Boiling Point: Family Films

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 13, 2008

Those familiar with me or my column may be disappointed with what I have to say – I like family films. I watch kid’s movies without having kids. They can be really fantastically made films that are enjoyable for adults and for children. Sure, the log line or synopsis may sound like something that makes you want to rip your eyes out, but before you waste your bio-mechanical ocular instruments like that, how about you give them a look?

A lot of people are tearing at Beverly Hills Chihuahua, wondering how on Earth it could be the number one film for two weeks straight. Well, I know how – it’s just a better movie than what’s out at the moment, for the largest audience. Body of Lies has been welcomed and reviewed with lukewarm intensity – just because it has stars doesn’t mean its good or deserving of our money. Quarantine is well reviewed, but has a much smaller available audience. It came in second, over-top of the lackluster Crowe-DiCaprio team-up.

Most people who actually see BHC (as us insiders call it) like it. They say its enjoyable, a good family film. Yet still people want to vomit thinking that it’s the tops. Well, that’s bullshit. It’s that kind of thinking that keeps horror movies out of the Oscar race or ballsy comedies from getting proper recognition. Just because something does not pander to critics or the mainstream does not mean it isn’t good. That doesn’t mean its undeserving of acclaim or praise.

Take a look at the classic Disney vault – how many of those films are cringe worthy when you hear the log lines? A hundred and one dalmatians being hunted to make a coat? A fawn prancing through the woods with a rabbit friend? Magical genie voiced by Robin Williams? What’s so different about that than some talking chihuahuas? If the story is good, it’s good. Alien could have easily been written off before hand as some schlocky sci-fi flick ,but you watch it and it’s amazingly well made. I’m not saying BHC deserves some technical Oscars, but it does deserve some respect before you start crapping on it without seeing it.

So yes, I am defending Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It’s ok to express doubt and concern and point and laugh at a film based on a bad premise or a bad trailer – but it stops being ok by me to make fun of it once its out and you refuse to see it. Sure, if everyone tells you it’s horrible, you should stay away – but don’t mock it. Simply say you didn’t see it. But don’t make fun of a movie or an actor or anything just because you think that’s what’s cool right now. It’s bullshit. Just like people protesting Tropic Thunder without seeing it, bitching about a movie being at the top of the box office without having seen it, and acknowledging the audience that appreciates it enough to lay down $12 a pop, is bullshit and has me past my boiling point.

What movie did you hate based on premise, but liked after seeing it?

| | Read more articles by Robert Fure