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What's the difference between a movie that's simply bad and one
that truly offends? -- Rosalie Rippey
I've cut off your terrific question before the part where you cite
my review of ''Mona Lisa Smile'' as an example of something I've
criticized as the latter. By my standards, a bad movie simply and
honestly sucks in concept (''Garfield: The Movie''), execution (''Troy''),
or a whammo combination of both (''The Chronicles of Riddick''). An
offensive movie, on the other hand, glosses over its flaws with a
varnish of self-righteous moralizing that leaves a sucker thinking
that he or she has been taught a valuable, high-toned life lesson
and that to discredit the teaching tool demonstrates ingratitude
(''Life is Beautiful''), reflects a faulty values system (''Pay it
Forward''), or suggests the critic is, in fact, a bitch (''Mona Lisa Smile''). Sometimes this kind of offense can be attributed to a
condition known as ''Patch Adams'' fever.
(Got a movie-related question for Lisa or Owen? Post it here.)
