What makes a YOUR favoirite kind of movie? and what is your kind of movie?
Atmosphere, Characters, Music, Story, Gore, the Bizarre, the Strange, the Weird, Cinematography, Bad Acting, Good Acting, Bad Sets, Action.
I find that what makes a good movie is the atmosphere, cinematography, music, the good acting, and sometimes the gore. It's these elements, along with being witty, twisted, and weird, that gives a movie it's poise. Without it, the film would just be plain DULL. Examples would be:
RE-ANIMATOR (Richard Band's fantastic score, Stuart Gordon's stage-like
direction, Mac Ahlberg's impressive and creative
cinematography, witty script, and the GOOD acting.)
BRAINDEAD (Everything works well in this Peter Jackson horror-comedy, the
humor is also dead-on [no pun intended], the acting is superb.)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (George Romero's documentary-style direction,
fast paced editing, original theme and idea, and
stunning black and white cinematography.)
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (Dan O'Bannon's comic-book direction, fine
acting, original 80's punk music which is not
dated badly and very catchy to the ear, and
the original storyline that does not try to make
the film a spoof, satire, or parody.)
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (Jorge Garu's unique and gothic direction,
excellent color cinematography, freaky zombies,
a haunting music score, and great acting [even
though the film is dubbed in English, the vocals
are pretty good].)
BAD TASTE (same as what I said with BRAINDEAD)
These are just some small examples of what I think makes a entertaining film.
You've practically got all the bases covered,Scott.
What also makes the film is who's in the cast,who's the director,the producer,scriptwriter,cinematographer,makeup FX man,music composer,and the amount of nudity,and level of the body count(the later two on certain movies).
The acting in Braindead was fine (well, I didn't think Paquita was all that great), but Bad Taste had pitiful acting. ( Well, I thought PJ DID act pretty well as the PSYCHOPATHIC Derek.) Acting really doesn't matter to me though, if the movie's entertaining I never notice. Army of Darkness is a prime example.
What makes a good film (i.e. favorite film)? For me it is five things, and I'll use a film from this site as an example. "Lair of the White Worm."
1. Action. Does the film have at least one good action scene? No, not in this case.
2. Cast. Does the film have alot of actors, I recognize? Again, no.
3. Character. Does the film create a character or group of characters with which I feel some empathy? Yes. Kevin the Scout (Chris Pitt) That is a surprise. But, I have felt some empathy for the character, ever since I saw him in that film clip from that clip show on television, "Stephen King's Women of Horror."
4. Emotion. Does the film create some sort of emotional reaction in me? Joy? Sorrow? Both? This one created fear in me. I felt fear for Kevin, because as soon as I saw him in that film clip, I knew what was going to happen to him. That someone would pick him up from the side of the road, where he was hitchhiking. Take him home. Sexually assault him. Then, murder him. Which is what happened to him.
5. Music. Does the film use music to set the proper mood? Alot of films now days, don't know how to do that, but, even Andrew has commented in his review of this film, what a great song "The D'Ampton Worm" is. Enjoy!