Hey Mark, check out why it's ok to like Mamma Mia without being ashmed:



https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/melanie_reid/article4326793.ece



(Next time you can answer the question "Why can't we be confident enough to ignore the snobbery that decrees anything with mass appeal ... is simply awful?"



:)

Very, very good point Dr. Kermode.



I guess it's a classic case of which personality you find more attractive : the top-button-done conservative, going on about a return to family values, and protecting kids from the media, and yearns for 'the good old days' and displays party loyalty through thick and thicker OR the liberal who's happy to say they enjoy violent movies and games, are anti-authoritarian, don't adhere to any one set ideology, and deploy a kind of intentionally scabrous humour, etc..



And hopefully you can see the bias in my language, as obviously I find that latter type of person (the ideal version of myself), much more moral, complex and intellectually stimulating.



Politically I would argue, that for all the talk of moral depravity of advocates of this type of horror and action film, they are the progressives that further debate, and the first character profile is the reason for most of the conflicts in the world.



I'll close with a quick example : I would much rather hang out with a handful of people to do with Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later, The Bourne Ultimatum, There Will be Blood and In Bruges, THAN ANY KEY PLAYER involved in the harmless family fun of Transformers, The Golden Compass, National Treasure, Narnia, High School Musical or any other waste of time with all the edges sanded off it, and a few propagandist nails thrown. And just to clarify, it's not a family film prejudice, it's a risk free filmmaker intolerance.



(And for the record, on an equal opportunites basis, I'm pro-Mamma Mia!, but seriously, it's awful - watch Muriel's Wedding instead.)

Isn't that because those mainstream movies are main to be entertaining and fun for everybody, so the actors think they're a failure when not 'everybody' finds them entertaining.



However, a horror film is supposed to appeal to a certain range of negative emotions, so if some people don't like it, that in itself can show success-- it was suitably dark or scary.