While watching ‘The Simpsons’ last evening (for the first time in forever), I was struck by the fact that it was quite funny, even though the conventional wisdom seems to state that the show hasn’t been any good since 1994. While it’s true that part of my psychological makeup comes with an inherent distrust of what “everybody says”, I’ve long believed that you should hate something on an individual basis. Having recently watched Ryan Reynolds in ‘Green Lantern’, a movie that some people excoriate as awful, I can honestly say that I didn’t find it to be terrible. (That’s not to say that it was in any way good, but “dull and overly enamored with its own special effects” is not the same as awful.) But your humble MS-QOTD doesn’t like to focus on the negative, instead reveling in the glorious minutiae of pop culture, especially those which transcend their own faults to entertain us. All this does, however, raise an interesting query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has always found it somewhat disheartening when people simply write stuff off with a hand-wave, asking: What things that “everybody knows aren’t any good anymore” do you still find enjoyable?
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Society
That would be Superman Returns and the Star Wars prequels.
The folks who hated SR are often the same folks who didn’t like MoS because of what he did to Zod or The Dark Knight Returns because Superman is a lackey and got the crap kicked out of him by an aged Bruce Wayne, completely ignoring the fact that all of them were interesting stories BECAUSE they involved a new take on Superman.
Let’s face it, the never make a mistake always perfect “SuperMoses” these people fawn over is BORING.
As for the Star Wars movies – yes, I detest the Jar Jar Who Shall No Be Named, and yes, it rather spoiled it that they tried to explain away the Force. Midiclorians? Why not just make them Magic Intestinal Worms while you were at it? Or mystical hair lice? And it annoys me that they forgot about having their own Star Wars slang and used the earth expression “sitting ducks” but if you take off your rose colored glasses and actually watch the original three Star Wars movies, they have their own problems and really aren’t any better than the prequels. I enjoy all of these movies in spite of the rantings of those who claim to hate them.
The Dark Knight Strikes Back. Though I understand the hate, I love the absolute insanity throughout. Of course, I’ve been called crazy before.
South Park : it’s still really funny and the good ones still make a great comment on the world around us. The Brittany Spears episode always jumps to mind.
As much as I’ve loved episodes in recent years, from the WoW episode to the Lord of the Rings (with the wrong movie in the box) episode, the recent fantasy/console wars episode and the Human Cent-iPad episode, my favorite episode is still the old one where Korn was like the Scooby Doo gang.
The arc with “Coon and Friends” and Cthulhu comes in at a very close second.
Oh, and I almost forgot, tied for second is the one with “Tom Cruise won’t come out of the closet!”
For sure, one of my favorites
All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (even if incomplete). As much as Frank Miller bugs me these days, I have always liked the sheer nuttiness, grotesque mannerisms, and unnerving trauma of this vision of Batman, and it always seemed perfectly in keeping with the aged figure we see in The Dark Knight Returns.
Black and White films. Some people will not ever watch an older film if it is not in color. The are missing out on films like Psycho, The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane. There were some directors that really knew how to use the medium to enhance the film.
Yes! I really hate it when I ask someone why they don’t like(or won’t watch) a certain movie and they just reply with, “Well it’s all in black and white,”
They have no idea what they’re missing out on.
I like the Justice Society of America’s run with mgog
Going to the movies.
South Park I still find really enjoyable, Married with Children while objectively got worse and more cartoony was a benefit in my eyes, Giffen’s JLI (which falls apart with General Glory, but hey), and Willingham & Sturges’ run on the JSA titles.
Pretty much everything I like.
Star Wars Expanded Universe novels spring to mind. Most people I know that liked them jumped ship with the whole Yuuzhan Vong storyline some time back, with the majority of those upset over the death of Chewie. And while I was sad to see the walking carpet die, I think the author wrote a very fitting end for Chewie (it took a planet exploding to kill him, how bad@$$ is that?), and a great story came out of Han’s grief over the following novels.
JLDetroit.
I don’t know if it qualifies for the “anymore” part, but I enjoy watching “Marvel’s Agents of Shield.”
-Dan’L
Final Fantasy, I still really enjoy the series and its expansions(Except for X-2 which, although fun to play, was just too obnoxious for me to really enjoy).
Comic-Book movies, I don’t care if Marvel sold rights to Disney, the films are still good. That goes with the other companies as well.