That movie has everything. Adventure, the funny side kick, the love interest, the double cross, Christopher Plummer telling a story to his grandson all princess bride style, and of course, Nicholas Cage stealing the declaration of independence.... I'm pretty sure it's the greatest pretty good movie ever made.
The title of this video made me expect Patrick would talk about "Solo". It's a movie that nobody was really asking for and if you've never seen it you're not missing much, but at the same time I watched in a theater and didn't regret it. It's fine. "National Treasure" is also a good choice.
This is probably one my favorite videos of yours, those pretty good movies are the ones that made me want to get into film. They show that while I may not be [insert whatever director you consider the best] it is still possible to tell an engaging and entertaining story that an audience will enjoy.
The movies you watch when you want to be entertained but are a bit too tired or exhausted to concentrate on a really good movie on a level it deserves. The reason I haven't seen many classic, great films, is that I just haven't had the chance to stop and take the time to give time for those films. So I entertain myself with the okay, pretty good movies. Now that I am in a place where I can take the time, I have a plan to watch more acclaimed movies.
HoustonProductions1 I literally wrote my comment about National Treasure before I saw that part. I would watch it all the time on TV. My family loves it
National treasure and national treasure 2 are some of my all time favourite films. They’re special to me because I used to watch them with my dad who I only saw at the weekends. I think movies are more than their cinematography, lighting, colour grading etc they have so much to do with where and who you were when you saw them and in that way even the most passable, mediocre movies can be masterpieces in your eye.
Thank you. As Pauline Kael said, “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.”
I work in a field with a lot of emotional ups and downs, and often pretty intensely high stakes with a lot of day-to-day responsibilities. I also love movies more than most other things. But because of my job, I often find myself too spent to watch deep, complicated, emotional movies and instead prefer the pure escapism of an "Always Be My Maybe" or "This Is The End". Are they masterpieces? No. Are they enjoyable and comforting? Absolutely. And sometimes that's all you need. Not every night is a "Three Billboards Over Ebbing Missouri" kind of night. Thank you for putting in to words what I've been trying to explain to people every time I'm asked about my penchant for romantic comedies!
yeah, i feel like most incredible movies needs me to be in a certain type of mood to enjoy them, or they're just a lot to digest and if you aren't in the mood for that, a okay movie is better right then.
I once lent a colleague a copy of Aliens. He brought it back, saying, "It was fun, but it wasn't great". I replied, "You asked me what my favourite film was, not what the best film was."
I want to fill in as the "pretty good director/screenwriter" as my niche when I go to UCLA. Not the Oscar-Baiter, not the guy who needs to pull out the red carpet to cast a star. Just the guy that wants to make movies because I like telling and learning about making stories, and to have the opportunity to work in Tinseltown from coming from a rural place.
Casablanca: meant as a "just okay" movie. Everyone working on it works hard, the scriptwriters figure out the ending of the film just before it gets filmed (and the studio nixes it, but is smart enough to change it back), and yet somehow a near perfect film is created. Heck, even bad films can achieve greatness. You never know where it's going to come from. Never. And it just may be your perfect film (for me, Fearless 1993 d. Peter Weir), not everyone is going to see what you see. Or maybe it's one performance, perfect set dressing, that director who used it as a training ground before creating that perfect film. 3 stars can have a lot going for them. And honestly, I'd only give most of the Marvel or DC universe films 3 stars. But I still watch them. As you can tell, I'm in agreement and am happy you did this essay. Say "hi!" to your parents for me.
After seeing this video, I've watched movies more often than ever. As a teenager, I saw myself as a film buff, but I only really watched the films I really loved, over and over again. Watching a *new* movie always felt a bit difficult. This video helped me finish the process of realizing that I've demanded too much from movies and that I was crap at handling disappointment. I still don't like bad movies, but I've become so much better at appreciating the good things in any movie; and just admitting that something it's okay to have an okay time. Thanks.
This has been my mantra for the last half a year. Movies have gotten way too heavy and much of my time I spend seeking out movies that are just fun. There's no complex world building, no incredible stakes, no overly dramatic or hard boiled acting. Just something fun, or goofy, or shows off something that makes you smile. Tank Girl, Mortal Kombat, the first TMNT movie, Naked Gun, Mallrats, ect... wait... am I just listing movies from my childhood? Is that what a 'good enough' movie is? Something that reminds you of growing up? I'll have to ponder this while I watch Surf Ninjas again.
I think that one of the best things about watching middle of the road films is that sometimes there's an unexpectant thing that sometimes pops up where either the movie turns out to be actually really great somehow or there's elements in the film which you just haven't seen anywhere else. I primarily feel that's kind of why if you ask someone about what their favourite film is, often times a lot of the answers that come out aren't particularly what are known masterpieces, and I think what's particularly interesting is whenever someone says that one of their favourite films is a made-for-studio comedy film from the 1990's or whatever. There was a film that I watched kind of recently from the mid 1970s called Busting with Elliot Gould that was kind of alright and I went into it with the expectation that it would be another 70s cop drama, but then there was one element that popped out and that was specifically how the movie shot its chase sequences where it was so composed of long shots, and it felt like the camera was just running along with the actors that it felt in some ways strangely realistic and unlike anything that I've seen before. And I feel that moreover there's a lot of times that I went into a film not really expecting it to be great and then it turned out to be an absolutely masterpiece despite the fact that I was expecting a middle-of-the-road film. One of my favourite films of all time is a film from the late 1970s called Blue Collar with Richard Pryor, and I remember the first time I watched that film about 5 years ago I was sort of going into it expecting some sort of heist film with comedy elements in it, and then the movie unloaded so many themes about race relations, power dynamics and about the nature of capitalism itself and it was all done in a way that was cleverly intertwined within this heist film that it never loses any slack otherwise. Although, I think that there's certain movies that have just hit me at the right time when I needed them and another one of my favourite films was Ron Howard's Night Shift, which was essentially a cheesy comedy film about two people running a pimp business within a morgue, but it was kind of a film that hit me at the right time because it seemed to encapsulate some sort of 80s cheesiness that just felt right, and I feel that particularly when I was a kid I used to watch a lot of middle of the road films or movies that I wouldn't consider to be the greatest over and over again. I really liked watching Happy Gilmore when I was a child and I used to play it over and over again, and it was at one point the funniest film that I've ever seen but I'm not really sure if it would still hold up considering my nostalgia for the film. A lot of films don't really need to be seen again over and over again, and there's a lot of middle of the road films that I really don't want to see again because they kind of served their purpose there and then and all that really matters is the nostalgia that I have from watching it.
Yeah, my take is pretty much like you said, every movie or work of art in general has at least _one_ thing that's great about it; No matter how small specific those things might be, if we learn to focus our attention to them on rewatches and reruns and not only enjoy everything more, but actually have deep emotional experiences. This is also definitely something that helps, and is helped by one's own creative work. I don't direct movies, I write music and I'm also working on a videogame, but still, on a cerebral level, learning to spot those elements of greatness in stuff that always pop up, if only because of probability (since all works of art are incredibly complex things), seeing how it is used, wondering perhaps how and what _you_ could do with it, and then seeing a number of those elements interact and make variations and play off of each other, and experimentally looking at the realised possibilities, while also imagining the unrealised ones; Well it's all very formative (of course, if you stop there and don't practice the things you learn, you're not gonna get any more intuitively better at what you do, you'll just become a bigger snob... eventually you might even become a professional critic)
How dare you. National Treasure is a miracle of adventure cinema, and I will sing its praises until the day I die. It’s a Dan Brown novel with none of the pretention, and 50x the fun.
I've watched National Treasure, School of Rock & Stardust probably more times than any other films. They're the kind of films that they have playing on BBC Two on Sunday afternoons, that you can guarantee will make you smile and gives you an excuse to cuddle up on the sofa for 90 minutes.
This is what I do. I appreciate a movie what it does well and acknowledge what it doesnt do well. Not every movie is trying to say something profound. Maybe in an ideal world we would want to do nothing but watch groundbreaking things that give new ideas and concepts, but in reality you have to put in a lot of mental work get that kind of experience and it's just not possible to expect yourself to do it every day. Some movies are for relaxation and excitement. They just give us a character we admire and like watching and take us on an adventure. Even these pretty good movies have to be written and paced well to be immersive. They have to have characters we know something about and care for the action to be engaging. Conversely a movie that tries to expand my mental horizons can completely fail to be entertaining. I think that brings us to what a real masterpiece is; a film that is entertaining throughout while also taking us to new emotional places and ideas that never would have occurred to us. In the meantime I have a warm place for the movies that do either or.
Masterpieces are extremely rare, films in general are really hard to make. So every year when I watch dozens of films I always champion the ones that are actually good in my opinion. Because even making a solid piece of art is more than an accomplishment in of itself
Passion projects are almost always glorious failures. And I don't mean movies where a director gets to do the movie they've always wanted to do but the studio is still there looking over their shoulder giving some input. Like LOTR. I mean the ones where the director gets to do whatever they want with no-one looking over their shoulder at all. Like say.. Valerian. I am glad Valerian exists, it is a horrible movie that is amazing to watch, but it's not a trainwreck. It's like Tomorrowland. The script doesn't really work, it seems like an entire act got cut to bring it down to a manageable runtime, some of the actors are so miscast we can't help but think it's just that the director hired them because likes working with them and having them on set, and there's no quantifiable central theme that runs throughout as they seasaw through a story. BUT! God are they interesting in how they fail. Unchecked passion projects are almost always genre fiction, and they pack in more wild ideas and visuals in their runtime than anything else. No other movie is ever going to put something like Big Market in it, that is just too trippy of an idea, and it was jarring just trying to wrap our heads around that type of intergalactic interconnected VR mall that's obviously got some sort of teleport technology going on. The central idea of what the hyper-advanced Tomorrowland is and how it functions doesn't easily work either. They're vehicles for ideas directors couldn't make work in other films that they want to see on the screen.
I wholeheartedly endorse this message. We all need a varied diet of movies. The 6 Star movies only stand out in contrast to the 3,2 & 1 star. If you only watch the classics you’ll never know how good they are.
I actually really like quite a few Martin Campbell movies. He's got a great sense of pacing and makes clear action set pieces. Mask of Zorro, Goldeneye, and Casino Royale are awesome. Doesn't get enough credit for just being a really competent director.
If I had to reduce my RUclips use to just one channel I might pick Patricks. I think he makes the most splendid analysises.. analyses... well he just rocks at talking about movies intelligently.
"Cinema or not cinema?!" Every creative endevor that gets distilled into a moving sequence of images is art. Even Transformers 15 or Sharktopus vs Whalewolf.
In a world where I constantly hear the Ant Man movies called “the death of cinema”, it’s nice to hear from someone else that they’re pretty good. Thank you! I consider them to be the warm blanket of Marvel movies.
i agree. i prefer my superhumans a little less super and a little more human.i have as yet to enjoy any Marvel film as much as i enjoyed Antman. you could remove the entire plot around the badguy and just have a film about Paul Rudd trying to be less of a f'up in the hope of spending time with his little girl and i would be delighted
Patrick, I love your videos man. You've helped me gain an appreciation for lots of different types of movies even if they're not my favourite and now you've given me a reasonable and well thought out way to explain why I love National Treasure!
I think my favorite two "pretty good" movies are Love Actually and Shakespeare in Love. I have seen both so many times I know them by heart. There's nothing extraordinary about them (except maybe the cast?), but they're really enjoyable, easy, relaxing films to watch I'll never get tired of.
Pat I love your takes on this stuff. I watched a "Why It Sucks" video earlier and I couldn't get over how... empty it made me feel. Then you come out with this and it reminds me that not everything has to be that way. So thanks. Also, did you film the final shot upstate after that snowstorm we just had?
When Mrs. Willems said, “hello there,” I thought she said, “hello, bear.” So from now on I’m going to think that Patrick’s family calls him Bear as a cute nick-name.
We decided to watch National Treasure 2 nights ago and had a solid ~2hrs of enjoyment. I’m so grateful for those kind of movies. Not everything has to be Jurassic Park.
What I think about is the fact that every director themselves is on their artistic journey so I have to be empathetic enough to understand that. It's all a process.
Imagine the emotional exhaustion if everything you viewed was an extreme. If everything was transcendent, your system couldn't take it. If everything was meaningful. It's actually frightening. The sensory overload involved and the numbing that a brain would have to do to adapt.
Honestly, I really enjoy the Ant Man movies. Its fun to sometimes have the thrills of a superhero movie, while also getting a kinda chill hangout comedy. Its a breezy, Sunday afternoon kind of joint and I like that.
It’s quite rare to see a movie that’s really a masterpiece. They only really come up every few years, at least the ones that get attention. Sometimes you’ll be lucky, and there’ll be in two or three in a year. But with even some of the greatest works of cinema… There’s always gonna be a flaw. Heck, if anything, it’d be a problem if a movie was absolutely perfect in every way. And it’d also be a problem if every movie was a complete masterpiece. Sometimes you just need ‘a pretty good movie’. My favourite movie of all time is Star Wars Episode IV, which I feel is kinda the definition of a movie that is ‘pretty good.’ Not every movie is Knives Out, or The Godfather, or even Inglorious Basterds.
This felt like Patrick's end of the year "goodwill towards all men" holiday special. Let us take these words of kindness and acceptance as we go into a new decade.
Yoh showed Con Air and that's about as accurate as popping in the TV at a family dinner on a sunday and watching it with everybody on the couch. Spot on! My other "pretty good movies" are The Mummy, The Fifth Element and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
I've been thinking about this the last two days. I wanna see great movies, amazingly bad movies (funny bad, or fascinatingly bad) or movies that haave great elements and or terrible moments. Tbh the movies i rewatch the most are ones that go back and forth for me with good and bad moments.
Great video Pat! I completely agree that pretty good movies are as valuable as great ones. I personally find myself rewatching those types more than my absolute favorites simply because sometimes it’s nice to just relax and have a good time. Also National Treasure is indeed dope. I may have to revisit it now!
National treasure was the movie my partner and i put on on valentines day, made out for a bit while watching, then went back to watching like nothing was lost.
Really great video People forget that the way they are (the way their mind works and thinks) has a HUGE impact on how they see EVERYTHING and that includes movies... Not enough people have enough insight about themselves or have done enough self reflection and so their opinions are impacted by the way their unconscious minds have been influenced to be (instead of them choosing for themselves how to think) A person who is disenchanted with life and has a job they hate, a partner who bags them, kids who ask to much of them and don’t listen etc....likely has become disenchanted with life... not by their own CHOICE but by cause and effect And most peoples way of thinking and being are mostly influenced by outside forces instead of their own internally choices how to be and how to think Even when we think we are choosing for ourselves it is often because of how it will make OTHERS see us....we act like a tough guy because others (society, culture, etc) has told us that is what is cool to be...we didn’t decide that for ourselves....we have abandoned ourselves and out on the outfit and mask that others have told us to (indirectly) And the way we think and see things is also impacted in this way And so a person who is disenchanted with life and has an overall negative viewpoint...will see movies and be (who would’ve guessed it) disenchanted by them! They see Tomorrowland and it’s just “meh” Now it’s fine to think this way of course but far too many of us so t even stop to think about why we are feeling the way we do.... Far too many of us are sleepwalking in mental and emotional programming..., And we state our opinions complete unaware as if they are complete fact and we are so unaware of how our perspectives have been twisted and changed....programmed....that just with a simple change in the way we think about things....the way we see things...can change our opinions entirely Some see the Star Wars prequels and hate them, some see them and enjoy them and the same about most movies and media....the point is how do you want to orient yourself before you see a movie....are you going into it predisposed to disliking it because the internet has made you more of a negative person?....is that what is best for you or what you want for yourself? Or would you rather find the enjoyment in things where you can and live a happier life as a result? Either way wouldnt you rather be in control of that? Instead of being programmed by your environment?
This wholeheartedly sums it up the exact way it should. My problem is that there are too many passable movies in the theaters. And if you pay for passable while wanting to see great, passable becomes bad. While on tv or Netflix does passable become enjoyable.
Martin Campbell movies (ignoring GL): big, bombastic setpieces, clear and coherent visual style, elevating up and coming actors, antiheroes, classical score, undercurrent that their might be something more complex under the surface
Thanks for a great year! I think my favorite was the one on music biopics, for absolutely skewering and breaking down an entire subgenre. Also perfect use of the Dora ending theme, which I absolutely thought was a Pretty Good movie this year.
I love people with reasonable opinions! I hope this message soreads and your channel grows, you deserve man!! I wish you and your parents all the best in this new year!!
Update: I saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It was great.
Missing the top 50 but that was actually pretty good.
Please step your game up. Seems like you’ve been phoning it in the past 6 videos.
@@itizzano8233 I can't tell if this is a joke
Thanks for featuring your parents
@@patrickhwillems it must be a joke, you've been fuckin killing it
Patrick's parents are the most wholesome people on this platform
I think Patrick is one of the few people on RUclips to feature their parents on the channel making very thoughtful videos. So wholesome.
@@stonecoldtakes His parents are goddamn adorable. I don't know why. They just are. Patrick: you have really cool parents!
May they live forever, what great guys!
you clearly aren't subbed to Way Out West Blow-in Blog
In today's youtube culture this is actually a pretty hot take.
meta
National Treasure is a damn perfect distillation of a "pretty good movie." Nailed it.
That movie has everything. Adventure, the funny side kick, the love interest, the double cross, Christopher Plummer telling a story to his grandson all princess bride style, and of course, Nicholas Cage stealing the declaration of independence.... I'm pretty sure it's the greatest pretty good movie ever made.
10/10.
Nic Cage is the National Treasure we made along the way.
I actually prefer another Nic Cage movie: Gone in 60 Seconds. It's so damn good at being what it is.
@@johanjarvinen "'Low Rider', Donny...Donny, 'Low Rider'."
National Treasure is boring as hell
if all movies were masterpieces....none of them would be masterpieces
"We all knew who the audience really wants to see." Yes, you do.
Also curse you you beautiful man for getting one of the Chris Evans' sweaters from Knives Out before they all sold out. #KnivesOutChallenge.
"You saw him get burnt out and talk about anime."
Oh so Patrick became me? That arc meant a lot to me.
Here in México we call them "películas domingueras" (movies to spent a sunday in).
The title of this video made me expect Patrick would talk about "Solo". It's a movie that nobody was really asking for and if you've never seen it you're not missing much, but at the same time I watched in a theater and didn't regret it. It's fine.
"National Treasure" is also a good choice.
This is probably one of the most positive things in movie criticism in a long time.
This is probably one my favorite videos of yours, those pretty good movies are the ones that made me want to get into film. They show that while I may not be [insert whatever director you consider the best] it is still possible to tell an engaging and entertaining story that an audience will enjoy.
Same, these type of movies are the type I probably watched and rewatched the most.
The movies you watch when you want to be entertained but are a bit too tired or exhausted to concentrate on a really good movie on a level it deserves. The reason I haven't seen many classic, great films, is that I just haven't had the chance to stop and take the time to give time for those films. So I entertain myself with the okay, pretty good movies. Now that I am in a place where I can take the time, I have a plan to watch more acclaimed movies.
*"National Treasure is pretty good"* fanclub represent! Yes please!
HoustonProductions1 I literally wrote my comment about National Treasure before I saw that part. I would watch it all the time on TV. My family loves it
It’s better than “pretty good”, it’s a goddamn masterpiece!
Are we all just going to ignore that Patrick didn’t excuse himself to take my call?
Dave Wiskus Yeah, but it’s National Treasure, it’s pretty good and everyone ha seen it so it’s probably not much bother to everyone else.
I was thinking more about how uncomfortable they make have been crammed together on that couch
Out all of all of Patrick (H) Willems videos this is most definitely one of them
Was it the Patrick Willemsest?
National treasure and national treasure 2 are some of my all time favourite films. They’re special to me because I used to watch them with my dad who I only saw at the weekends. I think movies are more than their cinematography, lighting, colour grading etc they have so much to do with where and who you were when you saw them and in that way even the most passable, mediocre movies can be masterpieces in your eye.
Thank you. As Pauline Kael said, “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.”
I work in a field with a lot of emotional ups and downs, and often pretty intensely high stakes with a lot of day-to-day responsibilities. I also love movies more than most other things. But because of my job, I often find myself too spent to watch deep, complicated, emotional movies and instead prefer the pure escapism of an "Always Be My Maybe" or "This Is The End". Are they masterpieces? No. Are they enjoyable and comforting? Absolutely. And sometimes that's all you need. Not every night is a "Three Billboards Over Ebbing Missouri" kind of night. Thank you for putting in to words what I've been trying to explain to people every time I'm asked about my penchant for romantic comedies!
Good point. I love great films, but most of the movies I enjoy aren't absolutely incredible. I have to assume that's the case for most people.
I think that most comicbook films are like this. And ya know what? I think that's ok.
@@gabrielidusogie9189 Exactly what I was thinking!
yeah, i feel like most incredible movies needs me to be in a certain type of mood to enjoy them, or they're just a lot to digest and if you aren't in the mood for that, a okay movie is better right then.
I was not in the mood for Irishman and it was an struggle, but I enjoyed Jumanji 3 way more, which was pretty good.
I once lent a colleague a copy of Aliens. He brought it back, saying, "It was fun, but it wasn't great". I replied, "You asked me what my favourite film was, not what the best film was."
I want to fill in as the "pretty good director/screenwriter" as my niche when I go to UCLA.
Not the Oscar-Baiter, not the guy who needs to pull out the red carpet to cast a star.
Just the guy that wants to make movies because I like telling and learning about making stories, and to have the opportunity to work in Tinseltown from coming from a rural place.
Casablanca: meant as a "just okay" movie. Everyone working on it works hard, the scriptwriters figure out the ending of the film just before it gets filmed (and the studio nixes it, but is smart enough to change it back), and yet somehow a near perfect film is created. Heck, even bad films can achieve greatness. You never know where it's going to come from. Never. And it just may be your perfect film (for me, Fearless 1993 d. Peter Weir), not everyone is going to see what you see. Or maybe it's one performance, perfect set dressing, that director who used it as a training ground before creating that perfect film. 3 stars can have a lot going for them. And honestly, I'd only give most of the Marvel or DC universe films 3 stars. But I still watch them.
As you can tell, I'm in agreement and am happy you did this essay. Say "hi!" to your parents for me.
After seeing this video, I've watched movies more often than ever. As a teenager, I saw myself as a film buff, but I only really watched the films I really loved, over and over again. Watching a *new* movie always felt a bit difficult. This video helped me finish the process of realizing that I've demanded too much from movies and that I was crap at handling disappointment.
I still don't like bad movies, but I've become so much better at appreciating the good things in any movie; and just admitting that something it's okay to have an okay time.
Thanks.
Patrick's Parents are amazing. That's it. that's the comment.
This has been my mantra for the last half a year. Movies have gotten way too heavy and much of my time I spend seeking out movies that are just fun. There's no complex world building, no incredible stakes, no overly dramatic or hard boiled acting. Just something fun, or goofy, or shows off something that makes you smile. Tank Girl, Mortal Kombat, the first TMNT movie, Naked Gun, Mallrats, ect... wait... am I just listing movies from my childhood? Is that what a 'good enough' movie is? Something that reminds you of growing up? I'll have to ponder this while I watch Surf Ninjas again.
I think that one of the best things about watching middle of the road films is that sometimes there's an unexpectant thing that sometimes pops up where either the movie turns out to be actually really great somehow or there's elements in the film which you just haven't seen anywhere else. I primarily feel that's kind of why if you ask someone about what their favourite film is, often times a lot of the answers that come out aren't particularly what are known masterpieces, and I think what's particularly interesting is whenever someone says that one of their favourite films is a made-for-studio comedy film from the 1990's or whatever.
There was a film that I watched kind of recently from the mid 1970s called Busting with Elliot Gould that was kind of alright and I went into it with the expectation that it would be another 70s cop drama, but then there was one element that popped out and that was specifically how the movie shot its chase sequences where it was so composed of long shots, and it felt like the camera was just running along with the actors that it felt in some ways strangely realistic and unlike anything that I've seen before.
And I feel that moreover there's a lot of times that I went into a film not really expecting it to be great and then it turned out to be an absolutely masterpiece despite the fact that I was expecting a middle-of-the-road film. One of my favourite films of all time is a film from the late 1970s called Blue Collar with Richard Pryor, and I remember the first time I watched that film about 5 years ago I was sort of going into it expecting some sort of heist film with comedy elements in it, and then the movie unloaded so many themes about race relations, power dynamics and about the nature of capitalism itself and it was all done in a way that was cleverly intertwined within this heist film that it never loses any slack otherwise.
Although, I think that there's certain movies that have just hit me at the right time when I needed them and another one of my favourite films was Ron Howard's Night Shift, which was essentially a cheesy comedy film about two people running a pimp business within a morgue, but it was kind of a film that hit me at the right time because it seemed to encapsulate some sort of 80s cheesiness that just felt right, and I feel that particularly when I was a kid I used to watch a lot of middle of the road films or movies that I wouldn't consider to be the greatest over and over again. I really liked watching Happy Gilmore when I was a child and I used to play it over and over again, and it was at one point the funniest film that I've ever seen but I'm not really sure if it would still hold up considering my nostalgia for the film. A lot of films don't really need to be seen again over and over again, and there's a lot of middle of the road films that I really don't want to see again because they kind of served their purpose there and then and all that really matters is the nostalgia that I have from watching it.
Yeah, my take is pretty much like you said, every movie or work of art in general has at least _one_ thing that's great about it; No matter how small specific those things might be, if we learn to focus our attention to them on rewatches and reruns and not only enjoy everything more, but actually have deep emotional experiences. This is also definitely something that helps, and is helped by one's own creative work. I don't direct movies, I write music and I'm also working on a videogame, but still, on a cerebral level, learning to spot those elements of greatness in stuff that always pop up, if only because of probability (since all works of art are incredibly complex things), seeing how it is used, wondering perhaps how and what _you_ could do with it, and then seeing a number of those elements interact and make variations and play off of each other, and experimentally looking at the realised possibilities, while also imagining the unrealised ones; Well it's all very formative (of course, if you stop there and don't practice the things you learn, you're not gonna get any more intuitively better at what you do, you'll just become a bigger snob... eventually you might even become a professional critic)
I love this channel so damn much.
How dare you. National Treasure is a miracle of adventure cinema, and I will sing its praises until the day I die. It’s a Dan Brown novel with none of the pretention, and 50x the fun.
Dan Brown? You mean the guy who wrote the books of the dingy Dong proffesor played by Ton Hanks?
Literally 30 seconds in and I’m pressing that “Like” button. It wasn’t the prologue we deserved... it was the prologue we needed.
Your parents remain a delight even if they're just doing ad reads. XD
I've watched National Treasure, School of Rock & Stardust probably more times than any other films. They're the kind of films that they have playing on BBC Two on Sunday afternoons, that you can guarantee will make you smile and gives you an excuse to cuddle up on the sofa for 90 minutes.
Ive always felt the same about movies not having to be amazing, but have never been able to communicate it (or why) so clearly as you have done
I've always been a strong advocate for it being okay for a movie to just be good. Thank you for making this video.
This is what I do. I appreciate a movie what it does well and acknowledge what it doesnt do well. Not every movie is trying to say something profound. Maybe in an ideal world we would want to do nothing but watch groundbreaking things that give new ideas and concepts, but in reality you have to put in a lot of mental work get that kind of experience and it's just not possible to expect yourself to do it every day. Some movies are for relaxation and excitement. They just give us a character we admire and like watching and take us on an adventure. Even these pretty good movies have to be written and paced well to be immersive. They have to have characters we know something about and care for the action to be engaging. Conversely a movie that tries to expand my mental horizons can completely fail to be entertaining. I think that brings us to what a real masterpiece is; a film that is entertaining throughout while also taking us to new emotional places and ideas that never would have occurred to us. In the meantime I have a warm place for the movies that do either or.
Expecting every movie to be a masterpiece is like expecting your favorite team to win every single game of the season by a landslide.
Masterpieces are extremely rare, films in general are really hard to make. So every year when I watch dozens of films I always champion the ones that are actually good in my opinion. Because even making a solid piece of art is more than an accomplishment in of itself
Thanks for explaining "gentleman's 6". I've listened to Blank Check for years but never figured out their "gentleman's" grading scale.
Brad Bird cashing in a blank check to make a wild passion project? I guess I don't know what to say or expect about that
It's okay. All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check.
Passion projects are almost always glorious failures. And I don't mean movies where a director gets to do the movie they've always wanted to do but the studio is still there looking over their shoulder giving some input. Like LOTR. I mean the ones where the director gets to do whatever they want with no-one looking over their shoulder at all. Like say.. Valerian. I am glad Valerian exists, it is a horrible movie that is amazing to watch, but it's not a trainwreck. It's like Tomorrowland. The script doesn't really work, it seems like an entire act got cut to bring it down to a manageable runtime, some of the actors are so miscast we can't help but think it's just that the director hired them because likes working with them and having them on set, and there's no quantifiable central theme that runs throughout as they seasaw through a story. BUT! God are they interesting in how they fail. Unchecked passion projects are almost always genre fiction, and they pack in more wild ideas and visuals in their runtime than anything else. No other movie is ever going to put something like Big Market in it, that is just too trippy of an idea, and it was jarring just trying to wrap our heads around that type of intergalactic interconnected VR mall that's obviously got some sort of teleport technology going on. The central idea of what the hyper-advanced Tomorrowland is and how it functions doesn't easily work either. They're vehicles for ideas directors couldn't make work in other films that they want to see on the screen.
@@michaelholloway5646 This comment really needs a TL;DR at the end
I wholeheartedly endorse this message. We all need a varied diet of movies. The 6 Star movies only stand out in contrast to the 3,2 & 1 star. If you only watch the classics you’ll never know how good they are.
I actually really like quite a few Martin Campbell movies. He's got a great sense of pacing and makes clear action set pieces. Mask of Zorro, Goldeneye, and Casino Royale are awesome. Doesn't get enough credit for just being a really competent director.
If I had to reduce my RUclips use to just one channel I might pick Patricks. I think he makes the most splendid analysises.. analyses... well he just rocks at talking about movies intelligently.
I watched always be my maybe because of this video and loved it. Thanks, Pat.
"Cinema or not cinema?!" Every creative endevor that gets distilled into a moving sequence of images is art. Even Transformers 15 or Sharktopus vs Whalewolf.
This is my favorite video essay yet.
Thank you, Patrick. I love pretty good movies.
In a world where I constantly hear the Ant Man movies called “the death of cinema”, it’s nice to hear from someone else that they’re pretty good. Thank you! I consider them to be the warm blanket of Marvel movies.
i agree. i prefer my superhumans a little less super and a little more human.i have as yet to enjoy any Marvel film as much as i enjoyed Antman. you could remove the entire plot around the badguy and just have a film about Paul Rudd trying to be less of a f'up in the hope of spending time with his little girl and i would be delighted
Patrick, I love your videos man. You've helped me gain an appreciation for lots of different types of movies even if they're not my favourite and now you've given me a reasonable and well thought out way to explain why I love National Treasure!
I think my favorite two "pretty good" movies are Love Actually and Shakespeare in Love. I have seen both so many times I know them by heart. There's nothing extraordinary about them (except maybe the cast?), but they're really enjoyable, easy, relaxing films to watch I'll never get tired of.
Pat I love your takes on this stuff. I watched a "Why It Sucks" video earlier and I couldn't get over how... empty it made me feel. Then you come out with this and it reminds me that not everything has to be that way. So thanks.
Also, did you film the final shot upstate after that snowstorm we just had?
When Mrs. Willems said, “hello there,” I thought she said, “hello, bear.” So from now on I’m going to think that Patrick’s family calls him Bear as a cute nick-name.
GENERAL KENOBI!
We decided to watch National Treasure 2 nights ago and had a solid ~2hrs of enjoyment. I’m so grateful for those kind of movies. Not everything has to be Jurassic Park.
JURASSIC PARK is a pretty good movie, too.
What I think about is the fact that every director themselves is on their artistic journey so I have to be empathetic enough to understand that. It's all a process.
Imagine the emotional exhaustion if everything you viewed was an extreme. If everything was transcendent, your system couldn't take it. If everything was meaningful. It's actually frightening. The sensory overload involved and the numbing that a brain would have to do to adapt.
Honestly, I really enjoy the Ant Man movies. Its fun to sometimes have the thrills of a superhero movie, while also getting a kinda chill hangout comedy. Its a breezy, Sunday afternoon kind of joint and I like that.
I really appreciate this video. It's nice to feel validation for having just watched and actually enjoyed the 2017 Jumanji.
If everything was great, nothing would be great. It's the contrast between the mediocre and the truly great that makes the great ones stand out.
This was very solid. lt's something that needed to be said. A recognition that films can entertain without being something new or special.
The point that even "meh" movies can have a good performance or scene reminds me of Pauline Kael's excellent essay "Trash Art and the Movies.
It’s quite rare to see a movie that’s really a masterpiece. They only really come up every few years, at least the ones that get attention. Sometimes you’ll be lucky, and there’ll be in two or three in a year. But with even some of the greatest works of cinema… There’s always gonna be a flaw. Heck, if anything, it’d be a problem if a movie was absolutely perfect in every way. And it’d also be a problem if every movie was a complete masterpiece. Sometimes you just need ‘a pretty good movie’. My favourite movie of all time is Star Wars Episode IV, which I feel is kinda the definition of a movie that is ‘pretty good.’ Not every movie is Knives Out, or The Godfather, or even Inglorious Basterds.
I think community had a good line about this about dean peltons commercial: it’s good... it’s better than good. It’s good enough
This felt like Patrick's end of the year "goodwill towards all men" holiday special. Let us take these words of kindness and acceptance as we go into a new decade.
Yoh showed Con Air and that's about as accurate as popping in the TV at a family dinner on a sunday and watching it with everybody on the couch. Spot on! My other "pretty good movies" are The Mummy, The Fifth Element and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
So much agreement with everything here. Well stated! There's nothing wrong with "pretty good," dagnabbit, so let people enjoy things!
Here to appreciate that beautiful sweater at the beginning Patrick. #KnivesOutSweaterChallenge
I was caught between "tribute to his Irish heritage" and "early Christmas present his mother made him wear".
Patrick, you’re a champ, and I appreciate you.
can't say how many "pretty good" movies I own because I just love them all for different reasons.
This video is pretty good. Merry Christmas, Patrick.
I've been thinking about this the last two days. I wanna see great movies, amazingly bad movies (funny bad, or fascinatingly bad) or movies that haave great elements and or terrible moments. Tbh the movies i rewatch the most are ones that go back and forth for me with good and bad moments.
Thank you for doing your best to fight the binary, just like Neo in the Matrix!
There was a small, but cozy space inside my heart that existed just for this video, and I didn't know it until now
Happy holidays to you and yours!
Great video Pat! I completely agree that pretty good movies are as valuable as great ones. I personally find myself rewatching those types more than my absolute favorites simply because sometimes it’s nice to just relax and have a good time.
Also National Treasure is indeed dope. I may have to revisit it now!
Genuinely got the biggest smile when your parents showed up, y'all are so sweet 💜
I literally shrieked out with joy when Patrick's parents appeared. (I was worried that the mascot muppet character would be brought back)
Cheers for your recovery and looking forward to the things you plan to do next year!
National treasure was the movie my partner and i put on on valentines day, made out for a bit while watching, then went back to watching like nothing was lost.
You know your audience so well! Your parents are always a delight!
Happy Holidays everybody!
I was actually really excited to see the two people, and surprised because I totally didn't even twig THEY were who he meant...
This is a pretty good RUclips video-essay. Decent.
YES YES YES! I love a pretty good movie on a Sunday afternoon :)
The intro is amazing!
I heartily agree. There is a vast gulf between bad and decent and another gulf between decent and great.
Keep doing what you're doing, Patrick -- love your work
I was all for the video until the end. National Treasure is a MASTERPIECE.
Have a great holiday season!
Great year of video essays! Looking forward to the new ones in 2020!
Really great video
People forget that the way they are (the way their mind works and thinks) has a HUGE impact on how they see EVERYTHING and that includes movies...
Not enough people have enough insight about themselves or have done enough self reflection and so their opinions are impacted by the way their unconscious minds have been influenced to be (instead of them choosing for themselves how to think)
A person who is disenchanted with life and has a job they hate, a partner who bags them, kids who ask to much of them and don’t listen etc....likely has become disenchanted with life... not by their own CHOICE but by cause and effect
And most peoples way of thinking and being are mostly influenced by outside forces instead of their own internally choices how to be and how to think
Even when we think we are choosing for ourselves it is often because of how it will make OTHERS see us....we act like a tough guy because others (society, culture, etc) has told us that is what is cool to be...we didn’t decide that for ourselves....we have abandoned ourselves and out on the outfit and mask that others have told us to (indirectly)
And the way we think and see things is also impacted in this way
And so a person who is disenchanted with life and has an overall negative viewpoint...will see movies and be (who would’ve guessed it) disenchanted by them! They see Tomorrowland and it’s just “meh”
Now it’s fine to think this way of course but far too many of us so t even stop to think about why we are feeling the way we do....
Far too many of us are sleepwalking in mental and emotional programming...,
And we state our opinions complete unaware as if they are complete fact and we are so unaware of how our perspectives have been twisted and changed....programmed....that just with a simple change in the way we think about things....the way we see things...can change our opinions entirely
Some see the Star Wars prequels and hate them, some see them and enjoy them and the same about most movies and media....the point is how do you want to orient yourself before you see a movie....are you going into it predisposed to disliking it because the internet has made you more of a negative person?....is that what is best for you or what you want for yourself?
Or would you rather find the enjoyment in things where you can and live a happier life as a result? Either way wouldnt you rather be in control of that? Instead of being programmed by your environment?
Is Patrick intentionally wearing a sweater like Chris Evans in Knives Out, Aaron Paul in El Camino, and Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad?
Pat is a real consoomer! Clap when you recognize things!
It's called a "turtleneck".
The year of Felicity is finally ending! We are safe! Rejoice! Nothing over the next 2 weeks can change that!
this is honestly one of my fav channels
This wholeheartedly sums it up the exact way it should. My problem is that there are too many passable movies in the theaters. And if you pay for passable while wanting to see great, passable becomes bad. While on tv or Netflix does passable become enjoyable.
The first Ant-Man is pretty much my favorite Marvel movie. Maybe because it’s a workable feelgood movie that’s not trying too hard to be anything but.
Martin Campbell movies (ignoring GL): big, bombastic setpieces, clear and coherent visual style, elevating up and coming actors, antiheroes, classical score, undercurrent that their might be something more complex under the surface
You're really good at sound mixing. Your music and audio always sound great to me!
Thanks for a great year! I think my favorite was the one on music biopics, for absolutely skewering and breaking down an entire subgenre.
Also perfect use of the Dora ending theme, which I absolutely thought was a Pretty Good movie this year.
Mom & Dad are hands down the best characters.
You're awesome Patrick. Rest proud and hope the break fills you with more creative energy! Looking forward to future videos!
I love people with reasonable opinions! I hope this message soreads and your channel grows, you deserve man!! I wish you and your parents all the best in this new year!!
I think this video does a good job of explaining why Shawshank Redemption is everyone's favourite movie.
One of your best videos yet. Bravo.
This was very refreshing. Thank you