Saturday, October 9, 2010

A question to any new visitors

Hello. My name is largefrozenfish. You killed my father. Prepare...sorry, wrong greeting.

Since you no doubt found this site due to the link from Stuff Christians Like, I thought I should lay out the virtual welcome mat. Hello and welcome. Bathroom is two doors down to the left, and please remember to use a coaster.

While you are here, I'd like to get to know you a little bit, and in my experience, there's one question I ask that gets to the heart of things, and I can tell a lot about a person by how they answer this question:

What's the worst movie you've ever seen? (feel free to answer in the comments)

I've found that this question reveals a lot about a person. When we express our dislikes, we reveal our hearts, even in a simple question such as this. That's why I ask this question of everyone I meet. (I once asked Lewis Black and got a great answer.) I require every student I've ever had to answer this question. It's a great icebreaker, it helps me get a feel for the class, but it also shows me the students who aren't into introspection.

This question exposes people who don't really think about their own thoughts and feelings, people who just live their lives day-in and day-out, never stopping to not only smell the roses, but figure out if they even like roses. In our mass-media, instant-gratification seeking world, we don't often stop and think.

I'm not asking you to re-evaluate every choice you made with this question, I'm just asking you to look deep within yourself and find one thing you don't like, one movie that was more than a waste of money, it was a waste of time that you will never see again.

For me, that movie is Batman and Robin, the one with Clooney as Batman and the Governator as Mister Freeze. I'm a huge Batman fan and I am so thankful for Christopher Nolan. This movie, however, was such a waste of potential. It could have been good. The character of Freeze is beautifully tragic, motivated not by greed but by love of his wife. His character would have been great to explore.

Let's not even get started on the criminal misuse of the character Bane. Bane, as comic-book geeks like myself remember, actually beat Batman and broke his back. (This happened soon after Superman died, so it wasn't a good year for DC heroes.) Bane was the smartest and best villian of all, but in this movie...no, I cannot even speak of it.

This movie could have been fantastic, but instead it became so terrible that not even a drinking game could save it. (Rifftrax on the other hand...)

What does this say about me, other than I am a huge geek? I hate seeing a waste of potential. I know when things could be better and it drives me crazy when they aren't.

So that's my worst movie. What's yours?

2 comments:

  1. The worst movie I have ever seen is... Princess Bride.... Just Kidding. I LOVE that movie. Such an epic. Well, I would have to say that the worst I can think of right now is because of an experience I had watching this movie in theatres. I like to choose my theatre movies carefully- Are they going to be worth the almost $10 you have to pay just to get in. Well, It looked as though "Funny People" was going to be very ... Funny. And it def. had some good parts, but the other 9/10 of the time, there was immorality and curse words all over. I practically left the theatre when watching that movie. I would have to say that is the worst movie ever.

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  2. Well, Tim, usually that's when you've got to do some research about what you intend to spend money on. Often IMDB.com will give you the skinny on what the movie might contain so you know whether it's something you want to invest in.

    From what I heard, Funny People confused a lot of folks regarding what kind of movie they thought they were getting. You aren't the only one.

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