I do not think that MDB was the best movie I saw last year - nor did I ever state if I even liked it, but thank you for drawing your own conclusions. Based on the statements I have made in previous posts, I still don't get why you are unable to comprehend why I have no desire to see The Pacifier. I recommend you stop watching Lifetime and work on comprehension skills.

I'd assume that this is in response to what I said.

How would I be a "film is art" snob when I stated that film can be for "art's sake" or "entertainment's sake"? (For the record, I think that some movies can accomplish both).

Do you really think that when Abbas Kiarostami made Taste of Cherry, he was doing so for entertainment's sake? If he did, he was severely deluded when he thought that the average person would pick up a slow-paced Iranian film which dealt with a man's self-reflection and meditation about death.

Also, if you'd look at my collection, you'd see that I own many titles which would automatically render me inelligible for the "film is art" club. (See: Boondock Saints, Dodgeball, Family Man, The Notebook, A Walk To Remember)

http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.ht...id=noblerabbit

And you didn't even address the main part of my post, so I'll reiterate:

"All art is subjective, so putting a definite criteria on what it's "supposed to do" is ignorant."

Wow. You must not have done too well on your SAT Verbal, due to "for every Million Dollar Baby, there is The Pacifier" (to that effect) being pretty plain to understand. Basic reading...well, comprehension suggests the...wait for it...implication that because you are stating The Pacifier is a putrid waste, Million Dollar Baby is its opposite - some kind of gold standard of cinema. If that's not what you meant, pick words better.

Look. Don't be afraid to admit how much you liked Million Dollar Lifetime Movie. It's OK to like your share of emotionally manipulative garbage. Let go.

My comparison was meant to be in the terms that MDB holds much more artistic value, not that it was the 'gold standard of cinema' (I happen to rather dislike Clint). I think it was a very good film, but the strongest points were in the acting. If MDB is your idea 'femotionally manipulative garbage' then I have no choice but to assume you hold The Pacifier as the 'gold standard of cinema' in which case I could care less what you have to think about anything in life.

What artistic value does MDB hold? Seriously.

Hmm...don't we all long for the day that all student-aged folks actually graduate and get out in the real world, instead of boggling us all with their holier than thou "art is art" atttitude?

I have decided to withdraw myself from my own thread, my hat goes off to everyone who couldn't stick on topic and felt it necessary to chastise anything and everything that everyone else was saying.

No need to play the victim. Some people are being ignorant but you need to be able to deal with the idiots in order to have a real discussion. You can't expect to start a thread and not have anyone say anything that you don't agree with.

Well, the fact this thread was started with a relatively quite elitist tone with the Ingmar Bergman analogy is when this thread lost all chance to stay civil.

Once you youngsters graduate and get out in the real world, you'll learn and realize that having and appreciating the works of some obscure foreign director of years past doesn't mean dren in everyday life.


I'm just waiting for the day when Steven Sommers or Roland Emmerich are considered classic directors.

The point wasn't that they would say things I don't agree with. I enjoy a good conversation with differing opinions, gives people a chance to learn. The problem was that what people were bringing up were arguments in order to obtain some sort of personal satisfaction when in facts their comments had nothing to do with this thread. And that the title clearly stated this was for college and high school students to discuss their DVD and movie-watching habits, yet many people outside of this category decided to try and take over by implementing their 'I'm older, and thus my opinion holds more weight' ideology.

Could this exemplify my stance any more perfectly?

Sorry boss, but I'm 17. My opinion is hold no more weight than yours and I challenge you to point out where I implied that.

I am obviously not referring to you, as I said that it was older persons who were expressing this view...

I think "emotionally manipulative garbage" is an understatement when referring to Million Dollar Baby, and I've been by your side throughout this thread...so let's check the baseless assumptions at the door, please.

-JP

Haha, what's the deal with this "my parents had sex a decade before your parents so I'm allowed to condescend." I've held jobs (jobs where I was working 80+ hours a week, no less), paid rent and miscellaneous bills, purchased an automobile and kept up with it's maintainence, been involved in relationships, up and moved to a city where I knew nothing and noone. The fact that I'm not yet married and in a steady career doesn't mean I'm blind to "the real world." If you want to be taken seriously, how about you stop using your age as a crutch to prove how wise you are and try to prove it with your statements and counterpoints...

-JP

Common fallacy. Pointing out a comparison holds no merit does not mean reversing the comparison is true. Thanks for playing.

But I do like the new word "femotionally." That's exactly the kind of emotion to which MDB was appealing - femotions. Very interesting.

Sorry to resurrect a thread from a few months ago. . . but I felt like posting.

18 here and will be entering college in the fall.

I don't own many dvds, and I don't think I'll ever own more than 70 or so (unless I get rather rich), as I like purchasing only movies I really love. I like anything, indie, foreign, hollywood, they all have something to offer. So I am certainly not ashamed of any movie in my collection.

And let me just say, that if a girl doesn't like Amelie, she's not worth being with!

http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=neobez

Also, for the record, just because someone doesn't like an artistic and good-intentioned film doesn't automatically mean they like crap such as the mentioned Pacifier. It's all subjective. I personally didn't like Mystic River. I didn't like Cries and Whispers by Bergman, and I didn't think Amarcord or Band of Outsiders were all that great. On the other hand I love Kieslowski and Wong Kar-Wai, just as I love Die Hard and the Bourne Identity. I think it'd be wrong to just say Kieslowski and Kar-Wai's films are the only ones that have any depth just because they are made with perhaps more artistically inclined visions.

On the point of the 90s and what's going on with the world, let met just say that I did a 12 page research paper this past year on the Persian-Gulf War and the mistakes of the U.S. from 79 to 90 in aiding Iraq. I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgable about current events.

I have just been reading through this thread and as a DVD and movie fan I find it a real issue when just becuase I dont have movies in my collection that the common folk have not heard of that it makes me less of a movie watcher. I enjoy movies I like, yes I am a "popcorn" movie kinda guy (which has made this summer really fun going to the movies) and never say Million Dollar Baby and propabably never will, thats not to say I havent seen a few Oscar winning movies, but back in my days of college when I rented "gasp" VHS alot I rented THe Piano and realized it REALLY SUCKED! Same for Animae, I like some of it, but dont really get into having a collection based on it. I would rather have the Disney animation and my collection reads like a whos who of popular movies. But I dont bash people who dont like those movies. Just becuase you liked THe Pacifier dosnt make you a bad person. I watch movies to have fun, life's hard the way it is, enjoy what you watch.

17 years old, just graduated highschool and the pride and joy of my dvd collection are my 100+ TV show releaseds (so called life, freaks geeks, buffy, twin peaks, etc.)

I realize I'm quoting an old message, but your view of baseball and its lack of importance and relevance to society is almost as appalling to me as others' lack of cinema appreciation is to some of the people in this thread. Saying that watching an old baseball game just "tells us who was capable of swinging a bat" is like saying watching an old film just tells us who were the big actors back in the day. Baseball's history in a lot of ways is America's history.

19 years old, most of the dvd's I buy are usually asian movies, partically Chinese/HK movies. Usually I save up money when I go on vacation I usually go to Chinatown in NYC with family and such and I spend around 200 dollars of movies each time. I think I have over 30 movies and there is still I ned to see.

Partically I like old stephen chow films, wong Kar wai, johnnie to, and even pop star fluff movies

So far though I don't think I have bought a movie I haven't liked yet.

I have a few korean films, but its like 3 dvd's.

Quoting an old message, but thank you. Very well put.

I could tell a lot of similar stories of befuddlement over my collection. A lot of people our age are content with stuff that I find fluffy, Charlie’s Angels, etc. etc. That’s fine, but shouldn’t I be allowed to follow what interests me as well? I have friends whose tastes in cinema I do not agree with. I look down on my friends for that, right? Of course, all of us collegians do In reality, enjoying cinema that happens to be foreign or obscure to the mainstream does not, contrary to what the "elders-who-act-like-spiteful-12-year-olds" say, make one an elitist. Such assumptions (interesting how the OMGREALWORLD!11 never had lessons about assuming) and the venomous assaults that follow only reveal who really has the superiority complex here.

Anyway, nice idea for a thread, let’s get it back on track. I just turned 19 and I've been big on film and DVDs since HS. Someone mentioned it earlier, and I must agree, college libraries do have a lot to offer. My cinema classes have been swell, and my fellow students very interested. Well, save for a few wannabe snobs (one of whom mumbled “kill yourself” after a girl voiced discontent with Casablanca – THESE are the elitists some of you are after, not the people in this thread). Actually, the amount of people who were defensive and unreceptive to foreign and experimental cinema outnumbered the snobs. Speaking of Bergman, as everyone seems to be doing, we had the chance to watch Cries and Whispers on the big screen in Cinema 121. Some girls were doing this --> during the glass scene.

Whenever I tell anyone who my favorite director is, I also tell them who my second favorite director is... "My favorite director is Andrei Tarkovsky. Most of his films are Russian. But just so you know I'm not some elitist film snob, my second favorite director is John Carpenter."

I figure that if I start talking about movies to someone I've just met, I can simply tell fairly early on whether I want to continue to talk movies, or move the conversation to something else. Nothing more than that. No "I won't be able to get along with this person if they've never watched a foreign film." Just "Okay, let's not talk movies." And likewise, hopefully if they start talking NASCAR or sports, they'll be able to tell fairly early on that I have no idea what they're talking about and will change the subject.

P.S. My wife (8 years married) asked me tonight: "Do you remember the first movie we saw together?" Yes. THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE.