Guilt -- and the movies

This isn't going to be as deep as the title makes it seems but I have to admit that, humor aside, I'm not completely happy with my listing the movie top tens after each weekend like I did last night and last weekend.

First off, it's way too easy to get snotty about it. Usually I check out of the movie-going experience around this time of year (with one or two exceptions) anyway. The films that I like either don't come out in the summer or don't come out at all.

But my bigger objection is simply that it bugs me when twelve year olds discuss which movie was number one the past weekend. It frightens me when the box office of a movie is the determining factor of its success, rather than whether it was successful at what it said and did.

Now, a Vin Diesel movie (whether I like it or not) can be successful on those second set of terms. It wanted to be an E-ticket ride and, as dumb as it was, it may have succeeded on that level. [Note: This is just an illustrative example. I have no idea whether any Vin Diesel movie succeeds on any level.] But if a movie's sole reason for being, according to the audience, is whether it is successful at the box office, then it is doomed to failure.

And it worries me to live in a society that doesn't see that difference.