A few years back (egad! 1988! was it that long ago?), I heard a movie critic reviewing Twins starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. The critic (on NPR I think) was going on about "high concept" films. His premise was that the shorter a sentence in which you could encapsulate a movie premise, the worse the movie would be. His conclusion was: "Schwarzenegger and DeVito are twins" is only five words, hence the movie held little promise. But I got to thinking how patently absurd his premise was. (I've never seen Twins, so I can't comment on that part of his criticism). So, anyway here's some movies that can be described in a few words. Thus, by his reasoning they should be bad movies. See how you do.Antebellum bitch loses everythingAnswerReporter investigates millionaire's dying wordAnswerNazi Industrialist rescues JewsAnswerDesert saloonkeeper loses ex-girlfriendAnswerInvalid photographer unravels murderAnswerPeasants hire warriors for protectionThe OriginalThe Remake Re-Remade as the most expensive movie Roger Corman ever madeThen they did comic takeoffs of the above as:Mistaken peasants hire actors for protectionWesternComputer-GeneratedIn SpaceSee what you can come up with.So, I claim the exact opposite of his premise is true. I claim that the really great, unique films can be instantly recognized with just a few words. The derivative, formula films can't. Such as:Teenagers escape terrorizing prowler.My gosh, how many movies does that describe?
