Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Question to ponder

It seems there is now a concensus that the latest movie by Mike Myers, The Love Guru, is atrocious; and even those who would like to leave some rope for the man who provided so much of the comedic universe in the last 20 years (how distressing to realize that!) have been able to manage only faint and shifting praise. The concerns of and for the film have been such that even the Religion Blog of the Dallas Morning News insisted that the "movie may be more offensive to fans of humor than Hindus." But the point here is not to continue on the wagon - I have not seen the film and likely will not, though I did find Mr. Myers' recent interview on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross to be strangely affecting in its sincerity - rather, it is to consider something raised at the beginning of the review of the movie by Slate.com's Dana Stevens. She begins her review with a broad theorem of film appreciation and estimation: There are good movies. There are bad movies. There are movies so bad they're good (though, strangely, not the reverse) - (italics mine). It is that last piece I would like to consider. Is it not possible for a movie to be so good it is bad? Something to consider, particularly in light of the recent release of the AFI's "America's 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres". I have thoughts on it but will pause for now and leave it to the floor.

1 comment:

jon faith said...

The film may suck, unquestinably, but if the land of Hindustani survived Peter Sellers (jazz drummer and hoot) in The Party, then Shrek should not fear Benghali retaliation.