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Originally Posted by mid
Sorry Huevos about Baron Munchausen - it's just one of those Gilliam films that I think is massively, massively under-rated. I'd go as far as to say I prefer it to nearly every film on your list, and would give it a solid 8/10. 5/10 is average, because it's halfway between the worst score and the best - otherwise you only really have 8, 9 and 10 to differentiate between different levels of 'good', while most of your scoring range is reserved for specifying exactly how bad something is (and lets face, that doesn't matter half as much).
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In a world where standard fare is "American Pie 4", "Big Momma's House 2", and coming soon- "Rocky 6", yes, there needs to be division in assigning how bad a movie is. And I disagree with your earlier assessment about "grade inflation". That's not true- it's exactly the opposite, it's deflation. A movie
should be good enough to make you want to see it, praise it, recommend it, see it again. If it's just idle entertainment to see
any movie, then why both claiming something as a "favorite" ?
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Originally Posted by mid
75% average is ok when you're marking the work of schoolchildren, because getting too much wrong is simply depressing in an exam situation. But for reviewing films, music, games, books etc. it's one of those pet hates of mine.
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To each his own. 75% is pretty terrible in almost any setting in life, and would be about the minimum in many fields to be passable, or "average" enough to subsist without really impressing. People forget what words like "fine", "good", "excellent" and "outstanding" mean, when they're overused. Similarly, think of how often you hear someone described as a "hero" or "superstar" today. Get the grading scale back to reality if you really want a critique that
means something.
Measures of schoolchildren are arbitrary anyway, so that's not a good analogy.
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Originally Posted by mid
Returning to the question of what I'd rate Mr. Williams' other work, The Fisher King gets a 9, Toys a 6 as a guilty pleasure (besides, it has Joan Cusack in it, and I've never disliked her in anything), Insomnia a 6 or 7 (depending on whether I can ignore the superior original or not), and then everything else would either struggle to get a 5, or I've not seen it in so long or at all, and don't feel qualified to comment.
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Cool. So other than Baron Munchausen, you don't really seem to disagree with me, since nothing falls below what- 3? for you ? I'd be curious to know what is a 0-3 on your scale; a student film, overexposed film ?
And it's
John Cusack, I think you mean. Joan is the awkward sister that adds little, if anything, to most films she's in. Did you know that her brother gets her parts in just about everything he's in, from Sixteen Candles to today.
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Originally Posted by mid
On the subject of Steve Martin, I've never really been a fan, sorry.
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Don't worry about it. You haven't been missing much, if you haven't seen the most recent decade+half of his stuff. But much better comic geniuses like Robin Williams or Steve Martin, than the likes of Chevy Chase or gasp- Martin Short.
