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This sums up my opinion of musicals rather well.I don't dislike musicals because a heterosexual man in America isn't supposed to like them now, I just don't like signing where it doesn't belong in a movie...
However, I think it's somewhat important to note there are two types of "musical" movies. The first type are movies in which the vast majority of the dialogue is sung such as Sweeney Todd, which I find insufferable; I've never understood the "need" to sing dialogue in a movie when it can be spoken just as easily. The second type are movies which have occasional musical set pieces in them such as The Wizard of Oz. For me these are more tolerable if they're done well, but most have the musical numbers awkwardly shoved in seemingly for no other reason than to have yet another song and dance segment.
I actually like both of these movies quite a lot, but I can understand why some people don't."The Big Lebowski" - The cultish fawning over this tripe amazes me. I've almost had fist fights over it.
"Dances With Wolves" - C'mon man!
And that's one of the things I enjoy about being a "movie buff"--discussing movies with people who have opinions that differ from mine. I might never agree with someone's reasons for liking or disliking any given movie, but I appreciate hearing them anyway. On occasion, viewing a movie "through someone else's eyes" has elevated my opinion of that movie (sorry, I can't think of any specific examples at the moment).
I understand this completely. Example: For several years a very good friend raved about a specific movie that I hadn't seen. He praised it so highly that it was virtually impossible for me to appreciate it as much as he did (or even like it) by the time I finally saw it because he had completely oversold it. Eventually I grew to like it, but we both learned a valuable lesson--don't put any movie on a pedestal so high that it can't be reached.Sometimes the reputation of a movie can overwhelm or jaundice your opinion...
To a degree, the same thing happened when I finally saw The Maltese Falcon for the first time last year. I'd heard so many good things about it that it couldn't possibly "live up to the hype", and I found it disappointing. Conversely, I'd heard a lot of bad things about The Big Sleep, and when I finally saw it for the the first time (also last year) I really enjoyed it. So "word of mouth" can work both ways.
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