyond plot/character.
9. If I'm watching it on TV, I'm not reading a book at the same time.
10. I watch the closing credits because I'm specifically looking for some information that floated my boat when I watched the movie.

I do think, more often than not, what makes a bad movie is bad editing and miscasting.

Great points, thank you

[BU191433]

It is pretty simple for me. The story/plot and characters have to draw me into the story - if I am sitting there wondering what I am doing after the movie or looking at my watch - then that isn't a good movie. In order for a movie to be one of my alltime favorites - it has to have an emotional component - I have to for lakc of a better term "feel it"

[brubaker]

Bacon...taped to a bathroom wall.

YouTube - Gummo

[Ninjahedge]

The thing that gets me is inherent realism. It is a relative term, but it is basically something that makes you believe in the situation, and incorporates you as either an observer, or one of the audience that keeps telling themselves "If I were there" or "If I were him/her".

The hardest part nowadays is they rely MUCH too much on production. The camera shots, the special effects, the sound effects and music. They all can HELP a movie immensely, but thee is only so much garnish you can apply to a plate of poo. Onions may make you cry, but not for the right reason.

Each genre has its own strengths and shortcomings. Sci-Fi has a tendency to do the impossible. They set up the new rules, but then they ignore them when comvenient (The Schwartzenegger flik with the mini rail gun? One pellet lifts guys up into the air? You launch something that fast it will leave a nice round hole in your target, not pick them up like a shotgun....). You can say a person flies, but if you seem to ignore following the rules for everyone else around them that is supposed to be "normal" it makes it so your mind just does not accept the situation. You always know you are watching a story and not an alternate reality/future landscape/etc.

Romantic movies seem to have impossible characters and unbelievable coincidences. Poor guys living better than most rich guys can in Manhattan, short order cooks with smooth hands, and women just swooning or getting the now classic "frustrated angry" pose. It is like they are trying to rewrite life to make it more digestable. That may work for Romance fans, but the only romances that work, truly work, are the ones that stay realistic enough to get the guy to go and not fall asleep.

Comedies. Why do so many comedies have to have a plot? And not somethnig simple, like Parenthood and simply hosting a party (although that was a stretch). They have to somehow resolve something, a romance, a terrorist threat, a Bar Mitzvah, whatever. The worst are teh classic Marx Brothers and Abbot and Costello fliks (for this). They have some of the greatest verbal comedy in the history of movie making, and then they have these two doe-eyed star-crossed lovers start singing to the ceiling off to their left. WTH??!? Vi-a-duct be daamnd! These two need to get married!!! :P

There are always exceptions to the rule. One flik I watched was EXTRODINARILY stupid, but I could not help laughing. Maybe because of its snide social commentary that kept getting whipped about. Role Models. The plot sucks, the parts are exaggerated, there IS a love story in it, all the classic screw ups, but yet I have still watched it a few times and chuckle at "KISS-anthium".


Bottom line is simple. Every caste here seems to try to do something too isolated, and in the process forgets its basic building blocks... PEOPLE. Sci-fi and Action may start forgetting about simple thnigs like gravity, mass and other physical things that ignore reality (which did you find more gross, death scenes in Mortal Combat, or the "ear" scene in Reservoir Dogs?), but they all start to forget how the world works.

OTOH, that is what makes a well constructed movie even better. When you get tired of The Nutty Professor 3, there is always a Naked Gun somewhere out there waiting for you....

[hutch5]

Originally Posted by Ninjahedge

The thing that gets me is inherent realism. It is a relative term, but it is basically something that makes you believe in the situation, and incorporates you as either an observer, or one of the audience that keeps telling themselves "If I were there" or "If I were him/her".

The hardest part nowadays is they rely MUCH too much on production. The camera shots, the special effects, the sound effects and music. They all can HELP a movie immensely, but thee is only so much garnish you can apply to a plate of poo. Onions may make you cry, but not for the right reason.

Each genre has its own strengths and shortcomings. Sci-Fi has a tendency to do the impossible. They set up the new rules, but then they ignore them when comvenient (The Schwartzenegger flik with the mini rail gun? One pellet lifts guys up into the air? You launch something that fast it will leave a nice round hole in your target, not pick them up like a shotgun....). You can say a person flies, but if you seem to ignore following the rules for everyone else around them that is supposed to be "normal" it makes it so your mind just does not accept the situation. You always know you are watching a story and not an alternate reality/future landscape/etc.

Romantic movies seem to have impossible characters and unbelievable coincidences. Poor guys living better than most rich guys can in Manhattan, short order cooks with smooth hands, and women just swooning or getting the now classic "frustrated angry" pose. It is like they are trying to rewrite life to make it more digestable. That may work for Romance fans, but the only romances that work, truly work, are the ones that stay realistic enough to get the guy to go and not fall asleep.

Comedies. Why do so many comedies have to have a plot? And not somethnig simple, like Parenthood and simply hosting a party (although that was a stretch). They have to somehow resolve something, a romance, a terrorist threat, a Bar Mitzvah, whatever. The worst are teh classic Marx Brothers and Abbot and Costello fliks (for this). They have some of the greatest verbal comedy in the history of movie making, and then they have these two doe-eyed star-crossed lovers start singing to the ceiling off to their left. WTH??!? Vi-a-duct be daamnd! These two need to get married!!! :P

There are always exceptions to the rule. One flik I watched was EXTRODINARILY stupid, but I could not help laughing. Maybe because of its snide social commentary that kept getting whipped about. Role Models. The plot sucks, the parts are exaggerated, there IS a love story in it, all the classic screw ups, but yet I have still watched it a few times and chuckle at "KISS-anthium".


Bottom line is simple. Every caste here seems to try to do something too isolated, and in the process forgets its basic building blocks... PEOPLE. Sci-fi and Action may start forgetting about simple thnigs like gravity, mass and other physical things that ignore reality (which did you find more gross, death scenes in Mortal Combat, or the "ear" scene in Reservoir Dogs?), but they all start to forget how the world works.

OTOH, that is what makes a well constructed movie even better. When you get tired of The Nutty Professor 3, there is always a Naked Gun somewhere out there waiting for you....

Interesting analysis

[jc76]

Simple answer for me; Unpredictability, Suspense, Blood and Guts. Lace in some black humor and we have a film like Funny Games. A perfectly shot piece of cinema.

I really don't care for films with super famous actors, I prefer good indie actors because they are human still so it's easier to relate with the character.

I watch Nick Cage, or Brad Pitt it's hard to not think of them sitting in a hot tub surrounded by stacks of cash. I think of them only as businessmen/millionaires, not as an artist anymore.
Depp would be my only exception. That man is brilliant.

[Sandhillian]

I have noticed the Oscars seem to favor boxing movies over the years, LOL.

To me a good movie is one that I am still thinking about several days after. I may not have liked it but if it does this to me then it has presented its message which is the essence of an art form in my opinion.

[Mooseketeer]

To me a good movie has to make me think or feel. It has to engage my brain and my emotions on different levels. Of course I want to be entertained but I also want to feel as though I am not being patronised and treated as a moron.

The script should be handled with a deft touch, subtlety rather hammering down a message. The acting has to be superb and I usually prefer actors with a wider range than "playing themselves". Big names mean nothing to me.

Either the actor is right for the role or not. I don't care if they have been found in a dustbin in a back-street or are seasoned professionals.

Plot has to be developed as have characters. I also prefer where all characters are developed not simply the main ones. It adds credibility and interest to a film. Music is important as it must support the film without overwhelming it and drowning it. Cinematography is also crucial.

I loathe special effects and flashy effects. I prefer things which resemble life somehow , even in fantasy /science fiction film. There is a suspension of disbelief with most films but to me it becomes an irritation if it looks like a video game.

A great film is one which has deeply affected you and made you think and one which lingers long after you have seen it.

Great films like great theatre can be life affirming and convey a lot of what human nature is about. A great film expresses the Human condition in a fluid and subtle manner and can enhance our perception of various issues. Even a cartoon can reach into the heart of our human experiences and touch us with its visual and intellectual appeal.

Great cinema is rare sadly and getting rarer. Most movie-makers are more concerned about profit and "bums on seats", merchandise and a wide appeal and seem to forget that film making is an art and a craft . It brings beauty and meaning into our lives as do all other form of arts.

I do get so frustrated nowadays by most Hollywood offerings of loud explosions, lots of improbably plastic looking, wooden actors with the acting range of a mouldy banana and lots of CGEs galore. Basically trinkets and shiny baubles to distract us from the fact the the script has all the intellectual appeal of flotsam.

I hate simplistic films with a lot of tugging at your heart emotional rubbish, playing on people's ideas of "heroism" or jingoism for example. it makes me want to chew my own arm to get away. Predictability is the death of a film for me.

Good writing is the basic of a good film. Then comes good acting. All the rest is a bonus IMO anyway.

[brubaker]

No one has mentioned attention to detail?

You know...the thing inherent in everything you all are talking about?

The thing that keeps you watching and
talking about the movie 3 years later...

"What? bacon taped to a wall? How did I not see that detail in my last 20 viewings?"

I love movies that have tiny, tiny (hopefully meaningful)
details that you catch only after viewing the piece three or four (or forty) times.

It means they went the extra mile and are rewarding you for looking critically at their work of art.


Etc