Tino

It seems to me lately that a disturbing trend is ocurring more and more often here at the HTF.

For some reason, certain members seem to feel that it's OK to trash a film they haven't seen. I have noticed this often, recently for instance with The Passion Of The Christ, Fahrenheit 911 and Alien vs. Predator. I'm sure there are others.

I can understand saying "I heard it was horrible, so I have no desire to see it", but saying "It's crap, I'm not wasting my time on it" just doesn't make sense to me.

IMO, you cannot have an opinion on a film you haven't seen.

This seems to happen more and more in discussion threads, and thankfully, the F 911 and TPOTC threads had warnings that to participate in the threads, you must have seen the film.

I personally would like to see this rule implemented on ALL discussion threads.

Anyone agree??

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GeorgePaul

I'm afraid I don't, Tino. Contrary to many who seem to think movies should be treated like people, I think, considering the expense involved in going to the cinema anymore, you HAVE to develop opinions on movies--whether you've seen them or not--in order to decide which ones you're going to spend your hard-earned time and money on.

I mean, should I REALLY have to go see a film I have no desire to see just to have an opinion on it? I think that's going a bit too far. You're just handing over your cash to the studios, ten bucks at a time. And once you've paid, no one with the power to improve the crap you've just emptied your wallet to endure cares one bit about your opinions, because to those studios, their most reliable measure of success=$$$.

Goodness...is it really at all unreasonable to say "It's crap, I'm not wasting my time on it" to dreck like Baby Geniuses 2?

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Steve Christou

Unless of course, in cases such as 'Alien vs Predator', you've seen some of the directors previous films, and had already formed an opinion as to what to expect.

But yeah I hate it when that happens too,

Michael Elliott

I've gotta side with Tino on this one. Sure, it's okay to have an opinion going into a film but to actually review that film without seeing it is a bit uncalled for. I mean, if you going into CASABLANCA expecting a great movie. Fine. If you go into AvsP expecting crap, then fine. However, to call AvsP a bad movie without seeing it is uncalled for. You really don't know it's crap no matter how much you've heard about it.

Plus, to me, the joy of watching something new is that you'll never know when you discover a new favorite film. I've told people I'll view any movie at least once and I mean that. There have been many films I thought would be crap but it turns out I loved them. There have been films I thought would be great but ended up not liking them.

Again, you don't really know how a movie is until you've seen it for yourself.

David_Blackwell

Some movies turn me off from seeing them from seeing the way they are advertised and what is being reported about the movies and finally some reviews definitely turn me away from some movies that do seem to look like another bad movie. Good advertisements always pull in a person to see a good or bad movie, but bad ads can turn many away.

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Robert Ringwald

New Trend?

Hasn't this pretty much been going on since the beginning of film.

George_W_K

I agree with this 100%. The trailer for "The Forgotten" makes that movie look very intriguing to me. I'll definitely head up to the theater for that one expecting a good movie. For all I know, it'll be the worst movie I've seen yet.

I also agree with forming an opinion on a movie before heading up to see it. However, giving a review of a movie or stating that you know it is crap without seeing it is wrong, IMO. I formed an opinion of Catwoman, but I didn't state to everyone about how horrible it was as I didn't see it. I had formed an opinion about The Butterfly Effect because of Ashton Kutchner (sorry about the spelling), but I ended up renting it anyway and was completely surprised that I enjoyed it so much. So, I'm glad I didn't bash that one to everyone, only to eat my words later on.

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Tino

Yes.


Yes, it's unreasonable. It may look like dreck, but unless you actually see it, you'll never know.

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Bill GrandPre

I've seen four terrible films by Paul WS Anderson so it's perfectly acceptable for me to assume that the fifth one I see, which is "AvP" (haven't seen it yet, I'm going tonight) will be similarly terrible. Am I completely and utterly convinced? No, but I believe that I'm most likely correct, based on past experience. I am biased against Paul WS Anderson but the belief that bias is a bad thing is fundamentally flawed. We use bias every day. If you went out to eat at a restaurant four times and the food was terrible each time, you certainly wouldn't go a fifth time. If you had a contractor build you a garage and it collapsed, you certainly wouldn't call him back to build you a new house. There is absolutely no reason to treat movies any differently. In the case of "AvP", there is absolutely no major creative force involved that has been involved with previous movies with the exception of Lance Henriksen and ADI, so why assume that any of the original quality will remain? Lance Henriksen and Woodruff & Gillis (the only people involved with "AvP" that had previous experience with either franchise) only started working on the "Alien" series starting with the second film and they have NEVER worked on a "Predator" film so I think that having the least bit of faith in a movie that has no creative continuity with it's original predecessors is a much more disturbing trend.

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Tino

That's my whole point Bill. You can assume it's going to be terrible based on past experiences, but until you see it, you can't say it's terrible.

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus.

Matt Stone

I don't have the time or money to see every film released, so I have to use personal bias and critical reviews to decide what I will spend my money and time on. That being said, if it's a film I haven't seen...I don't comment on it in a critical sense. I'm willing to say, "Boy, that looks like it will suck," or "I can't wait to see that..." but that's it.

Some people harp on films they haven't seen too much, but it doesn't really bother me that much. I think you should see a film before you complain about it, but it's not a big pet peeve of mine.