I picked up 'Mad Money' starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes. It looked terrible. I took my iPhone out of my pocket and imdb'ed the film. My fears were confirmed. General wisdom was that the film was pretty poor. For some reason though - I wanted to see it. I guess partly because I wanted a film where I didn't have to think and partly because of my love of much of Diane Keaton's past work, to say nothing of my teenage Dawson's Creek obsession with Katie Holmes. So I rented the movie.
And I really enjoyed it! I just sank right into it. It's the story of three women who come to the realisation that being good has never really paid off - so they turn against the system and rob money, from the Federal Bank of which they are all employees. A ridiculous premise. But it worked for me. And it was just one of those films that, if you're in the right mood for it, it works. If I had paid attention to the online reviews of the film, I never would have watched it.
An even bigger example of this is 'Meet Dave' starring the much ridiculed 'has-been' Eddie Murphy. I have never read or heard any good thing about this film. But when I watched it a few months ago I was in absolute hysterics throughout - I thought it was wonderful. Excellently executed physical comedy and Murphy was great in the role. But if you had listened to the anti-hype around its release; or the magazine and internet reviews when the DVD came about; it was enough to put anyone off of seeing it. Of course; it's a free world. We're all free to praise movies and we're all free to say how much we hate them. It's a right I use on this very blog. But what I'm realising more and more is how some of the films I have enjoyed the most have come after being almost completely talked out of ever seeing them due to either terrible reviews or bad word of mouth.
I'm thinking you should go rent a movie tonight. Or go add something to your Netflix (LoveFilm in the UK). Make it a film that at some point, even momentarily, you really wanted to see but changed your mind after reading fifty reviews completely ridiculing it. Or, y'know, maybe that lame looking chick-flick staring that actor you like isn't really a chick-flick, they've just marketed it that way and given it a pink cover. It's all marketing and media -- take a risk, forget all about that; and go watch a movie. And not one that has 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Go find something that slipped by the net, or one that got caught in the net and dumped into the trash. True, it might suck; but you never know, you might find something that says something to you. You might find a film you can relate too. You might find a little gem that got bad reviews because the well-paid corporation-payrolled reviewers couldn't relate to its heart.
