What a Great Movie Really Is

A great movie is socially defined as a movie that has won the most awards. Or a great actor is defined by how many awards they win. Or what kind of awards they win. Some award shows are seen as being more elite than others, and just because some stuffy men and women in stylish suits back up a certain movie or make certain claims about a particular movie - that doesn't mean that movie is the best movie ever. I've known plenty of great movies and great actors who have not gotten the recognition that they deserved, or whom it has taken a long time to get it.

I'll tell you what REALLY makes a good movie. A good movie is one that affected you enough when you were growing up, and now that it's about 20 years later, it makes you think - wow, I really want to share that movie with my kids! And then your kids watch it and they say "That was actually a pretty good movie!" THAT is when you know that the movie was pretty great.

I did that recently with Tricity. I got her to watch Galaxy Quest and The Fifth Element, and she got into them and really enjoyed them. She said they were both awesome movies.

And then I thought I would share a few more with her, even though I wasn't sure if she would get into them or not. The Craft had more mature situations, but she said she was still interested in watching it after I had her sit through the first ten minutes. And then there was Mortal Kombat, which I wasn't sure if she was going to get into it because it was a lot of fighting, but once again, once she started watching it, she got into it and wanted to finish watching the movie.

I'm pretty sure these movies weren't recognized as being great by any award standards, but they stuck with me over the years as being some of my favorite movies, and after showing my daughter - the fact that she likes them got me thinking about how great these movies really are. It doesn't take awards or big-named actors to make a movie great. Some movies are just great on their own.