You know, this might be a good time to trot out the old "Grid o' Critocrisy" from our college days.
The GoC was a tool we envisioned but never implemented for evaluating various and sundry cinematic presentations. Basically, we (being my circle of misfit musician/linguist friends) determined that there should be three categories: "Film", which is intended to be art for art's sake and encompasses all manner of highbrow conventions; "Movies" which are made for the mainstream, but can combine elements of the other two categories; and "Flicks" which are the popcorn & bubblegum thrill-ride, meant to appeal to your id.
When you evaluate a show, you score it on a 1-5, where 1 point is given for each element (visual, writing, music, editing, and "other") within each of the three categories. An example:
Starship Troopers: Film=2 Movie=4 Flick=5
Much Ado About Nothing: Film=4 Movie=4 Flick=2
Then you rate yourself, on what you like to see:
Etienne: Film=5 Movie=0 Flick=0 (Etienne is a fictional art student who turns his nose up at everything)
Kathy: Film=1 Movie=5 Flick=2 (Kathy is the prime demographic for studios; she likes Kevin Costner)
Me: Film=2 Movie=3 Flick=3 (Mr. Average... yeah, right)
Then you work out an algorithm that weights your preferences against the rating bestowed by a large group. (This is the part we were bad at, so we multiplied and averaged to get a percentage.)
So, using our system, Etienne's "score" for ST would be 13, while Branagh's Shakespearean production would get 27. (That's what you get for being a snob.) Kathy would have 43 and 37; I would have 41 and 35.
What does this prove? That bored musicians shouldn't try to do mathematics during class breaks.
